Blog Posts

"President Trump may be a controversial and disruptive president. But in regard to Afghanistan, his frustration with the 17-year war differs little from the sentiments of President Barack Obama or most of the rest of us. Reportedly, he has asked for a precipitous cut of up to half the 14,000 American troops serving there, early this year."

"The U.S. military says it has carried out two new airstrikes in Somalia against the al-Shabab extremist group but will no longer give details on fighters killed or damage done. A spokesman for U.S. Africa Command says those details are now up to Somalia's government to share."

"The leader of Venezuela’s armed forces declared loyalty to President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday and said the opposition’s effort to replace him with a transitional government amounted to an attempted coup."

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"In a landmark concession to the U.S., the Taliban has agreed to oppose any attempts by militant groups to use Afghanistan to stage terrorist attacks abroad, a person familiar with the deal said, as talks between the insurgents and American diplomats to end the 17-year Afghan war entered a fourth day in the Gulf state of Qatar."

"Moro Islamic Liberation Front's long struggle for an autonomous region has likely passed a plebiscite but whether the rebels can administer as well as they fight is yet to be seen."

"The US military has moved additional troops into Syria in recent days to help provide protection to other US service members as they withdraw under President Donald Trump's directive to pullout all US troops from the country, according to two US defense officials. The officials would not reveal where in the country the troops are or how many have been sent."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Wednesday to coordinate their moves in Syria as their governments bargain over zones of influence in the war-torn country."

"A new study by a defense analysis company indicates there was a 33 percent drop in global terror attacks in 2018, and terrorism fatalities fell to a 10-year low."

"Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is breaking off diplomatic relations with the United States and is giving embassy personnel 72 hours to get out of the country. Maduro made his announcement Wednesday hours after President Donald Trump officially recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim leader and issued a blunt warning Maduro."

"The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it would no longer recognize Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela, instead offering its formal support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who was elected leader of the Venezuelan congress earlier this month.

"Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said on Wednesday that the mastermind of a bloody attack on the agency’s base this week had been killed in an airstrike, but residents and local officials in the area said the airstrike had in fact targeted a group of hunters on a hilltop."

"US President Donald Trump says he recognises Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are taking to the streets in protest against President Nicolás Maduro."

"A massive new report contains details of what went right and wrong for the U.S. in the Iraq War. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Col. Frank Sobchak, one of the co-editors of the report."

"One of the world’s deadliest conflicts is one that many people don’t even know exists. Its battleground is the lush, fertile region that stretches across the center of Nigeria. Clashes between two groups there have killed more than 10,000 people in the last decade, almost 4,000 of them in the last two years alone."

"The aim of this paper is to describe the key tactical lessons the Australian Army can learn from the AFoP’s urban siege of Marawi City. Consideration of these lessons may inform and improve the Australian Army’s current approach to the force generation of close combat, combined-arms capabilities. It will identify the key tactical lessons learned by the AFoP fighting an intelligent, determined, disciplined and well-equipped terrorist threat in the extraordinarily difficult, intense and complicated terrain."

"U.S. intelligence agencies trying to plot their course for the next four years are facing an ever more chaotic world, complicated by rapidly changing technology, a weakening of the Western-led international order and persistent worries over uncertain funding."

Director of National Intelligence Daniel R. Coats unveiled the 2019 National Intelligence Strategy (NIS) today. The NIS is the guiding strategy for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) and will drive the strategic direction for the Nation's 17 IC elements for the next four years.

"Thus, only two general officers have returned to government to serve as Secretary of Defense, Army General George C. Marshall and Marine Corps General James N. Mattis. Both Marshall and Mattis received congressional waivers, after which they were confirmed by the Senate. However, in approving their appointments, Congress reaffirmed the law’s intent."

"Afghanistan's Taliban opened a new round of peace talks Monday in Qatar with the United States, the insurgent group said. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the two-day meeting in Doha will continue on Tuesday."

"The Taliban infiltrated an Afghan intelligence base on Monday, killing dozens of people in what Afghan officials said was one of the deadliest attacks against the intelligence service in the 17-year war with the Taliban."

"In the weeks after his city fell to the Islamic State, Iraqi scientist Suleiman al-Afari sat in his deserted government office and waited for the day when the terrorists would show up. The black-clad militants who had seized Mosul in 2014 were making their way through each of its bureaucracies, rounding up workers and managers who had not yet fled the city and pressing them into service."

"The Taliban infiltrated an Afghan intelligence base on Monday killing dozens who worked for the agency in what officials said was one of the single deadliest attacks against the intelligence service in the 17-year war with the Taliban."

"Scores of Afghan security forces were killed Monday when a suicide bomber in a Humvee rammed a training compound of the national intelligence agency in Wardak Province, officials there said. Taliban insurgents immediately claimed responsibility for the attack."

"Israeli policy for attacking targets in Syria has changed and is intensifying, Intelligence Minister Israel Katz revealed Monday morning in an interview with Army Radio."