Afghanistan

MARDELA SPRINGS - Two Marine Corps helicopters rumbled over a cemetery nestled among cornfields yesterday in tribute as 26-year-old Staff Sgt. Walter F. "Trae" Cohee III - Maryland's first casualty of the war in Afghanistan - was laid to rest near the little town where he was raised. "He was just a good kid, just a good kid," said his mother, Jeanne Cohee, in a eulogy mixed with tears and laughter, as hundreds of mourners packed the town's volunteer fire hall for the funeral. "God knows I didn't raise an angel, but I want you to know I have one now."

It is quite obvious that the U.S. and NATO are being outsmarted by the Taliban, who are wearing fake Afghan soldiers' uniforms to kill our soldiers and sow discord among the alliance. Moreover, the restrictions placed on our peace keeping forces prevent them from fighting a more aggressive conflict, which is absolutely a hindrance to our assisting the weak Afghan government and military. Quinton D. Thompson, Towson

Now that President Barack Obama has withdrawn our troops from war-torn Iraq, he is putting all of our troops in Afghanistan in harm's way. Geraldine Segal, Randallstown

In my household, we're in search of the new normal, whatever that is. The past year has been one of transition, upheaval, limbo … but that's coming to an end now, at least we hope so. Last spring, my husband's Marine Corps Reserve unit mobilized to deploy to Afghanistan. Between April and August, he was in and out of training, some in D.C., some in Quantico, nearly a month in California. Then in August, he left for seven months in Afghanistan, leaving me to solo parent our 3-year-old son. In late December, I went on maternity leave and had our second son at the end of the year.

It is being speculated that the American soldier who shot so many children and Afghan civilians recently probably suffered from battle fatigue and post traumatic stress disorder ("The killings in Kandahar," March 13). The Taliban has responded to these killings, as expected, in an opportunistic fashion, getting political mileage out of the tragic episode for itself and stirring up hatred against the Americans and nationalistic fervor across Afghanistan. Interestingly, the Taliban hit the right chord when it commented that an American trial declaring the perpetrator of the killings as a mad man, who acted under the duress of a mental breakdown, would only show the world that the U.S. is sending lunatics to Afghanistan.

Nearly a decade after the American invasion of Afghanistan, there are still 250,000 foreign forces there — 100,000 U.S. troops, 50,000 NATO troops and 100,000 Pentagon-paid mercenaries. Unfortunately, in the president's speech Wednesday, he only talked about the U.S. military forces, and his plan is to continue the war until 2014. Regardless of this massive, long-term presence, the U.S. military will not reform Afghanistan. But it will spend billions of taxpayer dollars — and to what effect?

First, a bunch of dimwits destroy our credibility with the Iraqi people in particular and the Islamic world in general by their actions at Abu Ghraib and now another group of idiots does the same in Afghanistan by burning the Quran ("Qurans burned, so have bridges," March 2). Didn't they get the memo that in asymmetrical warfare the idea is to win the hearts and minds of the indigenous people, not to antagonize them? I'm quite certain that the family and friends of the late Major Robert J. Marchant II wishes they had. Marc Raim, Baltimore

On March 25th, I returned with three other members of Congress from a six-day trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. I came away, as all do, tremendously impressed by the commitment of American soldiers and civilians to executing their mission. We were in Afghanistan at a watershed moment when the arrival of the "spring offensive" by the Taliban will test whether gains made by American troops over the winter can be sustained. The United States faces a monumental challenge in Afghanistan. Consider these sobering statistics: Afghanistan is the poorest nation in the world outside of Africa, is the second most corrupt nation after Somalia (according to Transparency International)

A 24-year-old airman from Westminster was killed when an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Saturday. Airman 1st Class Matthew R. Seidler died Thursday in the attack, which killed two other airmen. They were patrolling in Helmand, a southwestern province that remains a Taliban stronghold. "When he joined the Air Force, he blossomed. He became himself," said a cousin, Kalyn Masek, who last communicated with Seidler on Tuesday, his birthday.

