» The wages of war: When President Obama referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America’s wars in the last decade, he clearly hadn’t spoken to the folks running the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute. The project determined the above figure through calculations that included future costs, such as health services for wounded veterans returning home, as well as counting what’s generally referred to as our “secret” war in Pakistan.
» Why would they do such a thing? This attack, one of the more disturbing we’ve heard in a while, is shocking, but not an unheard-of tactic by insurgents looking to covering their tracks — and possibly because they’re desperate. Only the girl died, by the way.
Check out Voice Of America’s exclusive interview with Obama. It’s the only one that Obama gave after his Afghan War speech last night. And in case you don’t feel like watching, there’s a full transcript over here. (What, you didn’t hear? Voice of America is on Tumblr, guys!)
President Obama declared Wednesday that the United States had largely achieved its goals in Afghanistan, setting in motion a substantial withdrawal of American troops in an acknowledgment of the shifting threat in the region and the fast-changing political and economic landscape in a war-weary America. (Interactive)
Graphic shows troop levels from 2002 to 2012 in Afghanistan
It’s worth noting that while troop numbers jumped during Obama’s time in office, we were focusing on Iraq during most of Bush’s time in office, meaning a good part of this is shifting priorities. Still going to be a long time before we get back to where we were during the Bush years.
(Source: newsflick)
» Quickening the pace: The above numbers represent a much quicker withdrawal than some of President Obama’s military advisers would like, General David Petraeus among them. This decision is being seen as a victory over Petraeus’ vision by Vice President Biden, who’s been a proponent of a more rapid end to American involvement in Afghanistan. The withdrawal would equal the total of Obama’s Afghanistan surge, to which he committed 30,000 troops back in 2009.
» That’s a little high for David Petraeus’ liking: Obama is putting the finishing touches on a speech where he plans to outline the plan for what the country will do about getting troops out of Afghanistan — roughly 100,000 are there now, and Obama could remove roughly 30,000 by late 2012 or early 2013 — the first 10,000 or so this year. Which means, of course, that we’ll still be there a long while no matter what our boy Obama decides.
The long Karzai goodbye: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that despite previous suggestions he might try to change the Afghan constitution to let him serve a third term, Hamid Karzai is now telling people privately he’ll leave power in 2014. What the nature of America’s presence in Afghanistan would be without Karzai is hard to say; whatever comes of the fight against the Taliban, the government he’s been running is thoroughly corrupt, if much less brutal than the alternative. Neither has his alliance with the U.S. seemed in good faith at times — remember when he threatened to join the Taliban, or admitted his administration was taking literal bags full of cash from Iran? Here’s hoping a different leader can stem the tide of corruption. source
Delta Airlines charges troop for bags: A military unit returning to the United States from Afghanistan was charged $2,800 — or $200 per soldier — in extra baggage fees on a June 7th flight.
Delta Airlines says its policy is to waive extra baggage fees for up to four bags in business and first class, and three bags in coach, to accomodate active duty US military service members. It’s not clear where the soldiers appearing in the video were seated, but one says he was charged $200 for his fourth bag.
Delta Airlines released a statement explaining their policy and apologizing to the soldiers, but offered no information on whether or not the troops in the YouTube video would be reimbursed their expenses.
The above video was sent to ProducerMatthew.com by a news producer at KING-TV in Seattle.
A while back, we posted a relevant video to this called “United Breaks Guitars.” Same concept — slice-of-life complaining about airlines — except set to music. Difference between that and this, not downplaying what the musician went through? This involves soldiers who were told they could check four bags, only to have someone drop the ball. Screwing with soldiers is the worst.
The President has announced that this July will mark the beginning of a transition of security responsibility to Afghan forces. However, in my view the transition plan is too slow. We need to begin handing responsibility of security to Afghan forces immediately and aim to have most US combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next year. We should leave behind only a small force to hunt down and kill terrorists in Afghanistan, and to help the Afghan military perform their duties.Senator Max Baucus • Calling for both a quicker withdrawal of troops, and a quicker transfer of responsibility from the U.S. military to Afghan security forces. That these conversations are starting to crop up is unsurprising; the death of Osama bin Laden, the ostensible reason the U.S. entered Afghanistan to begin with, makes this the most politically opportune time to voice such sentiments. And while the concerns in leaving quicker are by no means negligible, with a government as steeped in corruption as the Afghanistan’s is, and under a leader like Hamid Karzai (famously volatile, takes bags of money from Iran, once threatened that he might join the Taliban), what is the ultimate definition of success for the U.S. involvement there? source (via • follow)
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Oh Felix Salmon, your cocksureness serves you well right now. Too bad reports are conflicting and the BBC report is old (though lots of people fell for it). (And with that, we’re out for the evening. Even with news this big, we’re very close to drooling on our keyboard this evening. Sorry kids.)
Mullah Omar dead? Good God, there’s a TON of news tonight. BBC is also reporting this. (EDIT: Actually the story is old, sorry guys. Our bad. Speed of info and all.)
In a rare photo series from Reuters, Taliban militants pose with their weapons in southern Afghanistan on May 6th. Photo Credit: Stringer/Reuters. View the rest of the photos of the Taliban here.
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