WASHINGTON – Afghanistan is NATO's most important military operation, President Bush said Nov. 28, 2006, in Riga, Latvia.

"By standing together in Afghanistan, we'll protect our people, defend our freedom, and send a clear message to the extremists: The forces of freedom and decency will prevail," he said in a speech at Latvia University. Story

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GHAZNI, Afghanistan – As winter tightens its grip on Afghanistan -- higher elevations already are snow-covered -- U.S. forces are striving to fortify their Afghan National Army counterpart units and instill professional discipline to keep the Afghan soldiers on duty year-round.

“Traditionally, they all go home in winter,” Army Sgt. Maj. Bryan Gran, operations sergeant major for Task Force Iron Graze here, said in a Thanksgiving Day interview. “We’ve got to try to get them away from that. And the way to do that is we’ve got to provide them with suitable living quarters so that they can stay.” Story

KABUL, Afghanistan, – At 14, Roshan Safi was leading men in combat, running weapons behind Soviet lines to Afghan resistance forces. Today, at 34, he is the senior enlisted member in the Afghan National Army.

Roshan was appointed the first sergeant major of the Afghan army in June. Since then he has taken on -– and solved -- issues that have stymied general officers in this force’s four years of existence and is virtually single-handedly raising the prestige of noncommissioned officers among military leaders who grew up under a Soviet style of military in which only officers have responsibility or authority. Story