by Aamer Madhani

The good news is that July is on pace to be the least deadly month for U.S. troops in Iraq since the start of the war. The bad news is that nearly twice as many Americans have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq this month.

Iraq has been relatively quiet this month with the American death toll standing at 11 with two days remaining in the month. And that figure includes the deaths of Sgt. Alex Jimenez and Private Byron Fouty--whose bodies were recovered earlier this month more than a year after their patrol was ambushed. The U.S. military listed five of the July troop deaths as occurring in "non-hostile" incidents.

In fact, it's been more than two weeks since the last U.S. service member was killed in action in Iraq.

"This is not the metric by which we measure success," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said during a Pentagon news conference yesterday. "But it is stunning nonetheless that there remain four U.S. KIA [killed in action] in Iraq so far this month... it is certainly an encouraging sign."

by Frank James

When Sen. Barack Obama recently tried to sell the importance of his European trip to American voters, he used a formulation that essentially went like this: more European NATO troops in Afghanistan could ultimately mean the need for fewer U.S. troops which would then result in lower taxes for American taxpayers.

It seemed obvious that such an idea wouldn't be popular with many Europeans and there has been some blowback, as pointed out on The Wall Street Journal's editorial page today.

.... On Sunday the Secretary General of the opposition German Free Democrats, Dieter Niebel, responded to Mr. Obama by telling the Bild am Sonntag that "Under no circumstances will the German taxpayer pay with more money and more troops for Afghanistan for tax cuts in the U.S."

Welcome to President Bush's world, Senator Obama. The myth is that Mr. Bush's "unilateralism" has so antagonized America's allies that they will rush to share more of the war burden once the Texan is back in Crawford. But Europeans have long enjoyed the free ride of U.S. military protection while enjoying even more their freedom to criticize how that protection is provided.

It should be noted that the Free Democrats are liberals while the CSU are conservative. So Obama's idea to save U.S. taxpayers at European expense isn't going over that well across the German political spectrum.

by Frank James

Candy Crowley of CNN interviewed Sen. Barack Obama before he left Berlin for Paris. Among her questions: Why are we in Berlin with a little more than three months before the election? And what message are American voters supposed to draw from this?

Part of Obama's answer was this:

"If we have more NATO troops in Afghanistan, then that's potentially fewer American troops over the long term, which means we're spending fewer billions of dollars, which means we can invest those billions of dollars in making sure we're providing tax cuts to middle class families who are struggling with higher gas prices that will have an impact on our economy."

It's hard to go wrong in the swing states with the argument that you have a strategy for lowering their taxes.

Of course, the European governments might have to raise taxes to fund the type of expanded military and nation-building role Obama wants them to play in Afghanistan. Which is one of the reasons NATO nations haven't committed more to the cause and why Obama, if he becomes president, is going to find himself challenged in getting significant boosts in troops and other assistance to Afghanistan.

by Kim Barker and John McCormick

KABUL, Afghanistan - Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama arrived Saturday in this war-torn country seen as crucial to his foreign policy, in an attempt to shore up his presidential credentials on the world stage and show how important Afghanistan is to the future of the war on terror.

But Obama was almost invisible to most Afghans, despite accusing Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government recently of spending too much time in a bunker and not enough on development.

Security for the two-day visit of the congressional delegation in Afghanistan was so tight, all of Obama's plans were kept secret. He was described as having met with only one Afghan official - the governor of an eastern province - and U.S. officials and troops.

Most Afghans did not even know he was in the country. U.S. officials would not acknowledge it publicly or that Obama planned to move onto Iraq as soon as Sunday afternoon. Obama's campaign verified that he arrived in Kabul just before noon.

"I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of ... their biggest concerns," the Illinois senator said before leaving the U.S. "I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they've been doing."

Enroute to Afghanistan, the delegation briefly visited troops in Kuwait. But the Afghanistan leg is the first lengthy stop of a much-hyped international journey designed to make Obama seem more presidential. The trip also aims to counter critics who say Obama has little foreign-policy experience compared to his Republican opponent, John McCain, a Vietnam War hero with an extensive foreign background.

The congressional delegation, paid for by taxpayers, is also expected to visit Iraq and meet with Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki. Separately, in a campaign-funded trip, Obama plans to visit Europe and the Middle East.

Sen. Barack Obama is seen being photographed during a meeting with Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Nangarhar province, center rear, and US military personnel in Jalalabad east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, July 19, 2008. Obama started a campaign-season tour of combat zones and foreign capitals, visiting with U.S. forces in Kuwait and then Afghanistan, the scene of a war he says deserves more attention and more troops. (AP Photo)

by Aamer Madhani

The Pentagon continues to inch towards shifting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, today said he continues to be pleased by the progress on the ground in Iraq and was hopeful that he could recommend further troop reductions early in the fall.

"I won't go so far as to say that progress in Iraq, from a military perspective, has reached a tipping point, or it is irreversible," Mullen said. "It has not, and it is not. But security is unquestionably and remarkably better. Indeed, if these trends continue, I expect to be able early in the fall to recommend to the secretary and to the president further troop reductions."

