Word: kabul
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...this strategy of trumpeting their intended assault has worked well in several engagements over the past six months, since it succeeds in clearing out the Taliban without incurring the heavy loss of civilians. It also allows NATO to implant Afghan troops and civic officials to restore some semblance of Kabul's control over areas previously under the sway of Taliban justice and administration. After Marja is cleared of Taliban, more than 1,900 Afghan police will support a team of administrators selected by the Kabul government to run the town...
...follows the fighting that will be the real test. While many in Marja detest the Taliban, they are just as angry at the impotence of the Afghan government to better their lives despite years of promises. U.S. officials say Afghan President Hamid Karzai, some 500 miles from Marja in Kabul, has become a full partner in the planning of the offensive and its follow-up development efforts. Afghan and U.S. experts will flood Marja after the offensive, helping to set up local government and schools, and offering cash to entice poppy growers to shift to wheat. After driving the Taliban...
December, Kabul. A cold fog drifted over the airfield. Gates was dressed in a brown bomber jacket, khakis and boots, ready to fly to Kandahar to visit the Stryker brigade that has been devastated by unrelenting Taliban IED attacks. Since their deployment in July, more than 30 soldiers from that brigade have been killed by roadside bombs. Gates had a message for them: "We're in this thing to win." Obama had said nothing of victory during his speech to the West Point cadets. "You can't tell soldiers to fight for a draw," says one of Gates' staff aides...
...best few days for Gates. At the Arg Palace in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told Afghan and foreign journalists that the country's security forces would be dependent on the U.S. for at least 15 years. Gates stared stonily at the floor in front of him, then politely corrected the Afghan President. A few days later in the New York Times, Maureen Dowd lamented that puppets just aren't what they used...
Upon arriving in Kabul last spring, McChrystal flooded the Afghan countryside with counterinsurgency experts who came up with dire assessments and stated a need for more troops. Even Gates seemed blindsided by his own general. Gates had been public about avoiding a big American footprint in the Pashtun countryside. But after the McChrystal team's findings began leaking, Gates shifted course. To me, he said, "Once McChrystal said, 'This is what I need,' then I was there. And my goal was, how do we get Stan McChrystal as much of what he's asked for as quickly as possible...