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...

Menendez Indictment May Help Obama in Iran Nuke Deal

By Eric Pianin

The indictment of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) on political corruption charges last week is having an important ripple effect as Congress positions itself to respond to the Obama administration’s...
Muslim Cleric Calls for ‘All-Out War’

By Riyadh Mohammed

Most parts of the world celebrate April Fools' Day with humor and laughter. The Middle East does it differently. Amid the ongoing Sunni-Shiite wars, on the eve of April Fools’ Day, an audio recording...
The U.S. Is Widening Its Lead as the World’s Top Arms Dealer

By Eric Pianin

President Obama’s decision on Tuesday to end an arms freeze against Egypt , a longtime ally, will clear the way for delivery of a panoply of powerful and pricey weapons, including F-16 aircraft,...
The Duck Drone That Could Change the Navy

By Patrick Tucker, Defense One

Nature, which has no need for devices that spy on enemy submarines from the air and underwater, may nevertheless have invented their form: flying fish, for example, or ducks that can zoom over the...
How the Air Force Played a ‘Shell Game’ to Protect Civilian Workforce

By Eric Pianin

The Obama administration has been trying to downsize the Defense Department’s civilian workforce in recent years to match reductions in the military services – but they’ve hit a blockade. While...

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