Afghanistan Weekly Digest: The Politics and Pain of War

[Editors' note: As part of Sojourners' campaign to end the war in Afghanistan, we will run a weekly Afghanistan news digest to educate our readers about the latest news and developments related to the war, the U.S. military's strategy, and the people impacted by our decisions. Read more about our campaign at www.sojo.net/afghanistan.]

• Kabul hotel attack: Nato helicopters kill Taliban: "Nato helicopters were called in to kill three militants to end a five-hour clash by suicide bombers and gunmen on a hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul."

• 250,000 Afghans 'flee homes in two years': "More than 250,000 people have been displaced in the last two years of fighting in Afghanistan, and 'local police' programmes sponsored by NATO have exacerbated the problem by arming militias, according to a new report from Refugees International."

• Afghan officials at loggerheads as U.S. withdrawal looms: "A political crisis erupted in the Afghan capital over the weekend after a special investigative court found that 62 legislators had won their seats by fraud last year and ordered them removed from parliament."

• Legacy of mental health problems from Iraq and Afghanistan: "As Operation Enduring Freedom, the war on terror in Afghanistan, winds down and some 33,000 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen return from overseas in the next year, a plan announced by President Obama on June 22, the psychological issues that veterans face back home are likely to increase."

• As Politics of war shift, risks for Obama ease: "When President Obama expanded the Afghanistan war a year after taking office, Republicans fiercely criticized his deadline to bring troops home. But his decision on Wednesday to accelerate their withdrawal came with few reprisals, a sign of a remarkable shift in the politics of war."

• Public opinion on Afghanistan: Partisan mix on war ratings and Obama's approval: "A new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll finds a 44 percent plurality of Americans say Obama is handling the drawdown from the Afghanistan war 'about right.' Roughly three in 10 (29 percent) say he is not withdrawing quickly enough and 14 percent say he is moving too quickly."

Hannah Lythe is policy and outreach associate at Sojourners.