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KABUL, Jan. 4, 2010 Afghan IED Attack Kills 4 U.S. Troops First American Combat Deaths of 2010 Reported in Southern Part of Country There is much speculation as to how a suicide bomber was able to get inside a U.S. base in Afghanistan, killing 7 CIA agents. As Kimberly Dozier reports, the Haqqani group is eyed as a suspect. Women of the U.S. Marines are on a special mission to win over the hearts and minds of Afghan women. As Mandy Clark reports, these links with Afghan women are essential. The latest news and analysis on the war in Afghanistan...

Lots and lots of half-hearted, slow-motion clapping out there for the president's speech. Lots of "yes...but...." It's a war no one loves. Obama says it's not a quagmire, just, well, a steaming morass of boot-sucking muck that we will endeavor to escape as soon as humanly possible. He assured us that this escalator leads right to the Exit. We're surgin' on out of that place. Lurking in this speech was something that might be called the Obama doctrine. I'm no expert on this sort of thing and will eagerly await the analysis of those who crunch doctrines for a living....

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House said President Barack Obama could use an unusual evening war council session Monday to lock in his long-awaited decision on whether to commit tens of thousands of new U.S. forces to the stalemated war in Afghanistan. Military officials and others said they expect Obama to settle on a middle-ground option that would deploy an eventual 32,000 to 35,000 U.S. forces to the 8-year-old conflict. That rough figure has stood as the most likely option since before Obama's last large war council meeting earlier this month, when he tasked military planners with rearranging the timing...

Barack Obama will likely hold off deciding his strategy and troop strength levels until December, according to a New York Times report on his upcoming meeting Wednesday with his national security advisers.That would make four months since Obama's hand-picked Afghan General Stanley McChrystal made an urgent request in August for 40,000 to 80,000 reinforcements, warning the war would be lost within twelve months without them.Obama recently asked for new troop level options and for reports on the provincial Afghan governments.Obama has made numerous excuses for delaying his decision, most prominent of them the election controversy over Hamid Karzai's reelection as...

It’s been three months since General Stanley McChrystal informed the Obama administration of the resources he needs to successfully prosecute the war.  The controversy over the elections in Afghanistan have been resolved for a week now, which supposedly kept Barack Obama from making a decision on whether to give McChrystal more troops and the number that will be sent.  This morning, McClatchy reports on an apparent trial balloon coming from the White House that Obama will split the difference between McChrystal’s medium- and high-risk options for troop support of a counterinsurgency strategy — but still won’t make a decision until...