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Marie Carnes › Comments
Fish Fear Me: Hmmmm - http://fishfearme.blogs.com/fish_fe...
Parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan, Kennedy and Obama, Nhus and Karzai, Nhus' brother and Karzai's brother.
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
The US and NATO sinking in Afghanistan « RAWA News - http://www.rawa.org/temp...
Sri Lanka Guardian, November 30, 2009: "It is now very clear that the US and NATO have achieved nothing of substance in their adventure into Afghanistan and are sinking in the quagmire deeper every day."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Karzai Said What? | Mother Jones - http://www.motherjones.com/politic...
"During his recent inaugural address, Afghanistan's embattled president Hamid Karzai dropped a major bombshell. "Within the next two years," he declared, his administration intends to phase out "operations by all private national and international security firms" and transfer their duties to "Afghan security entities.""
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Down which road will China lead the world? - The National Newspaper - http://www.thenational.ae/apps...
"Where this road ultimately leads is anyone’s guess. On the one hand, infrastructure projects such as this, part of China’s $3 billion investment in the Aynak copper reserves, may be precisely what Afghanistan needs. If successful, it could provide thousands of jobs for Afghans and millions in revenue to Kabul. And for the Chinese, so desperate for copper that they recently relocated an entire South American village that sat on top of a rich seam, more than 200 million tonnes of copper in Aynak make it more valuable than a gold mine. From construction and computers to circuits and cables, Chinese development depends on an ever larger share of the world’s copper. But will China also need to assume a greater share of global responsibilities to obtain greater access to the minerals and markets it needs to grow?"
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
How much would more troops cost? | National News - cleveland.com - - cleveland.com - http://www.cleveland.com/nation...
"The calculations so far have produced a sweeping range. The Pentagon publicly estimates it will cost about $500,000 a year for every additional man or woman sent to the war zone, while the president's budget experts size it up at twice that much."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
US troops encounter different sort of battle in Afghanistan - The Boston Globe - http://www.boston.com/news...
"“This is not an interconnected society. There is a complete separation of ideas from Pul-i-Alam and Kharwar,’’ notes Matthews, of Vero Beach, Fla., of the provincial capital and a district just 23 miles away. “The difference between a village and a city in this country is about 200 years,’’ says the officer, who served for more than three years in Iraq and is on his second Afghanistan tour."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Bin Laden was within US reach in 2001 | B12 Solipsism - http://www.b12partners.net/wp...
"A Senate report with an agenda? Of course, doesn’t mean the facts are not true. The Afghanistan conflict would be quite different if Bush and Rumsfield weren’t so hell-bent to attack Iraq."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Eastern Syria becoming a new al Qaeda haven - The Long War Journal - http://www.longwarjournal.org/archive...
"US intelligence officials are concerned that Syria is becoming an al Qaeda haven, as the terror group becomes increasingly intertwined with Ba’athist groups operating from Iraq's neighbor to the west. Al Qaeda has refocused its efforts to build an infrastructure in eastern Syria after its network in Iraq was decimated by Iraqi and US security forces from 2007 to 2009, and now the organization is partnering with former Ba’athists from Saddam Hussein’s regime. "A major concern is that eastern Syria will begin to look like northwestern Pakistan," where al Qaeda has joined forces with the Taliban and directs attacks to destabilize Afghanistan, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
The Great Debate » Debate Archive » How to finance the war in Afghanistan? | The Great Debate | - http://blogs.reuters.com/great-d...
"The last time America had to borrow money to finance a war was during the Revolution and a cash-strapped Continental Congress took loans from France to fund a surge against the British. That worked out pretty well."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Twitter: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable - http://twitter.com/login
"Service Temporarily Unavailable The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later. Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
The Rhinelander Daily News - Online news and information for the Rhinelander, Wisconsin region - http://www.rhinelanderdailynews.com/article...
"Bill E. Buck’s name was added to the list of those killed in action on the Veteran’s Monument on the grounds of the Oneida County Courthouse Wednesday. He was reported missing in action on Aug. 6, 1950 in Korea and a “Presumptive Finding of Death” was issued on Dec. 31, 1953."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
3 Obama Advisers Favor More Troops for Afghanistan - NYTimes.com - http://www.nytimes.com/2009...
"WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are coalescing around a proposal to send 30,000 or more additional American troops to Afghanistan, but President Obama remains unsatisfied with answers he has gotten about how vigorously the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan would help execute a new strategy, administration officials said Tuesday."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Reality and Afghanistan: It’s time to leave. | The Platform | STLtoday - http://www.stltoday.com/blogzon...
"Today, President Barack Obama is facing the kind of decision Kennedy never got to make: Whether to heed his military advisers and double down on U.S. military involvement against an indigenous force in an Asian country run by a corrupt government, or whether to limit involvement to advisers and air warfare only, some mixture of both options or to pull out entirely."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
The Boys Who Cried "Fort Hood Terrorist" : Henry Rollins | Vanity Fair - http://www.vanityfair.com/online...
"Writing off the actions of Major Hasan as an act of terrorism avoids having to deal with some very big problems and answering some very hard and important questions."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Lord of the Afghan Flies — Registan.net - http://www.registan.net/index...
Insightful AND patronizing. As one commenter said: "This reads oddly when compared with some of the regular posters’ blogs. I need some background and context. Otherwise, anyone in an office could write such a piece and replace Kabul with Washington, ministry with agency, or warlord with K St. lawyer… Nothing here is particularly out of place in ANY organization."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
How to Get Out - http://www.thenation.com/doc...
"Accordingly, the first step for Washington must be to abandon the idea of a decades-long counterinsurgency, fire its advocates--including Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Gen. David Petraeus, architect of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual--and admit that the multiheaded insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan can't be defeated by military means."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Afghan Journal » Blog Archive » A close call on a mission to find IEDs in eastern Afghanistan | Blogs | - http://blogs.reuters.com/afghani...
Just how I imagined it: "Nicola Solic is a Reuters photographer based in Croatia. He was embedded with the U.S. Army’s Alpha Company, 3rd Brigade of the 10th Mountain division in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Logar. Here he recalls a day he spent with a unit tasked with finding and detonating insurgent-laid bombs or IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) and the moment when the vehicle he had been travelling in that morning was hit by a bomb."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Op-Ed Contributor - There’s No Substitute for Troops on the Ground - NYTimes.com - http://www.nytimes.com/2009...
Max Boot sees evidence of winning against the Taliban and wants to keep going in Afghanistan.
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Taliban Urge Boycott of Afghan Run-off - IslamOnline.net - News - http://www.islamonline.net/servlet...
"KABUL – The Taliban movement threatened Saturday, October 24, to disrupt next month’s Afghan presidential election run-off, calling on Afghans to boycott the ballot. "The Islamic emirate (of Afghanistan) once again informs all the people that no one should participate in this American process and should boycott the process," the Taliban said in a statement e-mailed to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "The mujahedeen are fully prepared to defeat this process," it said. "Anyone who participates and gets hurt will be responsible for their own losses.""
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Prisoner of the Taliban - Times Online - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol...
New York Times journalist, David Rohde's story: "Living side by side with the Haqqanis’ followers, I learnt that the goal of the hardline Taliban was far more ambitious. They wanted to create a fundamentalist Islamic emirate with Al-Qaeda that spanned the Muslim world."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
San Quentin. Why we visited. What we learned. Live conversation:
Lo, Barb Gonzalez, Richard Chen and 23 other people liked this
Today a group of us visited San Quentin Prison. Got a complete tour. Talked with murderers. Walked the yard amongst inmates. Visited much of the facilities. Visited an actual cell and talked with the guys who live there.
- Robert Scoble
It's one of those things that will always have an impact on me and the other bloggers who visited.
- Robert Scoble
who set that up?
- Jesse P. Luna
Fascinating. Do any of the inmates blog?
- Catherine Ventura
Guy Kawasaki and Dennis Hall did. More details here: http://www.mediabistro.com/baynews...
