Free Republic

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is sending 10 battalions of troops to country's border with Colombia. He's also ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and say all embassy personnel will be withdrawn from Colombia. The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations with its neighbor to their tensest point of his 9-year presidency. Chavez is also warning that Colombia could spark a war in South America, calling its U.S.-allied government "a terrorist state" and labeling President Alvaro Uribe (oo-REE'-bay) "a criminal."

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2007 – Roughly 95 of 140 battalions that make up Iraq’s army, national police and special operations forces are capable of leading operations, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq told the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees today. Petraeus joined U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker during the first of two days of hearings on the status of the war and political developments in Iraq. “There's a very substantial number of Iraqi battalions, especially Iraqi army battalions, that are very much in the fight,” the general said. “Indeed, in many...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- A young Iraqi lieutenant in a maroon beret and immaculately pressed battle fatigues paced in front of 28 children at a school courtyard in Baghdad`s Abu Ghraib neighborhood in early October, smoking a thin cigarette, elegantly. The boys had been pulled from class because they were the poorest in the school, and the Iraqi forces just now beginning to police their neighborhood had come to deliver school supplies. They are taking over not just the security mission from the Americans, but the attempt to win the hearts and minds of the community. 'What is...

On August 23, 2005, the Secretary of Defense approved a request by the commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) to deploy two additional infantry battalions to Iraq. Two battalions from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy to Iraq for an anticipated duration of approximately 120 days to support security efforts during the election period. Adjustments to troop levels in Iraq occurred prior to the transfer to Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004 and during the January Iraqi elections. These troops will join 180,000 Iraqi security forces and 138,000 coalition forces in helping set the security conditions for successful elections. Gen. Casey’s request...