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Entries Tagged as 'War'

Politics deprive US Troop in Afghanistan from Defending themselves.

July 11th, 2010 · Defense, Ethics, Government, Obama's Scheme, Politics, Selling Out the US, War on Terrorism

Petraeus reviews directive meant to limit Afghan civilian deaths

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 9, 2010

To the U.S. soldiers getting pounded with thunderous mortar rounds in their combat outpost near Kandahar, it seemed like a legitimate request: allow them to launch retaliatory mortar shells or summon an airstrike against their attackers. The incoming fire was landing perilously close to a guard station, and the soldiers, using a high-powered camera, could clearly see the insurgents shooting.

The response from headquarters — more than 20 miles away — was terse. Permission denied. Battalion-level officers deemed the insurgents too close to a cluster of mud-brick houses, perhaps with civilians inside.

Although the insurgents stopped firing before anybody was wounded, the troops were left seething.

“This is not how you fight a war, at least not in Kandahar,” said a soldier at the outpost who described the incident, which occurred last month, on the condition of anonymity. “We’ve been handcuffed by our chain of command.”

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Death toll in Afghan war nears 1,000

February 24th, 2010 · Defense, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Craig Whitlock, Greg Jaffe and Julie Tate Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More than eight years after the Taliban was toppled from power, the number of U.S. military fatalities in the war in Afghanistan is nearing 1,000, a grim milestone in a resurgent conflict that is claiming the lives of an increasing number of troops who had survived previous combat tours in Iraq.

As of Tuesday, 996 U.S. military personnel had died while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom. The roll call of the fallen began on Oct. 10, 2001, when Air Force Master Sgt. Evander E. Andrews was killed in a forklift accident in Qatar while building an airstrip in preparation for the invasion of Afghanistan. The latest confirmed addition came Sunday, when Army Pfc. J.R. Salvacion, 27, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit near Kandahar.

The number of dead is small in comparison with U.S. casualties in Iraq, where 4,366 uniformed personnel have died since 2003. But as operations intensify in Afghanistan, the war is killing more and more service members who came home safely after serving in Iraq, only to return to the battlefield in another theater.

Since Dec. 1, at least 30 percent of the American military personnel who have died in Afghanistan have been veterans of the Iraq war, according to a Washington Post analysis.

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Killing of cleric prompts outrage in Kabul and apology from coalition forces

January 29th, 2010 · Defense, National Security, Obama's Scheme, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 29, 2010

KABUL — A gunner in a U.S. military convoy shot and killed a local imam as he was driving his car here Thursday morning, prompting outrage among residents and an apology from coalition forces.

The killing of civilians is a sensitive political issue in Afghanistan and has become a public cause for President Hamid Karzai. U.S. commanders have taken pains to minimize such killings in recent months, but each new civilian death is capable of inflaming public sentiment against the presence of American troops.

The shooting Thursday occurred along a stretch of four-lane highway in the eastern Kabul neighborhood of Paktia Kot, outside Camp Phoenix, a U.S. military base. The site is not far from where a suicide bomber targeted a passing convoy Tuesday, wounding eight American soldiers.

In a statement describing the shooting, the U.S. military said the convoy “fired on what appeared to be a threatening vehicle,” without elaborating.

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CBO Update

January 23rd, 2010 · CBO Update, Finance, Healthcare

The following has been added to CBO’s Web site (www.cbo.gov):

