In an effort to repeal the military's policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," some members of Congress are looking at putting a provision into the defense authorization bill coming up for a vote.
On a base accustomed to deploying Marines into some of the most hostile war zones, you would expect some hesitancy when units from here were asked to surge into some of the worst fighting since the start of the war in Afghanistan.
The United States is focused on eliminating not just Osama bin Laden, but the entire al Qaeda network and its extremist allies, the Pentagon's top military officer said Monday.
Thirty thousand more troops by the summer. It's a daunting challenge laid out by President Obama, and it's now having the U.S. military scrambling to get it done.
"You don't do it alone," Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday to a crowd gathered at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. "You do it with phenomenal family support. And we could not be the Marine Corps we are, the military we are without extraordinary family support."
President Obama announced Tuesday that he's sending about 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan over the next six months.
Conservative and liberal lawmakers Wednesday sharply criticized President Obama's plan to start a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2011.
If President Obama decides to send the 40,000 additional forces to Afghanistan as requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a rough estimate by the Pentagon projects the cost could be an additional $20 billion a year, according to a senior Pentagon official.
President Obama's national security team will begin discussing the number of troops needed in Afghanistan as early as Friday, according to a White House spokesman.
The Pentagon is reviewing its policy concerning the access by military personnel to social networking Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a spokesman said Tuesday.
In an effort to repeal the military's policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," some members of Congress are looking at putting a provision into the defense authorization bill coming up for a vote.
On a base accustomed to deploying Marines into some of the most hostile war zones, you would expect some hesitancy when units from here were asked to surge into some of the worst fighting since the start of the war in Afghanistan.
The United States is focused on eliminating not just Osama bin Laden, but the entire al Qaeda network and its extremist allies, the Pentagon's top military officer said Monday.
Thirty thousand more troops by the summer. It's a daunting challenge laid out by President Obama, and it's now having the U.S. military scrambling to get it done.
"You don't do it alone," Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday to a crowd gathered at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. "You do it with phenomenal family support. And we could not be the Marine Corps we are, the military we are without extraordinary family support."
President Obama announced Tuesday that he's sending about 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan over the next six months.
Conservative and liberal lawmakers Wednesday sharply criticized President Obama's plan to start a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2011.
If President Obama decides to send the 40,000 additional forces to Afghanistan as requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a rough estimate by the Pentagon projects the cost could be an additional $20 billion a year, according to a senior Pentagon official.
President Obama's national security team will begin discussing the number of troops needed in Afghanistan as early as Friday, according to a White House spokesman.
The Pentagon is reviewing its policy concerning the access by military personnel to social networking Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a spokesman said Tuesday.
John Ellsworth remembers when his 20-year-old son called home from Iraq to proudly announce he was now a demolitions expert.
It's too early to say whether more troops are needed for Afghanistan, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday, days after the top U.S. military officer said more forces are probably needed in order to effectively fight the insurgency.
As support for the war in Afghanistan dips to an all-time low, some leading lawmakers are questioning President Obama's approach to what he calls a "war of necessity."
The United States has a limited amount of time to show Afghans and Americans success in turning around a war in Afghanistan that is facing declining support, according to the top Pentagon leadership.
Success is achievable in Afghanistan if the United States revises its strategy there, the top U.S. commander in that country said in a statement issued Monday.
Adm. Michael Mullen, the highest-ranking man in the U.S. military, said the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse, as fresh indications emerge that President Obama soon could be asked to commit more American troops.
Images of detainee abuse at the hands of U.S. troops, which President Obama has barred from public view, so "infuriated" the nation's highest-ranking military officer he demanded leaders ensure continued training of troops to prevent abuse, according to a senior Pentagon official.
The United States is "absolutely not" giving Israel a green light to attack Iran, U.S. President Barack Obama told CNN Tuesday.
Sometimes it's not what you say but how you say it. It's a test applied quite a bit in recent days to Sarah Palin's stunning announcement that she is stepping down as Alaska's governor -- and one worth applying to several of Sunday's many news-making conversations.
While the military has instituted dozens of programs to help troubled soldiers with post-traumatic stress, brain injuries and other problems, some troops have privately told the nation's top military officer they feel they are treated poorly because they are wounded, ill or injured.
The U.S. military is responsible for civilian deaths during a firefight with Taliban militia in May in western Afghanistan, the nation's highest ranking military officer said Thursday.
The U.S. military is tracking a North Korean ship believed to be carrying illicit weapons or technology, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
The Treasury Department warned U.S. financial institutions Thursday that the North Korean government may resort to "deceptive financial practices" to get around economic sanctions.
America's highest ranking military officer said Tuesday the nation must do more for the mental health of American soldiers, warning statistics show "there are going to be more [troop] suicides this year than last."
The Pentagon is considering new tactics in Afghanistan: deploying hundreds of troops using creative and nimble counterinsurgency techniques to fight the Taliban, a U.S. military source told CNN.
President Obama castigated the North Korean government Monday for conducting a second nuclear bomb test in defiance of multiple international warnings.
North Korea's reported nuclear test did not come as a surprise to the United States, the top-ranking U.S. military officer said Monday.
Pakistan should commit to increased fighting against the Taliban on the border area it shares with Afghanistan if it wants more defense funding from the United States, a key senator said Thursday.
The bodies of five U.S. servicemen fatally shot by a comrade at a stress clinic in Iraq were returned to the United States late Wednesday.
Just 11 months ago, Defense Secretary Robert Gates selected Gen. David McKiernan to head the war in Afghanistan.
The U.S. military's primary focus needs to shift immediately from Iraq to Afghanistan, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is "very alarmed by the growing extremist threat in Pakistan and remains frustrated particularly by the political leadership's inability to confront that threat," his spokesman said Monday.
