BATTERY OF VIDEOS ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AFGHANISTAN

These videos are from Al Jazeera, CBS News and other news outlets and they will help you understand what and who we are fighting in Afghanistan.

The series of videos have a short commercial before the video start. After the videos start they jump from one to another until the entire series of videos have been shown.

If the video stops during playing just click on the picture and it will resum playing.

The videos show raw combat footage and a study of the Taliban.

TURN UP YOUR SOUND.

WATCH ALL THE VIDEOS HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaZXh1XPk-0&feature=PlayList&p=9F566D983B2C4218&index=0&playnext=1

Submitted by BILL CORCORAN, editor, CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com
Email: corkcol@aol.com

EUGENE ROBINSON, PULITZER PRIZE WINNING WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST, WRITES: "BRING THE TROOPS HOME."

Bring the troops home

By Eugene RobinsonTuesday, October 27, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/yfdkwtm

Barack Obama didn't set out to be a "war president," but that's what history compels him to be. The nation and the world are fortunate that he doesn't have the reckless, ready-fire-aim mentality of George W. Bush. But Afghanistan doesn't present the kind of "false choices" that Obama, by nature, habitually rejects. The choices are real and awful, and no amount of reframing and rephrasing will make them go away.

Monday's tragic events -- 14 Americans killed in helicopter crashes in Afghanistan -- remind us of the decisions Obama faces. At least he seems to recognize that he can't just let the situation drift.

But it looks as if Obama's inclination is to disappoint both hawks and doves -- and, yes, I'm consciously using Vietnam-era language. The debate over whether we stay or leave is bound to become sharper and more passionate as American casualties continue to mount.

One person who deserves no voice in that debate is Dick Cheney, who helped get us into this quagmire. By turning from Afghanistan prematurely to launch an elective, unnecessary and ill-advised invasion of Iraq, Bush and Cheney managed to transform one war we were winning into two that we were in danger of losing.

For Cheney to charge that Obama is "dithering" over sending more troops to Afghanistan, when he and Bush ignored a troop request from U.S. commanders for the better part of a year, is obscene. For Cheney to complain that Obama ought to simply accept the Bush administration's in-depth analysis of the situation in Afghanistan, rather than conduct his own careful review, is a sick joke.

NEWS ALERT: 8 US SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN BOMBING

8 U.S. Troops Are Killed in Bombings in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28afghan.html'

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: October 27, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — Eight Americans died in combat in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, bringing October’s total to 53 and making it the deadliest month for Americans in the eight-year war. September and October were both deadlier months overall for NATO troops.

The troops, along with an Afghan civilian accompanying them, were killed in several attacks involving “multiple, complex” improvised bombs, according to a statement from the NATO-led coalition.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said that Taliban in Zabul Province were responsible. He said they had blown up two armored vehicles carrying the troops. He also said that the Taliban had engaged in a fierce firefight lasting more than a half-hour with Afghan police in Zabul and killed eight officers. His report could not be verified because the American military is with-holding additional information until the families of the dead had been notified.

On Oct. 26, two incidents involving helicopter crashes resulted in the death of eleven
American troops and three drug enforcement agents, but hostile fire was almost certainly not a factor in those cases, according to a military spokesman.

The October toll of 53 American soldiers killed exceeds that of August, when 51 died, according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks military losses in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The United States has been increasing the number of soldiers and marines in Afghanistan and many have gone into some of the toughest areas of the country. Southern Afghanistan has been the most contested ground with both locally-based insurgents and fighters that cross the border from Pakistan.

BREAKING NEWS: US OFFICIAL QUITS IN AFGHANISTAN. FEELS US POLICY IS MAKING THINGS WORSE

Matthew Hoh, the senior U.S. civilian in Afghanistan's Zabul province, resigned in protest because he believes the American effort there is simply fueling the insurgency, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

http://tinyurl.com/yjaqs6a

Hoh, a former Marine Corps captain who also served in Iraq, wrote a four-page letter to the State Department's head of personnel in September, and his resignation became official last week."I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote in the letter.

"I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."Hoh's letter caused a stir in the Obama administration, and he was hastened to meetings with senior U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington.

They praised his record of service and begged him to stay, offering him new positions in both locations. Hoh initially accepted the Washington job, but changed his mind a week later.Hoh said that his act of protest and decision to speak out were painful, even "nauseating" at times, but he was strongly motivated by the friends he had lost on the battlefield and the mental anguish he has experienced since returning home.

"I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call their congressman and say, 'Listen, I don't think this is right,' " he explained, adding that he "is not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love."

Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/yjaqs6a