Military.com: The commander of U.S. Central Command said Wednesday he doesn’t want American troop levels in Afghanistan to drop anytime soon — and that the decision to keep more in country sent a “strong message.” Army Gen. Joseph Votel praised President Barack Obama’s decision in July to keep American troop levels in Afghanistan at 8,400 instead
TRT World: The court says their decision on whether to pursue the charges is imminent. Yet there are doubts about the likelihood and effectiveness of an investigation. The US is not a party to the 2002 Rome Statute which led to the establishment of the ICC. Washington also argues that its own courts have done a
The Huffington Post: The 15th anniversary of the start of the war passed last month almost without notice. The stark choices facing President-elect Donald Trump ― more troops? more money? withdrawal? ― received no attention in the presidential campaign, an ill omen for the months ahead when careful and considered action will be needed. And time
Antiwar.com: Now that President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Flynn as his national security adviser, media coverage has given prominence to the more serious issue of Flynn’s denunciation of Islam as a “cancer” and other manifestations of his embrace of Islamophobia. But the mainstream media view of Flynn’s military record ignores his pivotal role in devising
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 20, 2016 Afghan officials say a top commander of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group has been killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor said Mullah Bozorg, a leader of the IS group in Afghanistan, was killed along with seven
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 19, 2016 The Pentagon has notified Congress that it plans to stop buying Russian Mi17 helicopters for Afghanistan and will start buying American helicopters. “I’ll never understand why the U.S. government sent taxpayer money to Russia for helicopters in Afghanistan while Russia was supporting the Assad regime in Syria and
Washington Examiner: With confirmation concerns increasing for President-elect Trump’s top two picks to run the State Department, Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, top officials are now considering California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a top House foreign policy expert, according to sources. Rohrabacher, once a Reagan speechwriter and a House member since 1989, emerged Tuesday night as a
Michael Hughes: The type of policy the Trump administration might pursue towards Afghanistan remains a mystery to everyone – quite possibly including the President-elect himself. We could hazard guesses from his campaign statements, however, what one says as a presidential candidate is often much different than how one actually governs. This is unchartered waters for both
VOA News November 15, 2016 WASHINGTON — An International Criminal Court investigation of possible war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan is not “warranted or appropriate,” the U.S. State Department said Tuesday after prosecutors in The Hague found initial grounds for such a probe. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the United States was not a
Khaama Press: “This guy is a complete maniac. His utter hate towards Muslims will make our job much easier because we can recruit thousands,” Abu Omar Khorasani, a top IS commander in Afghanistan, told Reuters. The remarks by ISIS commander in Afghanistan came as Trump earlier promised to defeat “radical Islamic terrorism just as we won