The senior British commander in Afghanistan reportedly told a London newspaper that a “decisive military victory” over the Taliban is impossible and it is necessary to “lower our expectations.”

“We’re not going to win this war,” the Sunday Times newspaper quoted Brig. Mark Carleton-Smith as saying. “It’s about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that’s not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army.”

The newspaper also quoted Carleton-Smith as looking favorably on a deal with the Taliban.

“If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that’s precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this,” Carleton-Smith said.

More at the Washington Post

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Here’s a video of Obama speaking with Lara Logan about Afghanistan on July 20th.

Violence up 30% over last year in Afghanistan. Military officials asking for more troops and more economic and political aid. Good luck with that……. we have to stay in Iraq forever….and we gotta take care of the suits on Wall Street buddy. Didn’t you hear?

The top American military commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that he needs more troops and other aid “as quickly as possible” in a counter-insurgency battle that could get worse before it gets better.

Gen. David McKiernan said it’s not just a question of troops — but more economic aid and more political aid as well.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters, the head of NATO forces in Afghanistan said there has been a significant increase in foreign fighters coming in from neighboring Pakistan this year — including Chechens, Uzbeks, Saudis and Europeans.

“The additional military capabilities that have been asked for are needed as quickly as possible,” he said.

More at MSNBC

So how, exactly, did the United States come to slaughter nearly a hundred Afghans, two-thirds of whom were children aged three months to sixteen years, while they slept? And what does it mean?

US officials say they’re investigating, while staunchly maintaining that the raid killed twenty-five “militants.” But Afghan officials, local residents, and the United Nations are counting scores of bodies, and it is feared that many more might be buried udner the rubble. (It’s not unusual for American planes to bomb civilian gatherings and wedding parties in Afghanistan, but the many dead this time may represent the highest single toll in any atrocity since the start of the war.)

What happened? The Post, happily carrying water for the Bush administration, quotes a US official — who provides zero evidence for his claim — saying that the Taliban deliberately fed bogus intelligence to the United States:

A U.S. official in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Taliban has become adept at spreading false intelligence to draw U.S. strikes on civilians. “The fact is that the Taliban now has pretty good insight into where we’re picking up information and how we’re developing it into actionable intelligence,” the official said. “They’ve figured out a way to misguide us.”

The Times, on the other hand, quotes members of the Afghan parliament saying that bitter tribal rivalries, not the Taliban, fed false intelligence to the trigger-happy US Air Force:

How the military came to call in airstrikes on a civilian gathering is unclear. Two members of Parliament, Mr. Safi and Maulavi Gul Ahmad, who is from the area, said the villagers blamed tribal enemies for giving the military false intelligence on foreign fighters gathering in the village.

My own guess is that US intelligence in Afghanistan is so ridiculously bad that blaming either the Taliban (which isn’t that clever) or tribal rivalries won’t wash. Somewhere, a US Air Force commander ordered planes carrying dumb, 2000-pound bombs into action based on, well, pretty much nothing. And they’ve done that repeatedly.

Continue reading at the Nation

Yah, these wounded French troops are lying…….riiigggghhhhttt. Why can’t our military just tell the truth???? Shit happens…… just tell the truth.

The Pentagon said Wednesday it has no information that close US air support resulted in casualties among French troops ambushed by insurgents in Afghanistan.

The newspaper Le Monde reported that French troops wounded in the fighting said NATO air strikes missed their targets and hit French troops, as did shots fired by Afghan troops backing them up.

“We have no reports of any casualties caused by close air support,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. Asked whether French soldiers had been killed or wounded by friendly fire, he said there were “no reports of that.”

More at Yahoo News

What’s going on in Afghanistan? Seems our military has lost some ground in recent days, along with news that the Taliban’s numbers appear to be strengthening.

This can’t be good news for the McCain campaign. Being weak as watered-down tea on economics, McCain’s supposed strengths reportedly lean towards those of war and security.

US troops pull out of Afghan base after attack

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. and Afghan troops have abandoned a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan where militants killed nine American soldiers this week, officials said Wednesday.

Compounding the military setback, insurgents quickly seized the village of Wanat in Nuristan province after driving out the handful of police left behind to defend government offices, Afghan officials said.

Some 50 officers were headed to the area to try to regain control, said Ghoolam Farouq, a senior provincial police official.

So sad…

Attack on US base in Afghanistan kills 9 Americans

KABUL, Afghanistan - A multi-pronged militant assault on a small, remote U.S. base close to the Pakistan border killed nine American soldiers and wounded 15 Sunday in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years, officials said.

The attack on the American troops began around 4:30 a.m. and lasted throughout the day. Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

The U.S. Defense Department has extended the combat tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile southern region, will stay an extra 30 days and come home in early November rather than October, Marine Col. David Lapan confirmed Thursday.

Military leaders as recently as Wednesday stressed the need for additional troops in Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has praised the work repeatedly of the 24th MEU in fighting Taliban militants in Helmand Province.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, has said repeatedly he did not intend to extend or replace the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, calling their deployment there an extraordinary, one-time effort to help tamp down the increasing violence in the south.

Asked about the possibility of an extension in early May, Gates said he would “be loath to do that.” He added that “no one has suggested even the possibility of extending that rotation.”

