On the anniversary of the last US evacuation of Afghanistan, Col. Salim Faqiri discusses his harrowing escape from the Taliban and his new, difficult life in the US.
By Valerie InsinnaGround vehicles accounted for the lion’s share of the equipment left behind.
By Justin KatzFrom the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan to cyber threats posed by cars on military bases, networks and cyber had another interesting year.
By Andrew EversdenAmerican leaders have reached “out to the Taliban who are actually providing the outer security cordon around the airfield, to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us and we will continue to coordinate with them as they go forward,”
By Aaron Mehta“We cannot afford to either not defend that airfield, or not have an airfield that secure, where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield at will and put our forces at risk,” SecDef Austin said.
By Aaron MehtaA Chicago Council survey conducted in July found that 70 percent of Americans backed exiting Afghanistan, a belief that crosses the deep partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans.
By Aaron Mehta“The way the US runs away and leaves a country to the atrocities of terror groups is a bad sign that will have major effects on some countries,” said an Israeli defense source.
By Arie EgoziAt the NATO Summit in Brussels, the United States should finalize a plan with its allies to ensure the Afghan air force has the maintenance and logistical support it requires to remain combat effective. The United States and our international partners have worked for years to build an Afghan air force capable of providing effective…
By Bradley Bowman, Ryan Brobst and Jared ThompsonThe HASC chairman sees the handling of intelligence over Russian threats in Afghanistan and the proposed withdrawal of troops from Germany as symptoms of pervasive problems in the Trump Administration.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.By most metrics the war in Afghanistan is going badly.
By James KitfieldWASHINGTON: The US military is “not prepared” to conduct radio and radar jamming against high-end adversaries, a veteran electronic warfare officer now in Congress says. We have made major progress jamming terrorist communications in Afghanistan and Iraq, says Rep. Don Bacon, a retired one-star general who recently visited both countries. But even against such low-tech foes,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.When he stepped before the cameras last night to deliver his first prime time address to the nation, Donald Trump became the third president to reluctantly take ownership of the war in Afghanistan. After campaigning on ending costly entanglements for a war-weary country, the president admitted he was hemmed in by some hard realities. “A…
By James KitfieldU.S-enabled corruption lost the Afghan War. The Afghan government is a failed state, incapable of effectively governing or defending its citizens. Corruption funds the enemy, with hundreds of millions of dollars skimmed from U.S. logistics and aid money. Former Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said in 2016: “The ultimate point of failure for our efforts … wasn’t an insurgency.…
By Douglas Wissing
The terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans and set the US on a course for war in Afghanistan also prompted a formal commission to deeply examine how the US government allowed the attack to happen. Twenty years later, retired Brig. Gen. James Scott O’Meara argues in this op-ed that a similar commission is crucial…
By J. Scott O'Meara