How to make billions of dollars vanish in Afghan corruption

This June 10, 2017 photo released by the U.S. Marine Corps shows an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter provides security from above while CH-47 Chinooks drop off supplies to U.S. Soldiers with Task Force Iron at Bost Airfield, Afghanistan. After nearly 17 years of war Afghanistan, it is apparent our nation-building efforts there have failed and will continue to fail.

Travis 75th: Today: Travis remains hub of military, humanitarian activity

Travis opened its most-recent half-decade with significant base improvements and an ongoing high operations tempo supporting American operations around the world. Its capabilities took a large jump forward in March 2013 when the base opened up its reconstructed runway and adjacent landing zone, which not only gave Travis one of the best runways in the Air Force, but was also a model of recycling.

Why Can’t the World’s Best Military Win Its Wars?

So declared an Associated Press story reporting an upbeat assessment by this country's top military officer at the end of a five-day visit to Afghanistan earlier this spring. Marine General Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was heading home from the war zone, the AP reporter wrote, "with a palpable sense of optimism" about the U.S.-supported war against Taliban and Islamic State fighters there.

Pompeo Begins Mission with NATO Meeting in Brussels

New U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent a powerful signal to NATO allies, traveling to Brussels for Friday's ministerial meeting just hours after being confirmed. "I hopped straight on a plane and came straight here," Pompeo told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Kaine, fellow senators introduce new war powers resolution

The chairman and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., unveiled a bipartisan resolution Monday authorizing the use of military force overseas, accelerating a debate that Congress has been reluctant to have, but that's taking on new urgency after President Donald Trump's strikes on Syria. The resolution from Kaine and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would repeal the broad authorizations Congress approved in 2001 and 2002 for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, replacing them with new authority to go after specific "non-state terrorist groups."

Senators introduce new war powers resolution

A new resolution from leaders on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to authorize the use of military force overseas is accelerating a debate that Congress has been reluctant to have, but that's taking on new urgency after President Donald Trump's strikes on Syria. The bipartisan measure from Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., would repeal the broad authorizations Congress approved in 2001 and 2002 for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, replacing them with new authority to go after specific "non-state terrorist groups."

Is the US winning an – infinite war’? Trump and military see it differently

The commander in chief has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan a central tenet of his foreign policy, but the army holds frequently opposing ideas about what winning means US President Donald Trump's pronouncement that he would be pulling troops out of Syria "very soon" has laid bare a major source of tension between the president and his generals. Trump has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan a central tenet of his foreign policy and tough-guy identity.

Pentagon report doubts progress against Taliban

A Pentagon watchdog agency raised fresh doubts Friday about progress in the 16-year-old U.S. war in Afghanistan and suggested that restrictions on the public release of information make it difficult to gauge the effectiveness of U.S. strategy. The Pentagon's office of the inspector general, in a report done jointly with the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the Afghan government by the end of 2017 had not expanded its areas of control, even as the U.S. added about 3,500 troops and intensified airstrikes against the Taliban.

U.S. defense budget with lavish purchase plan faces doubts

The U.S. Department of Defense on Monday rolled out its budget for fiscal year 2019, asking Congress for 716 billion U.S. dollars for arms purchases and a staff expansion, and bringing a slew of questions and doubts. The entire budget consists of three parts -- the base budget of 617 billion U.S. dollars, covering Pentagon operation costs and arms procurement, the war fund, or Overseas Contingency Operations, of 69 billion dollars, and the defense budget of 30 billion dollars to keep other government agencies functioning.

News 6 Mins Ago Us adding air power, intelligence gathering in Afghanistan

The U.S. is shifting combat and intelligence-gathering aircraft to Afghanistan as part of an intensified focus on the Taliban, now that the campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria is winding down, the commander of coalition air forces in Afghanistan said Wednesday. Air Force Maj.

Trump condemns Taliban role in Afghan attacks, no more talks Source: AP

President Donald Trump told visiting members of the U.N. Security Council on Monday the U.S. would no longer talk with the Taliban following a recent string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan. Trump railed against a series of "atrocities" in Afghanistan and said as a result the U.S. would not engage in any future talks with the Taliban as the administration seeks to end a stalemate in America's longest war.