Mullen's statement, which did not include any specific numbers, is not new. Gen. David Petraeus, who is the top commander in Iraq, told Congress back in May that he was hopeful of recommending a further reduction in troops before he takes off for his new job in September as head of U.S. Central Command.

But Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who spoke with reporters this afternoon, acknowledged that the situation in Afghanistan has become increasingly volatile in recent months. Last week, nine U.S. troops were killed when hundreds of militants attacked them at a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan.

The incident, which occurred on Sunday near the village of Wanat, was deadliest attack on American forces in Afghanistan in more than three years. U.S. troops have since abandoned the outpost. Mullen said the attack underscored that the militants have "grown bolder, more sophisticated and more diverse."

by Jill Zuckman

While Sen. Barack Obama was giving a speech this morning saying that the war in Iraq is distracting the United States from Afghanistan, Sen. John McCain said at a town hall meeting in New Mexico that Obama was wrong on the surge and wrong to lay out his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before traveling there next week.

"In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around: first you assess the facts on the ground, then you present a new strategy," McCain said.

McCain said that both he and Obama agreed that the Bush administration had pursued a failed strategy in Iraq. But at that point, they part company.

"I called for a comprehensive new strategy -- a surge of troops and counterinsurgency to win the war. Senator Obama disagreed. He opposed the surge, predicted it would increase sectarian violence, and called for our troops to retreat as quickly as possible," McCain said.

"Today we know Senator Obama was wrong. The surge has succeeded," said McCain, noting that the commander-in-chief is not allowed a learning curve.

by Aamer Madhani

In a sobering assessment of the situation in eastern Afghanistan, a top U.S. general said today that attacks have increased by 40 percent this year in the large swath of area controlled by American troops.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon by video conference, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser said there have been 40 U.S., Polish and Czech troops as well as civilian coalition members killed in the eastern part of the country since the start of April.

"They're burning schools, and in fact they've attacked 43 in our sector ever since school started here in Afghanistan in late March," said Schloesser, who heads the American operation in eastern Afghanistan. "And they are also killing teachers and they are killing students."

The militants, which include Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, easily glide between the Pakistan and Afghan borders. For the first time last month, the monthly death toll of U.S. troops in Afghanistan was greater than the number of troops killed in Iraq.

Schloesser explained that the insurgents seem to be making a special effort to target district centers--an equivalent of a county government center. Since March, there have been 28 attacks in 16 separate district centers throughout the eastern swath of the country.

"They're attacking road development projects, because they know that where the roads...start is where governance and development actually takes place," Schloesser said. "They're basically trying to kill survey crews, road construction crews, including Afghan laborers that are being paid to basically just build the roads and all they're really trying to do is feed their families. What I would say is, is that overall what you're seeing is, is the deliberate targeting of anything that will improve the quality of life for the normal Afghan citizen."

by Aamer Madhani

The U.S. military announced earlier today that four U.S. marines were killed in a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, marking the deadliest attack against U.S. forces in Afghanistan this year.

Just yesterday Defense Secretary Robert Gates pointed out to his European counterparts that for the first time last month, the total number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan exceeded the coalition death toll in Iraq.

Fifteen U.S. and two Georgian troops were killed in action in Iraq last month, while 19 coalition troops, including 14 Americans, were killed in Afghanistan.

While one month hardly makes a trend, it seems as the news gets better in Iraq the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.

Gates pointed to the grim numbers to underscore the importance of the European nations meeting their military commitment in Afghanistan.

"It's important that we live up to our pledges in both the civilian and military spheres as necessary for success in Afghanistan," Gates said Friday in Brussells.

Gates ordered an additional 3,000 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan in March on a one-time deployment. It remains unclear if NATO countries will step up and fill the gap when the marines leave Afghanistan in November.

by Katie Fretland

The first lady traveled to Afghanistan today in a surprise visit ahead of a conference in Paris where the United States hopes donors will pledge international aid to help the country, The Associated Press reports.

Laura Bush flew to the nation's capital, Kabul, before taking a helicopter to Bamiyan Province, a central region where the Taliban destroyed two giant statues of Buddha in March 2001.

"The people of Afghanistan don't want to go back and live like that," Mrs. Bush told reporters. "They know what it was like. The international community can't drop Afghanistan now, at this very crucial time."

Here is the wire report on the visit :

by Aamer Madhani

Nearly 14,000 U.S. service members who had previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan were newly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder last year, according to statistics released today by Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker.

The detailed figures for the four military services shows about a 46 percent increase in the number of troops diagnosed with PTSD in 2007--a spike that coincided with the most violent year of the Iraq war. Overall, nearly 40,000 have been diagnosed with the illness since 2003, though it is likely many more haven't sought help out of fear of being stigmatized.

Lt. Gen. Schoomaker, the Army's top medical officer, said that the Army needs to improve facilities and has too few mental health care providers.

