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Kelly Barnett had a "horrible feeling" about her son after learning of the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate outside Kabul's airport amid the hectic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. "I kept texting him, 'Are you OK? Are you good?'" Barnett, mother of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin "Taylor" Hoover, told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz in a segment that aired Sunday. "I had a three, three-hour drive back to my house. That whole drive home, I was sobbing. I knew something was wrong. I could feel it." Hoover was one of 13 U.S. service members who died in the attack on...

Meghan McCain is relying on her family’s lengthy military history to weigh in on yesterday’s announcement that President Biden would bring troops home from Afghanistan. On today’s episode of The View, the conservative co-host, who explained that “the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been omnipresent in me and my family’s lives,” gave her own take on the withdrawal news during this morning’s Hot Topics.

A poll released Wednesday found that 57 percent of Republicans support President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria. An Economist/YouGov survey shows 25 percent of Republican respondents said they strongly approve of pulling out troops, while 32 percent stated they somewhat approve of the move. Further, 26 percent of Republicans surveyed said they oppose the move and 18 percent said they do not hold an opinion on the matter. The poll surveyed 1,500 people between October 13th-15th and had a margin of error of plus or minus of 2.7 percentage points.

U.S. President Donald Trump reshaped U.S. policy in the Middle East by handing Ankara the job of finishing off Islamic State, in Syria in a move that poses both a risk/opportunity for Turkey, Israeli Haaretz newspaper wrote. Trump was expected to warn the Turkish president over his plan to launch a third crossborder attack targeting U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, namely the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northeast Syria, during a phone call 2-weeks ago. However, something unexpected happened, Haaretz said.Trump is reported to have asked if Ankara can ‘’clean up ISIS?’’ if the U.S. withdraws, with Turkey’s strongman responding  Turkish forces were...

“The Washington Post story revealing that Texas Governor Rick Perry hunted and hosted lawmakers at a hunting camp called Niggerhead is alarming and displays a new height in racial insensitivity in national politics. Mr. Perry should immediately fully explain how he could have gone to a ranch and hunted that is named after such an obvious racist term or he should withdrawl from the race. He is either blindly insensitive or hopelessly unaware of where he spends his time. Either way it makes one wonder if he is ready for prime time and certainly whether he is ready for the...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (BNO NEWS) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Wednesday said that the U.S. armed forces will withdraw from the Middle Eastern country by the end of the year. "The U.S. forces withdrawal agreement from Iraq is going to be implemented in time, there will not be any U.S. forces base," Maliki said, as quoted by the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA), adding that no permanent U.S. base would remain in the country.

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRPLANE -- The United States is considering speeding up its withdrawal from Iraq because of the sustained drop in violence there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday following discussions with his top commanders in the war."I think there's at least some chance of a modest acceleration," this year, Gates said.It was the first suggestion that the Obama administration might rethink its difficult choice to leave a heavy fighting force in Iraq long past the election of an American president who opposed the war.Gates said the consideration came because the situation is "better than expected."

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2009 – Predicting an uptick in violence in Iraq as U.S. combat troops leave the cities by June 30, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today that deployed troops have geared up for the heightened threat as they comply with the U.S.-Iraq status of forces agreement. “I think we have reason to believe -- and I think our forces have been alerted to the possibility -- that we will likely see an uptick in violence leading up to the June 30 deadline for U.S. combat forces to leave Iraqi cities and towns,” Morrell told Pentagon reporters. He...

The statement by an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki calling his remarks in Der Spiegel "misinterpreted and mistranslated" followed a call to the prime minister's office from U.S. government officials in Iraq. Maliki had expressed support for a withdrawal plan similar to that of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in an interview with Der Speigel. U.S. troops should leave Iraq "As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned," Maliki had said. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight...

BAGHDAD, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki denied that he has released statements backing a plan of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama which sets a timeframe for possible U.S. troops withdrawal from Iraq, the government's spokesman said on Sunday. Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement that Maliki's statements to German magazine Der Spiegel "have been misunderstood and mistranslated and were not conveyed accurately regarding the vision of Senator Barack Obama on the timeframe for U.S. forces withdrawal from Iraq."

If you’re looking for 15-second sound bites to summarize complex world issues for you, Austin Bay’s Arena Academy is not the place to go. And if your tastes run to hundred-page, statistics-packed policy papers describing every facet of a problem in excruciating detail, it is not the place to go either. The Arena seems specially designed to fill the niche between the airhead coverage TV provides and the tedious egghead coverage of professional policy analysts. Arena Academy’s pilot offering, a 22-minute video which examines seven scenarios that could follow a rapid U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, illustrates an attempt to...

