Afghans See Sharp Shift in U.S. Tone

[spanone]

KABUL, Afghanistan — For Afghans, the change in tone was unmistakable. Unlike Bush-era speeches pledging unending support, President Obama suddenly introduced a timeline and a period of 18 months before the start of a drawdown of troops.

The timetable set off alarm here. It was the subject of television discussions and journalists’ questions to the American ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general, as well as to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of American forces here.

If Tuesday night was about President Obama sending a message to the American public that the war in Afghanistan would not be open-ended, then Wednesday in Kabul was about reassuring the Afghans of America’s long-term commitment.

To underscore that, General Eikenberry signed an agreement with the Afghan foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, at a ceremony to open the first United States consulate in Afghanistan in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, with another planned in the city of Herat.

“I want to emphasize that we have a very comprehensive approach and a long-term friendship and partnership with Afghanistan,” General Eikenberry said. President Obama discussed further assistance in energy, water management, mines, agriculture and improvement of the civil service in his video conference call on Tuesday with President Hamid Karzai, he added.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/world/asia/04afghan.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print

[Sinti]

1. I wonder if they can use communications to track these guys

The Taliban jumped in with their own draft of reality. President Obama was ignoring the interests of his own people, who were suffering an economic downturn, the group said in an e-mail message. “It clearly indicates that the United States has broad, long-term, brazen plans not only for Afghanistan but also for the region,” said the statement, bearing the heading of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan.

How good is the Internet service at the Afghan-Pakistan border? How broad a sweep of IPs do you think there are there? If it's satellite that's even better, because I'm sure they can track on the ground location from a satellite ping. Their communications headquarters, at least, should be really easily findable.

Maybe they sent it out through some Asian cyber-cafe, but that would still require quite a bit of networking to get done. Either way, our folks need to use their tools better. Every communication from the Taliban to the world at large should be a gold mine for finding their positions. Anything beyond sneaker-net should be fully visible.

Notice the frame for our domestic interests being at odds with that of our international and security interests? This is exactly what Lieberman said in a hearing yesterday, though he worded it differently - he used the words 'put our national security interests ahead of partisan political interests' Weird. :silly:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x409149