A pessimistic report, at Los Angeles Times , ” Afghanistan success is in eye of beholder “: With an American troop drawdown underway and expected to accelerate in the coming year, the NATO force insists that violence is declining, that the insurgency’s strength is flagging and that Afghan forces are demonstrating a growing ability to take the lead in safeguarding the country. Many Afghans, however, subscribe to a darker view: that daily life has grown more perilous, that national and local governance has become even shakier, that the country’s police and army are chronically unable protect its citizens, and that the Taliban movement is hunkering down to wait out the Western presence. Recent months have seen escalating tension over so-called metrics that can be used to chart either progress or deterioration. RTWT. And at Michael Yon, ” Fool’s Gold & Troops’ Blood ,” ” Report to Congress ,” and ” Question for Congressman Pompeo: What is your Position? ”
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Measuring Success in Afghanistan
Obama’s top military adviser and the allied military commander in Afghanistan said the White House’s troop drawdown plan was “more aggressive” and riskier than they initially were willing to accept.
AP – Newly declared Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman says the Obama administration’s pace of troop drawdown in Afghanistan is too slow.
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Huntsman: ‘Healthy dose of nation-building’ needed
(AP)
AFP – From a position of lonely authority, President Barack Obama faces wrenching political and even moral dilemmas as he plots a troop drawdown in Afghanistan due to begin next month.
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Dilemmas weigh on Obama’s Afghanistan drawdown
(AFP)
Reuters – President Barack Obama pressed Iraqi leaders on Thursday to end a post-election deadlock and form a new government without further delay as the top U.S. commander in Iraq told him a troop drawdown was running ahead of schedule.
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Obama presses Iraqi leaders to end deadlock
(Reuters)
