World-News

Lolita C. Baldor reports for The Associated Press: "Military officials said Monday that about 3,200 Marines are being told to prepare to go to Afghanistan - a move that will boost combat troop levels in time for an expected Taliban offensive this spring. Once complete, the deployment would increase US forces in Afghanistan to as much as 30,000, the highest level since the 2001 invasion after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011508N.shtml

BRITISH troops could be in Afghanistan for decades, the country's Defence Secretary Des Browne says.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23048678-2,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Reuters

Afghanistan gave a welcome on Thursday to U.S. plans to send an extra 3,000 troops to fight the Taliban insurgency, but Washington’s move highlights divisions between Western allies over how much to commit to the country. The Pentagon said on Wednesday that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was considering sending an additional 3,000 Marines to thwart any Taliban spring offensive, bringing to around 30,000 the number of American servicemen and women in Afghanistan...

http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSISL192324


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Congressman Dennis Kucinich: Adding More Troops To Afghanistan Only Continues Failed War Policy

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0110-10.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kucinich
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Gates
http://sharenews.twoday.net/topics/Afghanistan/
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban

Paul von Zielbauer, of The New York Times, reports, "A former member of an elite Marine combat unit that operated last year in eastern Afghanistan testified Tuesday that his comrades appeared to have needlessly killed civilians after their convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomb."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010908L.shtml

The newspapers here in Delhi reported yesterday that two Indian soldiers were killed by a suicide in Afghanistan in the SouthWestern province of Nimroz. It's a particularly interesting fact because the presence of Indian troops in Afghanistan has gone unreported in the West.

http://snipurl.com/1wtw4


From Information Clearing House

Jason Straziuso, reporting for The Associated Press, writes: "Six years after the 2001 US-led invasion, violence persists in much of southern Afghanistan where the government has little presence, and recent militant attacks in Pakistan highlight a long-term regional problem with al-Qaida and the Taliban. Afghanistan in 2007 saw record violence that killed more than 6,500 people, including 110 US troops - the highest level ever in Afghanistan - and almost 4,500 militants, according to an Associated Press count. Britain lost 41 soldiers, while Canada lost 30. Other nations lost a total of 40."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010108Y.shtml

Reports that Poland's troops in Afghanistan may have committed a war crime against defenseless civilians has shocked the country's public, which remains sensitive to the performance of the Polish military abroad.

http://snipurl.com/1w1t1


From Information Clearing House

Mr Fitzgibbon's blunt warning was delivered to a closed-door meeting in Scotland of eight defence ministers, from the US, Australia and six other NATO nations with military forces in Afghanistan.

http://snipurl.com/1vdhr


From Information Clearing House

Afghanistan is now a more dangerous place for U.S. troops than Iraq. The death rate for U.S. troops in Afghanistan is now nearly twice the rate for those in Iraq, according to an analysis by ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=3937323&page=1


From Information Clearing House