Obama honors fallen Americans at Dover

In a midnight dash to this Delaware base, where US forces killed overseas come home, Obama honored the return of 18 fallen Americans Thursday. All were killed in Afghanistan this week, a brutal stretch that turned October into the most deadly month for US troops since the war began.

The dramatic image of a president on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years. Former President George W. Bush spent lots of time with grieving military families but never went to Dover to meet the remains coming off the cargo plane. Obama did so with the weight of knowing he may soon send more troops off to war.

For all the talk of his potential troop increase -- maybe 40,000, maybe some other large figure --Obama got a grim reminder of the number that counts: one.

His name was Dale R. Griffin, an Army sergeant from Terre Haute, Indiana. He was the last fallen soldier to come before Obama. And his remains were the only ones to be honored in full view of the media with the permission of his family. An 18-year ban on such coverage was lifted this year under Obama’s watch.

The president led a team of officials onto the gray C-17 cargo plane carrying Griffin, and then back off, where they stood for several minutes in a line of honor.

It was not quite 4 a.m. The sky was black and a yellowish light came from poles flanking the flight. The only sounds were a whirring power unit on the plane and the clicking of cameras. A blue vehicle carrying members of Griffin’s family pulled up.

Dignified transfer

The president saluted as six soldiers in camouflage and black berets carried Griffin’s remains into a waiting white van.

The military calls the process a dignified transfer, not a ceremony, because there is nothing to celebrate. The cases are not labeled coffins, although they come off looking that way, enveloped in flags.  On a clear fall night, the president zipped to Dover in about 40 minutes. He immediately spoke privately in a chapel with all the family members.

The solemn process of transferring remains of 15 soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents unfolded in four separate movements. Obama took part in all of them. A chaplain offered prayers for the fallen, the crews that brought them home, the families who lost a loved one, and a nation embroiled in war.  

By 4:45 a.m., the president had touched back down on the South Lawn, where even an active White House was sleepy.  He walked inside, alone.  A president of two inherited wars, Obama is winding down US involvement in Iraq, but the troubled war in Afghanistan is only widening.

Afghan election plan criticized as insufficient 

Afghanistan laid out plans for the Nov. 7 runoff presidential vote on Thursday in an announcement criticized as insufficient to prevent fraud, a day after a Taliban attack on UN staff reinforced concerns about security.

Worries about security and a possible repeat of election fraud have mounted ahead of the runoff in Afghanistan’s disputed vote which the resurgent Taliban have vowed to disrupt.

In the deadliest attack on the United Nations in decades, militants killed at least five UN foreign staff on Wednesday in an assault on a guest-house in central Kabul.

Preventing a repeat of fraud that compromised the first round vote is another big challenge after a UN-led inquiry tossed out a large chunk of President Hamid Karzai’s votes in the August election. The deputy head of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission said the election would go as planned, with more polling centers open this time due to improved security.

”We are fully prepared to hold the second round of the election as scheduled,” Zekria Barakzai told reporters. He said 6,322 polling centers would open this time compared with 6,305 on Aug. 20. One Western diplomat said the announcement ran contrary to earlier suggestions to reduce the likelihood of fraud.

“The numbers of polling locations that the IEC has announced are extremely disturbing,” said the official. “It’s a similar number to the first round and in the same locations, and they appear not to have made any effort to crack down on attempted fraud for the runoff.”

The United Nations had earlier said polling stations in areas where turnout was low in the first round due to bad security and where fraud had taken place should not open. Voters would be instead encouraged to cast ballots in safer locations. Concerns about the election have cast a shadow over US President Barack Obama’s plans to deploy more troops to Afghanistan to fight the increasingly fierce insurgency.

Karzai agreed to the poll under severe global pressure after a UN fraud inquiry invalidated enough of his votes to cut his tally below 50 percent and trigger a runoff. His closest rival is ex-foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah. Kabul Reuters