At War Blog: Military News Roundup: Green on Blue, a Call for a Nuclear Reduction and NATO's Supply Line
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There are a few interesting military-related pieces in the paper Wednesday. Here they are:
Bryan Denton for The New York TimesAn Afghan National Army soldier waited to go on patrol at Combat Outpost Sangesar in southern Afghanistan. In March, members of the Afghan security forces turned their guns on their American counterparts, killing two soldiers. More PhotographsMatt Rosenberg (@mrosenbergNYT) reports on how an attack inside an American base in southern Afghanistan is just one recent example of a threat to the American-led coalition’s joint-training model. On March 1, a company of paratroopers fought for 52 minutes to retake one of their own guard towers from Afghan soldiers they had called fellow soldiers. These types of attacks are not new. Mr. Rosenberg reports that 22 coalition service members have been killed by men in Afghan uniform, compared with 35 for all of last year. But the coalition has released very little official information about these types of attacks, and so the interviews conducted at Combat Outpost Sangesar offer a rare window into a fundamental problem for the coalition forces. As Mr. Rosenberg reports: “The effort at Sangesar to move past the attack, and the difficulties in doing so, exemplifies the broader struggle that American-led forces face as they seek to accelerate the training of the Afghan Army and police forces to take over before NATO’s combat mission ends in 2014.”
Read the article here.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesGen. James E. Cartwright said that the nuclear arsenal carried cold war baggage.Thom Shanker reports that Gen. James E. Cartwright, the retired vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former commander of American nuclear forces, has come out in defense of a drastic reduction in the number of nuclear warheads, even below the levels set by agreements with Russia. So how many warheads does it take to ensure American nuclear deterrence? According to General Cartwright, the magic number is 900. And only half of them would need to be out in the field. And the warheads in the field would have the hair trigger turned off. In other words, no more flashing red launch button to push.
An arsenal that size would be a significant reduction from the current agreement, which limits Russia and the United States to to 1,550 deployed warheads each, down from 2,200, within six years. In an interview with Mr. Shanker, General Cartwright said of his views: “There is the baggage of significant numbers in reserve. There is the baggage of a nuclear stockpile beyond our needs. What is it we’re really trying to deter? Our current arsenal does not address the threats of the 21st century.”
Read the story here.
Shakil Adil/Associated PressTankers used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan were parked near the port in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday.Salman Masood (SalmanMasood) and Eric Schmitt (@EricSchmittNYT) report that American and Pakistani officials are in negotiations to reopen Afghan supply lines through Pakistan. The talks came after NATO extended an invitation for Pakistan to attend a summit meeting in Chicago this weekend. The supply lines were closed immediately following an American airstrike on the Pakistani side of the border killed 24 soldiers in November.
As of Tuesday night, there was still no deal, but “officials in Washington, Brussels and Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, said Tuesday that an agreement appeared at hand.” And the timing of the NATO summit, which is centered on Afghanistan’s future after the end of the NATO military mission there in 2014, may be helping the supply lines negotiations along. Mr. Masood and Mr. Schmitt report: “Many Pakistani officials said the NATO invitation was a critical step in helping secure a supply line deal. The public display of indecision over whether to attend was widely seen as playing to a domestic audience in which anti-American sentiment runs high.”
Read the article here.
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