- Robert Scoble
Catherine: none are allowed on the Internet. But several have blogs done by their families or friends.
- Robert Scoble
That's pretty crazy. I see it every time I take the ferry to Marin.
- Daniel Brusilovsky
Nothing fun about this place. It's quite different being there than seeing it on TV or in the movies. I never felt at ease even though I knew nothing would happen to us.
- Robert Scoble
The prison system is its own economy in California.
- Jesse P. Luna
I know what you mean. I spent time on a film shoot in an Italian prison once. You feel the pain everywhere.
- Catherine Ventura
I'll try to rattle off some of my memories. Walking in the front gate was wild. The gate is very old, built in the 1950s. We walked in the same entrance Johnny Cash did. You get signed in. Show IDs. Not allowed to bring in any cell phone or cameras. They stamp your hands. Not allowed to wear blue pants or jeans (we put green pants over ours). Go through one door. Wait.
- Robert Scoble
Go through another door. Wait for the first door to lock. Then walk into yet another area. Wait for yet a third door to open (only opens after you've closed the door behind you). Let's just say that it's been decades since the last person escaped from here.
- Robert Scoble
We walk in the courtyard and there's a new prisoner (in white) being led in in handcuffs. But the courtyard is pretty beautiful. San Quentin is actually a prison most prisoners want to come to because of its beauty and programs. We instantly meet a well spoken prisoner who starts giving us a PR speech before we stop him and ask why he's talking to us like a PR guy. He explained...
- Robert Scoble
...that he's one of the "best" prisoners and is in a program to earn good points and by talking nicely with us he's earning good points which will help him possibly gain release. We learn later he murdered his sister with a shotgun about 28 years ago and has been inside ever since and is up for parole again next year. The conversation stuck with all of us. We asked him how many...
more...
- Robert Scoble
Only a few hundred of the thousands of prisoners are in a "program" which means they do work (most of the state's furniture is made here in a factory on the prison grounds -- we sat in the chairs and they do nice work) and take classes and are generally trying to become nice people who can survive on the outside (the guy we talked with took college classes and earned a degree here).
- Robert Scoble
After visiting the furniture factory (Prison Industries, they call it) we headed across the yard. While doing that a general alarm rang, a voice called out "alarm" and everyone dropped to their knee. Guard towers looking over the yard had guns aimed and ready. Our guide said we don't need to kneel but it was a spooky moment.
- Robert Scoble
My dad's band, Lightwalker, goes to play for them once a year.
- Danny Minick
We visited the dining area where we got locked in (we were only ones there) and saw the famous artwork of Alfred Santos. The New York Times has pictures and details here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007... -- awesome artwork that only a few regular people get to see. A guard later told us about being attacked in a riot in this room (200 inmates will sit here at one time with only three guards watching at a time). It is one of the most dangerous places in the prison.
- Robert Scoble
As we walked the guard who was giving us the tour explained how gangs inside the prison worked and how people carry contraband, notes, and other things in, well, body cavities. Let's just say I have new respect for what people can do with a shampoo bottle.
- Robert Scoble
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sure it was great to go home
- Douglas Sandquist
from iPhone
We walked over to one of the sleeping areas, which had hundreds of bunk beds open without any walls. The guard explained why prison life is so stressful. Imagine having to sleep knowing that your enemies can try to cut your throat at any time.
- Robert Scoble
My uncle also got his college degree while in prison. Unfortunately, the bulk of the work programs at his facility weren't focused on the quality of work being done but rather the sheer meeting of quotas.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Then we visited one of the buildings which had five stories of very small prison cells. Two people to a cell in a space about half the size of my upstairs office, which isn't that big. A toilet (no privacy) and not much else. Along the sides were cages, which we saw some people in. One guy was whining like a baby. Turned out he was thrown into a cage after getting maced for getting in a fight.
- Robert Scoble
Our guide, a guard, asked him "were you fighting?" Answer: "no." Then our guide asked "did you win?" Answer: "Oh yeah, I kicked his ass." Guards learn quickly how to get the truth out of people here.
