Key Implications Of The New Strategy

President Barack Obama plans to send thousands of troops to train Afghan security forces as part of a new war strategy that will focus U.S. efforts on destroying safe havens for al Qaeda militants and rolling back the Taliban insurgency.

Here are some key implications of the new strategy:

• By stating that the main mission is to target al Qaeda, Obama is playing down more ambitious goals embraced by his predecessor, George W. Bush, and other NATO leaders.
• They declared at a summit in April last year that their aim in Afghanistan was to help "build an enduring stable, secure, prosperous and democratic state, respectful of human rights and free from the threat of terrorism."
• Although the administration appears to be aiming for less, its new strategy accepts it will have to devote more troops, money and resources to achieve even that goal.
• Obama will send 4,000 troops by this autumn to train Afghan forces, on top of 17,000 troops whose deployments he approved in February. That will bring the total number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to about 60,000, in addition to more than 30,000 troops from U.S. allies, mainly NATO nations.
• The cost of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan is expected to rise 60 percent from the current $2 billion a month.
• The extra deployments will add to strains on the U.S. military, at least in the short term.
• Although Obama has ordered about 100,000 troops to withdraw from Iraq by August next year, the bulk of that pullout is not expected until after Iraqi elections at the end of this year.
• Many of the ideas presented in the strategy are not new. The administration says the Afghan war was neglected under Bush and is betting that an increase in resources and focus will make existing ideas more effective.
• An expansion of the Afghan security forces is already under way and the administration does not appear to be increasing the target size for the Afghan army and police for the moment.
• Similarly, officials have long spoken of trying to exploit fractures in the Taliban movement and peeling off "foot soldiers" motivated by money rather than ideology.
• The administration's plans to engage Russia, China, Iran and India are bold but far from guaranteed to be successful. Cooperation on Afghanistan risks becoming a bargaining chip in debates with Russia over European missile defense or with Tehran over Iran's nuclear program.
• If the administration stresses its focus on combating al Qaeda too much, it risks exacerbating Afghans' fears that the West is not interested in their welfare and will abandon them. That could play into the hands of the Taliban.
• The administration's pledge to send "hundreds" more civilians to help build the capacity of Afghan authorities to provide essential services for their citizens will be widely welcomed but the details will be important.
• Analysts say such services -- everything from running water to a functioning justice system -- are vital to get Afghans to side with their government rather than the Taliban.
• But it is open to question whether an increase of only a few hundred civilians will give those efforts a major boost.
• Initial descriptions of the new strategy leave many questions about Pakistan unanswered.
• Many experts believe the nuclear-armed country's instability and its al Qaeda safe havens present a far greater threat to U.S. national security than Afghanistan.
• U.S. officials have yet to prove they can persuade the Pakistani military to fully embrace counter-insurgency operations against militants.
• Officials have not said whether attacks on suspected militants by CIA drones will be stepped up. The administration never officially acknowledges the strikes and they are unpopular in Pakistan. U.S. officials say they have played a key role in weakening al Qaeda. (Editing by Peter Cooney)

For More Info: http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSN26268096

Arrest Varun Gandhi: Congress

Minutes after Varun Gandhi came out before the media to clarify his ‘communal remarks’, the Congress slammed the BJP candidate for Lok Sabha polls in Pilibhit for refusing to apologise.

Senior party leader Kapil Sibal called for Varun Gandhi’s arrest, saying he had committed a crime by targeting the minority community in his speech.

There is no place for people like Varun in politics, Sibal said, adding the BJP would be a con-conspirator if it failed to act against him.

The BJP, meanwhile, refused to react on Varun’s statement.

Oil Coming Ashore For Weeks

The massive oil slick coating beaches around south-east Queensland will get worse before it gets better, the Queensland Government says.

Moreton and Bribie Island and southern parts of the Sunshine Coast have been declared disaster zones and today Queensland's Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara warned the worst is yet to come.

"There's going to be oil floating around out there coming ashore over a period of a couple of weeks," he said.

Yesterday the Government said it believed the slick would be cleaned up within seven days, but now it is thought that up to 100,000 litres of oil may have spilled into the sea from a stricken cargo ship on Wednesday.

About 130 people are involved in the clean-up and preventing the oil from spreading further into rivers.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has defended the Government's response so far amid accusations that it has failed to act quickly enough.

"You don't walk in on day one and take all of the sand off the beach only to have more oil overnight coming in on the tide necessitating more sand be taken off on the second and the third day," she said.

"These are sensitive environments and you need to be systematic and clear it with almost military precision."

Vaughan Nash from Maroochy Waterwatch says oil has now reached the Maroochy Bridge, about two kilometres upstream from the mouth of the Maroochy River.

Mr Nash says it is now threatening mangroves.

"We're still seeing wildlife out on the river," he said.

"We saw a few pelicans only about 50 metres behind a few of the slicks and a fish actually jumping through the slicks as well.

"[That was] pretty amazing; we didn't expect a mullet to jump out through an oil slick like that, particularly a thick one as it was."

Up to 100,000 litres of oil leaked into Moreton Bay after the Pacific Adventurer cargo ship was holed on Wednesday morning, and the slicks are now blanketing 60 kilometres of Queensland's coastline.

Unemployment Rate Spikes

The unemployment rate for the Longview area jumped to 5.8 percent in January – the highest it has been for that month in five years, according to figures released Thursday by the Texas Workforce Commission.

The three-county metropolitan statistical area of Gregg, Rusk and Upshur counties had an estimated 6,300 people reported unemployed in January. That number jumped from 4,800 unemployed residents in the three counties in December when the Longview metro area had an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.

The rate also was up substantially from January 2008 when TWC reported 4,400 people were unemployed with a three-county unemployment rate of 4.2 percent.

Workers at Longview-area businesses like Trinity Industries, Dana Corp. and U.S. Steel were hit hard by layoff notices in January as the impact of the global and national recessions deepened.

The Longview metro area still fared better than the state and nation as a whole in the unemployment picture, according to Texas Workforce officials. Texas had a January unemployment rate of 6.8 percent in January while nationally, the rate was 8.5 percent, representing more than 13 million people qualified as being unemployed.

Longview Partnership President Kelly Hall said the news is of concern to the group's members.

"Many of our companies are feeling the slowdown, and they are positioning their companies strategically to ride out the roller coaster ride we are on," Hall said. "Unfortunately, that means running leaner from an employee standpoint and cutting back on expenses."

Hall said on the flip side, Longview and East Texas are not being hit as hard as the East and West coasts.

"Beginning the first week of January, the Partnership staff has been contacting our chamber members on a daily basis," Hall said. "We have connected with over 50 percent of our members to date in order to gain a better understanding of what challenges they are dealing with from a regulation standpoint and what is happening within their specific industry."

The Longview area also had a lower unemployment rate than nearby Tyler where 6.9 percent of the workforce was off the job in January, according to state figures.

The Longview area unemployment rate in January jumped from 4.5 percent in December, the state reported. The one-month jump in the number of unemployed workers went from 4,800 in December to 6,300 in January, an increase of 1,500 people.

John Stroud, executive director of Longview Economic Development Corp., said about 500 of those jobs were in the retail trade area and represent seasonal changes from the Christmas shopping season.

Elsewhere in Texas, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area had the state's highest unemployment rate in January at 10.1 percent. The Midland area, with a rate of 3.8 percent, was the lowest in Texas for January, according to the state.

"The national economic crisis is beginning to have a serious negative impact on our Texas economy," Tom Pauken, chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, said in a prepared statement.