Blog Posts

"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."

"When the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) finally closed shop in Afghanistan in 2014, many participating nations professed a weariness with complex, civil-military, out-of-area operations. These operations demanded close, often awkward, relationships of cooperation, co-existence, and confrontation between different civil and military actors, including local civilians. Amid the withdrawal, many militaries and their defense departments seemed to express a collective sigh of relief, talking about a ‘return’ to strictly military priorities and operations. The focus shifted to ‘near area’ operations and security concerns at home."

"Friday’s slaughter in two New Zealand mosques, like mass shootings before it, had its seeds on one of the darkest corners of the Internet, a chat room where anonymous people appeared to talk openly about the attack before, during and after it happened. But technology played a more visible -- and arguably more troubling -- role in publicizing the violence itself and, by extension, the hate-filled ideology behind it."

"Afghanistan’s national security adviser on Thursday blasted the U.S. talks with the Taliban, saying the Trump administration has alienated the Afghan government, legitimized the militant network and is crafting a deal that will never lead to peace."

"In a sign that the Taliban see a peace deal with the United States as imminent, one of their top leaders released a rare audio message on Thursday seeking to ease the concerns of the insurgency’s own fighters — and those of Afghans who fear that an agreement could let the Taliban return to power and roll back human rights."

"New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said 40 people were killed and more than 20 seriously wounded in mass shootings at two Christchurch mosques full of people attending Friday prayers."

"The Senate voted 59-41 on Thursday to overturn President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration, citing in part concerns with plans to divert billions of dollars from the Pentagon budget to build a southern border wall — a plan critics say would harm military readiness."

"Syrian government and Russian airstrikes on the last rebel stronghold in Syria have intensified in recent days, raising fears of a military offensive that the United Nations has long warned would cause a humanitarian disaster."

"Federal prosecutors on Thursday brought terrorism and other serious charges against five people arrested last year on a New Mexico compound, alleging in a new indictment that the group was gathering weapons and training in their squalid quarters to kill FBI and military personnel."

"The colectivos have their roots in the Cuban-inspired guerrilla forces that battled Venezuela’s staunchly anti-communist governments in the 1960s. After that conflict, some former rebels returned to poor neighborhoods determined to spread socialism through community activities — offering classes, showing movies, giving out free bread — and to protect residents from corrupt police."

"The U.S. Air Force will procure a handful of A-29 Super Tucano planes from Sierra Nevada Corp. and AT-6 Wolverines from Textron to continue light-attack demonstrations, the service’s top general said Wednesday."

"After 28 years of land wars in the Middle East, counterinsurgency doctrine is now for the bookshelves: lessons learned the hard way, and always available for use upon the next mistake or quagmire, but hopefully allowed to gather dust. No military service has suffered so much and learned so many lessons as the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the object of strategy is to avoid its use in such a manner again."

"The Senate voted Wednesday to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, its latest rebuke of the Trump administration’s continued embrace of the Saudi regime despite growing frustration among lawmakers with its actions on the world stage."

"Islamic State group fighters launched suicide attacks Wednesday at US-backed Syrian forces in a desperate bid to defend their last scrap of territory after 3,000 of their fellow jihadists surrendered."

"The Hezbollah terrorist organization has begun an attempt to establish and entrench a covert force in the Syrian Golan Heights."

"As President George W. Bush pressed the case for war in Iraq in the summer of 2002, top State Department officials warned that an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein could spark internal Iraqi chaos, Middle East upheaval and threats to U.S. interests, according to formerly classified documents released this week."

"As the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group in eastern Syria enters its final stages, the BBC's Jewan Abdi says the mood amongst many of the jihadists' supporters who have left the area - including women and children - remains defiant."

The U.S. State Department is painting a grim picture of violations and abuses in countries that already have dismal records in its “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018.”

"The longest peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban to end America’s 17-year war in Afghanistan concluded Tuesday night in Qatar, with both sides saying progress had been made."

"Hundreds of citizens in a key drug trafficking region of southern Colombia have been forced to flee their homes amid increased fighting between rival criminal groups, highlighting shifting criminal dynamics in the region in the absence of the former ex-FARC mafia boss, alias 'Guacho.'"

"The Pentagon on Tuesday unveiled details of the $750 billion national defense budget that the Trump administration has asked Congress to pass, calling it an example of how the military is shifting its emphasis from counterinsurgencies to competition with China and Russia."

"As the war is waning, Iran wants to keep a strong footing in Syria by urging Iranian construction companies to invest in the war-torn country."

"The longest round of peace talks between the United States and the Taliban has ended with "real strides" being made but without an agreement on troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said on March 12."

"Fires raged to the sound of gunfire and exploding artillery shells overnight in the Islamic State enclave of Baghuz in what U.S.-backed forces hope will be the last night for the terror group’s self-proclaimed caliphate."

"While President Donald Trump’s new budget Monday reflects White House funding priorities, it has little if any chance of becoming law, as Democrats who control the House strongly disagree with what they consider the bookkeeping gimmickry accompanying it."