Quality Leadership Weblog :-)

 
Inside The Ring, By Bill Gertz, Washington Times, January 15, 2009
A military analyst in Afghanistan has identified 2009 as a critical year for U.S. and allied counterinsurgency efforts against the Taliban and al Qaeda. The analyst, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, told Inside the Ring that [...]

Report: US Had Unrealistic Goals In Afghanistan, (Washingtonpost.com)…Anne Gearan, Associated Press
…The incoming Obama administration should refocus the U.S. war and rebuilding effort in Afghanistan and think of the project as the work of at least a decade, according to the report compiled by the United States Institute of Peace. The assessment was set for release [...]

Taliban Using Snipers Against U.S.-Led Troops, (Miami Herald)…Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy News Service, Jan 3, 2009.
Taliban fighters increasingly are deploying snipers to fire on U.S. troops at greater distances throughout opium-producing southern Afghanistan, according to the top two commanders for the southern region.
The increased use of marksmen is the latest Taliban shift to asymmetrical warfare [...]

Undeterred By Taliban Threats, Afghans Showing Up To Get Voter Cards
(Mideast Stars and Stripes)…Michael Gisick, Jan 5, 2009.
A sweeping voter registration drive is under way across Afghanistan for the presidential election to be held later this year, a test of the country’s tottering government.

Nato Making Same Mistakes As Soviet Army, Says Zamir Kabulov, By Tony Halpin and Jeremy Page, January 3, 2009
The Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, once told his British counterpart that Nato was making all the same mistakes that the Soviet army did in the country in the 1980s.
“The Soviet Union tried to bring socialism [...]

Khyber Action Near End, (Washington Post)…Unattributed, January 2, 2009, Pg. 13  

Pakistan will reopen the main supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan in the next few days after security forces achieved most of their objectives in an offensive, a Pakistani official said Thursday.
Authorities suspended the shipment of supplies through the Khyber Pass to the [...]

Bribes Corrode Afghans’ Trust In Government, (New York Times)…Dexter Filkins, Jan 2, 2009.
…Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft.

Taliban Taunts US Over 30,000 Extra Troops, (London Daily Telegraph)…Ben Farmer, Dec 22, 2008.
Plans to double the number of US troops in Afghanistan will see them suffer the same defeat as the Soviet army, the Taliban claims.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Washington could send up to 30,000 more [...]

Give US Afghan Backup: NATO, New York Post, December 22, 2008, By Reuters
BRUSSELS - Fellow NATO members must follow the United States in committing additional forces to Afghanistan, the alliance said yesterday.
Washington plans to send 20,000 to 30,000 extra troops to the area by the beginning of next summer to combat a growing Taliban insurgency, [...]

Afghanistan, The Next Surge, Can more American troops and a new strategy beat the Taliban? The Economist, December 19, 2008
KABUL — A surge of American troops and a rethinking of tactics worked in Iraq. Can the same be done for the troubled mission in Afghanistan? As America draws down in Iraq, it is sending over [...]