By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a report in December on the U.S. war in Afghanistan, sparing no military kiss-up or diplomatic busybody.
All U.S. troops could withdraw from Afghanistan next year if enough progress has been made against al Qaeda or if the Afghan government does not grant immunity to American forces after the end of their combat mission in 2014, the Obama administration says.
President Obama and NATO leaders expressed confidence in Afghanistan's ability to take the lead for its own security next year, as nations with a stake in the deeply unpopular war huddled Monday for talks aimed at paving the way for its end.
They were the first Americans into Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks and will probably be the last U.S. forces to leave.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Memo to the next president: You need to fix the biggest problem in Washington. Everyone knows what that problem is. Honky-tonk denizens would call it lack of team play. Policy wonks call it "the broken interagency process."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"They'll have very candid discussions about the sorts of authorities, privileges and immunities that the [agreement] might feature," retired Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, said of Mr. Obama and Mr. Karzai.
"As we know from our Iraq experience," Mr. Lute said, "if there are no authorities granted by the sovereign state, then there is not room for a follow-on U.S. military mission."
