American Military News | Providing insight and updates on all the latest news and information from every aspect of military life. Will Afghanistan be Iraq redux? - POLITICO.com. “What’s the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan?” Asked John Noonan, a top House Armed Services Committee Republican aide, on Twitter last week.
“A: About 5 years.” No one in Washington is laughing. Continue Reading Instead, worry is quietly building that the ongoing crisis in Iraq — the struggles of a government partly seen as illegitimate, the collapse of its American-trained military and the ascendance of Islamic extremists — is just Part 1 of a grim coda to George W. Part 2 could be a repeat of this scenario in Afghanistan as, or after, the last American combat troops come home over the next two years. (PHOTOS: Scenes of turmoil in Iraq) Members of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen.
“It is my judgment that the two bear very little comparison,” Hagel said. But that level of confidence is not universal. “Nobody wants that to happen,” he said. (Also on POLITICO: Return of the GOP hawks) Illinois, Ohio soldiers among 5 killed in 'friendly fire' Afghanistan airstrike. MOKENA, Ill. — Among the five American troops killed this week during a "friendly fire" airstrike in Afghanistan were a soldier from northern Illinois who deployed a month after his father died and a soldier from Ohio who was engaged to be married. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the five American troops were killed Monday "during a security operation in southern Afghanistan. " Officials said an airstrike was called in after the unit was ambushed by the Taliban. It is one of the deadliest "friendly fire" incidents in almost 14 years of war.
One of those killed was Aaron Toppen, 19, family spokeswoman Jennie Swartz told The Associated Press from the family's Mokena home, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago. Swartz said representatives from the U.S. Army came to the door of Toppen's mother, Pam Toppen, in the middle of the night to deliver the news. "Aaron was predisposed to serve. "He was a great boy, so full of life and outgoing," she said. No praise for Obama’s inflexible Afghanistan deadline. President Obama is taking a pounding from a wide ideological spectrum of critics, who find his inflexible deadline on U.S. troop withdrawal irresponsible and inexplicable from a national security perspective. President Obama speaks about Afghanistan in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press) Michael O’Hanlon of the center-left Brookings Institution praises the decision to leave 9,800 troops but excoriates the imposition of a timeline: For a war in which Americans have been so patient, we risk losing our cool at the end stage of the effort.
Almost as soon as that enduring force of 9,800 is postured properly in the country, it will have to plan for its own termination and begin to dismantle its new capabilities. The president’s plan to cut that number of U.S. troops in half in the course of 2015 means that most of these regional bases will be closed almost as soon as they get into their new groove. The reason, of course, is purely partisan politics and ego. US Military in Afghanistan by the Numbers: 2,184 Dead, 19,600 Wounded - ABC News. May 27, 2014 6:22pm President Obama’s plan to keep 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the end of the combat mission this year will begin the full withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, bringing an end to America’s longest war.
Over the course of the almost 13 years of the conflict, 831,576 service members have served at least one tour of duty in Afghanistan. Some 2,184 American service members have lost their lives and 19,600 have been wounded in a war that has cost $537.8 billion. There are currently 32,800 American service members serving in Afghanistan. (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images) That number will be halved to 4,900 by the end of 2015 and by the end of 2016 the U.S. military footprint will be reduced to a presence at the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
That’s almost where U.S. military troop numbers stood at the very start of the war before eventually growing to 100,000 a decade later. Indian Consulate in Afghanistan Attacked, Insurgents Killed. The Indian consulate in Herat in western Afghanistan was attacked today by four heavily-armed gunmen, who were subsequently killed in an encounter as India attributed the pre-dawn strike to terror elements "beyond the borders" of the war-torn country. All Indian diplomatic staff and local personnel inside the two-building complex were unharmed in the attack that was repulsed by India's ITBP and Afghan security forces. The gunmen, carrying rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, opened fire on the Consulate in the Herat province. One attacker was killed while climbing the wall to enter the premises of the Consulate which also houses the residence of the Consul General, Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha said.
Armed Gunmen Attack Indian Consulate in Afghanistan Modi Condemns Indian Consulate Attack in Afghanistan However, he did not elaborate as to which country he was referring to when he said "beyond its (Afghanistan's) border". Emerging story. . © Copyright PTI. US, partners hope for thaw in relations with Afghanistan. KABUL — With all of the questions surrounding the outcome of the Afghan presidential election, the U.S. and its allies are taking comfort in one certainty: the country’s next leader will not be Hamid Karzai.
For the last year or so, the relationship between Washington and Kabul has been on a relentless downward spiral of accusations and complaints, culminating in Karzai’s refusal to sign a bilateral security agreement with the U.S. that is crucial for a small international military force to remain in the country past the end of the year for a training, assistance and counter-terrorism mission. Karzai, Washington’s hand-picked choice to lead Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion ousted the Taliban, bristled at what he saw as U.S. violations of Afghan sovereignty. American officials became increasingly exasperated with his public statements portraying the international military force in the country as reckless and ineffective. Article_9d92aa94-77fc-11e3-bea3-001a4bcf887a. Posted: Montana National Guard military police company deploys to Afghanistan WHITNEY BERMES, Chronicle Staff Writer The Bozeman Daily Chronicle | 0 Comments BELGRADE – As Army Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Olson stood holding his 1-year-old daughter Velayna, who sported a pink “Daddy's Girl” shirt, his youngest son Kyvin stood at his feet, grabbing at his dad.
