BY JAMES GORDON MEEK WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda allies running terror camps for tots on the Afghan-Pakistan border are using video of a boy “martyred†in

Summary: Sean Hannity falsely suggested on his radio show that Sen. Barack Obama "c[ame] up" with his plan for Afghanistan, including calling for the deployment of more troops there, only after his recent visit to the country. But Obama has been calling for an increase of U.S. troops in Afghanistan since at least 2006 and has specifically proposed the addition of at least two combat brigades since 2007.
Nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity falsely suggested during his July 22 broadcast that Sen. Barack Obama "c[ame] up" with his plan for Afghanistan, including calling for the deployment of more troops there, only after his recent visit to the country, aligning himself

WASHINGTON (AP) - Al-Qaida's foreign fighters who have for years bedeviled Iraq are increasingly going to Afghanistan to fight instead, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States said Wednesday.
"We have heard reports recently that many of the foreign fighters that were in Iraq have left, either back to their homeland or going to fight in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is now seeming to be more suitable for al-Qaida fighters," said Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie.
s finding it now increasingly difficult to operate in Iraq, beginning with the rebellion of the largely Sunni tribes in Anbar Province in 2006 and 2007. Until then, al-Qaida had ruled by intimidation and violence, establishing physical control and setting up a shadow government in large swaths of Iraqi territory.

I listened recently to three people who claim to advise Barack Obama on foreign policy. They all extolled the virtues of talking to our adversaries and allies. I have read a considerable number of blogs and op-eds arguing for and against Obama's declaration that he will talk to friend and foe alike. I believe it is a good idea, under practically all circumstances, and a vast improvement over the Bush Administration's bankrupt unilateralism. However, talking does not a foreign policy make. Neither does the very welcome call for more diplomacy and less saber rattling. Talking and diplomacy are merely means to an end. The question is: to what end?
The French philosopher Montesquieu

A key component is likely to be more troops, but the strategy must go beyond that, experts say.
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
al troops to turn things around there.

AP KABUL, Afghanistan: As violence in Afghanistan escalates, the US is responding by scrambling to get in more troops. But it's far from clear how the

>p>This weekend Senator Barack Obama visited Afghanistan after calling for an increased troop presence and more equipment there in a New York Times Op-Ed.

Barack Obama yesterday conceded that the surge in Iraq has brought "progress." However, the presumptive Democratic nominee has discovered another American losing cause. The situation in Afghanistan, he said in Amman, Jordan, is "deteriorating" and "perilous and urgent."
The junior Senator from Illinois still wants a quick withdrawal from Iraq, despite a contrary view from the military commander there, General David Petraeus. Yet on Afghanistan, Obama turns all militarist. He says he'd send two additional brigades to supplement the 35,000-strong U.S. force. He has previously called for American troops to track down and kill or capture al Qaeda leaders across the border in Pakistan.
out. We have the firepower, they have the time.

Afghanistan will be the new foreign policy focus of a Barack Obama administration, if the Democrat leader wins office.
Although some senior US military officials baulked at Mr Obama's idea of a US troop pullout from Iraq within sixteen months, the top US commander there, General David Petraeus has lent weight to that argument. He says Al-Qaeda too, may be considering shifting its focus from Iraq to Afghanistan.
nse that they can do it themselves. For a long time, the Afghans have understood that given the resources that they have, that they do need the international community for security and also for reconstruction.

BY MICHAEL MCAULIFF 'I'm more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking,' said Obama of his trip through the war zones.

Something very strange and a little unnerving is happening in American politics on the question of foreign policy. Everyone seems to be agreeing with one another, while adamantly refusing to admit it.
Both Barack Obama and John McCain gave big foreign policy speeches last week, and President George W Bush gave a press conference. They all spoke in clear and sometimes sweeping terms. Each of the two presidential candidates made every effort to portray the other as his nemesis and the choice between them as one of clear principle and philosophy. Obama and McCain also desperately sought to put rhetorical blue sky between them and the still fantastically unpopular president.
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