The White House sent word late last night that Obama is backing Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s goal of having Afghan forces lead security operations there — in 2014. ...
Many analysts would call 2014 an optimistic target, at best. But from the prospective of people tired of fighting wars, it commits the United States to the lead role in Afghanistan until two years into the next presidential term, whether it’s Obama’s or someone else’s.
It means that even if the American withdrawal begins, as the President pledges, next July, it will take three more years before the U.S. cedes control to Afghans, let alone withdraw to the equivalent backup role U.S. forces now have in Iraq. America will have been waging war in Afghanistan for 12 years by then.
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Meanwhile, the better of our two supply routes into Afghanistan - which collectively account for 80% of our ability to provide logistical support to the troops to accomplish whatever it is they're currently supposed to be doing there - remains closed by the Pakistani government, who are not satisfied with NATO's refusal to admit killing their soldiers.
U.S. and Pakistani officials viewed 21/2 hours of overhead video as part of the probe. The senior Pakistani military official said that it showed that the Frontier Corps post was on the Pakistani side of a hill, about 200 yards across the border, and was not visible from the Afghan side. The helicopters approached from inside Pakistan, apparently returning from what the coalition said was a strike on a Taliban position preparing a cross-border mortar attack.
The Frontier Corps position was well known to U.S. forces, the official said. The two sides exchange grid coordinates of each post every six months, most recently in June, and the one in question had been in place since 2005. The video, he said, shows a Pakistani soldier raising his rifle in the air and firing a warning, not toward the helicopters. After the 5:30 a.m. attack on the post, the official said, U.S. helicopters returned to the area about 9 a.m. and fired seven more missiles.
How can the deaths be "accidents" if the border post was properly noted on NATO maps and the two attacks were three and a half hours apart? Wouldn’t that be enough time to consult the maps at least one more time before flying across the border again and firing seven missiles?
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/...