UN: Afghan opium production down

UN: Afghan opium production down Opium production has dropped significantly in Afghanistan, in large part because of a plant infection in the country’s war-torn south, a U.N. report said on Thursday. “This is good news but there is no room for false optimism; the market may again become lucrative for poppy-crop growers so we have […]

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Karzai Remarks Risk US-Afghan Rift

AP Analysis: Karzai Remarks Risk US-Afghan Rift President Hamid Karzai’s startling threat to join the Taliban if foreigners don’t stop meddling in Afghanistan and his strident criticism of the West’s role have worsened relations with Washington at a time when the U.S. military wants closer cooperation ahead of a potentially decisive offensive this summer. Karzai […]

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Can the U.S. Woo Afghanistan Taliban to Switch Sides?

While much of the focus on Tuesday’s unveiling of President Obama’s revamped Afghanistan strategy will be on the number of U.S. troops he’s expected to send, that decision is really a sideshow to the critical battle now under way on the ground.

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Hasan’s Therapy: Could "Secondary Trauma" Have Driven Him to Shooting?

As an army psychiatrist treating soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Major Nidal Malik Hasan had a front row seat on the brutal toll of war. It is too early to know exactly what may have triggered his murderous shooting rampage Thursday at Fort Hood — Hasan is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 32 others before he was wounded by a police officer — but it is not uncommon for therapists treating soldiers with Post Trumatic Stress Disorder to be swept up in a patient’s displays of war-related paranoia, helplessness and fury.

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Taliban leader rejects U.S. attempts to lure away fighters with money

A top Taliban political leader delivered a message Friday to President Obama, calling his attempt to lure away Taliban fighters with money “an old weapon that has failed already.” Obama meets Friday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will tell the U.S. leader how a large deployment to Afghanistan would affect the military

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