Exit Strategy

KABUL, Afghanistan - Nabil Ahmad was at his desk at a logistics support firm last spring when an explosion ripped through the office. Windows shattered. The ceiling collapsed. "I thought it was an earthquake - or the end of the world," the Kabul native said. At 26, Ahmad, who favors Western suits and now works for a cellphone service provider, has never known a time when his country was not at war. But he's a father now, with a 2-year-old and an infant to think about. "I don't want to put my sons in the position that I was growing up," he said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Nabil Ahmad was at his desk at a logistics support firm last spring when an explosion ripped through the office. Windows shattered. The ceiling collapsed. "I thought it was an earthquake - or the end of the world," the Kabul native said. At 26, Ahmad, who favors Western suits and now works for a cellphone service provider, has never known a time when his country was not at war. But he's a father now, with a 2-year-old and an infant to think about. "I don't want to put my sons in the position that I was growing up," he said.

Dear Karen: I'm middle aged and have been told I need an exit strategy for my business. How do I develop one? Answer: Many business owners count on cashing out of their companies to fund their retirement. An exit strategy is a plan to help you unlock the value of your business when you need it. Start planning a decade before you intend to retire, said Bill Van Keulen, an accountant and certified financial planner at Carnick & Co. of Colorado Springs, Colo.

It didn't really matter who won Tuesday's election -- other countries were likely to see an influx of immigrants either way. We know this thanks to the science of Googling. On Tuesday morning, entering the search phrase "if Romney wins, I'm moving," got 61,200 hits, while "if Obama wins, I'm moving" yielded 21,400.  Those vowing to flee the election results said they were headed to all points of the globe and beyond if their party lost, with popular destinations including Australia, Britain, Europe, Cuba, Mars and Margaritaville.

Despite the growing bipartisan demand for an exit plan, you report that "Bush Resists Calls to Pull Out of Iraq" (June 19), and then quote him as saying: "By making their stand in Iraq, the terrorists have now made Iraq a vital test for the future security of our country and the free world." In making his argument, he concludes that "some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world's terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror."

KABUL, Afghanistan - They've been cut down while working out in makeshift gyms, as they bedded down for the night in remote combat outposts, after shrugging off heavy packs and sweat-soaked body armor when they returned from patrol. At the height of this dusty summer, American troops are dying at unprecedented rates at the hands of their Afghan allies. And both sides are struggling to explain why, even as they search for ways to stem what are known in military parlance as "insider" attacks.

The largest grass-roots Jewish organization in the United States voted overwhelmingly Friday to demand the Bush administration develop a "clear exit strategy" from the war in Iraq. The Union for Reform Judaism, representing more than 1.5 million American Jews out of an estimated 5 million, is the first major Jewish organization to oppose the war. The group has a long history of antiwar activism.

You own an auto company. What do you do now? The Obama administration -- and by default, taxpayers -- must answer that question now that the federal government is about to take big stakes in two of the nation's storied industrial companies and their joint financing arm. Based on the latest bankruptcy and bailout plans, the government will hold 72.5% of General Motors Corp., 8% of Chrysler Corp. and 35% or more of GMAC Financial Services, the car loan business.

PRESIDENT BUSH HAS so far fended off Cindy Sheehan, a grieving mother demanding to know the "noble purpose" of her son's death in Iraq. However, Bush has been forced to address the existence of the antiwar constituency for perhaps the first time, if only to distort and discredit its message of "troops out now." It is the right moment for the peace movement to turn its slogan into a strategy.

Irked by a reporter who told him he seemed to be "off his game" at a public appearance here, President Bush sought to make a hasty exit from a news conference but was thwarted by locked doors. At the end of a day of meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other officials, Bush held a session with a small group of U.S. reporters and spoke at length about religious freedom, the Iraq war and the value of China's currency.

