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“You hit us, we will respond aggressively. We will defend ourselves.”

"Over the past year, he has learned to play a different role: acting as a check on an impulsive president."

What this column is about: Dezinformatsiya, the Russian word that gave birth, in the 1980s, to the English neologism “disinformation.”

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel believes the situation in Afghanistan is “worse than it’s ever been,” saying the U.S. will eventually need to leave the country.

"While some will scoff at that formulation, they should know that battlefields impose a different set of values than those of the civilian world."

“Security Force Assistance Brigades, or SFABs, are a great concept, but even the best ideas have limitations and room for improvement.”

"The Islamic State footprint on Iraq’s environment may be unprecedented and permanent, with a toxic legacy."

"The Taliban was and remains an insurgency.  It must be dealt with as an insurgency by focusing on the human terrain."

Russia will try to parlay its military successes into a diplomatic bargain that offers the Kremlin implicit control of Syria’s political destiny.

"The regional impact of Turkey’s actions are far-ranging, but largely play into the hands of the Moscow-Tehran-Damascus axis."

"Life in the city looked settled and as quiet as could be. Beneath the surface, though, Hue was beginning to boil."

"By the most obvious metrics, the conflict has seen a spike in violence during the past two weeks, already half a year after President Trump declared his “fight and win” strategy."

"The U.S. officers advising the South Vietnamese Army repeatedly warned Washington that the war was misguided."

A top U.S. commander says he has seen improvement in Afghan forces' capabilities in the fight against Taliban extremists in Helmand Province since the American military returned.

"After 16 years of war in Afghanistan, experts have stopped asking what victory looks like and are beginning to consider the spectrum of possible defeats."

"Years of war, TV spots depicting the struggles of wounded warriors, and curbs on military advertising budgets have left the armed forces with an image problem."

"NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan remains undeterred by Taliban activity as it heads into 2018, officials said."

'The possibility of a military conflict between two NATO allies is unprecedented but, after years of deteriorating relations between Turkey and the United States, not unthinkable."

"... there is one foreign threat against which the Blue Ridge proved utterly defenseless for many years: a 6-foot-3, 350-pound tugboat owner known as 'Fat Leonard.'"

"The war plan relies on raising troop levels from about 11,500 to about 15,000, deploying more air power against militants and moving military advisers back to the front line."

"The recent high-profile bombings in Afghanistan have reignited a debate about the state of the war."

“Washington’s attempt to find a resolution to the Afghan conflict militarily while continuously antagonizing Iran and chastising Pakistan is bound to end in failure.”

“Step by step, we will clean our entire border,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared over the weekend. But the operation has created an international mess.

Continue on for more on the ‘civil war within a civil war’

Continue on for the text of President Trump's State of the Union Address.