Barack Obama and the strategy for Afghanistan, could the war be lost?

War in Afghanistan 'could be lost by summer'
The war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan will be lost by the end of the summer without dramatic changes in counter-insurgency strategy.

The assessment of Col John Nagl, who is consulting the US government as it conducts four separate policy reviews on Afghanistan, comes amid fears that unless the insurgents' advance is halted, Afghanistan will become the new president's Vietnam.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/4581009/War-in-Afghanistan-could-be-lost-by-summer.html


Obama Could Order More Troops to Afghanistan This Week

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says President Obama will make a decision on additional U.S. troop deployments to Afghanistan in the "next few days," before a strategy review is completed. But the secretary says the orders may not involve all the troops the U.S. commander in Afghanistan wants, at least not immediately.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-10-voa68.cfm


Why The US Should Leave Afghanistan
Beginning early in the presidential election campaign last year, both candidates asserted that they would increase the heat in Afghanistan. Between 2001 and early 2009, military operation in that country, which so far have accomplished nothing, occupied virtually the entire Bush presidency and burned roughly $200 billion of the US treasury.
http://www.rense.com/general85/why.htm


Tens of thousands of U.S. guns missing in Afghanistan

More than one-third of all weapons the United States has procured for Afghanistan's government are missing, according to a government report. The U.S. military failed to "maintain complete inventory records for an estimated 87,000 weapons -- or about 36 percent -- of the 242,000 weapons that the they procured and shipped to Afghanistan from December 2004 through June 2008."
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/12/missing.afghan.weapons/index.html


Obama puts brake on Afghanistan surge

Barack Obama has demanded that American defence chiefs review their strategy in Afghanistan before going ahead with a troop surge. There is concern among senior Democrats that the military is preparing to send up to 30,000 extra troops without a coherent plan or exit strategy.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5683681.ece