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COMBAT OUTPOST DEYSIE, Afghanistan, April 23, 2009 – Nothing illustrates the difficulties of combat in Afghanistan’s Regional Command East like this base on the Gardez-Khowst road. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the base yesterday to hear from the soldiers on the ground what life is like in Afghanistan. He flew from Kabul to Forward Operating Base Airborne, and then to this combat outpost. Mullen met with leaders and servicemembers who explained their duties and talked about the challenges they face. The area is “geographically challenging,” said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Milley, deputy commander...

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2009 – The war in Afghanistan poses the biggest challenge to the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday, but he expressed confidence that Iraq “is in a better place” and warfighters and wounded warriors are better provided for than two years ago. Speaking on PBS’ “Tavis Smiley Show,” Gates reflected on the challenges he faces as defense secretary and the accomplishments he has helped to bring about. “Clearly, the war in Afghanistan is our biggest current challenge,” he said. “Getting the strategy right on that, having a path forward, and having clear and attainable...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pledge to seek a worldwide ban on weapons in space marks a dramatic shift in U.S. policy while posing the tricky issue of defining whether a satellite can be a weapon. Moments after Obama's inauguration last week, the White House website was updated to include policy statements on a range of issues, including a pledge to restore U.S. leadership on space issues and seek a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats will pack greater clout when the new Congress convenes on Tuesday but they face enormous expectations from voters as they grapple with two wars, a financial crisis and record budget deficits. Lawmakers begin work 14 days before Barack Obama is sworn in as president. When he takes the oath on January 20, Democrats will control the White House and Congress for the first time in 14 years. Having rolled to victory in the November election with a promise of change after eight turbulent years under Republican President George W. Bush, Democrats need to produce results. Their...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2008 – Afghanistan is making progress, and despite challenges, it can rely on America to help it defeat terrorists and grow its fledgling democracy, President George W. Bush told Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the capital city of Kabul today. “There’s been good progress made, but there are a lot of tough challenges” ahead in Afghanistan, said Bush, who made a surprise visit to Afghanistan following his unannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday. “I told the president that you can count on the United States -- just like you’ve been able to count on this administration, you’ll...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2008 – Afghanistan’s complex environment colors military operations in the nation, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan told the Atlantic Council of the United States here yesterday. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan said Afghanistan’s culture of violence, exacerbated by more than three decades of warfare, combines with the opium poppy trade to produce a toxic brew in the nation. Afghanistan’s heroin trade funds the insurgency, McKiernan said. While the Taliban is the main group in the country, various other extremist groups continue to merge and fall apart and find common ground with drug traffickers,...

“Mark my words,” Joe Biden told a group of wealthy contributors. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like it did John Kennedy.” A moment later Biden added, “Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” So let’s play Name That Crisis, the one Biden says will test Obama within six months of his inauguration. Understand any answer will be tentative. Even if the prognosticator correctly identifies the antagonists and the battlefield, the actual sequence of events will defy astrologers, political science-fiction scenarists and intelligence...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today challenged military officers to become forward thinkers with the courage to advance new approaches needed to confront current and emerging threats. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Lorenz, Commander of the Air War College, presents a memento to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to commemorate his speech at Polifka Auditorium, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., April 21, 2008. Defense Dept. photo by Cherie Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “An unconventional era of warfare requires unconventional thinkers,” Gates told Air War College students at Maxwell Air...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A huge survey of the world's Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence. The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism. It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington. "Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): 'It is time...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2008 – The Afghan army air corps is going through rapid growth, but it will take eight years for the force to be self-sustaining and independent, the commander of the Combined Air Power Transition Force said from his headquarters in the Afghan capital of Kabul today. Air Force Brig. Gen. Jay H. Lindell told Pentagon reporters via video-teleconference that the air corps has doubled its capability since October and that he expects it to double again in the next six months. His 133 U.S. servicemembers are helping the Afghan National Army establish the air corps. Ultimately, the...

TALLIL, Iraq, Jan. 22, 2008 – Of the nearly 3,800 projects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division has completed across Iraq in four years, one stands out because of the special challenges it posed. Circuits come together and split to different directions in the country at the Amarah, Iraq, electrical substation outdoor switchyard. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Built at a cost of nearly $37 million, a 400–kilovolt electrical substation in Amarah, the capital of Iraq’s Maysan province, was built in an area deemed volatile and high-risk from a security perspective, with...

