Advocates of Big Government are forever creative in concocting new justifications for old programs. Supporters of more military spending are no different. One of the most unique arguments is that a bigger Pentagon budget is necessary to simultaneously protect and suppress the Europeans. (more)
Robert Gates, possibly the best secretary of defense in our nation’s history, may leave office next year bequeathing not only legacy but legend. Assuming of course that he survives. Already famed for taking on the Pentagon’s stud ducks, he has now touched the dreaded third rail of American politics: military manpower. Wednesday, in a speech at Duke University, he suggested that there is a widening gap between American society and the military that protects it. The reason: at elite colleges like Duke, military service is as rare as a Republican on the faculty. Our best and brightest are sent there to be educated by the ungodly and the politically correct: our wars are fought by Other People’s Kids. (more)
KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO helicopter crashed Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, killing nine international troops in a region where forces are ramping up pressure on Taliban insurgents. It was the deadliest chopper crash for the coalition in four years. (more)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Even as more American troops flow into the country, Afghanistan is more dangerous than it has ever been during this war, with security deteriorating in recent months, according to international organizations and humanitarian groups. (more)
The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said in an interview Monday that the international troops he leads in the war have turned the tide on the Taliban’s “momentum” there, but warned tough battles still lay ahead. (more)
Everything starts with a point of view. Turkey’s orientation – or rather– Orientalism is causing quite a discussion and is creating a wide split among policy makers, analysts, and journalists concerning whether or not the Islamist based ruling party, Justice and Development (AKP), is changing Turkish values. In the past, there was no doubt that Ataturk’s Turkey was destined to look toward the West. Now, there is talk about a whole new Turkey. Are the ones who warn of Turkey sliding away from the West creating a storm in a teacup? Or is there reason to wonder about Erdogan’s vision for the future of this first secular experience in a nation of Muslims? (more)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears at least to be trying to restore American prestige abroad. Talking tough in Asia last week, she stared across the DMZ and told the North Koreans to back off. In Vietnam she asserted that the United States still had a “national interest” in the region. She intimated that America would not allow China to bully ASEAN nations into giving up their rights in the South China Sea or restrict our freedom of navigation through one of the world’s busiest oceans. It is striking that Clinton, the most liberal Secretary of State since Cyrus Vance, is the most hawkish member of the administration’s national security team. (more)
Are you a Chamberlin or a Churchill, Mr. Cameron? The annals of English history shall record you in one light or the other. You have snatched back a rudderless country out of the hands of directionless leftists – and for this, we across the Atlantic are thankful. But don’t light your cigar just yet, sir. You have failed your first test of fortitude. (more)
As soon as Wikileaks posted the 91,000 reports they call the “Afghan War Diary” online, some people immediately compared them to the “Pentagon Papers.” Daniel Elsberg’s 1971 leak of a top-secret Vietnam War study revealed 20 years of presidential-administration deception about American involvement in Southeast Asia. The Afghan War Diary is a reprehensible and damaging revelation of secret intelligence sources and methods that places the lives of U.S. warriors and Afghani informants at greater risk, but the Afghanistan war’s “Pentagon Papers” it’s not. (more)
The platoon sergeant was inspecting the gaping crater left by a roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan when a second thunderous blast went off just 20 feet away. (more)
KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO announced Friday that six more U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 66 and surpassing the previous month’s record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly 9-year-old war. (more)
The battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan has taken a new turn in the past two months. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar, has ordered his forces to kill or capture any civilians, including Afghan women, who cooperate with Coalition forces. Omar’s latest directive contradicts his marching orders from just one year ago, when he told his Taliban commanders to refrain from harming civilians working with the Coalition. (more)
It’s the mother of all clichés. Almost no one can resist it. It’s wielded by everyone from thoughtful ex-generals to vitriolic bloggers. It crops up everywhere from Russia’s English-language TV channel to scruffy Pakistani newspapers to America’s stately National Public Radio. The Huffington Post can’t seem to live without it, and one recent book even chose it as a title. Afghanistan, we’re told, is “the graveyard of empires.” (more)
Documents released today by WikiLeaks have cast fresh doubts on the United States’ ability to win the War in Afghanistan. The documents, believed to be have been released at least in part by Pfc. Bradley Manning of Potomac, Md., according to Fox. Despite avoiding naming Manning as its source explicitly, WikiLeaks has offered to help fund his defense. Adrian Lamo, a former hacker who Manning allegedly attempted to enlist in the publication of the documents before turning to WikiLeaks, said this morning on Good Morning America that he believes Manning is the source, but that the computer analyst lacked the technical knowledge to have acted alone. (more)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Monday that he believes the U.S. should maintain a large troop presence in Afghanistan with no timeline for withdrawal, and specified that there may be a need for even more than the 100,000 boots on the ground included in President Obama’s ongoing surge. (more)
For a cynic, the introduction of yet another AR-pattern rifle these days could be met with a sigh of indifference. As with the popular M1911, the AR has become so iconic a part of the firearms community that in recent years it seems new models or variants are introduced every week. (more)
Nearly a year before his infamous resignation several weeks ago, Gen. Stanley McChrystal tightened the rules of engagement (ROE) for soldiers serving in Afghanistan to restrict troops from firing unless fired upon and prohibiting bombing or launching artillery attacks with civilians nearby. (more)
Throughout NATO’s existence, U.S. leaders have complained about the tendency of the alliance’s European members to skimp on defense spending and take advantage of America’s security shield to free ride. The free-rider problem, bad even during the Cold War, became worse when that struggle ended. (more)
British forces are to be pulled out of Sangin, the remote district of Helmand that has become a “honey pot” to Taliban insurgents and the most deadly place in Afghanistan for Nato soldiers. (more)
US Gen David Petraeus has formally taken command of the 130,000-strong international force battling insurgents in Afghanistan. (more)
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