Taliban Pick Young Leader to Replace Mehsud

Army probes reports that drone strike killed Hakimullah Mehsud

(NEWSER) - The Pakistani army is investigating reports that the leader of the Taliban in the country has died after being injured in an American military drone strike. Hakimullah Mehsud, 28, had been at the helm of the Pakistani Taliban for 5 months, having taken over after the death—also in a drone strike—of Baitullah Mehsud, reports the Los Angeles Times . But a source within the Taliban says Hakimullah Mehsud is alive and has gone "underground" to dodge a recent campaign of drone attacks, CNN reports. More»

Doesn't US remember how our country began? Or how Vietnam ended?

(NEWSER) - The United States was born from a nationalist insurgency. “Given that history, you’d think we might be more sensitive to nationalism abroad,” writes Nicholas Kristof. “Yet the most systematic foreign-policy mistake we Americans have made in the post-World War II period has been to underestimate its potency.” It was true in Vietnam, in Latin America—and now in Afghanistan. More»

Al-Qaeda, Taliban much closer than public has been led to believe

(NEWSER) - US military and intelligence officials see dangerous misrepresentations in the Obama team’s flirting with a limited, anti-al-Qaeda strategy in Afghanistan. “The White House is downplaying the dangers of doing the only thing that they think Congress and the public will support,” an official tells McClatchy. But taking the focus off of the Taliban may make al-Qaeda stronger as the two groups are even closer now than in 2001. More»

Whether Taliban will facilitate or shun terror group is up in the air

(NEWSER) - The principal rationale for the original US invasion of Afghanistan was the elimination of an al-Qaeda safe haven. Almost a decade later, the terrorist group is much diminished there, as well as in Pakistan, prompting serious second thoughts within the administration about ramping up forces in the region. Aides to special envoy Richard Holbrooke suggest that though the Taliban is resurgent, should they gain control again they would not ally with the terrorist group. 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»