- Robert Scoble
These cages were the size of telephone booths and people get thrown in them to punish them for misbehaving and to calm them down. Around the corner we're invited by the guards to visit someone's cell. I call it the PR tour because it's obvious the prisoners in the cell have been through this before.
- Robert Scoble
Turns out they were in for burglary and assault. They explained their life. 23 hours in the cell. 1 hour to eat. Every other day they get half a day in the yard. Every other day they get to take a five-minute shower (no privacy).
- Robert Scoble
I looked for technology. Beside having wifi for the guards (secure, of course) there was very little technology to speak of. Many of the prisoners have NEVER seen a web page. The Warden is on Facebook but not Twitter or FriendFeed. But other than a Dell on his desk I didn't see much other tech.
- Robert Scoble
This is the best item/experience I have EVER seen you post Robert. Good job and thank you.
- Joe
what about tvs? did they have those?
- Catherine Ventura
As we walked out we visited where the exercise yard used to be. There are tons of bullet holes in the roof covering the yard. Why? They used to fire a warning shot to try to break up fights/stabbings. Now the rule? No warning shots. If you are going to fire your weapon as a guard it will be to kill.
- Robert Scoble
Catherine: we heard some prisoners had them but I never saw a TV but we didn't visit many of the housing units. They didn't allow us in the areas where the worst prisoners are (we saw some condemned prisoners, but they were handcuffed and carefully watched). But certainly no HDTVs.
- Robert Scoble
Looks like it was quite an eye opener for you all.
- Joe
Will you go back?
- Joe
Joe: it was an eye opener, for sure. It certainly was a way to learn something different and also build a relationship with other bloggers too. We should have some pictures, by the way, soon. The guard had a camera he was allowed to take in but he was careful not to take pictures of other guards.
- Robert Scoble
Interesting to read this inside friendfeed - in 1 paragraph chunks every minute. I don't usually use this service. Normally I would see this via Google Reader.
- Damien Hogan
Joe: I would go back, sure, but probably only if they gave me full camera access. If I were ever to write a script this would be an awesome place to do research.
- Robert Scoble
Damien: I like writing raw and this doesn't really belong on my blog anyway.
- Robert Scoble
Kudos to you and your group. Keep it up. :)
- Joe
True, re blog - perhaps there is some other location for it - before it gets swept away in the stream.
- Damien Hogan
I'm glad to have gotten to do it. It's a place we all hear about and most of us never get to experience it. Oh, we also talked at length with the warden. Interesting about the budget struggles he's under. Said that he had to give layoff notices to lots of the education workers. What impact does that have?
- Robert Scoble
Just wow, Robert - thank you for the detailed, yet raw stream of thought account of being on the inside.
- Micah Wittman
Well, remember, many of these prisoners will get out. If they have no education and aren't prepared mentally and spiritually for surviving on the outside and getting along with people guess what they'll do? Cause harm to us.
- Robert Scoble
Gave me new perspective on the budget battles since so much of our money goes to the prison system (one of the bad parts of our society).
- Robert Scoble
I remember on my first Alcatraz visit when they shut the door and we were inside the hole - solitary confinement. I'll never forget it.
- Micah Wittman
Oh, and guess who's been visiting lately? The Chinese and Turkish Prison managers who want to make sure they stay on teh right side of the human rights lines.
- Robert Scoble
Micah: I did that at Alcatraz too, but it doesn't have the emotional impact of being in a cell at San Quentin with real life prisoners standing around.
- Robert Scoble
Rofbert, when prison budgets get cut the concept of rehabilitation is usually the first thing out the window. The system shifts to sheer containment, which usually causes skyrocketing recidivism rates.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Now that is an interesting angle right there Robert. (Chinese and Turkish prison managers)
- Joe
Fascinating about the Chinese and Turkish managers!
- Catherine Ventura
Tina: yup. And this is already a tough place to rehabilitate people because the gang system is against you if you're here. One inmate has been stabbed 31 separate times.
- Robert Scoble
US has got 2.3 million people incarcerated at any one time. Most will be released. Definitely worth thinking about how to manage what happens after that. Education is key.
