With David Petraeus in Paris vaunting the necessity of success in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has just issued a nuanced account of where things stood on September 30.
The Pentagon:
“Progress across the country remains uneven, with modest gains in security, governance, and development in operational priority areas. The deliberate application of our strategy is beginning to have cumulative effects and security is slowly beginning to expand. Although significant challenges exist, some signs of progress are evident.”
General Petraeus:
Or, for those without enough French to challenge my translation: “It is vital that Afghanistan never again become a sanctuary for extremists,” he said in a lecture at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, “the only way of achieving this objective is to help the Afghans to ensure their own security.”
Is this a revival of the 1920s and 1930s America that tried to limit immigration,…
Hope lies wherever the restraining and suffocating writ of the Trump Administration does not extend.…
It will take more time for Americans to fathom the mistake they have made. But…
I received this plea today. The issues are not new but now the situation is…
Trump can't get anything out of Putin because the American President has already given too…
Putin has weathered sanctions so far. And Trump shows no signs of taking advantage of…