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Troops support Obama's surge plans

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan say they are cautiously optimistic about President Barack Obama deploying an additional 30,000 troops to the country.

Sgt. Daniel Foster, of Caldwell, Idaho, said the extra military personnel would be welcome in the south, but the build-up is only part of a solution, Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday.

"I don't know whether or not it will work -- the success hinges on the Afghans," said Foster, with the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. "We're not here for ourselves; we're trying to help these people get back on solid ground. It feels like they're always fighting us. They've got to be willing to change to help themselves."

Obama is sending 30,000 more troops after months of deliberation on recommendations by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. The strategy Obama announced at West Point Tuesday evening includes a renewed push to prepare Afghan forces to take over security responsibilities, as well as a start date for U.S. troop withdrawal, depending on conditions on the ground.

Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment in Zhari district, told Stars and Stripes they support Obama's plan.

The additional military personnel will augment thin lines, said Cpl. William Strickland, of Columbus, Ohio.

"We're so spread out now that it's hard to keep control over the areas we have," Strickland said. "I think it's right to send more guys over here, so that we can regain positive control and then turn it over to the Afghans, like we did with the Iraqis in Iraq. I'm all for whatever we need to do to end this."

Pakistan reacts to U.S. Afghan strategy

FRANKFURT, Germany, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Pakistan wants the United States to better coordinate with its armies in implementing its new Afghan strategy, Pakistan's foreign minister said.

While acknowledging the United States informed his government prior to President Barack Obama's announcement of a troop surge, Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan remains concerned about the impact of the strategy, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.

"Our issue is not how you deploy them (U.S. troops in Afghanistan) and how you use them. We are only concerned about the negative implications," Qureshi said in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was traveling with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.

"The more you coordinate with military authorities of Pakistan the better it will be."

In announcing his Afghan strategy Tuesday, President Obama noted the "cancer" of extremism had also taken root in the border region of Pakistan.

Obama said his administration is committed to a partnership with Pakistan.

"We will strengthen Pakistan's capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries, and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe-haven for terrorists whose location is known, and whose intentions are clear," Obama said.

Pakistan has been expressing concern that additional U.S. troops deployed in the southern regions of Afghanistan such as the Taliban-infested Helmand province would encourage the militants to seek refuge in Pakistan tribal areas across the border and further unsettle conditions in its Balochistan province.

Musharraf discusses Afghan strategy

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says any exit strategy from Afghanistan must come after eliminating al-Qaida and defeating the Taliban.

"The exit strategy from Afghanistan must not and cannot be time related," Musharraf, who also was the country's military chief, wrote in a piece for The Wall Street Journal. "We must eliminate al-Qaida, dominate the Taliban militarily, and establish a representative, legitimate government in Afghanistan."

Musharraf, who became Pakistan president in 1999 after a military coup, said he is frequently asked during his U.S. trips how America can stop losing in Afghanistan. He said that since a military solution alone cannot guarantee success, Afghan civilians must take charge of their country.

He said after the Taliban had established control in virtually all of Afghanistan in 1996, he had proposed recognizing "the Taliban regime, in the hope of transforming them from within."

Musharraf claimed if that strategy had been implemented "we might have persuaded the Taliban to deny a safe haven to al-Qaida and avoided the tragic" Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

"The Pakistan military must continue to act strongly. Operationally, we must raise substantially more forces from within the tribal groups and equip them with more tanks and guns. On the Afghan side, the U.S. and (International Security Assistance Force) troops must be reinforced. All of this must be done in combination with raising additional Afghan national army troops, with significant Pashtun representation," Musharraf wrote.

On the political front, the former Pakistani leader said there needs to be an invigorated dialogue with all groups in Afghanistan, including the Taliban.

Settlers protest building freeze

JERUSALEM, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Clashes erupted in the West Bank as settlers protested the entry of inspectors enforcing a building freeze, officials said.

Israeli security forces arrested a number of settlers, as protests against the government's 10-month building freeze entered its second day, Maariv said Wednesday,

Avi Naim, the local council head of Beit Arieh-Ofarim in the West Bank, was arrested after he along with other residents blocked the access road to the settlement to prevent inspectors from entering the community, the newspaper said.

In a separate incident, two Israelis were arrested after clashes erupted between settlers and Israeli security forces in Alon Moreh, the paper said.

A police spokesman later told the paper Naim was arrested on suspicion of preventing police from carrying out their duty.

Settlers accused police of using excessive force and said Naim along with the security head of the community were taken to a hospital for treatment after the former complained of chest pains and the latter of a broken leg, the paper said.

The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza called on settlers to prevent inspectors from entering the communities but warned against using violence, the paper said.

Last week, Israel's cabinet voted in favor of a 10-month construction freeze in West Bank settlements as a step to encourage the resumption of talks with the Palestinians.

Tennessee killer executed

NASHVILLE, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A man who spent nearly three decades on Tennessee's death row for a triple slaying at a Nashville market, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday.

Cecil Johnson, 53, was pronounced dead at 1:34 a.m. at the Riverbend Maximum Security Prison, Nashville's WTVF-TV reported.

Several dozen people protested outside the prison.

Johnson had been convicted in the 1980 slayings of 12-year-old Bob Bell Jr., James Moore and Charles House during a robbery at Bob Bell's Market in Nashville in 1980.

Johnson, who was the sixth person executed in Tennessee since 2000, declined to eat his final meal, the TV station said.

The 12-year-old's father, who saw him killed, attended the execution, along with Moore's brother. Johnson's wife, daughter and two brothers also witnessed the execution. Johnson was given a message from his son who is incarcerated.

The (Nashville) Tennessean reported that while the courts declined to stop Johnson's execution, a federal court in Nashville granted a temporary restraining order stopping an autopsy of his body pending further review by the court. A hearing will be held Dec. 10.

Johnson contended an autopsy was against his religious beliefs, the newspaper said.