Free Republic

Senior White House officials have begun to make the case for a policy shift in Afghanistan that would send few, if any, new combat troops to the country and instead focus on faster military training of Afghan forces, continued assassinations of al-Qaeda leaders and support for the government of neighboring Pakistan in its fight against the Taliban. In a three-hour meeting Wednesday at the White House, senior advisers challenged some of the key assumptions in Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's blunt assessment of the nearly eight-year-old war, which President Obama has said is being fought to destroy al-Qaeda and its allies...

The US trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in March for a second month as exports climbed to a record and the value of petroleum imports declined. The shortfall in goods and services trade shrank to $62bn, the smallest since August, the Commerce Department said in Washington. The price of goods imported to the US in April jumped by the most in seven months, the Labor Department said in a separate report. Stronger European and Asian economies, along with a decline in the dollar, may spark greater demand for US exports in coming months, economists said. The smaller deficit prompted economists to...