Word: order
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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President Barack Obama has tied his decision to order 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to a pledge that they'll start returning home in 2011. But the President's West Point speech Dec. 1 was mute on his plans for the growing Afghan army, which remains the best - some would say only - way to bring home American personnel. His vagueness on the question of increasing the Afghan forces was understandable: the U.S. and its allies have already boosted target troop levels for the Afghan army four times, and the U.S. commander there, General Stanley McChrystal, wants the target...
...training. In a steady, grim cadence, Obama made the case for putting yet another 30,000 Americans in harm's way. "If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every one of our troops home tomorrow," he said. "This is no idle danger, no hypothetical threat...
...vintners. Instead, winemaker Jean-Daniel Schlaepfer ferments his high-end wines there in egg-shaped vessels based on amphorae - the clay jars used by the Romans centuries ago. Schlaepfer is part of a growing group of producers around France and beyond returning to the wisdom of the ancients in order to achieve the truest expression of a given harvest...
...When Karzai took a new oath of office at his inauguration ceremony in Kabul last month, he promised that by the end of his five-year term, Afghan security forces would be "capable of taking the lead in ensuring security and stability across the country." Accelerating the process in order to achieve the necessary number of well-trained Afghan soldiers - ideally estimated to be 134,000 troops, compared with the current 90,000 - by the summer of 2011 would require roughly 5,000 new recruits a month. Last month alone, the Ministry of Defense missed its recruiting goal by more...
Pakistanis, too, are likely to take the 18-month timeline as a signal that they should continue to hedge their bets and support the Afghan Taliban in the tribal areas along the border in order to foil a much feared expansion of Indian influence on their northwestern flank. At the moment U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan believe they can continue the battle despite Pakistan's tolerance of the Afghan Taliban leadership within its borders. Should Pakistani policy move toward active aid and support, however, the task of defeating the Afghan insurgency would become impossibly difficult. (See Europe's response...