More at International Herald Tribune

From The Associated Press:

The U.S.-led coalition says an attack in Afghanistan has killed three servicemembers.

The military says the attack in Wardak — one province south of Kabul — destroyed a military vehicle and also killed an Afghan interpreter.

The coalition says that two of the killed servicemembers were recovered on site while “two sets of remains were located in a nearby field.”

A freelance television cameraman filmed what he said was the aftermath of the Thursday attack.

The footage showed the burning wreckage of a vehicle on a bend in a mountain road. Militants held up what looked like an M-16 rifle and dragged away an ammunition belt.

Joe Biden and Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press square off over Afghanistan and Iraq and Biden puts him in his place for his talking point on Obama not holding hearings.

You know, it’s amazing to watch these two talk, and how clear it is that Biden speaks to the truth while Graham just spews out talking points that make no sense.

On another note, Brokaw will replace Tim Russert on Meet the Press.

Justice finally came to many being held illegally in an Afghan prison. But justice may never come for those who put these four marines in harms way earlier today.

4 Marines die in Afghanistan; 870 inmates escape

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — About 870 prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday. And in western Afghanistan on Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle, killing four Americans in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in the country this year, officials said.

The bomb in the western province of Farah targeted Marines helping to train Afghanistan’s fledgling police force, said U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson. One other Marine was wounded in the attack.

Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment based in Twentynine Palms, California, arrived in Afghanistan earlier this year and were sent to southern and western Afghanistan to train police.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai puts the blame for rising violence in his country on international forces, saying they have mismanaged the fight against the resurging Taliban.

Karzai said in an interview on Indian television that the West risks losing peoples’ goodwill and that its forces should have done more to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaeda bases outside the country.

In the interview with CNBC TV 18 aired Monday, he didn’t directly mention bases in Pakistan, but his government has singled out that country in the past.

Karzai’s criticism - including his insistence that civilian casualties must stop - is important in light of his stated plan to stand for re-election next year. The president is often criticized in Afghanistan for being too close to the United States and Britain.

The president said Western forces did not focus on “sanctuaries of terrorists” despite his government’s warnings over the past five years.

More at CBCNews

Well, we do like prisons here in the U.S. We do like putting people in prison. We have more prisoners in the U.S. then any country in the world. So why not start putting other countries citizens in U.S. run prisons. Hey, and let’s torture them while we’re at it!!

The Pentagon is moving forward with a new prison at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, The New York Times reports.

The planned construction represents a concession by the Bush administration that the United States will be holding prisoners in Afghanistan for years. Previously, officials had said the detention center at Bagram would be closed soon, with its inmates either released or transferred to an Afghan prison built with U.S. aid.

There are 630 prisoners at Bagram, far more than the 270 detainees remaining at Guantanamo, Cuba. They are held in a prison converted from an aircraft hanger with some old Russian military equipment still stored there, the newspaper said.

“Our existing theater internment facility is deteriorating,” Sandra L. Hodgkinson, the senior Defense Department official for detention policy, told the Times. “It was renovated to do a temporary mission. There is a sense that this is the right time to build a new facility.”

Source

If the warmongering, Bush-wanna-be John McCain wins in November, you have to wonder just how high this number is going to climb in the next four years. You have to wonder where WE will be in four years!

Bush details $70B war funding request

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has sent lawmakers a $70 billion request to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring.

Friday’s request fills in the details of the $70 billion placeholder that the White House asked for when it sent its budget to Congress in February.

Congressional analysts say Bush’s request would bring the total spending to fight terrorism and conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to $875 billion.

The bulk of the money, $45 billion, would fund combat operations, but there’s also $3 billion to deal with roadside bombs and $2 billion to cope with rising fuel costs as a small freebie to his Big Oil friends.

(emphasis mine)

Maybe Bush is planning on being around and in control in 2009, whether in person or by proxy.

Gates: U.S. to send more troops to Afghanistan

Troops will be deployed regardless of Iraq situation, defense secretary says

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. intends to send many more combat forces to Afghanistan next year, regardless of whether troop levels in Iraq are reduced further.

It’s the first time the Bush administration has made such a commitment for 2009.

Gates was speaking to reporters on Friday while flying to Muscat, Oman, from a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania. The Pentagon chief said that President Bush made the troop pledge during the summit.

Gates said Bush was not specific about the number of additional troops that would go to Afghanistan. The U.S. now has about 31,000 troops there.

Maybe the Republicans would rather debate how good things are going in Afghanistan….oh wait, Bush fucked that one up, too.

More than six years after the U.S. invaded to establish a stable central regime in Afghanistan, the Kabul government under President Hamid Karzai controls just 30 percent of the country, the top U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday.

National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the resurgent Taliban controls 10 percent to 11 percent of the country and Karzai’s government controls 30 percent to 31 percent. The majority of Afghanistan’s population and territory remains under local tribal control, he said.

Underscoring the problems facing the Kabul government, a roadside bomb in Paktika province killed two Polish soldiers who are part of the NATO force in the country and opium worth $400 million was seized in the southern part of Afghanistan. That brought the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan to 21 this year, according to an Associated Press tally.

More at Yahoo