Military Deployment

For most congressional candidates, Iraq is an issue. For one, it's a destination. But not one that will derail his candidacy, he says. Marine Capt. Duncan Duane Hunter wants to claim the seat now held by his father, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon). The elder Hunter, a member of Congress since 1981, is making a long-shot bid for the GOP presidential nomination and has said he will not seek another term in Congress if he fails.

After several days of public nail biting and second thoughts, it's official: Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq this month. Britain's senior army commander said Monday that he had personally decided to go ahead with the first royal assignment to active combat since the Falklands War in 1982 but was prepared to keep the matter open for review. "The decision has been taken he will deploy," Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the army chief of staff, told the BBC.

With drug-related violence growing along the Mexico border, the U.S. is willing to consider deploying troops to the Southwest -- but only as a last resort -- a Department of Homeland Security official told members of Congress on Thursday. Help might come from the National Guard or even the Army if the deadly threat from Mexico's powerful cartels gets so bad that Homeland Security officials cannot secure border towns, Roger Rufe, the department's director of operations, told a House subcommittee.

Struggling to stretch its limited ranks, the U.S. Army said Wednesday that thousands of soldiers who were scheduled to leave the military will be ordered to stay if their units are being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. The move imposes what the Army calls "stop-loss orders" on all units being deployed on missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she sees little support in Congress or elsewhere in the country for sending more troops to Afghanistan, signaling trouble for President Obama's new strategy at a critical point in the war. With the number of casualties rising, Afghanistan embroiled in allegations of widespread election fraud and administration officials mindful that they must show progress by the middle of next year, several experts...

Key Democrats on Capitol Hill warned Thursday that a decision by President Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan could trigger an uprising within the party, possibly including an attempt to cut off funds for the buildup. "I believe we need to more narrowly focus our efforts and have a much more achievable and targeted policy in that region," said Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Otherwise, he said, "we run the risk of repeating the mistakes we made in Vietnam and the Russians made in Afghanistan."

As the most powerful Afghan official in the troubled southern province of Kandahar, Ahmed Wali Karzai says he knows just how to tame the shadowy Taliban campaign of suicide bombs and assassinations that have raised the specter of a country sliding toward anarchy. He wants more American soldiers on the ground.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that he would like to send more American forces to the war in Afghanistan before national elections scheduled for next year, and that grim depictions of the 7-year-old war are "far too pessimistic." Gates said additional forces would provide greater security and predicted that conditions would "be under enough control to allow the elections to take place" in the fall.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Thursday accused Iran of "pushing very hard" to derail a security agreement that would authorize American troops to remain in Iraq past Dec. 31. Crocker also speculated that Iran may be tightening its ties to Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq and co-opting them from anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, who for the last year has ordered his followers to largely refrain from violence.

President Bush said Monday that the war in Iraq had claimed the lives of 30,000 Iraqi citizens in addition to 2,140 U.S. troops, but that the establishment of a durable democracy there would ultimately justify the sacrifice. Citing America's own difficult transition to self-rule as a precedent, Bush said that Thursday's parliamentary elections in Iraq were the next milestone in a transformation that would help contain global terrorism and encourage democratic reforms.