Lisa Curtis: After encouraging turnout, Obama must stick with support for war-torn Afghanistan

  Afghans went to the polls earlier this month, but results won’t be in for at least another week. If none of the candidates wins a majority of votes (the most likely scenario), a run-off election will have to be held probably in late May or early June.

  The Taliban did their best to deter voting and undermine the electoral process in Afghanistan.

Jacob G. Hornberger: Killing unnamed children in Afghanistan

  When I read this Washington Post article about the two-year-old child that U.S. forces just killed in Afghanistan, I wondered what the child’s name was. Nowhere was it to be found in the article. Maybe the Post hadn’t acquired the name. Or maybe it just doesn’t matter. It’s just one more death among the countless Afghan deaths at the hands of U.S. forces during the past 12 years.

  The commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., issued an apology for killing the child. I wonder if he cited the child’s name in his apology. In any event, no doubt Dunford is hoping that the apology will help the U.S. government secure permission from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to keep U.S. forces in Afghanistan past 2014.