“Afghanistan” on The Daily Caller

By Oliver North (more)

Responding to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai‘s demand that the U.S. military leave the country’s village outposts by next year, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said the U.S. will not “abandon” Afghanistan. (more)

Hundreds of U.S. Marines were ordered by an American sergeant on Wednesday to disarm before entering a tent where Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was set to speak during his trip to Afghanistan. (more)

It Was Only a Matter of Time Before One of Our Men Broke Down (more)

The Pentagon has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on marketing and propaganda campaigns dubbed “information operations” to win over local populations in Iraq and Afghanistan, USA Today reports. The funds dedicated to information operations grew from $9 million annually in 2005 to $580 million annually in 2009, according to USA Today. Last year the funding level dropped to $202 million because of the recent withdrawal from Iraq. (more)

Rescuers shoveled through deep snow Wednesday, searching for victims of an avalanche that destroyed a village of about 200 people in northeastern Afghanistan, authorities said. Fifty people have been confirmed dead, and most of the other residents of the devastated village are also believed to have perished. (more)

In this installment of Jack Hunter’s Daily Caller video commentary series “The Deal with Jack Hunter,” Jack argues that Rush Limbaugh was right to question why we’re in Afghanistan 10 years after 9/11. (more)

WASHINGTON — On Feb. 20, a NATO-Afghan security team at the Parwan Detention Center — adjacent to the U.S.-run Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul — began destroying files, books and documents from the detention facility library. The printed material was being burned because it contained handwritten coded messages being passed among Taliban and al-Qaida detainees. Afghan security personnel retrieved charred pages from several copies of the Quran and other Islamic holy texts. The following day, angry crowds rioted outside NATO installations in Kabul and elsewhere around Afghanistan. (more)

Despite riots that have been going on for over a week in Afghanistan over the accidental burning of the Quran by U.S. forces, President Barack Obama claimed that his apology has “calmed things down.” (more)

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent over $15 billion in Afghanistan since 2002, rebuilding the country and aligning redevelopment goals with military ones in order to stabilize the region. Progress, however, has been slow because of delays caused by widespread insurgency, poor oversight, over-reliance on outside contractors, cost overruns and corruption, The Wall Street Journal reports. (more)

On the rare occasions when U.S. troops make serious mistakes, such as accidentally burning the Koran, there is worldwide outrage. On the frequent occasions when U.S. troops are murdered by terrorists, there is mostly silence. (more)

How many American lives is a worn copy of a Koran worth? If a Muslim writes in a Koran and tears out its pages its fine. If an American burns that same Koran it’s a crime punishable by death in Afghanistan. Is the burning of a book really equivalent to the killing of an American officer? I don’t think so and neither does the officer’s family and friends. Can we assume that President Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton will phone the American families and apologize to them too? Why not? Aren’t American lives more important than Afghan books? (more)

President Obama began his term badly. He went to London and bowed low before King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The infamous red “reset” button he told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to present to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was little more than an attempt to give Moscow a pass for its aggression against the neighboring Republic of Georgia. The button was even spelled incorrectly. How do you spell “appeasement” in Russian? (more)

Scott and Cindy Pyeatt were sitting in a southwest Ohio restaurant on the night of Feb. 4, 2011, when they realized something was wrong. (more)

A new investigative report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and published in conjunction with the London Sunday Times, has discovered that a legally dubious Central intelligence Agency drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who were acting as rescuers to drone strike victims, and others who were attending funerals. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he will not approve the release of any Taliban from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison as part of Afghan peace talks unless he’s sure they won’t return to the battlefield. (more)

As much as Congressman Ron Paul may enjoy ascribing the “neo-con” badge of shame to his hawkish opponents, he risked earning himself the demagogic “neo-lib” tag with his reply to a November presidential debate question on foreign aid: “We should export maybe some principles about free markets and sound money, and maybe they could produce some of their own wealth.” This is refreshing advice, yet unfortunately when it comes to applying it where it would save the most American lives — i.e., Afghanistan — many Ron Paulites and classical liberals seem more concerned with distancing themselves from “neo-con” nation-building than following Milton Friedman’s lead of pro-actively teaching the world to fish. Indeed, while ending the war on drugs was a top priority for Friedman in his final years, the political calculations of his acolytes remain a key hindrance to rethinking the prohibition of Afghanistan’s most lucrative resource. (more)

Sheyanne Baker was sitting down to dinner with her husband when she heard someone at the door. With a daughter deployed to Afghanistan and a son in Iraq at the time, knocks on the door made both their hearts jump. Her husband ran to the door to see who was there. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that U.S. military advisory teams will start deploying to Afghanistan this year to help Afghan combat forces as they take a more prominent role in fighting the Taliban. (more)

It seems the United States Army will be reverting to the condition it is usually in when a Democrat is President and Commander-in-Chief. I remember those days well. Back then the Army didn’t have enough repair parts to keep its motor vehicles running and its helicopters flying so combat units were instructed to selectively cannibalize non-running vehicles and helicopters to keep as much of the fleet operational as possible. (more)