America at War

As Trump Announces Afghanistan Strategy, Here’s What the War Has Cost

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump will deliver his first prime-time address to the nation at 9 p.m. EDT tonight and is expected to announce that he’s sending thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. If that is the...
Trump Has Just Raised the Stakes With Moscow and Tehran in Three Risky Moves

By Patrick Smith

President Trump made three big moves on Syria and Iran this week. They crisscross and contradict one another, but the administration’s game plan in the Middle East just got a lot clearer.
Sending More Troops to Afghanistan Would Be a Historic Mistake

By Marc Joffe

Earlier this month, ISIS claimed to have taken Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden’s old hideout in Afghanistan. The Taliban immediately denied ISIS’s claim, insisting that it still held the area. But, in...
Trump’s Fly-by-Night Mideast ‘Policy’ Embraces the Saudi’s New Crown Prince

By Patrick Smith

It’s not likely that President Trump knew what he was getting into when he embraced the Saudis as the rightful leaders of the Islamic world and the war on terror during his visit to Riyadh last month...
How Will We Pay the $6 Trillion Bill for the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

By Linda J. Bilmes, The Conversation

On Memorial Day, we pay respects to the fallen from past wars – including the more than one million American soldiers killed in the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. Yet the nation’s...

Here's How Much the 'Mother of All Bombs' Costs

By Jacqueline Leo

The United States Defense Department likes to show off. After proving it can move with the quick strike capability of a cobra as it did when it launched 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield ,...
Why The US Can't Just Take Out Assad

By David Alpher, The Conversation

The Trump administration has done an abrupt about-face on Syria, contradicting its own nascent foreign policy . Within 24 hours, it went from calling out the Assad regime for using chemical weapons...
Team Trump Still in Search of a Coherent Syria Policy

By Rob Garver

More than 48 hours after President Trump ordered a missile assault on a Syrian government airbase as retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians in the town of Idlib,...
Trump Just Strengthened His Hand on Defense Spending

By Eric Pianin

In the wake of U.S. missile strikes against Syria, President Trump’s call for huge increase in defense spending is suddenly looking more likely to succeed.
Here's What Firing 59 Tomahawk Missiles at Syria's Airfield Cost

By Jacqueline Leo

Sarin gas is a horrible nerve agent that should never be used on human beings. Even if one doesn't die from exposure, there could be permanent damage to the nervous system after even a short...

Britain Hangs Back As the U.S. Pays $2.2 Billion to Fight ISIS

By Eric Pianin

Two things can be said with certainty about the U.S.-led coalition’s nine-month campaign to crush the powerful and resilient ISIS jihadists in Iraq and Syria: President Obama was right in predicting...
U.S. Officials Ramp Up Terror Warnings

By Rob Garver

Federal officials said the U.S. is “in a new environment” when it comes to the potential for domestic terrorist attacks, particularly of the “lone wolf” variety.
ISIS Again Threatening Vital Iraqi Oil Refinery

By Charles Kennedy, Oilprice.com

The U.S. military is helping Iraqi forces pushback ISIS at a vital oil refinery. The Baiji refinery is located between Kirkuk and Mosul, and it has been the target of ISIS militants since the...
The U.S. Could Be Paying $2.3 Billion a Year for Afghan Ghost Soldiers

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

As part of the Afghanistan reconstruction effort started in 2002, the United States has doled out at least $2.3 billion to pay the salaries of the Afghan National Army and help build the country’s...
ISIS Leader Baghdadi Can Barely Move After Air Strike: Report

By Pamela Engel, Business Insider

The head of the Islamic State is reportedly injured so badly he can barely move, Kareem Shaheen at The Guardian reports. "Sources tell us Baghdadi is still alive, but still unable to move due to...

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