Asia and Australia Edition: The Taliban, Khashoggi, India: Your Friday Briefing
Two top leaders in Kandahar Province were assassinated in an attack that narrowly missed the top American commander in the country, Gen. Austin Miller.
Category Archives: Afghanistan
HISTORY, Oct. 9: Public first admitted to Washington Monument
In 1930, Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States as she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to Glendale, Calif.
US Drone Strikes Kill Afghan ISIS Leader
Abu Sayeed Orakzai was the fourth ISIS leader in Afghanistan killed since July 2017, according to the provincial governor of Nangarhar, NBC News reported Sunday. The airstrikes were launched near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to Agence France-Presse, Fox News reported.
U.S. Diplomats Held Face-to-Face Talk With Taliban, Insurgents Say
American diplomats held face-to-face talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar a week ago without Afghan government officials present, in a reversal of a longstanding United States policy, two senior Taliban officials said on Saturday. The United States State Department has not denied that its diplomats had taken part in such talks - a significant shift in American strategy toward the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Shocking Waste Hidden Inside the $126 Billion Afghan Reconstruction
"Congress has appropriated $126 billion for Afghanistan reconstruction since Fiscal Year 2002," wrote Special Inspector General John F. Sopko in testimony delivered in May to the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management. By 2014, he added, inflation-adjusted appropriations for that purpose "had already exceeded the total of U.S. aid committed to the Marshall Plan for rebuilding much of Europe after World War II."
NBC: US, Taliban in secret “indirect” talks to end war
Is America's longest war heading to a quiet end? NBC News reported earlier today that Taliban sources claim to have engaged in "indirect negotiations" with the US, primarily through former commanders forced out of the conflict. The talks are fraught with risks, particularly from some surprising sources: U.S. officials are meeting with former Taliban members amid intensifying efforts to wind down America's longest war, three of the militant group's commanders told NBC News.
After Trump’s spending demands, NATO summit turns to Afghanistan
A Massachusetts hiker whose failure to notify his wife that he was spending the night in a hotel and prompted an extensive search and rescue operation in the White Mountains has donated $3,000 to the... Brandon Gillis does not think he played his best two rounds of golf at the 115th New Hampshire Amateur Championship Wednesday at Hanover Country ... (more)
The story behind the MJ Hegar video
Mary Jennings "MJ" Hegar, a 42-year-old mother and Republican turned " independent Democrat " running for Congress in Texas, is an Air Force veteran and retired Air National Guard helicopter pilot who didn't let an abusive biological father, knee injuries, and sexual bias, harassment and assault stop her from doing three tours in Afghanistan that climaxed with a rescue mission gone awry in which she strapped herself to the skids of a chopper and fired at the Taliban. Her service earned her a Purple Heart.
Pentagon identifies soldier killed in apparent insider attack in Afghanistan
The Pentagon has identified the soldier killed in an apparent insider attack Saturday in Afghanistan as Army Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California.
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.
Follow the Constitution on Waging War
Americans might differ over the finer points of the Founding Fathers' plan to share war-making authority between the executive and legislative branches, but the basic principle has always been clear. Congress, and only Congress, has the power to declare war; the president and his military advisers are responsible for waging it.
Loud Explosions Rock Kabul
A series of huge explosions rocked Kabul on Wednesday followed by gunshots, in the latest attacks on the Afghan capital. AFP journalists heard several blasts in the heart of the city that were confirmed by police spokesperson Hashmatullah Estanakzai.
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."
Welcome to Vietnam, Err, I Mean Syria, Mr. President
Former U.S. National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster, speaks about the situation in Syria during a discussion at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, on March 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. McMaster will be replaced by uber-hawk John Bolton on Monday, April 9th.
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.
Russia ‘arming the Afghan Taliban’, Says US
Russia is supporting and even supplying arms to the Taliban, the head of US forces in Afghanistan has told the BBC. In an exclusive interview, Gen John Nicholson said he'd seen "destabilising activity by the Russians."