Search

Byline: David Jackson and Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump intends to order the withdrawal of U.S. troops from war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, according [...]

Byline: David Jackson, @djusatoday, USA TODAY President Obama said Tuesday that he will delay a planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and maintain a force of 9,800 in the [...]

Byline: Aamer Madhani, and Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY With no sign of a security agreement with Afghanistan on the horizon, President Obama on Tuesday offered a blunt warning to [...]

Byline: Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY, Positioned on a hilltop overlooking plowed farm fields dotted with mud-walled compounds, U.S. soldiers trade fire with gunmen across a shallow valley. A [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, The Pentagon is accelerating the deployment of mortars and artillery to Afghanistan's fledgling army in an effort to compensate for the impending loss of U.S. [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, The former top commander in Afghanistan said he initially recommended that 13,600 U.S. troops remain in the country when the American combat role there ends [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, Some elements of the Taliban appear willing to transition from an armed resistance into a political force in Afghanistan, a hopeful sign that the United [...]

Byline: Carmen Gentile Along a sprawling roadside market, where meat hangs next to tiny, wooden stalls filled with auto parts, an Afghan man squats next to his apple cart, hoping [...]

Byline: Oren Dorell, USA TODAY, France plans to leave northern Mali soon, now that its troops have retaken the region from jihadist militias. That means handing control of an area [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, @jimmichaels, USA TODAY President Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington this week will center on talks to help shape the U.S. commitment to his country after the bulk [...]

Byline: Carmen Gentile A former resistance fighter during the Soviet occupation of his country, Afghan Col. Turab Adil knows that Afghans can put up a good fight. He recalls how [...]

Byline: Carmen Gentile Elite U.S. and Afghan special operations forces have been combined under a single command in an effort to improve coordination and pave the way for the possibility [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY The surge of U.S. Marines and other forces in southwestern Afghanistan has broken the Taliban's grip on a former stronghold, allowing coalition forces to begin [...]

It's official. The United States and its war weary NATO allies are pulling out of Afghanistan -- win, lose or draw. A year from now, primary combat responsibilities will belong [...]

Byline: From staff and wire reports Russia's foreign minister sharply criticized NATO's plan to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by 2014, saying Thursday that coalition troops should remain until Afghan [...]

Byline: James Moran It's time to accelerate our military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghanistan is simply no longer a sufficient threat to the domestic security of the U.S. to warrant 65,000 [...]

Barely a month passes lately without some new embarrassment casting doubt on the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. The latest eruption came Wednesday when the Los Angeles Times published photos of [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY The top coalition commander in Afghanistan said he plans to analyze security conditions after the last of the surge forces leave this fall before making [...]

Byline: Adam Smith I have consistently said that it is time to bring our troops home as soon as we responsibly can. Our troops continue to do an outstanding job, [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY Commanders plan to reduce the number of U.S. troops by about half in southwestern Afghanistan -- once the heartland of the Taliban insurgency -- amid [...]

Byline: Aamer Madhani and David Jackson, USA TODAY President Obama hailed Iraq on Monday as a nation that will be seen as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East [...]

Byline: Al Neutharth President Obama deserves a top foreign affairs mark for reassuring that our troops will be out of Iraq by year-end. But he still gets a failing grade [...]

Byline: Medea Benjamin Ten years of war in Afghanistan has left us a tragic loss of lives -- as we have seen with the recent deaths of 30 soldiers -- [...]

Byline: Ross K. Baker Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans are miles apart on health insurance, face seemingly unbridgeable differences over the need for tax revenues to close the budget gap, [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY The U.S. strategy in Afghanistan will gradually shift in the direction of counterterrorism, which is limited primarily to targeting militant leaders, as force levels are [...]

Byline: The Associated Press President Obama on Thursday told American troops who've fought in Afghanistan that the U.S. has turned a corner after nearly 10 years of war and it's [...]

Byline: The Associated Press Afghanistan's defense minister said Wednesday that its military is ready to take responsibility for securing parts of the country that will be the first to transition [...]

Byline: Mimi Hall President Obama heralded the beginning of the end of the nation's 10-year war in Afghanistan on Wednesday, citing success in the battle against al-Qaeda and the Taliban [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels The United States and its allies have made dramatic progress in Afghanistan over the past year, seizing the initiative from the Taliban and driving insurgents from key [...]

Byline: Mimi Hall President Obama heralded the beginning of the end of the nation's 10-year war in Afghanistan on Wednesday, citing success in the battle against al-Qaeda and the Taliban [...]

Byline: Mimi Hall President Obama takes his case for winding down the nation's 10-year war in Afghanistan to a war-weary public tonight when he announces the start of troop withdrawals [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels, USA TODAY Insurgents are now responsible for about 85% of civilian casualties in the Afghanistan War, an increase from last year and a sign that efforts by [...]

War weariness is everywhere as President Obama nears a decision on Afghanistan troop withdrawals. It's evident in polls and intense among allies. Even Republican presidential contenders at last week's debate [...]

Byline: John Conyers Jr. The U.S. military has now been at war in the mountainous and untamed Central Asian nation of Afghanistan for nearly a decade. It is the longest [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels WASHINGTON -- The White House said it will stay the course for now in Afghanistan, shifting the debate to next spring when the U.S. military will get [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels WASHINGTON -- President Obama's review of the Afghanistan war to be made public today will conclude that progress from the troop surge means U.S. forces will begin [...]

Byline: Matthew Hoh After nine years of war, we will spend $104 billion this year and $119 billion in 2011 pursuing fewer than 100 al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. We will [...]

Byline: Mimi Hall WASHINGTON -- President Obama heads to Fort Bliss in Texas today to thank troops for their service before addressing the nation from the Oval Office tonight about [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels BAGHDAD -- Vice President Biden was to sit down with Iraq's political leaders today to mark the end of the American combat mission and to encourage Iraq [...]

Byline: Jim Michaels BAGHDAD -- Vice President Biden was to sit down with Iraq's political leaders today to mark the end of the American combat mission and to encourage Iraq [...]

Byline: Michael O'Hanlon In his Dec. 1 speech at West Point announcing that an additional 30,000 U.S. troops would go to Afghanistan, together with several thousand more allied soldiers, President [...]

Byline: Judy Chu Last Thursday, the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, crossed the border out of Iraq. With this exit, two weeks ahead of schedule, our military [...]

Byline: Aamer Madhani A suicide bombing that killed 61 Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad on Tuesday is raising fears about whether the Iraqis can handle their own security as the [...]

Byline: Tom Vanden Brook WASHINGTON -- The number of Army soldiers forced to serve beyond their commitment has been cut in half in the past year and is on track [...]

Los Angeles Times, in an editorial: 'When the history of the U.S. war in Iraq is written, Sunday's parliamentary election may well provide the final chapter. The national vote in [...]

David Brooks, columnist, The New York Times: 'We all have our emotional hot and cold spots. ... For the Democrats, expanding health care coverage is an emotional hot spot. ... [...]

Byline: Aamer Madhani BAGHDAD -- Iraq's elections went well enough to allow the U.S. military to stick to its plan to withdraw nearly half of the troops this year, the [...]

Michael Crowley, The Plank blog, The New Republic: 'If Iraq does seem to be headed back towards chaos as U.S. troops withdraw, what will Obama do? It's hard to say [...]

Byline: Aamer Madhani BAGHDAD u The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities poses one of the biggest logistical challenges of the war. The troops are redeploying to other parts [...]

Byline: Richard Wolf Barack Hussein Obama of Illinois assumed the full weight of the presidency Tuesday with a nod to his unique place in history, a list of economic and [...]