“I really miss him and sometimes we get to see him on the computer and talk to him on the phone,” the 6-year-old said, flashing a big grin up at his father. An online service is needed to view this article in its entirety. You need an online service to view this article in its entirety. Login Or, use your facebook account: Choose an online service. Need an account? Kyvin and the rest of Brandon's family know the routine by now.
“It's a lot of ‘Let's get going,'” Brandon said of his mentality following a sendoff ceremony at the Belgrade Armed Forces Reserve Center in Belgrade. “Get it done with and start counting the days,” Peggy said. Lt. Alleged Afghan militants blown up while plotting suicide attack. KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A suicide bombing in Afghanistan's Kandahar province was thwarted when the explosives detonated while the militants were planning the attack, officials said. The Interior Ministry said a child was killed by the blast late Friday in the village of Torbagh along with the alleged suicide bomber and two other militants, Khaama Press reported. Kandahar in southern Afghanistan borders Pakistan. Police seized a cache of explosives in the same district, officials said.
They were allegedly destined for use in suicide attacks in Kandahar. In Faryab province, a generally peaceful area in northern Afghanistan, police reported finding a vehicle loaded with explosives and weapons. The items seized included 23 artillery shells, two rockets, one BM-21 rocket, two barrels of explosives and two gas cylinders. Officials believe militants planned to use the weapons and explosives to attack election teams in the run-up to April's presidential voting. Iraq, Afghanistan veterans cared for by World War II vet. Ninety-two-year-old Army veteran James Chitty was recently honored by the Kansas House of Representatives for completing 10,551 hours of service at a veterans hospital in Wichita. “I figure I owe something to the veterans,” Chitty told The Wichita Eagle. “I get more out of volunteering than I receive.”
Chitty served four years in the Army during World War II, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then taught history and social studies for 14 years and worked in aircraft production for 36 years before retiring. He began serving as a patient escort in 1989 at the Robert J. Some patients are surprised 92-year-old Chitty, who’s just 5-foot 6-inches and weighs 140 pounds, can handle the job. “I get somebody in one of these double-wheelchairs and when they ask me if I can handle them, I just look at them in the eye and say, ‘I’ve handled bigger than you,’” Chitty told the Eagle.
Three advisers killed in blast near detention center in Kabul - Middle East. By Heath Druzin Stars and Stripes Published: February 10, 2014 KABUL — An explosion rocked eastern Kabul Monday near one of the country’s main detention centers, killing three foreign military advisers, Afghan security officials said. Another foreigner and seven civilians were injured in the car bomb attack in an eastern suburb of Kabul near Pul-e Charki Prison, when a foreign convoy was hit by a suicide car bomb after leaving the prison, according to Afghan security officials.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force would confirm only that two contract civilians working for them were killed by a car bomb in eastern Afghanistan. The attack occurred within sight of the prison. Several ISAF armored trucks were at the scene, as was a large contingent of American troops. A spokesman for the militant group Hezb-i-Islami, Haroon Zarghoon, said the group was behind the attack and claimed 13 foreign military advisers were killed. ISAFmedia (ISAF) U.S. Marines in Helmand host a shura. Afghan police join Taliban-led insurgents. KABUL, Afghanistan, July 4 (UPI) -- Members of a force created as part of a U.S. effort to stop the spread of the insurgency in Afghanistan have joined Taliban-led insurgents, officials said. One Afghan security official put the number of Afghan Local Police who joined the Taliban-led insurgents at 41 in what is apparently the first surrender of its kind by ALP members, The Washington Post reported.
The ALP was set up under a U.S. initiative in 2010 to help the NATO coalition and Afghan troops stop the influence and spread of the insurgency, the Post said. The ALP members who jointed the insurgents in the northwestern province of Badghis had been armed with assault rifles, Ghulam Sarwar, a local lawmaker, said, citing a provincial official. "This [surrender] may not have a big impact on the security situation of the area, but raises doubts about the loyalties of those employed by Afghan Local Police," Sarwar said. The Taliban said 86 ALP members had joined its ranks. 'We will carry attacks on NATO supplies with a new spirit,' says Pakistani Taliban spokesman. The top spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan vowed that his group would resume attacks on NATO's convoys to Afghanistan now that Pakistan has reopened the supply lines.
Additionally, the Taliban spokesman called the government's closure of the supply lines an orchestrated "drama" and challenged the so-called Defense of Pakistan alliance to take action. "TTP [Tehrik-e-Taliban or the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan] had previously tried its best to put hurdles in the supply route to NATO, but from now on, we will carry attacks on NATO supplies with a new spirit and more effective strategy to destroy them," spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told The Long War Journal . "TTP will never allow transportation of supplies to anyone who will use it in killing of Muslims anywhere, & we are with our Afghani brothers," Ihsan continued, referring to the Afghan Taliban.