WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans looking for a political opening to challenge President Barack Obama on national security got little help Tuesday from the top military commander in Afghanistan, who insisted that the White House is heeding his advice. Gen.: Stay
Gen.: Stay course
in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans looking for a political opening to challenge President Barack Obama on national security got little help Tuesday from the top military commander in Afghanistan, who insisted that the White House is heeding his advice.
In his much-anticipated appearance before Congress, Marine Gen. John Allen said shifting the security responsibility from U.S. and coalition troops to Afghan forces is on track more than 10 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and after more than a decade of war.
The ongoing conflict has divided Congress and increased the public demand to bring the 90,000 U.S. troops home, a call that grew louder in recent weeks after burnings of Qurans and a shooting spree that killed 16 Afghan civilians stoked anti-American rage.
The current plan calls for the U.S. to withdraw its surge force of 23,000 American troops by the end of September, with a complete drawdown by December 2014.
Allen told the House Armed Services Committee that he would assess the insurgency threat and the progress of coalition forces later this year before recommending the pace of future withdrawals.
F-22s retrofitted
after Alaska crash
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Air Force is replacing handles that engage the F-22 Raptor fighter jet’s emergency oxygen system after pilots reported feeling lightheaded and the death of a captain whose $143 million aircraft took a nosedive into a mountain range in Alaska.
Capt. Jeffrey Haney was killed in November 2010 during a night mission about 100 miles north of Anchorage. An accident investigation found that the plane’s controls and switches contributed to the crash, particularly an emergency oxygen system activation ring on the back edge of the ejection seat.
The report found that the two-step process to manually activate the system required the pilot to pull the green ring up and out of the retaining slot and then pull it directly forward.
South-central U.S.
rocked by storms
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Storms shuffled through parts of the south-central United States again Tuesday, bringing more heavy rain, damaging winds and thunder so loud some people in Oklahoma mistook it for an earthquake.
Forecasters said the slow-moving storm system that socked the region Monday could cause more flash floods, hail, strong winds and possibly tornadoes in a corridor stretching from Texas east to Louisiana and as far north as Missouri.
The National Weather Service issued tornado watches for parts of Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana.
