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The first group of Muslim refugees is set to arrive in the U.S. from resettlement camps in Australia. The first party to arrive in the states includes 52 people who are already in-transit from Australia to Los Angeles. In return, Australia will accept central American refugees from a camp in Costa Rica. Under an Obama-era deal over 1,200 Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka will arrive in the U.S. ... the resettlement deal is unfair to the U.S. as central American migrants do not pose a threat of radical Islamic terror to Australia.

Even after “updating” a May 17 ‘Fact’ Check which this writer characterized as "taking three sentences from an hour-long May 1 Rick Hamada interview with Afghanistan combat veteran Rep. Charles Djou, twisting Djou's words into a pretzel and fact-checking statements Djou did not make", Civil Beat is still lying about Charles Djou’s Afghanistan combat record and his votes in Congress relating to that war. (See article below.) Shamed into retracting their “false” rating, Civil Beat on Friday shifted to a “half-true”. In spite of the shift, the “half-true” rating remains a lie which hangs on a single sentence of willful...

This is like something that happens in a CGI action flick or a cartoon, via the BBC’s Feras Kilani reporting near Kirkuk, Afghanistan: It appears to be the quickest way for a suicide car bomber to reach Heaven by exploding in the sky after US missile hit him near Apparently the missile hit one car bomb which caused the second car to fly into the air where it then exploded:

Two Afghan asylum seekers were arrested for the brutal rape, and a third for attempted rape, of a 16-year-old girl in the Bavarian town of Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn just south of Munich. The pair of asylum seekers, aged 27 and 17, are said to have met the girl on Friday night along with others who gathered in front of a local asylum shelter. The pair, along with an 18-year-old Afghan male, walked the girl to a nearby train station where the 27-year-old and 17-year-old took turns raping her, Der Spiegel reports. The 18-year-old Afghan asylum seeker also attempted to rape the girl...

I was one of the first American officials to arrive in Kabul at the end of 2001. The war that seemed to be ending back then is currently in its 16th year with no end in sight, and for those of us who were there at the beginning it now sometimes seems like it was a lifetime ago. President Barack Obama not so long ago referred to Afghanistan as the “necessary war.” But now it might be more appropriate to refer to it as a “forgotten war,” as President Donald Trump has sent a few thousand more soldiers to Kabul—while...

The U.S. Army signed a deal to buy as many 150 MD 530F light attack helicopters, as well as a host of related mission equipment, specifically for American allies and partners, over the next five years. The first deliveries will go to Afghanistan, where some officials have previously criticized the tiny gunship’s performance in the country and which simply may not have the manpower to effectively make use of them at all. On Sept. 5, 2017, the Pentagon announced the Army’s contract award to MD Helicopters, worth almost $1.4 billion, in its daily contracting press release. This initial notice suggested...

With more than 3,300 pounds of weapons, the fierce Super Tucano can swoop in to unleash hefty firepower from above and save lives of warfighters on the ground. The A-29 “Super Tucano” turboprop aircraft looks like a Latin spin throwback to the World War II era of iconic American fighters- but make no mistake this aircraft is a modern hybrid of low tech and high tech fit to fight current threats. The Super Tucano is currently taking part in the U.S. Air Force's exciting Light Attack Experiment. The A-29 that is part of the Experiment is a partnership between Brazilian...

At least five people are dead and eight injured following an explosion near the U.S. Embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul. An explosion was set off at the entrance of a bank near Massoud Square Tuesday, which is an area that houses the U.S. Embassy and several other diplomatic buildings. The attack occurred while many people were trying to withdraw money for the upcoming Muslim holiday. While no one has yet to claim responsibility, unconfirmed reports say the explosion was set off by a suicide bomber.

Like millions of Americans, I watched President Donald Trump’s speech from my living room on August 21, 2017. It is the third time an American president has addressed our nation on Afghanistan, now the longest war in American history. To those of us familiar with the region, the speech was business as usual, with a few notable changes. But for those Americans with loved ones in Pakistan, the president’s speech was a plainspoken warning – fall in line Pakistan, or face the consequences. Taking the speech to its furthest extrapolation, without change, Pakistan will soon face US sanctions. Certainly for...

I watched President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on Monday with great interest. What would he propose to do in Afghanistan? Send more troops, pull more out, use private contractors, etc. Now we know. But there are really only two options to consider: actually going to war the way we used to, or simply leaving. We went into Afghanistan for a very specific and justified purpose – to go after the leadership of al Qaeda after the September 11th attacks. Once we removed the Taliban, the ruling cabal that sheltered Osama bin Laden and his evil fellow travelers, we...

