How to Fix Afghanistan

'Skeptic-in-chief' Biden challenges McChrystal's call for more troops

(NEWSER) - Gen. Stanley McChrystal's call to beef up the war effort in Afghanistan is proving a tough sell with senior administration officials. White House advisers challenged many aspects of the commander's assessment at a meeting this week, including his belief that al-Qaeda would again find sanctuary in Afghanistan if the Taliban regains control. Joe Biden played the role of "skeptic-in-chief," one official tells the Washington Post. More»

(NEWSER) - George Will’s call today to pull US troops out of Afghanistan is tantamount to “urging retreat and accepting defeat,” fellow conservative William Kristol blogs in the Washington Post. Will’s idea to focus mostly on offshore operations and airstrikes "doesn't sound much more engaged than US Afghan policy in the 1990s,” Kristol writes. “Will would have to explain why it would work better this time.” More»

Nation-building in one of the world's weakest states is a lost cause

(NEWSER) - America needs to abandon its idea of nation-building in Afghanistan before the lives of yet more troops are squandered trying to establish an effective central government in a country that has never had one, George F. Will warns in the Washington Post. Even with America's troop-intensive efforts, experts say Kabul only controls a third of the country, and many Afghans find the government so corrupt that they openly wish for the return of the warlords, he notes. More»

Candidate pledges more US troops

(NEWSER) - Calling the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent," Barack Obama today urged the Bush administration to make Afghanistan—rather than Iraq—"the central front in our battle against terrorism." In his first interview since arriving in the country yesterday, the Democratic candidate told Lara Logan on Face the Nation that an additional two brigades were needed to combat insurgents and the drug trade that finances them, USA Today reports. More»

Hillary Clinton calls incident possible war crime

(NEWSER) - Investigators have identified the four Marines shown in a video apparently urinating on Taliban corpses, and they could be charged today, CBS News reports. The military has interviewed at least two of the men on the matter as officials scramble to address its fallout. "Anyone, anyone found to have participated or know about it, having engaged in such conduct, must be held fully accountable," said Hillary Clinton yesterday, calling the incident a potential war crime. All four were members of a sniper team in a unit that lost seven members in action last summer in Afghanistan. More»