KABUL, Afghanistan - They've been cut down while working out in makeshift gyms, as they bedded down for the night in remote combat outposts, after shrugging off heavy packs and sweat-soaked body armor when they returned from patrol. At the height of this dusty summer, American troops are dying at unprecedented rates at the hands of their Afghan allies. And both sides are struggling to explain why, even as they search for ways to stem what are known in military parlance as "insider" attacks.

The judge in the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy case agreed Wednesday to move forward with an exit plan that calls for the sale of the church's Garden Grove property. In the next month, about 400 creditors will vote on an exit strategy; the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and Chapman University, both of which increased their initial bids, remain the leading candidates to buy the property. The creditors committee, composed of various vendors, is open to considering other offers, attorney Nanette Sanders told the court.

Insurgents took aim Sunday at Afghanistan's security forces, ambushing an army bus in the capital, Kabul, and storming an army recruitment center in the north of the country. At least eight Afghan soldiers and police were killed in the two attacks. The Afghan police and army are considered key to the West's exit strategy, which calls for the nation's forces to take over security responsibilities across the country in the next three years. That plan was endorsed at a NATO conference last month and again last week in a White House assessment of the Afghan conflict.

Greed, chutzpah, arrogance. Everyone seems to have their own idea about what motivated Groupon Inc. to turn down a buyout offer of a reported $5 billion to $6 billion from Google Inc. last week. Neither company is commenting about the negotiations or Groupon's decision. Their silence leaves a substantial vacuum for outsiders to debate whether the Chicago start-up's decision was foolish or brilliant. While the headline-grabbing bid dominated the chatter, other variables such as corporate culture and the viability of alternative exit strategies for investors probably played a major role in Groupon's thinking.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani used revelations in a new book about the Obama administration to criticize the president's handling of the war in Afghanistan, saying his insistence on an exit strategy has put American forces at greater risk. Giuliani also took issue with a quote attributed to President Obama by author Bob Woodward — that the country could "absorb" another terrorist attack like the one suffered in September 2001. "I don't know that I would have said that," Giuliani told reporters on a conference call Wednesday.

A landmark international conference on Tuesday endorsed President Hamid Karzai's plan for Afghanistan's security forces to take over responsibility for safeguarding the country within four years, setting a potential timeline for foreign troops' departure. The Afghan capital was under virtual lockdown for the high-level gathering, which passed without any major attack. However, insurgents fired rockets at Kabul's international airport overnight, forcing the diversion of a plane carrying U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Bagram air base, north of the capital.

The White House sent its strongest signal yet Thursday that it is searching for an eventual way out of Afghanistan even as it considers sending thousands of additional troops to join the war there. Emphasizing the importance of timetables for U.S. involvement, administration officials stressed that President Obama is concerned about how long American troops will remain in the country and wants to avoid an "open-ended" commitment. "We have been there for eight years, and we're not going to be there forever," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Trent Lott is to be applauded for his efforts to save the Republicans from themselves and devise the terms of a graceful and rapid exit from a pointless impeachment trial. But this praiseworthy attempt comes at too high a price when it involves a direct violation of the Constitution. The problem involves one aspect of the exit strategy enacted by Senate Republicans on a party line vote last week.

It is the forgotten bailout: $125.9 billion spent by taxpayers so far to rescue housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- nearly twice what's been pumped into American International Group Inc. -- and with no end in sight. But in a hearing Tuesday, lawmakers will start pressing the Obama administration for an exit strategy as the government faces an unlimited commitment for the next three years to the housing finance agencies, which are almost single-handedly keeping the fragile real estate market afloat.

A snowstorm Wednesday didn't keep Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke from outlining to lawmakers how the central bank might pull back its unprecedented intervention in the U.S. economy. But how exactly the long-awaited exit strategy would be deployed was obscured in a blizzard of ambiguities. "Although at present the U.S. economy continues to require the support of highly accommodative monetary policies, at some point the Federal Reserve will need to tighten financial conditions by raising short-term interest rates and reducing the quantity of bank reserves outstanding," Bernanke wrote in prepared testimony for a hearing Wednesday by the House Financial Services Committee.