Blog Posts

Continue on for links to two op-eds on the situation in Afghanistan from Divergent Options and The Interpreter.

"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi state television said, making his first official visit to the nation that Tehran once fought a bloody war against and later backed in the battle with the Islamic State group."

"The American military has escalated a battle against the Shabab, an extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, in Somalia even as President Trump seeks to scale back operations against similar Islamist insurgencies elsewhere in the world, from Syria and Afghanistan to West Africa."

"Mullah Mohammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban, lived in hiding near a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan until his death, according to a new research-group report that contradicts long-held theories by U.S. officials about the notorious one-eyed leader."

Norvell B. DeAtkine ("Tex") at Lima Charlie - "The United States Army War College (USAWC) Iraq Report was presented to the American public as a compendium of lessons learned about the Iraq War, from the successes of Operation Iraqi Freedom, to the messy, bloody aftermath."

"We’ve spent the past year studying Russian IRA disinformation on Twitter with the goal of better understanding its strategy and tactics. Like KGB disinformation operations of the past, this campaign has two overt goals."

From "The Conversation" - "The names of American-born Hoda Muthana and Brit Shamima Begum have appeared in countless headlines in the United States and Europe since these two female members of the Islamic State group were discovered in a large displaced persons camp weeks ago."

"Across the islands of the southern Philippines, the black flag of the Islamic State is flying over what the group considers its East Asia province. Men in the jungle, two oceans away from the arid birthplace of the Islamic State, are taking the terrorist brand name into new battles."

"Trump administration officials didn’t secure commitments from key European allies to send military forces to Syria, passing a target date set for Friday, but said they would continue building their case for allied involvement to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State extremist group."

"By scuttling plans to help its leaders understand what went wrong, the service is turning a blind eye to insights of enduring relevance."

"As the caliphate in Syria crumbles, men who fought for ‘true jihad’ in Marawi tell of how the suffering of civilians made them flee."

"A week after U.S.-backed forces announced the start of their final assault on Islamic State territory in Syria, there is little the troops or the countries backing them can be sure of."

"Iraqi military officials, security experts and the U.S. government said that Iraq has failed to develop the extensive intelligence network that would offer the best chance of rooting out the militants."

"Despite the Islamic State group’s territorial losses, it is not surrendering and will morph into an insurgency marked by assassinations, improvised bomb attacks and ambushes, warned America’s top general in the Middle East to Congress on Thursday."

"The commander of U.S. forces in Africa has cast doubt on whether the Pentagon will complete plans to cut forces in Africa by 10 percent as the Department of Defense announced late last year."

"Nearly 11 days after peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban began with high hopes, it has become clear that any resolution to the 18-year war could be frustratingly slow. One of the most prominent issues thwarting progress is a disagreement over a fundamental question: What is terrorism, and who is a terrorist?"

"U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces officials, eager to declare victory after laying siege to the northeastern Syrian village of Baghuz more than a week ago, expressed hope this latest exodus of both IS followers and those kidnapped or enslaved by the terror group would be the last."

"As Islamic State cadres mount a final stand in what remains of their proto-state, the group is already switching gears, returning to its insurgent roots by seeding sleeper cells across parts of Syria and Iraq it once controlled."

"The final report on the fatal Niger ambush, which will include who is being punished, awards, and a redacted investigation into the deaths of the four fallen U.S. soldiers, is tied up in the offices of the secretary of defense. That has at least one lawmaker frustrated."

"U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, has said that the current political situation in Afghanistan and the status of negotiations with the Taliban currently under way 'don't merit' a troop withdrawal, despite President Donald Trump's goal of a drawdown."

Sean Naylor at Yahoo News: "As the Islamic State’s physical caliphate shrinks to nothing after an almost five-year campaign led by U.S. special operations forces, military insiders say one small unit has killed more of the extremists than any other: the company of Gray Eagle drones in the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment."

"AFRICOM Commander Calls for Diplomatic Push in Africa as US Pulls Troops from Continent" and "African Terrorist Groups ‘Aren’t Necessarily a Threat to the Homeland,’ AFRICOM Leader Says"

"ISIS’s post-Caliphate insurgency in Iraq is accelerating faster than efforts to prevent it by the U.S. Anti-ISIS Coalition. ISIS is re-establishing capable insurgent networks in multiple historic strongholds and linking them together, setting the conditions for future offensive operations against the Government of Iraq."

"While the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has made progress towards weakening al-Shabaab, the force must expand their efforts to proactively strengthen Somalia’s security architecture before their planned withdrawal in 2021."

"The U.S. Air Force’s new T-X jets could be more than just trainers, with aggressor or light-attack missions now on the table for the Boeing-made plane, the head of Air Combat Command said Thursday."