Afghanistan War News Updates -- December 7, 2009

US troops firing in Cop Cherokee base in Kherwar district in Logar province, Afghanistan. Photograph: Nikola Solic/Reuters

McChrystal's Afghanistan Plan Stays Mainly Intact -- Washington Post

When he finishes testifying on Capitol Hill this week, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, will return to Kabul to implement a war strategy that is largely unchanged after a three-month-long White House review of the conflict.

In interviews and congressional testimony last week, members of President Obama's national security team said the U.S. effort in Afghanistan would be more focused and limited. "A good part of the debate and the discussion," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the House Armed Services Committee, revolved around ways to "narrow the mission."

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More News On Afghanistan

No Firm Plans for a US Exit in Afghanistan -- New York Times
Afghan Withdrawal to Be Gradual -- Wall Street Journal
Afghan withdrawal will be gradual: US -- Sydney Morning Herald
'Handful' of US troops home by 2011 -- The Australian
Obama's Afghanistan plan to last for years -- The Age
US downplays 2011 Afghanistan troop withdrawal target -- The Guardian
Robert Gates Says Afghanistan Withdrawal Will be Gradual -- L.A. Times
Gates Calls July 2011 the Beginning, Not End, of Afghan Withdrawal -- New York Times
Date for US drawdown needed to press Afghans: Gates -- Yahoo News/AFP
Obama team rejects criticism of Afghan exit timing -- BBC

How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan -- New York Times
Obama Pressed for Faster Surge -- Washington Post

NATO strike destroys Taliban bastion: officials -- AFP
Afghan government: Police kill Taliban commander in the north, 4 officers die in firefight -- Canadian Press
Marine Assault Finds Few Taliban -- Washington Times
Hammer and Anvil in Now Zad -- Captain's Journal

UK Expects Not to Add Troops -- Wall Street Journal
Canada weighs end to Afghan army training after 2011 -- Globe And Mail

Contractor Hirings in Afghanistan to Emphasize Locals -- Washington Post
Afghan women among worst off in world-rights group -- Yaho News/AP

Commentaries And Analysis

Afghanistan: John McCain says Barack Obama's 2011 departure date threatening war effort -- The Telegraph
Petraeus: Afghanistan war surge won't have quick results -- USA Today
How to Win in Afghanistan, One Village at a Time -- Doug Stanton, Washington Post
Obama's COIN Toss -- Eliot A. Cohen, Washington Post
Obama's Afghan exit plan transitions to 'transition' -- L.A. Times
Five Flawed Assumptions of Obama's Afghan Surge -- Time Magazine
Is Afghanistan really a 'graveyard of empires?' -- CNN
In Afghan Troop Surge, Shades of Iraq -- Fred Hiatt, Washington Post
President Obama’s dangerous Afghan gamble -- Hillary Mann Leverett, Politico
Who's in charge -- generals or President Obama? -- Politico