FUROR

Afghans Burn Obama in Effigy

Stage protests over soldier's shooting.

There may be no “rush for the exits,” as President Obama said yesterday, but the administration is weighing changes to its Afghanistan withdrawal strategy, according to The New York Times. The plan was to end combat operations by the end of 2014, but with the recent Quran-burning scandal and last weekend’s massacre of Afghan civilians, the administration is debating whether to accelerate the process. Meanwhile thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan to protest Sunday’s massacre, some burning Obama in effigy, and militants attacked an Afghan government delegation visiting the massacre site. Details about the suspect are trickling out: he is believed to be a sergeant, from the Lewis-McChord base near Seattle, which has a high rate of suicide and assault, and had suffered a traumatic brain injury during one of his three tours in Iraq.