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The initial goal of invading Afghanistan in the immediate weeks after 9/11 could not have been more clear: Get Osama bin Laden and oust the Taliban regime that gave his fanatical pack of beards safe haven to plan and practice the deadly attacks.It was the first and so far only time NATO allies invoked the Article 5 mutual defense pact. That familiar mission creep, however, seeped in and with the best of naive intentions, the foreigners stuck around to attempt nation-building to protect the power vacuum they created.It’s had some good days (a new Constitution now gives equal rights...

July 12, 2019 MEMRI Daily Brief No.191 The Doha Agreement – Paving The Way For The Taliban's Takeover Of Afghanistan And Enforcement Of Shari'a-Based Governance By: Tufail Ahmad* The July 7-8 talks between the Taliban and Afghan delegates in Doha. Introduction At the July 7-8 talks in Doha, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization), backed by Qatar and the U.S., emerged victorious, extracting major advantages from Afghan delegates and the international community. A key Taliban advantage was that they held on to the Islamic Emirate's long-standing position of not recognizing the elected government of Afghanistan as a legitimate...

Nominee for Top US General: Afghan Withdrawal Would Be 'Strategic Mistake' July 11, 2019 President Donald Trump's nominee for the top military officer of the United States says leaving Afghanistan prematurely would be a "strategic mistake," as the U.S. and the Taliban are negotiating a potential peace settlement to end nearly two decades of war. "I think it is slow, it's painful, it's hard. I spent a lot of my life in Afghanistan, but I also think it's necessary," Army Gen. Mark Milley, the current Army Chief of Staff and nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told...

The Pentagon has identified two soldiers killed Friday in Kunduz Province in Afghanistan as a result of what it said were wounds sustained while engaged in combat. The two soldiers were identified as Spc. Joseph Collette of Lancaster, Ohio, 29, and Sgt. 1st Class Will Lindsay, 33, of Cortez, Colorado. Collette was assigned to the 242nd Ordnance Battalion, 71st Explosive Ordnance Group in Fort Carson, Colorado, and Lindsay was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Carson. Two US defense officials told CNN Friday that the two US service members were killed during a...

Reuters is reporting that Taliban officials say they have reached a draft deal with US negotiators to withdraw all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 18 months. US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad would not confirm a draft deal was in place, saying only that "significant progress" had been made. While no joint statement was issued, Khalilzad tweeted later that the talks had made “significant progress” and would resume shortly, adding that he planned to travel to Afghanistan to meet government officials. “Meetings here (in Qatar) were more productive than they have been in the past. We have made significant progress...

About half of the 14,000 U.S. forces will return home in the coming weeks, the start of a total pullout that could take at least many months A day after a contested decision to pull American military forces from Syria, officials said Thursday that President Trump has ordered the start of a reduction of American forces in Afghanistan. More than 7,000 American troops will begin to return home from Afghanistan in the coming weeks, a U.S. official said. The move will come as the first stage of a phased drawdown and the start of a conclusion to the 17-year war...

The Trump administration is withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense officials said Thursday, around half of what the American military has there now. Mr. Trump made the decision at the same time he decided he was pulling American forces out of Syria, one official said. The move is likely one of the first steps to end the United States’ involvement in the 17-year-old war. The 14,000 American troops currently in Afghanistan are divided between training and advising Afghan forces and a counterterror mission against groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. The reduction,...

WASHINGTON—A day after a contested decision to pull American military forces from Syria, officials said Thursday that President Trump has ordered the start of a reduction of American forces in Afghanistan.

<p>KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.</p> <p>The military said that three other service members were wounded when the bomb went off near the city of Ghazni. An American contractor was also wounded, it said. The military did not immediately identify any of the casualties.</p>

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is increasingly venting frustration to his national security team about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and showing renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize the war, current and former senior administration officials said. Prince's idea, which first surfaced last year during the president's Afghanistan strategy review, envisions replacing troops with private military contractors who would work for a special U.S. envoy for the war who would report directly to the president. It has raised ethical and security concerns among senior military officials, key lawmakers and members of Trump's national security...

U.S. Marines in Afghanistan killed dozens of Taliban leaders last week using rocket artillery after tracking them to a meeting in volatile Helmand Province, according to the top American general in Afghanistan Wednesday. U.S. Forces Afghanistan said more than 50 Taliban commanders, including the deputy Taliban shadow governor of Helmand was killed. Taliban leaders from six other provinces across Afghanistan were killed as well in the strike in the Musa Qala district of Helmand, according to the statement. Twenty other Taliban leaders were killed in air strikes earlier this month by drones and Air Force A-10 Warthog jets based in...

It was March 4, 2002. American special operations forces were fighting to establish observation posts high above Afghanistan’s Shah-i-Kot Valley, as conventional troops continued their push through the valley floor below. One of those men, Air Force Technical Sgt. John Chapman, was alone in the pitch-black, wounded and slowly regaining his consciousness in the thigh-deep snow of a 10,469-foot peak known as Takur Ghar, as scores of Al Qaeda fighters closed in. The operators were due to lift-off from their Gardez base around midnight and quietly land near the base of the peak before climbing to the top. But maintenance...

A Staff Sgt. in the Marines has just had his 2012 conviction for urinating on dead terrorists overturned. The shocking reversal comes after the revelation that an Obama official railroaded the soldier. Staff Sgt. Joseph Chamblin, one of several Marine Corps soldiers convicted in 2012 for having recorded themselves urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, had his conviction overturned this week because an Obama-appointed official had attempted to rig his trial.

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...

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...

The Trump administration is considering the ramifications of paring back the U.S. presence in Afghanistan as part of its ongoing strategy review in America’s longest war, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump’s national security cabinet is bitterly divided on the future U.S. role in Afghanistan. Senior national security officials like Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster are reportedly pushing Trump to allow a surge of approximately 4,000 troops into Afghanistan, while White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has lobbied against the effort. “It doesn’t work unless we are there for a long time, and if...

At least four American soldiers were shot and killed in an apparent insider attack by an Afghan soldier at a base in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, a military official said. "An Afghan soldier shot and killed four American troops inside the base," said Abdul Qahar Araam, spokesman for the Afghan Army's 209th Corps. "We are investigating.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded during an attack in eastern Afghanistan, according to three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local Afghan official said earlier two U.S. soldiers were killed and two others wounded during the shooting in Achin district, where U.S. special forces have been fighting alongside Afghan troops against Islamic State and Taliban militants.

Three American service members were killed and another wounded Saturday when an Afghan soldier opened fire on them in the country's eastern Nangarhar province, U.S. officials said. In a statement, the Pentagon said the wounded soldier had been evacuated for treatment and the incident was under investigation. The so-called insider attack — the second of its kind this year — happened in Nangarhar, where Afghan troops and U.S. special operations forces have been locked in combat with an Islamic State-affiliated militant group for months. The shooter was killed immediately.

Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas was killed in action on Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. He was 23. Today, he was laid to rest at Culpeper National Cemetery in Virginia. There were many Special Forces troops, including a 4-star General, as well as family, friends and VFW members in attendance. About 20 of us Patriot Guard Riders were in the flag line. You can search news for more info and pictures. RIP, Sgt. Thomas.