Setbacks Cloud U.S. Plans to Get Out of Afghanistan - nytimes

WASHINGTON — Six months after President Obama decided to send more forces to Afghanistan, the halting progress in the war has crystallized longstanding tensions within the government over the viability of his plan to turn around the country and begin pulling out by July 2011.

“Things are not looking good,” said Bruce O. Riedel, a regional specialist at the Brookings Institution who helped formulate the administration’s first Afghan strategySetbacks Cloud U.S. Plans to Get Out of Afghanistan ( in early 2009. “There’s not much sign of the turnaround that people were hoping for.”

Afghan Officials Elated by Minerals Report
U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan