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Afghanistan
As the international coalition prepares to exit Afghanistan it is critical that it leaves behind indigenous security forces capable of preventing a Taliban “Reconquesta.” A great deal of attention, training equipment and money has gone into creating an Afghan military, police, and local security
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Date:
1/28/2013
Over the past nine months there has been a wave of fatal attacks by Afghan security forces, either soldiers or police, on Coalition soldiers. The colloquial term for this is “green on blue” violence where green are friendly forces, blue represents U.S. and Coalition troops and red means enemies
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Date:
9/24/2012
As the U.S. military prepares to turn over security responsibilities in Afghanistan to indigenous forces, a key issue for planners is assuring those forces have adequate air power. Once U.S. pilots are gone, the Afghans must be able to provide air cover for their troops on the ground, delivering
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Date:
5/2/2012
The mission in Iraq is over. Some 500 U.S. bases and facilities have been closed and virtually all U.S. troops have been withdrawn. There were almost no incidents of any kind associated with the withdrawal. It seems that getting out was a lot easier than getting in.
Or was it? Operation Iraqi
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Date:
12/15/2011
With President Obama’s announcement of the beginning of a phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, attention naturally turned to the troops coming out, those remaining and how they will fare in the difficult months and years ahead. What continues to pass almost unnoticed about our presence in Afghanistan
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Date:
6/24/2011
President Obama's June 22 announcement that a third of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be removed in little more than a year signals the beginning of the end for America's military campaign in that country. The President says we are scaling back because the war against the Taliban is going
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Date:
6/23/2011
In 1968, the sun truly sank on the British Empire. Then Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the beginning of a phased withdrawal of British forces from bases and outposts east of the Suez Canal. Planned to extend over a number of years, the withdrawal was hastened by a run on the British pound
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Date:
6/22/2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has proposed a new deadline of 2014 for U.S. withdrawal from his country. The communiqué published this week at the end of an international conference in the capitol of Kabul and attended by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a call for Afghan security forces
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Date:
7/21/2010
The problem with Gen. Stanley McChrystal isn't the childish things he and his aides said to reporter Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone. The real problem is that his strategy in Afghanistan isn't working. The troops hate it, the public is running out of patience, and if the Obama Administration
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Date:
6/23/2010
Andrew Roberts’ magnificent study of command relationships in World War II, Masters and Commanders, should be required reading for anyone responsible for the care and feeding of great minds and enormous egos. It is the story of two great political leaders, President Franklin Roosevelt and
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Date:
6/23/2010
The Obama Administration’s strategy for success in Afghanistan depends heavily on the Coalition’s ability to create a large and effective Afghan National Police (ANP) force. After years of well-documented failure and nearly $7 billion, the U.S. State Department was removed as the agency responsible
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Date:
6/11/2010
Of all the places to fight a war, Afghanistan would be almost last on anyone’s list. There are all the well-documented problems: awful terrain, primitive infrastructure, fragmented social and political structures, the ravages of thirty years of conflict and predatory neighbors. Afghanistan is also
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Date:
5/26/2010
A growing chorus of conservative, meaning Republican, commentators are complaining about the behavior of Afghan president Hamid Karzai. They object to widespread corruption in his government and a drift toward anti-Americanism in his rhetoric and actions. Some of these conservative critics have
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Date:
4/6/2010
How dysfunctional does the intelligence process in Afghanistan have to be for three senior intelligence officials, including Major General Michael T. Flynn who is currently Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, to write
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Date:
1/19/2010