In March, President Obama thought that defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban was critical to national security. "[I]f the Afghan government falls to the Taliban — or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged," he warned, "that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can."
The Obama administration has signaled its concern for the Democratic Republic of Congo by sending Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton there last month, but restoring stability will require a long-term commitment of money, education, military training and enough political will to force Central African governments to hammer out a sustainable peace.
On a winter night shortly after dark, a group of armed men burst out of the Congolese jungle and attacked a small camp here for displaced families.
Atoki Christian Ileka has represented the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the United Nations since 1999, when the country was still called Zaire. He sat down recently with The Washington Times' U.N. correspondent, Betsy Pisik, and spoke candidly about why it has been so difficult to bring peace to his country.
President Obama this week called the war in Afghanistan one of "necessity," not choice. It is, he proclaimed, the "central front in the war on terrorism ... where the Taliban is gaining strength. ..." He solemnly concluded, "This is a war that we have to win."
It's an alluring idea: If the United States disarms or restrains its military forces, other countries would do the same. The notion is gaining ground in the Obama administration; it needs very careful scrutiny.
Nearly a year after a war with Russia drove tens of thousands of ethnic-Georgian refugees from two rebellious provinces, Georgia continues to struggle with the aftermath of a conflict in which it lost 20 percent of its territory.
Lt. Jimmie "Punk" Monteith was a big, bluff, fun-loving 26-year-old from Low Moor, Va. He had been in the Army since a few months before Pearl Harbor and had seen action in Sicily, where he received a field promotion. On the morning of June 6, 1944, he was in a landing boat with his men of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, destination Normandy.
An estimated 500,000 motorcyclists rolled into Washington this year for the 22nd annual Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom.
