Free Republic

Our involvement in Afghanistan is untenable because the country is untenable. No matter what is done, Afghanistan will fail because of its galloping population growth. When the U.S. became involved in 2001, the country had a population of 20.5 million. Now it is 34.4 million, up nearly 70 percent. In the intervening 16 years, the U.S. spent about one trillion dollars and 2,000 lives in stabilizing Afghanistan. All the stability and free food provided just created a perfect breeding environment for the natives. The population growth rate has settled at 3.0 percent per annum. At that rate, in another 16...

Terror mastermind lived in flat under Heathrow approach By Daniel Foggo and Massoud Ansari (Filed: 08/08/2004) An al-Qaeda "communications chief" who is believed to have been co-ordinating a plot to bomb Heathrow spent three weeks living near the airport late last year, the Telegraph can reveal. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, 25, who is under arrest in Pakistan, lived in a ground floor flat in Reading, Berkshire. The address, on Wensley Road near the centre of town, lies below a western approach flight path to the airport. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan: reconnaissance He lived there with his grandmother, Batool Begum, and...

WASHINGTON -- Ever wonder what's in the Pentagon's old war plans? Why, for instance, "Project Cornflakes" was a go in World War II, but Cold War-era plans dubbed "Dropshot," "Broiler," "Sizzle," "Trojan" and "Shakedown" stayed on the drawing board? An upcoming "Top Secret" exhibit at the National Archives building, which houses the revered copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, may answer some questions. Using a new interactive computer program, visitors will be able to inspect spy documents and war plans once limited to officials with special security clearances. While the exhibit itself won't open until next year,...

Since Gulf War II began, much has been made of the difference in strength between the coalition's U.S.-led juggernaut and its undergunned Iraqi opponent. But we have been equally struck by the difference in methods. While Allied troops are abiding by civilized rules of engagement and doing everything in their power to protect civilians, Saddam Hussein's catalogue of war crimes grows longer each day. The Iraqis' use of human shields is particularly obscene. In many cases, Saddam's soldiers have taken local civilian populations hostage en masse for this purpose. According to Emma Hurd of Sky News, "men with guns advance...

<p>AMP DOHA, Kuwait, March 27 ? The United States military now faces a series of difficult calculations in its efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his government.</p> <p>One way to accomplish that goal is to try to advance quickly to the outskirts of Baghdad, destroy the Republican Guard troops defending the approaches to the capital and then win the fight inside the city.</p> <p>Once Mr. Hussein is deposed, the fedayeen and other paramilitary forces that have been attacking allied troops as they head north would find themselves cut off from the main source of their power.</p>

Ex-Military Commentators Criticize Strategy, Highlighting Their Role on TelevisionBy David Bauder The Associated PressPublished: Mar 27, 2003 NEW YORK (AP) - Since publicly questioning whether the Pentagon committed enough force to Iraq on NBC News, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey said he's received waves of supportive e-mails from active and retired military people. He also knows he's infuriated some top brass, and ignited a debate over the roles of the dozens of former officers now earning paychecks from media organizations to explain war to the uninitiated. They've become fixtures on television during the past week, standing over maps of Iraq with...

The War and the ClockMar 26, 2003 - 0025 GMT Summary The realization that the war in Iraq would not be over in a day or two sent the markets reeling and the media into a frenzy of negativity this week. When one considers that Desert Storm took six weeks and Kosovo took two months, it strikes us as odd that the criteria for a successful war has been set in days. In fact, both the Iraqi and U.S. war plans are playing out pretty much as expected -- a chess game with fairly predictable first moves. Both sides...

<p>FORT HOOD, Texas — The Army's 4th Infantry Division is hustling to ready maps and battle plans for troops preparing to enter Operation Iraqi Freedom from the south after plans to come from the north through Turkey were abandoned.</p> <p>The division's intelligence officers are working at a hectic pace to prepare large, laminated maps of southern Iraq to replace previously distributed maps of southern Turkey and northern Iraq.</p>