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Enlist in your local Cajun Navy, the American refugees are coming.Watching the dumpster fire Joe Biden and his team lit with U.S. dollars and materiel in Afghanistan is demoralizing. Realizing we’re facing at least three more years of such catastrophic ineptitude, even if Biden is nominally replaced, is almost too much to absorb.Just eight months to the regime of “normalcy,” we’ve seen millions of unknowns crossing our southern border unchecked and child-raping third-world terrorists chasing off U.S. helicopters in Afghanistan. These are not accidents; these are man-made catastrophes. They are the direct result of our elites’ corruption and of American...

The man, who helped France during its embassy's evacuation, told authorities he previously manned a Taliban checkpoint. An Afghan refugee who was recently flown out of Kabul and is suspected to have current or past ties with the Taliban has been placed in custody in Paris, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin confirmed on Tuesday to franceinfo. On Monday, Darmanin initially announced that the man, who was taken on a French flight after he helped the French Embassy to evacuate, was placed under house arrest and surveillance because authorities "suspected this person to have or have had ties with the Afghan...

Laura and I have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness. Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much. The Afghans now at the greatest risk are the same ones who have been on the forefront of progress inside their nation. President Biden has promised to evacuate these Afghans, along with American citizens and our allies. The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have...

A veteran Associated Press photographer was killed and an AP reporter was wounded on Friday when an Afghan policeman opened fire while they were sitting in their car. . . . yelled Allahu Akbar

PAKTIYA, Afghanistan (July 8, 2011)– An insurgent mortar attack landed in a civilian populated area injuring eight Afghan civilians in Dand Patan district, July 3. At least 3 mortar rounds fired by insurgents resulted in severe injuries requiring medical evacuation. Coalition Special Forces operating near the incident provided first aid and called for a medical evacuation. Four young male children, a female child under the age of 2, one female adult, and two male adults were medically evacuated from the scene by coalition forces to a U.S. military hospital for treatment. The injured had severe shrapnel wounds to the head,...

The American role in Afghanistan is drawing to a close in a manner paralleling the pattern of three other inconclusive wars since the Allied victory in World War II: a wide consensus in entering them, and growing disillusionment as the war drags on, shading into an intense national search for an exit strategy with the emphasis on exit rather than strategy. We entered Afghanistan to punish the Taliban for harboring al-Qaeda, which, under Osama bin Laden’s leadership, had carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. After a rapid victory, U.S. forces remained to assist the construction of a post-Taliban state. But...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the United States must reduce the visibility and intensity of its military operations, especially night raids that fuel anti-American sentiment and could embolden Taliban insurgents. Karzai's remarks in an interview Saturday with The Washington Post come as the international military coalition has stepped up pressure on insurgents at the same time that the president has set up a peace council in hopes of reconciling with the top echelon of the Taliban. "The time has come to reduce military operations," Karzai said in the interview. "The time has come to reduce the...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India on Tuesday that the United States would not precipitously leave Afghanistan. A senior American defense official, quoting Mr. Gates, said that the defense secretary told Mr. Singh that “we intend to be in the region for a very long time.” President Obama has promised to begin troop withdrawals by July 2011. Mr. Gates and Mr. Singh talked about expanded cooperation between the two countries on military technology and cybersecurity. They also discussed China, whose growing influence in the region has increasingly concerned India’s leaders. Mr. Gates is in...

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan, Dec. 28, 2009 – Afghanistan’s Now Zad district governor, Sayed Murad Agha, greeted more than 100 local citizens of the once-abandoned market here Dec. 20. The rebuilding process for the Now Zad district has started, but there will be challenges, officials said. Agha surveyed the area, asked questions and addressed local Afghans’ concerns. He visited the medical facility where Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, provided care for local Afghans and spoke with local shopkeepers as he made his way through the district’s recently cleared streets. Although locals conveyed many concerns, Agha had some...

New military rules of engagement ostensibly to protect Afghan civilians are putting the lives of U.S. forces in jeopardy, claim Army and Marine sources, as the Taliban learns to game plan based the rules' imposed limits. The rules of engagement, or ROEs, apply to all coalition forces of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Their enactment is in response to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's complaints over mounting civilian deaths apparently occurring in firefights. Despite the fact that the newly arrived U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, imposed the more restrictive ROEs to minimize the killing of...

NURISTAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 1, 2009 – Nuristan Provincial Reconstruction Team servicemembers recently took to the airwaves to combat misinformation about the spread of the H1N1 flu virus here. Navy Lt. Jennifer Dreiling, a senior medical officer for the Nuristan Provincial Reconstruction Team, records a radio message on Radio Kalagush, a U.S.-funded Afghan radio station that broadcasts from Forward Operating Base Kalagush in eastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, educating locals about the H1N1 flu virus, Nov. 19, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. Natassia Cherne  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Navy Lt. Jennifer Dreiling, team senior medical officer...

If this is what she thought was a stupid idea when Bush was the president, I wonder what she will say about Obama tomorrow night when he explains why he is sending 35,000 of out men and women into Afghanistan? Will she come out now and embrace the same strategy that Bush used to win the war in Iraq or will she condemn it like she did on this video? Will she stand up for her own beliefs or tow the party line and go with the President? Will she flip flop now because her party holds the executive office,...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Nov. 20, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay met here today to discuss bilateral, hemispheric issues, but reporters’ questions afterward were all about Afghanistan. In their meeting, MacKay and Gates discussed building a maritime surveillance capability, defense issues in the Arctic and security cooperation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. But Afghanistan was in the background of all discussions. In his second-term inaugural address yesterday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that he wants to assume security control in his country by 2014, and Gates was asked if...

15 reportedly killed in US-led Pakistan attack By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD The Associated Press Wednesday, September 3, 2008; 6:41 AM DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Women and children were among 15 people killed in an attack Wednesday involving U.S.-led forces in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan, officials and a resident said. 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said it had "no information to give" about the alleged operation, while a spokesman for NATO troops there denied any involvement. The United States and Pakistan, allies in the war on terror, have had tensions...

When I went to Kabul in the mid-Nineties, the Taliban was at the height of its powers. Young girls, if they went to school, did so in secret, in basements, big eyes full of fear. Young boys, even tiny ones, openly ridiculed women in the streets. Women were not allowed to be treated by male doctors; they were not allowed to venture out unless accompanied by a male family member. My first thought when those two planes flew into the Twin Towers was that perhaps now a dozing giant would be roused and something might be done about a part...

President Bush returned to the White House today (presumably from Camp David). He was accompanied by Secretary of State Rice. First Lady Laura Bush made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Sunday with an appeal to the international community not to abandon the war-torn country in the face of resurgent Taliban violence. President and Mrs. Bush Saddened by Death of Jim McKay Laura and I were saddened to learn of the passing of Jim McKay. For a generation of Americans, Jim was more than the much-honored host of Wide World of Sports and ABC's Olympic coverage. He was a...

Text of report in English by Polish national independent news agency PAP Warsaw, 27 February: Two Polish soldiers died and one was injured on Tuesday [26 February] when their Humvee vehicle hit a roadside bomb near their base in Afghanistan, the Polish Defence Ministry has said. The explosive device blew up the vehicle some 3 kilometres from the Polish base in Sharana in the Paktika province, the ministry said. According to the report the wounded soldier's life is not in danger. The soldiers were returning to the base after a humanitarian mission when one of vehicles in a column drove...

In a scene all too familiar to US Servicemen past and present, a UH-60 MEDEVAC Helicopter, always call signed Dust-off, evacuates US Army Paratroopers and Afghan Army soldiers who were ambushed near Forward Operating Base Bella in November. The team of soldiers, comprised of Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, soldiers from the Afghan National Army, and two Afghan interpreters, had traveled less than 2 miles on foot to a nearby town of Aranas in the mountainous Nuristan Province. They set out early in the morning for what was supposed to be a positive and productive day of Shuras with...

Tip-toeing won't work. We need another 30,000 NATO troops to protect Afghans while they get their country on its feet. In 1999, I was an outspoken critic of NATO's ill-conceived bombing campaign against Serbia/Kosovo. For anyone playing close attention to the events leading up to the campaign, it was pretty obvious that the independence- seeking Kosovo Liberation Army - which, according to the CIA, was a terrorist organization - and its retained U.S.-based, public-relations support had played the West like a Stradivarius. This culminated with NATO volunteering to be the KLA's air force. A few months after the negotiated end...

KABUL (Reuters) - Don't telephone an Afghan at 8.30 in the evening. Chances are, he or she will be settled down in front of the television for a daily fix of an Indian soap opera. And they won't want to be disturbed. The series "The mother-in-law was a daughter-in-law once too", or "Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" in its original Hindi, has transfixed the country. Men, women, young and old -- anyone, it seems, with access to a television -- is enthralled by the family drama. It centres on Tulsi, a young bride from a poor family who married because...