Obama to Explore New Approach in Afghanistan War
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post
Tuesday, November 11, 2008; A01
The incoming Obama administration plans to explore a more regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan – including possible talks with Iran – and looks favorably on the nascent dialogue between the Afghan government and “reconcilable” elements of the Taliban, according to Obama national security advisers.
President-elect Barack Obama also intends to renew the U.S. commitment to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a priority the president-elect believes President Bush has played down after years of failing to apprehend the al-Qaeda leader. Critical of Bush during the campaign for what he said was the president’s extreme focus on Iraq at the expense of Afghanistan, Obama also intends to move ahead with a planned deployment of thousands of additional U.S. troops there. ...
But conversations with several Obama advisers and a number of senior military strategists both before and since last Tuesday’s election reveal a shared sense that the Afghan effort under the Bush administration has been hampered by ideological and diplomatic constraints and an unrealistic commitment to the goal of building a modern democracy – rather than a stable nation that rejects al-Qaeda and Islamist extremism and does not threaten U.S. interests. None of those who discussed the subject would speak on the record, citing sensitivities surrounding the presidential transition and the war itself….
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mullen, frustrated by the performance of NATO allies whose troops make up more than half the total foreign force in Afghanistan, have already planned for a more overt and forceful U.S. leadership role in the war, as well as more direct involvement by U.S. forces in fighting the Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan.
Some NATO military officials said enhanced U.S. leadership would be welcome, as long as it was not seen as a “takeover bid,” said one senior European officer whose country has troops fighting as part of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan. While the U.S. military has long criticized some NATO members for lacking combat zeal and expertise in Afghanistan, many European officers resent what they see as U.S. arrogance.
The NATO officer suggested that Obama, whose election was greeted with wide approval in Europe, may have more success than Bush in persuading other alliance members to increase their fighting forces in Afghanistan. “I think you’ll find the new president would then be able to persuade a number of European nations who have not liked this administration’s way of doing business to come in behind them,” he said. ...
News · NATO and Partner chiefs of Defence to meet at NATO HQ
Top military officers of the Alliance’s member and Partner nations will convene at NATO HQ, Brussels, on 19-20 November 2008, for their Autumn meeting. This is the second of three meetings per year for the NATO Chiefs of Defence, NATO’s highest military authority.
More than 60 Chiefs of Defence from NATO members, Partnership-for-Peace nations, the Mediterranean Dialogue countries and Ukraine will be in attendance. Chiefs of Defence from Albania and Croatia will participate for the first time in their status as NATO Invitee Countries. The Pakistan Chief of Army Staff will also be attending for discussions on the situation in Afghanistan.
News · Economist - A special relationship (Updated)
Where do you think Obama will travel first? Or, what countries will be on his first tour?
BTW, Conventional wisdom says he’ll visit the boilerplate countries first but I think The Economist forgets Obama is the Change President. He’s absolutely NOT going to visit Britain first.
However, I just finished an email to my Uncle Yamie (aka Uncle Swanny) where I said “national interest” this and “national interest” that. So perhaps there is an institutional memory and perhaps protocol dictates Obama will visit the boilerplate countries first. Hmm…. where will it be?
Where will President Barack Obama visit first? Economist
THANKS to its “special relationship” with America, Britain is firm favourite to be the first country that Barack Obama will visit as president, according to Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaker. Although Nicolas Sarkozy will no longer be president of the European Union in 2009, France is offered at 3/1 to receive President Obama. Germany, despite Mr Obama’s rapturous welcome in Berlin earlier this year, is given longer odds not only over its Gallic neighbour, but also Iraq and Afghanistan. At 10/1, Kenya is reckoned a more likely first stop than Israel or Japan.
Update WMD, founding father of NAROP, says “WHAT ABOUT CANADA!!! Not even on the list!”
I’d say Canada’s odds are 33/1, between Spain and Cuba. I could be wrong.
News · The harsh lesson of Afghanistan: little has changed in 200 years
The “interval between sobriety and absolute stupefaction”.
The harsh lesson of Afghanistan: little has changed in 200 years
by Ben Macintyre
13 November 2008 The Times
Two hundred years ago this month, in the middle of the Great Indian Desert that separated British India from the uncharted lands to the northwest, British soldiers encountered Afghan warriors for the very first time.
The British force, led by a Scottish diplomat with the splendidly imperial name of Mountstuart Elphinstone, consisted of several hundred near-mutinous sepoy (native Indian) troops, a handful of white officers, 600 camels, and a dozen elephants loaded with gifts.
Elphinstone, the first European diplomatic envoy sent to Afghanistan, had been dispatched from Delhi to coax the “King of Caubul” into an alliance against Napoleon, to explore this terra incognita, and – in the unlikely event that he survived – to report back to London on the “wild and strange” land beyond the mountains.
For a month Elphinstone slogged through the desert wastes, encountering bandits, warring clans and ferocious tribal chiefs off their heads on opium and alcohol who could be spoken to only in the early afternoon, that being the “interval between sobriety and absolute stupefaction”. For guidance, he had to rely on accounts of Alexander the Great’s expedition, written more than 2,000 years earlier.
Just inside the border of what is now Pakistan, on November 21, 1808, Elphinstone was met by a body of 150 Afghan mounted troops, riding two to a camel, terrifying bearded figures each carrying a glittering matchlock musket. “Their appearance,” he recorded with fine Scots understatement, “was altogether novel and striking.” No one in his party could understand a word that they were saying.
So began the first formal contact between the British crown and the fractured state of Afghanistan. The latest chapter in that story will be written today, when the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, arrives in Britain for the Prince of Wales’s birthday party.
I loved that place and sure hope it doesn’t go up in flames. I don’t have too many pictures of the place handy…. Some pics here of Charlie were all taken there. Some coyotes that lived across the street. Chuck and Ivan in the living room jumping around. Chuck’s ears in the back yard And the best for last