- Damien Hogan
170,000 in California, the Warden said.
- Robert Scoble
How did you find out about the visiting managers from China and Turkey?
- Joe
23.6% of the world's prison population according to wikipedia!
- Damien Hogan
Joe: we were joking around that this was probably better than prisons in China and Turkey and the guard offered that information.
- Robert Scoble
I was just working on the Manhattan DA race and all three candidates used "ending recidivism" as a campaign platform. Good sign.
- Catherine Ventura
Robert - absolutely. A ghost town facility is no comparison to a living, breathing penitentiary.
- Micah Wittman
Micah: and when you are talking to prisoners face-to-face and you know that any of them could take you out at any time it adds a little bit of an edge that's tough to explain.
- Robert Scoble
Oh, at the beginning of the tour the guard explained the hostage policy of the prison. Under no circumstances will they trade a prisoner's release for your release. Our guard is the chief hostage negotiator, we learned. He ended one situation by trading a steak dinner for a hostage once, he told us.
- Robert Scoble
Talking to prisoners is definitely surreal...a few years ago on a doc film crew I spent a day in the Maricopa County Jail (Phoenix) and that crazy tent city Sheriff Joe Arpaio runs there...not the same as a prison, but still a very tense place.
- Phillip Johnson
Anyway, gotta go do other stuff. Hope you enjoyed this.
- Robert Scoble
Thanks!
- Catherine Ventura
Yes - it was fantastic!
- Joe
Thanks.
- Phillip Johnson
Ta
- Damien Hogan
More stuff like this please. :)
- Joe
Thank you for sharing Robert it sounds like an interesting visit.
- Rob Cairns
A couple other things: 1. some guards are paid more than $200,000 a year by working tons of overtime. 2. An automatic way to get fired here is to lie (as a guard). We heard a few stories about that.
- Robert Scoble
Robert ... Outstanding recap of our four hours on "the inside". I have to say, the gas chamber was an unexpected bonus. Amazing tour! Dennis Hall
- Brandon
I've visited both San Quentin and US Penitentiary Lompoc - which once had the nickname and function of "The New Rock", but is now FCI (Federal Correctional Institute) Medium - as part of my training to work on Alcatraz.
- Ranger Craig
Former Alcatraz inmates I've known always talk about how they hoped, if they were caught, they would do time in a federal penitentiary rather than a state prison. Comparing the two I'd agree, if only because of the overcrowding at San Quentin. California's first prison began on a ship in San Francisco Bay - those inmates built the original San Quentin which opened a year later in 1852.
- Ranger Craig
One thing I love about FriendFeed and Twitter is that we have a real Ranger who gives tours on Alcatraz. Hi Craig, interesting info.
- Robert Scoble
Thank you so much, Robert. You've shared an experience I think many of us have learned from and you've done it in a fashion using FriendFeed that I quite admire.
- Holly Rae
Thanks, always glad to get a reminder of how bad things can be...
- Denverken
Thanks for this, Robert!
- beersage
Thank you for sharing your experience in a sensitive, informative way. There are so many things in life most of us never know about, but could benefit from by learning about. Prison life is one of them.
- Marie Carnes
"Many of the prisoners have NEVER seen a web page." !!! :(
- Liviu Barbat
Good piece. As fugitive recovery specialists we have had direct contact with many tenants of the Q. (from the outside, of course). San Quentin has always possessed a certain mystique and awe to both convicts and regular citizens. Before institutions such as Pelican Bay, San Quentin was known as the original 'Gladiator School'.
- hypyklrz
Interesting story, Robert.
- SuezanneC Baskerville
This was great, thanks for doing it. People need to see the folly of taking society's screw-ups and shutting them away where they learn nothing but more ways to screw up.
- Lo
Amen to that.
- Joe
crazy dude. crazy.
- Zac Bowling
U.S. forces struggle with Washington’s perceptions and reality in Afghanistan | Stars and Stripes - http://www.stripes.com/article...