"I think we can say as a nation that our mental health facilities and access to mental health providers is not adequate to the need right now," Schoomaker said. "So part of the problem that we as a military are suffering is a shared national problem."

Schoomaker released the figures to defense writers earlier today and just weeks after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a new policy under which troops and civilian defense employees no longer have to divulge previous mental health treatment to receive security clearance.

Last month, the RAND Corporation published a study that showed nearly 300,000 U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were suffering major depression or symptoms of post traumatic stress.

The RAND study found that only about half of those suffering PTSD or depression seek help. The Pentagon has estimated that about 15 to 20 percent of returning troops suffer from symptoms of post traumatic stress.

About 12 to 15 percent of soldiers are on a combination of either mild anti-depressants or sleep medication, and some troops that have suffered post traumatic stress have returned for subsequent duty in war zones.

"We do know that there is a subset of soldiers that are over there and are actively on medications...for prior or ongoing treatment, but by all accounts that's being done well," Schoomaker said.

by Bay Fang

Although mystery still swirls around Saturday's sudden release of Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan after over three months in captivity, the Pakistani government insists it did not free any militants in exchange.

"There was no exchange of any militants or terrorists for the release of the ambassador," said Nadeem Kiani, spokesman for the embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC.

Even if there were no explicit tit-for-tat, the release of Azizuddin could have been used as a pawn in the ongoing negotiations between tribal militants in the region bordering Afghanistan and the young coalition government led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

A prisoner exchange took place last week as a direct result of the negotiations, with the release of dozens of suspected militants for army officers in Waziristan, a tribal area considered a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

by Aamer Madhani UPDATED with Pelosi comment

House minority leader John Boehner accused the Democrats of "playing political games" for stacking the spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with what he and other Republicans have called extraneous spending.

Boehner and his GOP colleagues didn't like a provision to extend unemployment benefits, or the Democrats call to raise taxes on wealthy Americans to pay for an overhaul of the GI Bill. They adamantly opposed including language in the measure that would have required President Bush to begin pulling out troops from Iraq within 30 days once the bill becomes law.

When it came time to vote today on the $163 billion supplemental to pay for the wars, the Republicans decided to clean their hands of a measure that the White House had already threatened to veto.

The Democratic-led House approved more money for the jobless and boosted GI education benefits, but dozens of Republicans unexpectedly voted "present" to spend $163 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, thus blocking the bill from winning approval.

The Democratic leadership split the measure into three parts, so the antiwar members of their party could vote against further war spending, while voting in favor of the overhaul of the GI Bill and extension of the unemployment benefits.

by Frank James

You know all those military recruiting ads you've been seeing during nationally televised sports events, like the one with the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon which, through the miracle of digital editing, appears to be going though its paces on Hoover Dam, by the Golden Gate Bridge and atop a giant desert butte? (It's one of my favorites. Sends patriotic chills up my spine.)

Apparently, such ads are doing the trick in terms of recruiting young men and women into the armed forces in more than sufficient numbers.

Once again, Defense Department officials reported that they outdid themselves in April in terms of recruiting.

This is from an American Forces Press Service story:

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2008 - All military services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for April, with the Marine Corps recruiting 142 percent of its goal, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said here today.

In the re-enlistment arena, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps met or exceeded their active-duty retention objectives. "The Air Force still faces challenges, but they still seem able to meet their year-end strength goals," Whitman said.

by Julian E. Barnes

The Pentagon abruptly ordered changes Friday in the way it handles service members' remains after learning that one business used by the Air Force performs both human and animal cremations.

The Delaware facility maintains separate incinerators in different buildings for human remains and animal remains, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. But the crematorium, in an industrial park, had one sign, which advertised pet cremation services.

Told of the situation, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked for immediate changes, ordered a broad review and issued an apology to military families, Morrell said.

"Secretary Gates believes the site and signage are insensitive and entirely inappropriate to the dignified treatment of our fallen," Morrell said.

"We just think our heroes deserve to be treated better than that."

The issue was brought to Gates' attention after an officer who attended the cremation Friday morning of a friend killed in combat lodged a complaint.

by Aamer Madhani

In some of the meetings former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had with retired military generals turned television news analysts, he offered sharp tongued assessments of Iraqi and American officials, according to transcripts and audio files released by the Pentagon.

As you may recall, the New York Times published an article last month that unveiled that the Pentagon was running a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the Bush administration's wartime performance by offering some retired officers special access to top Pentagon officials as well as arranging for VIP trips to Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

The retired generals who worked for all the major network and cable news stations met with officials such as Rumsfeld, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of the Army.

Some Congressional critics were aghast at the revelation that the Pentagon was trying use the retired officers, who the network news programs billed as military analysts, to carry the department's water. The Pentagon has suspended the program, but Sen. John Kerry has called for the Government Accountability Office to launch an investigation.

The Pentagon has dumped thousands of pages of documents, transcripts and audio files on its web site related to the military analysts program.