According to a CNN.com article on August 31, 2010: “At 5 p.m. ET [on August 31, 2010]–at a cost of more than 4,400 U.S. military personnel killed and 30,000 wounded–America’s combat mission in Iraq officially drew to a close.” – Alan Silverleib, “U.S. Combat Mission in Iraq Ends,” CNN, Sep. 1, 2010 […]
8/31/2010
“Iraq’s prime minister today [August 31, 2010] said the end of the US combat role in the country restored Iraq’s independence and made it a sovereign power on an equal footing with America. ‘Iraq today is sovereign and independent,’ Nouri al-Maliki said in a televised address. ‘With the execution of the troop pullout, our relations […]
8/27/2010
“In an interview with the BBC, [Afghan President] Mr [Hamid] Karzai’s national security adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, said fighting the war on Afghan soil was not enough. ‘Even if we defeat the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups within Afghanistan, [if] we don’t destroy the recruitment centre and we don’t destroy the causes, it is […]
8/27/2010
“Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, has criticised the US military’s plans to begin withdrawing troops from the country in July 2011. Mr Karzai said that announcing a date for the withdrawal had given the Taliban insurgency ‘a morale boost.’ He also said the war could not be won as long as the Taliban were able to […]
8/19/2010
On August 19, 2010, after embedding with troops in Afghanistan, journalist Bing West wrote a list of observations in a memo to General James Mattis, the head of Central Command. One note read: ” ‘Defeating an insurgency requires three tasks: 1) destroy the insurgent forces; 2) win over the people to the side of a […]
8/15/2010
“In August 2010, the courier [for bin Laden] unknowingly led authorities to a compound in the northeast Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where [senior al Qaeda member Abu Faraj] al-Libi had once lived. The walls surrounding the property were as high as 18 feet and topped with barbed wire. Intelligence officials had known about the house […]
8/15/2010
Following Osama bin Laden’s assassination on May 2, 2011, “President Obama said he was first briefed that bin Laden had been traced last August [2010]. The crucial information was gleaned from a detainee who had been tortured at Guantanamo Bay.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – “Incredible Pictures Show […]
8/15/2010
“[A]s long ago as last August [2010], President Obama was told in an intelligence briefing that there was a possible lead that Bin Laden was hiding in plain sight in Abbottabad [Pakistan]. It took eight months for U.S. and Pakistani agents to confirm for certain that the information was accurate.” [The 15th of the month […]
7/27/2010
“A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, spotlighting Iraqi complaints that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation. The $8.7 billion in question was Iraqi money managed by the Pentagon, not part of […]
7/25/2010
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael “Mullen warned in July [25, 2010], on a trip to Islamabad [Pakistan], that LT [terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba] had become ‘a very dangerous organization and a significant regional and global threat.’ He said it was expanding into Afghanistan, adding that ‘the Haqqani [insurgent] group is the most lethal network […]