Key Facts on Afghanistan

Kimberly Kagan, Frederick Kagan
A Joint Institute for the Study of War - American Enterprise Institute Report



U.S. Marines
1st Battallion
5th Marine Regiment,
Helmand Province,
Afghanistan





Attention! New Material Added at Tail-End of this Post 10-03-09 (Addendum)


Key Facts on Afghanistan

[Excerpt]

The Quetta Shura Taliban (QST) and the Haqqani network pose the greatest threat to stability in Afghanistan.

The QST is an insurgent group responsible for Taliban operations in Afghanistan. The group is led by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Following the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Omar relocated the senior leadership council to Quetta, Pakistan. Though the QST is most active in southern Afghanistan, its operations have spread into areas of the north and west.

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Also of interest to readers of this post:

ADDENDUM

YON: The Greatest Afghan War

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan

but . . .

If Obama has the testicular fortitude of a Harry S. Truman, he should realize that The Buck Stops Here*--with Him (or whomever at any time holds the office of President of the United States, whether deservedly or not.)
____________
*Truman used this phrase to show that he bore the ultimate responsibility for the results of his decisions.  Will Obama follow suit or will he blame his predecessor as he is wont to do?
____________

The Washington Times Article: YON: The Greatest Afghan War © The Washington Times

 . . . part about our NATO Allies reprinted as at On Afghanistan at Redneck's Revenge which brought me to this article by Michael Yon via a Google Search

YON: The Greatest Afghan War - Washington Times:

Oct 1, 2009 ... We are losing popular support. Confidence in the Afghan and coalition governments is plummeting. Loss of human terrain is evident. Conditions are building for an avalanche. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the military commander in ... Robert M. Gates are aware of the rumbling, and so today we are bound ...

***

The coalition is weakening. While the U.S. has gotten serious, the organism called NATO is a jellyfish for which the United States is both sea and prevailing wind. The disappointing effort from many partners is best exemplified by the partners who are pushing hardest: The British are fine examples [again, you can see On Afghanistan at Redneck's Revenge] for more about our NATO Allies from the Yon article.

How's Obama's "West Wing" Taking all This When It Looks at the Following?

Threat of nuclear Iran with missile capabilities that can hit not only Israel, other Middle Eastern countries and Eastern European countries, but also some U.S. military bases. Chavez's Venezuela announces it is looking for new sources of uranium with Russia and Iran, Red China announced upgraded missliles. The only [to me lw] bright news in the nuclear world is India's announcement that it can produce nuclear weapons four times as powerful as is allowed to nations pledged to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

As the Washington Times would have it:

from Reality bites Obama's "West Wing," The Washington Times

This is the fine mess Barack Obama told us would never happen if Americans would elect him to soothe the fears of the frightened and bank the ambitions of evildoers of the world. Suddenly, the president has to deal with headaches, a thousand town halls, with hundreds of thousands of angry bigots, racists and Nazis of hysterical liberal imagination jeering his scheme to take over the health care of the nation, never prepared him for. He's got headaches no speechwriter can cure.

                                                              -30-

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