"A U.S. counter-explosives staff sergeant was killed recently trying to defuse a complex homemade bomb planted in the road in this hostile region. But legal and forensics experts had to jump through regulatory hoops set up by their own chain of command just to ensure that the Afghan suspects in the bombing would face prosecution."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
And: “Guys back in Washington need to get, I think, a better operational understanding, [of] what goes on here,” she said. “To separate the enemy from the population to make progress will take a really long time, and the administration really needs to understand that. Even more than in Iraq, to get to the point where they … they can build a government — which they can’t do now — [and]...
more...
- Marie Carnes
Colonel to troops: 'I'm proud of you' - USATODAY.com - http://www.usatoday.com/news...
"To All Spartans, I just wanted to take the opportunity to let every single member of TF Spartan, and attachments, know how very proud I am of each and every one of you. We are all very busy accomplishing what we must on a daily basis but I wanted to pause just long enough to let you know that I recognize the tremendous sacrifice of all and I want you to know that it is appreciated. Because our roles are very different and some are much more visible than others, I wanted to ensure that everyone understand that the CSM and I recognize that every single person in the Task Force plays a very pivotal role and that means EVERY single MOS serving out there in the biggest FOBs, to the COPs, to the most remote Ops."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Twitter just now: 502 Proxy Error - http://twitter.com/
"Proxy Error The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server. The proxy server could not handle the request GET /. Reason: Error reading from remote server Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Killing the Innocents to Save ‘Our Troops’ « RAWA News - http://www.rawa.org/temp...
"America’s Afghan war is unwinnable militarily as well as in a hearts-and-minds counter-insurgency terms. Moreover, the American bombing and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan has strengthened, not weakened, Al Qaeda by romoting its decentralization across at least two continents (Asia and Africa). Thanks to America, Al Qaeda is now a global organization;"
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
10 Questions on Afghanistan | Atlantic Council - http://www.acus.org/new_atl...
From the ultra conservative policy wish tank (as opposed to think tank).
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
The time to leave Afghanistan is now « RAWA News - http://www.rawa.org/temp...
"The Des Moines Register, October 7, 2009"
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
Substitute ‘Obama’ for ‘Bush’ and ‘Afghanistan’ for ‘Iraq’ . . . « RAWA News - http://www.rawa.org/temp...
The Washington Post, October 6, 2009: "It was a scene repeated countless times during the Bush years: A few hundred people massed on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House, wearing orange jumpsuits and hoods, holding photos of wounded children or carrying coffins. They chanted antiwar slogans, acted out waterboarding and pretended to die on the sidewalk. Those who refused orders to leave the area -- including ubiquitous activist Cindy Sheehan -- were arrested. But the remarkable thing about this familiar antiwar demonstration is that it occurred Monday, and the target was not George W. Bush but the White House's current occupant. Protesters' signs carried Obama-specific barbs: "Change? What Change?" "The Audacity of War Crimes." "Yes We Can: U.S. Out of Afghanistan.""
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
US encounters stumbling blocks in training Afghans - World News Wire - fresnobee.com - http://www.fresnobee.com/world...
There are videos on youtube demonstrating the difficulties: "Only 24 of 559 Afghan police units are considered ready to operate without international help, according to the most recent quarterly report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, who is tasked by Congress to oversee rebuilding. The situation is better for the Afghan army: 47 of 123 units are able to operate independently, the July report said."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
The Associated Press: US forces leave isolated Afghan base after attack - http://www.google.com/hostedn...
"KABUL — U.S. forces have withdrawn from an isolated base in eastern Afghanistan that insurgents attacked last week in one of the deadliest battles of the war for U.S. troops, the NATO-led coalition said Friday. The pullout from the Kamdesh outpost near the Pakistani border is likely to embolden insurgent fighters in the region. The Taliban swiftly claimed "victory" for forcing the coalition to leave and said they had raised their flag above the town. The withdrawal, however, had been planned well before the Oct. 3 battle and is part of a wider strategy outlined by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has said for months he plans to shut down such isolated strongholds to focus on more heavily populated areas in an effort to protect civilians."
- Marie Carnes
from Bookmarklet
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