Word: nato
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...there was a distinct giddiness at NATO headquarters in Kabul. Senior military officials briefed the reporters traveling with Mullen and said, in effect, that the tide had turned. In several crucial southern sectors, the Taliban were demoralized. "We're putting unbelievable body blows onto the midlevel Taliban cadre," a senior U.S. official said, adding that he expected to be in a significantly stronger position within four months. The more wary military officers were worried about moving too quickly ahead of the Afghan government's capabilities. One called it "rushing to failure." Another called it "catastrophic success," a term last used...
...rising U.S. casualty figures in Afghanistan: in the first three months of this year, 83 American servicemen were killed, nearly double last year's toll during the same period. U.S. diplomats and military commanders in Kabul fear that the gains made against the Taliban, at a heavy cost in NATO and American sacrifices, will be wasted unless Karzai changes his ways and delivers good governance to his people. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban...
...Palace insiders say that before Obama's surprise visit, Afghan-U.S. relations had strained to the point where Karzai would speak to only three Americans: Ambassador Karl Eikenberry; General Stanley McChrystal, commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan; and the unnamed CIA station chief. Of those three, Karzai is said to trust only the CIA chief, who reportedly led the special-forces team that protected Karzai on his first forays into southern Afghanistan to turn the Pashtun tribes against Taliban rule. Karzai is said to be leery of Eikenberry, ever since the media leaked the contents of cables...
...seems, the veteran warlord wants to come in from the cold - as a peace broker between Karzai and the Taliban. Hekmatyar last week dispatched a 10-man delegation to Kabul to name an offer: If NATO agreed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan starting by this summer, Hezb-i-Islami would cease hostilities and urge the Taliban to do the same. The mid-2010 withdrawal demand is flexible, according to delegation spokesman Mohammad Daoud Abedi, who told journalists in Kabul that the deadline "is a start. This is not the word of the Koran that we cannot change...
...Kabul, officials are suspicious of Islamabad's long-delayed help in catching the Taliban. A senior official confided to TIME that Karzai, whose relations with the U.S. ambassador and military commanders have been frosty of late, is worried that the U.S. and other NATO countries may be in such haste to end the war that they will agree to a pact with Pakistan that will put Afghanistan firmly back in Pakistan's orbit...