US military death toll in Afghan war reaches 2,000

The death toll in the 11-year war was pushed up Sunday when two Americans were killed in a firefight with their Afghan army allies in eastern Afghanistan’s Wardak Province. Three Afghan soldiers were killed in the incident. The firefight flared when US soldiers thought their checkpoint was under insurgent fire from a nearby Afghan army checkpoint and fired on it. The Afghan soldiers returned the fire. The incident which may have been caused by a misunderstanding is under investigation.
This year, 52 US and allied military deaths were caused by uniformed Afghans turning on the US instructors preparing them to take over when the US army quits the country by the end of 2014.
DEBKAfile: Obama’s surge policy for bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table out of weakness is roundly criticized as having backfired – even by the hitherto supportive US media: Taliban is less ready than ever for peace talks except on its own terms. The president’s refusal to engage in foreign policy as world crises shoot higher over Iran, Syria, Egypt and Libya is slammed by the Washington Post in an article captioned: “Come back after Nov. 6.”