By Carl Bildt STOCKHOLM: On a recent visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, I could not fail to notice the increasingly frequent international calls for an “endgame” in Afghanistan. But an endgame for that country is a dangerous illusion: the game will not end, and neither will history. The only thing that could come to an end …
By Lolita C. Baldor and Pauline Jelinek / AP WASHINGTON: Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is expected to be told he faces 17 counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, along with other charges, in connection with a shooting rampage in two southern Afghanistan villages that shocked Americans back home and further roiled US-Afghan …
By AFP WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri urged Afghans in audio message Wednesday to rise up against “Crusader pigs” after US Marines were shown in an internet video urinating on the corpses of Taliban militants. The message, which the US-based SITE Intelligence Group said was posted on extremist forums, keyed on a series of scandals in …
By Stephen Collinson / AFP WASHINGTON: Deadly setbacks, an Afghan leader at the “end of the rope” and pressure from a public weary of sacrifice are threatening to upend President Barack Obama’s endgame for America’s longest war. The central premise of US war policy — leaving behind a stable nation that Afghans can secure and thwart …
