Afghanistan Weekly Reader: Top Lawmakers Consider Accelerated Drawdown
The NATO training mission in Afghanistan is continuing, but new restrictions aimed at preventing insider attacks have scaled back operations. Pentagon leadership insists that the “fundamental strategy remains the same,” but U.S. policymakers aren’t so sure. The increase in insider attacks against NATO troops – 51 this year – has top leaders in Congress considering an accelerated drawdown.
From ASG
9/18/12
Borrowing to pay for war
Afghanistan Study Group by Mary Kaszynski
The rising debt isn’t entirely due to the war in Afghanistan. But the war, which has cost over $500 billion to date, is a factor in America’s economic crisis.
ARTICLES
9/18/12
Rep. C.W. Bill Young Drops Staunch Support Of Afghanistan War: ‘We’re Killing Kids That Don’t Need To Die’
The Huffington Post by Amanda Terkel
A Republican congressman who has long been a staunch supporter of sticking with the war in Afghanistan is now changing course, arguing that the United States needs to pull out as quickly as possible.
9/19/12
Officer: Insider attacks aimed at Western resolve
Associated Press by Robert Burns
A series of “insider attacks” against U.S. and allied troops by Afghan forces are an attempt by the Taliban to drive a wedge between coalition and Afghan troops, a senior officer said Wednesday. But he said that while Western troops are now warier of Afghan partners, they are determined to avoid a full breakdown in trust.
9/19/12
Afghanistan: Why don’t we leave now?
The Christian Science Monitor by Anna Mulrine
Why can’t we just leave Afghanistan now? It’s the unspoken question that top Pentagon officials are endeavoring to answer in their assurances that America must stay its course in the war-torn country.
9/18/12
NATO scales back operations with Afghan forces after insider attacks, protests
Associated Press
NATO said Monday that it has scaled back operations with Afghan soldiers and policemen to lower the risk of insider attacks and reduce local tensions over an anti-Islam video that prompted protests in Afghanistan.
OPINION
9/11/12
Afghanistan 11 Years Later
Reason.com by Ed Krayewski
Both Obama and Mitt Romney, each of whom toned down their campaign today out of respect for 9/11, appear committed to a long-term continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan despite overwhelmingly popular disapproval, suggesting the war will continue whether the American people want it to or not.
