Petraeus: What I Learned in Iraq, and How it Applies to Afghanistan - Christa Case Bryant and Carol Huang, Christian Science Monitor
As the US shifts focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, much attention has been given to how counterinsurgency strategies honed against Al Qaeda in Iraq may be applied to a resurgent Taliban.
If one man has the answer, it just might be Gen. David Petraeus.
Credited with turning around a war in Iraq that many considered hopeless, the four-star general has since become CENTCOM commander -- putting Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran under his aegis as well. In a speech Tuesday at Harvard University, he laid out the elements that helped reduce violence in Iraq to its lowest levels since 2003. Many aspects of those counterinsurgency efforts, he said, can be successfully applied in Afghanistan -- if they are applied in "culturally appropriate" ways...
More at The Christian Science Monitor.
Reservists Might Be Used in Afghanistan To Fill Civilian Jobs - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post
Military reservists may be asked to volunteer to fill many of the hundreds of additional U.S. civilian positions in Afghanistan called for in the Obama administration's strategy for that nation and neighboring Pakistan, officials said yesterday.
Although the State Department is still recruiting agronomists, engineers, accountants and other experts for Afghanistan, "pressure coming from the president for action is making us consider that some of the people might come from the reserves," one senior administration official said.
In announcing his plan last month, Obama called for a "dramatic" increase in civilian aid and development workers, and the goal is to send several hundred by the end of this fiscal year...
More at The Washington Post.
US Faces Rising Violence in Southern Afghanistan - Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal
The shape of the Afghan conflict is shifting, as US reinforcements have brought hints of progress along the porous eastern border with Pakistan, while security conditions in southern Afghanistan continue to deteriorate, according to US officials.
Senior American commanders say they believe the war may be won or lost in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold and one of the world's largest opium-producing regions, where an estimated 80% of Afghanistan's insurgent violence occurs. A shortage of US forces has allowed the Taliban to create safe havens in the south.
"We're at a stalemate" in the south, said US Maj. Gen. Michael Tucker, deputy chief of staff for operations for the American-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization force in Afghanistan. He didn't provide figures on worsening violence...
More at The Wall Street Journal.
Taliban Seize Vital Pakistan Area Closer to the Capital - Jane Perlez, New York Times
Pushing deeper into Pakistan, Taliban militants have established effective control of a strategically important district just 70 miles from the capital, Islamabad, officials and residents said Wednesday.
The fall of the district, Buner, did not mean that the Taliban could imminently threaten Islamabad. But it was another indication of the gathering strength of the insurgency and it raised new alarm about the ability of the government to fend off an unrelenting Taliban advance toward the heart of Pakistan.
Buner, home to about one million people, is a gateway to a major Pakistani city, Mardan, the second largest in North-West Frontier Province, after Peshawar...
More at The New York Times.