A 19-year-old Waldorf man died Wednesday in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said Friday. Terry E. Honeycutt Jr. suffered wounds during combat operations Oct. 21 in Helmand province in southwest Afghanistan. The lance corporal was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated when Terry E. Honeycutt Jr. died. The Sun regrets the error.

In his address from Kabul, President Barack Obama said that the war that began in Afghanistan will end there because it is necessary to "finish the job" even though many Americans are tired of war. To my mind, the president's trip was a selfish political ploy. The U.S. has no choice but to fight when our enemies include groups likeal-Qaidaand the Taliban, whose aim in life is to annihilate every freedom-loving individual from the face of the earth. Quinton D. Thompson, Towson

Back from a visit to Kabul, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger expressed confidence in relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan. It's Pakistan that concerns him. "A lot of terrorists are being trained and harbored in Pakistan," said Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. "That's a serious problem. " As if to underscore his concerns, a Rockville man who was kidnapped by al-Qaida in Pakistan last year said in a newly released video that his captors will kill him if the U.S. doesn't meet their demands.

No doubt millions of Americans will regard it as great that 10 years after the start of our involvement in Afghanistan and one year after the elimination of Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama signed the accord with President Hamid Karzai affirming the withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014 ("Obama: U.S. to 'finish the job,' May 2). So far, so good. But wait, as Paul Harvey would have put it, "the rest of the story" is the U.S. has made a commitment of another 10 years of aid and advisors and undoubtedly more billions of dollars than the administration cares to estimate publicly.

A Russian source recently brought an obscure but disturbing article to my attention. Published last month by a little-known online journal called the Oriental Review, the piece, "Active Endeavour And Drug Trafficking," proposed that not a single gram of heroin has been confiscated on the Mediterranean Sea since the inception of NATO's Operation Active Endeavour, a maritime operation launched a month after the Sept. 11 attacks with the mission of "monitoring shipping to help detect, deter and protect against terrorist activity.

Addressing the nation from Kabul on Tuesday, President Barack Obama offered what may be his clearest statement yet about what he sees as the American role in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO combat troops in 2014 - along with a healthy dose of realism about what the U.S. can and can't ultimately expect to accomplish there. The president said the U.S. would gradually transition responsibility for the country's security to Afghan forces over the next two years, after which a scaled-back American military presence would assume a mostly training and advisory role.

A 20-year-old man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for fatally shooting a U.S. Marine inside a hookah bar in downtown Baltimore as the sergeant prepared for redeployment to Afghanistan. The July 2, 2010 killing of 26-year-old Sgt. Chase Love inside the Queens Hookah Bar and Lounge on East Baltimore St., just east of Calvert Street, was one in a string of killings of active-duty servicemen in a six month period. Love, originally from New Orleans, had been visiting Baltimore with fellow Marine, Staff Sgt. Jamal Queen, who lives in Baltimore.

It is quite obvious that the U.S. and NATO are being outsmarted by the Taliban, who are wearing fake Afghan soldiers' uniforms to kill our soldiers and sow discord among the alliance. Moreover, the restrictions placed on our peace keeping forces prevent them from fighting a more aggressive conflict, which is absolutely a hindrance to our assisting the weak Afghan government and military. Quinton D. Thompson, Towson

Once again, the pot has been stirred over press responsibility in wartime, after the Los Angeles Times published two 2010 photographs of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posing with the bodies and body parts of slain enemy troops. They were printed despite a Pentagonrequest they not be published on the grounds that it might further jeopardize the safety of Americans still serving there. The paper's editor, Davan Maharaj, after delaying the publication for 72 hours, went ahead, saying: "Our job is to publish information that our readers need to make informed decisions.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a very weak excuse recently when, in response to recent insurgent strikes in Kabul, he stated that the "attack showed a 'failure' by Afghanistan intelligence and NATO" ("Attacks in Kabul show vulnerability," April 17). In my opinion, this statement should be considered an extreme embarrassment to Mr. Karzai. As anyone else who is as keenly interested as I am should be well aware, this raging conflict between the Taliban rebels and the Afghanistan government and their military forces is, and has been for some time, in desperate need of much stronger support from the U.S and NATO troops in order to quell a challenging problem.