U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters that President Donald Trump’s administration will win in Afghanistan by allowing the country to “be Afghanistan” rather than trying to “create a state in the U.S. image.” “Winning in Afghanistan is really aimed at allowing Afghanistan to be Afghanistan. As the president said, not to nation-build, not to create a state in the U.S. image,” said Gen. McMaster when asked about President Trump’s newly unveiled strategy to end the nearly 16-year-old ear in the country. For years, Afghanistan has been plagued by various persistent problems, including a deadly heroin production and addiction...

President Trump thinks he can solve the AfPak dilemma. In his speech, Trump talked about winning. There is no winning to be had beyond safeguarding our national interests. This is all a distraction from a gigantic problem: China. On our scale of concern, Afghanistan is microscopic by comparison to China and other challenges, yet on our scale of priorities, the price of nation building in Afghanistan dwarfs the price of securing our borders. Afghanistan is at the periphery of our influence bubble. Pluto. Our footprint is a speck in the Asian beyond. The President called on Pakistan and India to...

President Trump's Afghanistan speech on Monday night was disciplined, measured, and sometimes verging on eloquence. It was presidential. Evidently, his vision wasn't impaired when he looked at the eclipse without smoked glasses earlier in the day. Like Barack Obama, Trump came to office determined to get out of Afghanistan. "My original instinct was to pull out," he said Monday. But "decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk on the Oval Office." Trump criticized Obama's 2011 decision to "hastily and mistakenly" withdraw from Iraq, and for announcing an endpoint to his 2009 surge of troops into Afghanistan. Trump...

After When British General Sir Charles Napier observed Hindus preparing their traditional religious practice of suttee – the burning of a still-living widow on her deceased husband’s funeral pyre – he told the Indian priests, “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.” Fast forward two centuries – the United States...

President Donald Trump’s supporters will pay a bloody price for his abandoning his “original instinct” on Afghanistan. “Since the founding of our republic,” Trump said in his speech on Afghanistan this week, “American patriots from every generation have given their last breath on the battlefield for our nation and for our freedom.” Although Trump refused to say how many American troops he would commit to Afghanistan to carry out his escalation, it is a certainty that many of those breathing their last breaths there would be from the places that delivered him his electoral victory last November. A recent study...

The country might be home to America's longest-running war, but the US has spent more time, energy, and money trying to rebuild Afghanistan than it has spent killing the Taliban. American taxpayers send billions to Kabul every year and every year billions disappear into the pockets of Afghan government officials. Electronic payment systems would go a long way to solving that problem. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) wanted to do just that. The Agency figured if it could convince those at corruption hotspots, such as customs agents and border guards, to use e-payment methods, then it might curb...

What is it we are doing in Afghanistan? What do we think we are doing in Afghanistan? All we can say with any confidence is that the former and the latter bear only a theoretical relationship. The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and many of his associates were thought to be holed up there under the protection and the patronage of the Taliban, the jihadist militia cum narcotics syndicate that controlled Afghanistan at the time. U.S. forces marched in, toppled the Taliban, and installed...

Historically speaking has any Empire won a war of counter insurgency? I'm hearing this talk about Afghanistan, and do not know the answer? I think the odds are not good when you think of the American Revolution, Vietnam, Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.. and an added bonus the "rules of engagement". For the record, I am very strong President Trump supporter. Love the guy and will support him 100%. Just looking for good answers. Thanks!

I spent a year there as commander of a forward surgical team, like a modern day MASH unit. We cared for not only wounded US and NATO troops, but also for Afghan military and police forces, civilians, and even a fair number of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. I got to spend a lot of time with local politicians, ordinary citizens, military officers, and the enemy. From all of these experiences I can give you my take: There is nothing there worth even one more American life. After the horror of September 11, 2001, we had every right to take...

On Monday, President Donald Trump laid out his strategy for the war in Afghanistan going into 2018 and beyond. While reaction to the strategy was somewhat mixed, there was one thing that stuck out: Wait, didn't former President Barack Obama say that we'd be done with this by now?  Why yes, yes he did. Let's take a trip in the way-back machine and look at some now-regrettable tweets, dug up by Fox's Stephen Miller:  FACT: Unlike President Obama, Romney has no plan to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 9, 2012 As...