In a rare insight into the front lines of America’s ten-year war in Afghanistan, an article in Armed Forces Journal by a career officer and three-war veteran says that official reports that conditions in Afghanistan are improving are false, hopes to establish proficient local governments and a self-sufficient Afghan military are fleeting, and the United States’ war effort can be characterized by “the absence of success on virtually every level.” (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Adm. Bill McRaven said Tuesday that special operations forces in Afghanistan are preparing for a possible expanded role as overall U.S. forces begin to draw down after a decade of war. (more)
International outrage over a video of U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters consumed media coverage Friday. Some conservatives cheered the Marines for showing such profound disrespect to the dead insurgents, while many on the political left demanded more forceful condemnation. (more)
Nearly 200 demonstrators gathered at Lafayette Park on Wednesday, within earshot of the White House, to protest the U.S. military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba’s tenth anniversary of operation. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration hopes to restore momentum in the spring to U.S. talks with the Taliban insurgency that had reached a critical point before falling apart this month because of objections from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. and Afghan officials said. (more)
Five senators announced Thursday an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would hasten the end of America’s longest war. (more)
President Barack Obama has an election to win, so he’s praising the U.S. military. “The biggest honor of my job is serving as commander in chief,” he told attendees at a top-dollar political fundraiser on Nov. 7. (more)
Six anti-war, anti-corporate protesters were arrested after protesting in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday afternoon. (more)
Anti-war protesters loosely affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement swarmed a Capitol Hill office building Tuesday afternoon, resulting in a handful of arrests and the temporary closure of the main floor of the building. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military’s top officer told Congress on Thursday that President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw up to 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next summer is risky but keeps the U.S. and its allies on a path toward stabilizing the country. (more)
President Barack Obama may announce his much anticipated decision on the Afghanistan troop drawdown later this week. (more)
President Obama’s national security team is contemplating troop reductions in Afghanistan that would be steeper than those discussed even a few weeks ago, with some officials arguing that such a change is justified by the rising cost of the war and the death of Osama bin Laden, which they called new “strategic considerations.” (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Tuesday it is negotiating a possible reduction in U.S. intelligence operatives and special operations officers in Pakistan as the two countries try to mend relations badly strained by the arrest and detention of a CIA security contractor for killing two Pakistanis. (more)
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Demonstrators battled police in southern Afghanistan’s main city on Sunday and took to the streets in the turbulent east for the first time as Western pleas failed to halt a third day of rage over a Florida pastor’s burning of the Quran. (more)
A US Army soldier is to testify against the comrades with whom he allegedly planned and carried out the murders of Afghan civilians. The news comes as Nato forces brace themselves for a backlash in Afghanistan following the publication of graphic photographs of US soldiers posing with the people they allegedly killed. (more)
The other day, I read an article in the Washington Post entitled “I didn’t deserve my combat pay.” The author, Michael G. Cummings, is right that some deployed servicemen have tougher lives than others. In fact, I readily admit that I had an easier life in Iraq than many other servicemen, especially the ones who deployed during the initial invasion. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan insists the military can boost Afghan security forces to fight the Taliban, begin a troop drawdown this summer and fulfill President Barack Obama’s goal of a long-term partnership with the Kabul government. (more)
A group of retired military officers and civilians who worked in government have composed an open letter in support of embattled Lt. Gen. William Caldwell. (more)
The Times of London is reporting the General David Petraeus will leave his position as the commander of coalition troops in Afghanistan by the end of the year. (more)
Gen. David Petraeus, the most celebrated American soldier of his generation, is to leave his post as commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, The (London) Times reported Tuesday. (more)
