Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East region is recommending that the Obama administration leave 13,600 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when most international combat forces are slated to leave the country.
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East warned Iran and other nations Tuesday that the United States' military is still formidable despite budget cuts that have reduced the number of its aircraft carriers in the region.
President Obama urged Americans to put aside partisan differences and come together as a nation for Thanksgiving.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday that issues such as the economy and the Libyan consulate attack are much more important to the nation's voters than controversial comments made by Republican Senate candidates Rep. W. Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana.
A missile launched from a U.S. drone struck a suspected militant hideout in a tribal region in northern Pakistan where allies of a powerful warlord were gathered Saturday, killing five of his supporters, Pakistani officials said.
Pakistan's army chief will hold his first meeting with senior U.S. commanders Wednesday to discuss American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two Afghan border posts last year.
Recent congressional testimony confirmed North Korea's development of a new long-range, road-mobile missile that can reach American shores, increasing the threat of a nuclear attack on the United States.
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East will warn Congress on Tuesday against efforts to scale back the Navy's presence in the embattled region, saying threats from Iran and elsewhere will require more ships and maritime missile defense capabilities.
Crippling economic sanctions and tough talk of military strikes on its nuclear sites likely have prodded Iran to resume talks with the international community over its secretive nuclear program.
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Tuesday that America's military alone cannot prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
An investigation into a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops last month near the Afghan border has concluded that a combination of mistrust and bad maps led to the airstrikes on two Pakistani outposts, the U.S. Department of Defense and a NATO official said on Thursday.
From 2007 to 2009, a surge of 20,000 troops under the leadership of Gen. David H. Petraeus saved a mostly lost war in Iraq. Gen. Petraeus' counterinsurgency doctrine helped win over the population, as the surge in troops gave greater security to Iraq's government and military. Despite occasional violence, fewer Americans have been killed in Iraq in 2011 (53 in the most recent count) than in any year since the invasion - a quiet that could end with the departure of all American troops soon.
NATO forces may have been lured into attacking friendly Pakistani border posts in a calculated maneuver by the Taliban, according to preliminary U.S. military reports on the deadliest friendly-fire incident with Pakistan since the Afghanistan war began.
Afghan troops and coalition forces came under fire from the direction of two Pakistan army border posts, prompting them to call in NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Afghan officials said Sunday. The account challenges Islamabad's claims that the attacks, which have plunged U.S.-Pakistan ties to new lows, were unprovoked.
Pakistan's foreign minister on Saturday warned the United States against sending ground troops to her country to fight an Afghan militant group that America alleges is used as a proxy by Pakistan's top intelligence agency for attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who recently retired as head of all U.S. military forces in the Middle East, told senators: "If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition."
Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week that his personal recommendation was for a U.S. force of 13,600, with the expectation that NATO allies would contribute another 6,000 to 7,000.