SAN DIEGO – Environmental groups filed 13 lawsuits Wednesday against the Bush administration, alleging that it fails to protect imperiled species because of political meddling and other inadequacies. Mentioned in the litigation were at least five species with current or former habitat in San Diego County: the spreading navarretia, thread-leaved brodiaea, San Diego ambrosia, red-legged frog and arroyo toad. Dozens of related lawsuits are in the works, signaling a heightened battle with national implications for how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes care of plants and animals close to extinction. The agency already was reeling from investigations that found...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2007 – Though the rapid growth of Iraq’s Interior Ministry has posed challenges, the Iraqis are forging ahead with the process, the commander of the coalition police assistance training team in Iraq said yesterday. Army Maj. Gen. Michael Jones spoke to Web journalists and “bloggers” via telephone from his headquarters in Baghdad. The Interior Ministry has grown 450 percent since 2003, he said. “As I thought about it, I tried to imagine if this was the U.S. Army,” he said. If the Army grew at the same rate, there would be an active force of more than...

KHOWST PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 4, 2007 – Mentoring Afghan national security forces puts coalition soldiers everywhere in Afghanistan, which means a lot of wear and tear on their vehicles. But that’s not stopping them. U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division soldiers drive a Humvee through a wadi in Afghanistan’s Khowst province. Photo by Staff Sgt. Luis P. Valdespino Jr., USMC  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Soldiers recognize that the dirt and rocky roads, mountain sides and random paths are hard on even the toughest of all-terrain vehicles, so the troops handle mechanical breakdowns in stride. During a recent morning...

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Sept. 21, 2007 – Problems facing reserve-component servicemembers are universal, regardless of which country they come from, international officials here this week learned. Representatives from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand here to discuss reserve personnel issues all agreed that the biggest challenges facing reserve-component family programs are communication and overcoming the stigma of receiving support. The group, known as the ABCA Information Team -- for America, Britain, Canada and Australia; New Zealand joined only recently -- has met for the past eight years to ensure member armies have necessary capabilities...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2007 – The top U.S. military commander and diplomat in Iraq entered their third round of congressional testimony this afternoon reiterating their belief that although the mission in Iraq is challenging, it’s making progress the United States can’t afford to let slip. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee the signs of progress they’ve seen in Iraq, as well as the frustrations. Much of the testimony mirrored discussions aired during marathon sessions over the past two days. Petraeus...

WASHINGTON - Two prominent Senate Republicans have drafted legislation that would require President Bush by the end of the year to dramatically narrows the mission of U.S. troops. The legislation, which represents a sharp challenge to Bush, was put forward by Sens. John Warner and Richard Lugar, the ranking members of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations. It came as the Pentagon acknowledged that a decreasing number of Iraqi army battalions are able to operate independently of U.S. troops. "Given continuing high levels of violence in Iraq and few manifestations of political compromise among Iraq's factions, the optimal outcome in...

MARINE CORPS BASE, CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii, June 15, 2007 — Born on the land, bred in the water and now a lethal and effective hybrid of both – one hospital corpsman has worked through and trained in the trenches to become the dedicated, life saving “Devil Doc” he is today. Petty Officer 2nd Class Angelo Catindig, a native of the Philippines, has tasted three different branches of military service. His military career began on the ground side as an infantryman in the Army. However, it was the events at the outset of his next experience – a naval career...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2007 – It’s still too early to assess the impact of the new strategy in Iraq, but more progress is expected as additional troops come on line to boost security in Baghdad, according to the latest quarterly report to Congress, released today. The June 2007 report, “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq,” assesses trends in terms of the security environment, political process, economic activity and development of Iraqi security forces. The report measures both progress and setbacks between mid-February and mid-May. It’s the first report for which the entire period took place under the new strategy...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, June 5, 2007 – Although acknowledging he’d like to see faster progress in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today refused to point fingers at the Iraqi army and said that force is standing up to challenges confronting it. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates meets with Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, June 5. Photo by Cherie A. Thurlby  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “We would certainly be happy if there was faster progress on the political front in terms of reunification,” Gates said in response to a question during a joint news conference with...