Afghanistan

RE THE AUG. 9 article "Fewer Civilian Deaths Reported in Afghanistan" : Please do not print lies about our criminal war in Afghanistan! The first sentence of the article contradicts its title: "Fewer civilian deaths reported in Afghanistan" does not agree with the content of the Associated Press piece, which clearly spells out an INCREASE in civilian casualties. No matter how these atrocities are spun (e.g., "modest increase" in civilian casualties), the reality of this war is increasingly dismal: Each day more dead!

A Marine from Ocean County, N.J., was killed this week in combat in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said Friday. Cpl. Nicholas Ott, 23, of Manchester, died Wednesday in Helmand province. Ott joined the corps in 2007 and was assigned to First Battalion, Third Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division, in Hawaii in 2010. He was a 2006 graduate of Manchester High School, where he played football and wrestled. His death comes days after an Army Ranger from Pitman was killed in action in Afghanistan.

A Marine from Pittsburgh died Thursday of wounds received in combat in Helmand province, Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Friday. He was identified as Sgt. Ryan H. Lane, 25, assigned to the Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Second Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Lejeune, N.C. - Inquirer staff

SPRING GROVE, Pa. - A soldier from York County has been killed in Afghanistan. A family member confirmed Tuesday that Cameron Stambaugh, 20, of Spring Grove, an Army private first class and a military police officer, died in a bombing Sunday. The soldier's grandfather, Quentin Stambaugh, said his grandson enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school in 2010 and had been in Afghanistan for only about three months. He was wounded by shrapnel three weeks after he arrived, but he had recovered and was back on duty, his grandfather said.

NEWARK, N.J. - An Army national guardsman from Newark has been killed in Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Jorge Miguel Oliveira, 33, was killed Wednesday when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device, the National Guard said. Oliveira was assigned to the Security Forces Platoon of the Second Battalion, 113th Infantry Regiment. The unit, based in Riverdale, deployed to Afghanistan in June and was assigned to a provincial reconstruction team. Oliveira joined the National Guard in 2003.

Is there any way that the United States can engineer a decent exit from Afghanistan that leaves behind a stable country? The answer depends on Pakistan. If Pakistan stops providing the Afghan Taliban and other radical Islamists with safe havens, a stable Afghanistan is possible. Otherwise, Afghan prospects are grim and America's Afghan war is destined to fail. If you want to understand why, read the newest book by the world's foremost expert on the Taliban, the Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's choice for U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan insisted yesterday that the United States must continue its multibillion-dollar investment to achieve a "good enough" government in Kabul that would prevent the country from backsliding into a sanctuary for terrorists. Ryan Crocker was challenged repeatedly by skeptical senators who questioned a costly war now in its 10th year and nation-building that a fresh congressional report found has had limited success despite nearly $19 billion in foreign aid over a decade.