Afghanistan

It began with a visit by a San Diego businesswoman who volunteered at an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan after the Taliban was pushed from power in 2001. Fary Moini, the owner of two tuxedo shops, was shocked by the poverty and despair at the overcrowded site just across the border from Afghanistan, and moved by the sorrow and confusion she saw in the eyes of the children. When she returned home, she appealed to her fellow Rotary Club members to help do something -- anything -- for the Afghans.

Lance Cpl. Daryl Crookston knew there would be casualties. That inevitability had been drummed into him as far back as boot camp, by drill sergeants and infantry school instructors, by fellow Marines. But when two Marine buddies went down on a combat patrol in the flat scrub desert of western Afghanistan, it was so shocking that Crookston felt overwhelmed. One minute the two men were alive, and in an instant they were dead.

Ghazi Gul keeps the pictures of the dead in a pocket near his heart -- his father, two brothers, a cousin, a nephew. Gul works for the Afghan intelligence service, fighting militants on behalf of the U.S.-backed government. But he blames the U.S. for killing eight of his relatives, including his mother and two nieces. And he wants revenge.

President Obama ordered his first major deployment of U.S. combat troops Tuesday, authorizing 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines for Afghanistan in what he described as an urgent bid to stabilize a deteriorating and neglected country.

A day after President Obama ordered additional soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan, the top U.S. commander there said Wednesday that he may need still more troops in coming months to bolster an intensified war effort that could last as long as five more years. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan plans to use the 17,000 soldiers and Marines Obama authorized to try to break an impasse in fighting with the Taliban in the southern part of the country.

Afghanistan's defense minister warned Thursday that the Obama administration's proposed changes in U.S. war strategy risk undermining Kabul's civilian government because they appear to scale back U.S. goals in the country. Abdul Rahim Wardak said he was troubled by recent comments from senior U.S. officials that they were "lowering expectations" in Afghanistan in order to set more "obtainable goals," saying such language recalls memories of the U.S.

The Obama administration moved closer Thursday to resuming diplomatic contact with Iran as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed an international meeting on Afghanistan that could bring U.S. officials face to face with their longtime adversaries. Clinton suggested that the United Nations host a meeting on Afghanistan on March 31 that would include "key regional and strategic countries," as well as NATO members and other world powers and international groups.

They were born 15 seconds apart and were best friends. The Hansen twins were competitors and athletes, and both enlisted in the Marines. "Everything we did, we did together," said Matthew of his slightly older brother, Daniel. "We spent the first nine months huddled up together -- it's hard to separate after that." It took a war to break them apart. Staff Sgt. Daniel Hansen died in Afghanistan on Feb. 14 after his foot patrol was hit by an improvised explosive device.