  • H.R. 4173, Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009
    Cost estimate for the bill as amended and reported by the House Committee on Rules on December 8, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10996
  • S. 2856, International Fisheries Agreement Clarification Act
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on December 17, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10997
  • S. 555, Sugar Loaf Fire Protection District Land Exchange Act of 2009
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on December 16, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11001
  • S. 721, Alpine Lakes Wilderness Additions and Pratt and Middle Fork Snoqualmie Rivers Protection Act
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on December 16, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11002
  • S. 853, White Clay Creek Wild and Scenic River Expansion Act of 2009
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on December 16, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11003
  • S. 874, Rio Grande del Norte National Conservation Area Establishment Act
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on December 16, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11004
  • S. 2862, Small Business Export Enhancement and International Trade Act of 2009
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on December 17, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10998
  • S. 373, A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to include constrictor snakes of the species Python genera as an injurious animal
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works on December 10, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10999
  • S. 448, Free Flow of Information Act of 2009
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on December 10, 2009
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11000
  • Additional Information on the Effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund
    Letter to the Honorable Jeff Sessions
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11005
  • CBO’s Analysis of Scenarios for Funding the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
    Letter to the Honorable John M. Spratt Jr.
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10995

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Obama pressed for faster surge

December 6th, 2009 · Deception, Defense, Economy, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Government Control, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, War on Terrorism

AFGHAN REVIEW A MARATHON
‘What was interesting was the metamorphosis’

By Anne E. Kornblut, Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 6, 2009

President Obama, seated at the head of a conference table strewn with papers in the White House Situation Room, stared at charts showing various options for sending additional U.S. troops into Afghanistan.

He and his top national security advisers had been debating the way forward for two full months. On this day, Nov. 11, the president scanned the choices with a trace of irritation. At a meeting more than two weeks earlier, he had asked for a plan to deploy and pull out troops quickly — a “surge” similar to the one that his Republican predecessor had executed in Iraq, but with a fixed date to begin withdrawals.

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Newly deployed Marines to target Taliban bastion

November 29th, 2009 · Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, War on Terrorism

RENEWED FOCUS ON HELMAND
Obama expected to give war plan in speech

By Greg Jaffe Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 29, 2009

KABUL — Days after President Obama outlines his new war strategy in a speech Tuesday, as many as 9,000 Marines will begin final preparations to deploy to southern Afghanistan and renew an assault on a Taliban stronghold that slowed this year amid a troop shortage and political pressure from the Afghan government, senior U.S. officials said.

The extra Marines will be the first to move into the country as part of Obama’s escalation of the eight-year-old war. They will double the size of the U.S. force in the southern province of Helmand and will provide a critical test for Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s struggling government and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s counterinsurgency strategy.

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President vs. party on troop increase

November 27th, 2009 · Dissention, Economy, Foreign Policy, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, War on Terrorism

Caucus wouldn’t back a costly expansion of Afghan war

By Michael D. Shear and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 26, 2009

President Obama will reveal his new Afghanistan war strategy in a speech Tuesday evening to cadets at West Point, but his most skeptical audience is likely to be the powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill who oppose a troop buildup.

Top Democrats have made it clear to Obama that he will not receive a friendly reception should he announce what is considered the leading option: sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The legislators have indicated that a request for more money to finance a beefed-up war effort will be met with frustration and, perhaps, a demand to raise taxes.

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Afghan troops announcement likely Dec. 1

November 24th, 2009 · Defense, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, War on Terrorism

McChrystal and U.S. ambassador to testify on Afghanistan war

By Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 24, 2009; 10:07 AM

President Obama has finished gathering information about troop options in Afghanistan and will likely announce his decision in an address to the nation next Tuesday, Dec. 1, administration officials said.

“After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in an e-mailed statement early Tuesday.

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Obama Plans More Funding For Afghan War

March 27th, 2009 · Government

4,000 Additional Troops to Deploy

By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 27, 2009; Page A01

President Obama’s new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy will require significantly higher levels of U.S. funding for both countries, with U.S. military expenses in Afghanistan alone, currently about $2 billion a month, increasing by about 60 percent this year.

“The president has decided he is going to resource this war properly,” said a senior administration official of the plan Obama is set to announce this morning. Along with the 17,000 additional combat troops authorized last month, he said, Obama will send 4,000 more this fall to serve as trainers and advisers to an Afghan army expected to double in size over the next two years.

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