Actor-turned-director Sean Penn refrained from smoking during his return to the spotlight at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, but could have used something to calm his nerves as he repeatedly lashed out at media for distracting him during a news conference. The intense movie star sucked on ice cubes and swore as he met with dozens of reporters to discuss his riveting new film, "Into The Wild," featuring a tour de force performance by newcomer Emile Hirsch.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Syria's foreign minister called Sunday for a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces to help end Iraq's sectarian bloodbath, in a groundbreaking diplomatic mission to Iraq that comes amid increasing calls for the U.S. to seek cooperation from Syria and Iran. At least 111 people were killed nationwide, following a week that had already seen hundreds of deaths. Walid Moallem, the highest level Syrian official to visit since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, denounced terrorism in Iraq even as Washington mulled its own overture to Damascus for help in ending Iraq's violence. Syria and Iraq...

November 17, 2006 Washington DC After six years of Republican lethargy, we Dems are moving forward with bold plans to fix this country. The American public asked for change and we're going to bend them over and give it to them, fast and hard! By far the most urgent need is to achieve victory in Iraq. As we discussed earlier, the only way to achieve this victory is to leave as soon as possible. Some prominent Democratic leaders have called for pullouts within four to six months. Are you kidding me? What are they waiting for? For Halliburton to make...

While some say the introduction of the statewide smoking ban next Saturday will level the playing field, a group of restaurants and bar owners are fuming over what they say are unfair exemptions.Smokers who travel to Colorado’s casinos and Denver International Airport will be able to light up.Puffing on a Basic Ultra Light last week over a game of bingo at Loveland Elks Lodge 1051, Frank Bustos said the law is unfair. “They shouldn’t hold the bar and pool hall owners back,” said Bustos, who has been a smoker for 53 of his 65 years. “Bars are traditionally a...

While Democrats bristle at Republican descriptions of their Iraq policy as "cut and run," Sen. John Kerry, the author of a bill defeated today in the Senate, used that very term to criticize President Bush's consideration during the 2004 election campaign of a timetable for withdrawal. In a December 2003 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, the Massachusetts Democrat said he feared that "in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy," notes Townhall.com writer Tim Chapman. "Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop...

Mar. 6, 2006 20:32 | Updated Mar. 6, 2006 20:36 Analysis: 'Short and tight defensible borders' By YAAKOV KATZIsrael's security fence. Photo: Ariel JerozolimskiAvi Dichter's announcement this week that Israel would unilaterally disengage from large sections of the West Bank if Kadima won the upcoming elections, brought to surface one of the most current crucial arguments within the IDF General Staff over the security importance of settlements in Judea and Samaria. While anticipating a second disengagement under the next government, some in the IDF were taken by surprise with Dichter's announcement that the disengagement would be a strictly "civilian affair"...

Sunnis Seeking U.S. Protection by UPI Wire Mar 5, 2006 BAGHDAD, March 5, 2006 (UPI) -- Worried about the looming threat of civil war, leaders of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority are starting to drop demands for an immediate U.S. withdrawal. With Iraq's Shiite majority poised to control Iraq's government and economy, the Sunni Arab minority that once dominated Iraq sees the United States as a layer of protection, the Los Angeles Times reported. Meanwhile, the Shiite majority, which once cheered the arrival of U.S. troops, is losing enthusiasm for foreign soldiers and diplomats, the newspaper said. Many Sunnis say the...

By Ted Belman Let us accept the obvious. What matters to the US is securing a stable oil supply. It could care less about whether people are killed, whether Iraq is democratic or stable, whether Israel is strong etc., except as these issues impact on its primary goal. I have no problem with any of that. While the US may have decided to withdraw from Iraq regardless if civil war ensues, it has not at all, abandoned its primary objective. It seems to me that US is wrong to suggest that it must train the Iraqi army to fight the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush has failed to outline an effective strategy for winning the war in Iraq, Sen. Jack Reed said Saturday in the Democratic Party's weekly radio address. ''The American people are eager to hear the president's plan for success in Iraq, rebuilding the country and bringing our troops home,'' Reed said. ''Instead, the president continues to offer vague generalities and rhetoric with no specifics about what needs to be done.'' The Rhode Island senator, saying the current course in Iraq is a mistake, called on Bush to offer a more candid appraisal of how the war-ravaged nation...