While the president has said states asked to deploy troops to the U.S. border with Mexico, the Pentagon has not received specific requests to do so, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.
President Obama and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on Saturday discussed how the U.S. military can assist Mexico in addressing growing violence from drug cartels, according to a military official.
The U.S. military feels its experience fighting terrorists overseas can help Mexico in its fight against the drug cartels.
The "most worrisome" part of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan has become the havens the Taliban and other insurgents have carved out in neighboring Pakistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
The Pentagon is looking at options, but there are no plans for U.S. forces to go ashore in pursuit of pirates in Somalia, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday.
Pakistan understands the need to move "urgently and transparently" against extremists on its soil after last week's terrorist attacks in India, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meetings with Pakistani leaders.
President-elect Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates may have policy differences, but Gates said Tuesday he was "impressed" by statements Obama has already made on issues such as the Iraq War.
Britain is open to requests from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to boost troop levels in Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in an interview published Friday.
When the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House during a crisis, President Barack Obama won't lack for advice. But the question may be whose advice will be the loudest?
A security pact between the U.S. and Iraqi governments will allow U.S. troops to finish the work it needs to do before leaving the country, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.
As President-elect Obama plans for his first budget early next year, the Pentagon is asking for a record amount, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Afghan and Pakistani tribal leaders have agreed to seek talks with Taliban leaders and other militant groups, so long as they promise to abide by the laws of each country.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would be prepared to reconcile with the Taliban if the Afghan government pursued talks to end the seven-year conflict in that country.
A missile attack Wednesday night on the Pakistani village of Dahgerat near the Afghan border killed seven residents and wounded three, a local intelligence official and eyewitnesses told CNN.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and top military commanders are reviewing several aspects of U.S. military policy and strategy in Afghanistan, several defense officials say.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday amid tensions between the two countries about U.S. military incursions into Pakistan's tribal areas.
Gen. David Petraeus, whose strategy for countering the Iraq insurgency is credited by many with rescuing the country from all-out civil war, stepped aside Tuesday as Gen. Ray Odierno took over as the top American commander of the conflict
President Bush authorized U.S. special forces to conduct ground assaults inside Pakistan without seeking Islamabad's permission first, a senior American intelligence official said Thursday.
More U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan this year than in any year since the U.S. invaded the country following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Pakistan's military chief said Wednesday that no foreign forces will be allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan in light of last week's "reckless" U.S. military ground operation.
The U.S. is "running out of time" to win the war in Afghanistan, and sending in more troops will not guarantee victory, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, warned Congress on Wednesday.
The top U.S. general in Iraq is recommending nearly 8,000 troop cuts in Iraq because of the improving situation there, a source close to the process has told CNN.
Senior U.S. military leaders say it would be "impractical" to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq further before the end of the year because of the logistics required in the redeployments, two military officials told CNN Thursday.
Pakistan's presidential front-runner, Asif Ali Zardari, has moved into a tightly guarded government compound over security fears, officials said Friday
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff came away from a secret meeting with Pakistani military commanders this week "encouraged" by Pakistan's efforts against growing threats from the Taliban and al Qaeda.
It will be left to the next president to send a significant number of additional troops to Afghanistan, the Pentagon's spokesman said Wednesday.
Two top Pentagon officials said Wednesday that they expect to be able to recommend troops cuts in Iraq this fall and will try to increase troops in Afghanistan.
Insurgents who squared off with U.S. soldiers in a major battle in eastern Afghanistan overran a military observation point just outside a coalition outpost, but failed to take the base, a U.S. military official told CNN.
Iraq is making positive steps in security and stability, according to the U.S. military's highest ranking officer.
Iraq's prime minister said Monday his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of American troops included in the deal the two countries are negotiating
In light of growing unrest around the world over rising food prices, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is asking for a closer look at the crisis and its security implications, a U.S. military official said Monday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that he is confident the United States will have fewer troops in Iraq next year.
The U.S. military has too many troops tied down in Iraq to send needed reinforcements to Afghanistan this year, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said Wednesday.
Twin suicide bombers set off explosives at a naval college in Pakistan Tuesday, killing at least five other people and wounding at least 16, one critically, the government said.
The U.S. Navy has moved the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole and other ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
The U.S. Navy is sending three ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon
Attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and support for the Taliban are both on the rise, but Iraq remains a bigger priority for American commanders, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has taken command of Iranian naval operations in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military has revealed.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has telephoned his Turkish counterpart to assure him that the U.S. military is aware of the potential for a crisis between the countries, an official said Friday.
Three bombs Wednesday in Baghdad struck the convoy of the Polish ambassador to Iraq, wounding the diplomat and killing three others in the entourage, including one of his bodyguards, authorities said.
The U.S. military is expressing hope that the recent troop buildup in Iraq is making strides as commanders point to the American death toll in the war zone -- the lowest monthly total since November.
With the ouster of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the original Iraq war team is now all gone -- with one exception
Adm. Mike Mullen, President Bush's nominee to become the nation's top military officer, wants to see a U.S. military that can win over "hearts and minds" as well as battlefield confrontations.
Anticipation of a "contentious" confirmation process on Capitol Hill prompted the decision to replace Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when his term ends in September, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
Bombers killed two people and wounded seven others Wednesday in Baghdad as Iraq's minister of higher education escaped unharmed in one of the attacks, Iraqi police said.
The U.S. Navy will try to lift some of the burden off U.S. Army troops in Iraq this year by increasing the number of sailors inside that country and taking on duties soldiers have been doing, according to the Navy's top sailor.
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