The Coming Collapse of Afghanistan

Afghanistan is in trouble. The U.S. lost more than 2,000 soldiers, spent more than half a trillion dollars and 15 years to defeat the Taliban and rebuild Afghanistan. Today the country is on the verge of collapse. John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, delivered his quarterly report to Congress on April 29 […]

Pentagon: U.S. bombing of Afghanistan hospital not a ‘war crime’

The Pentagon announced Friday that 16 military personnel will be disciplined for the deadly U.S. strike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in October, but maintained that it was not a war crime because it resulted from unintentional human error and equipment failure. The military said some personnel involved “failed to comply with the rules […]

Military disciplines about 16 in Afghanistan hospital attack

About 16 U.S. military personnel, including one general officer, have been disciplined for mistakes that led to the bombing of a civilian hospital in Afghanistan last year that killed 42 people, a senior U.S. official said Thursday. According to officials, no criminal charges were filed and the service members received administrative punishments in connection with […]

Watch: First Person Firefight – High in the Afghan Mountains

American and Afghan forces react to contact while on patrol, high up in the Afghan mountains. First person perspective from the assistant gunner of an M240 machine gun. The AG, armed with an M203 grenade launcher to cover the dead spaces, which the 240 may have difficulty reaching. That is proper weapons assignment. https://youtu.be/c2pbzEkXO9E   Featured Media […]

How We Turned Success Into Defeat and Endless War In Afghanistan

Another year, another spring offensive. The massive truck bomb that detonated in Tuesday’s morning rush hour followed by gunfire, killing 28 and wounding hundreds more, was sadly nothing new for the Afghan capital. More than 15 years after Western leaders declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan, the insurgents now control more territory than at any […]

Taliban touts Bergdahl swap as key ‘achievement’

The Taliban says the exchange of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five top Taliban commanders in 2014 was a major “achievement” in its war against the West and its allies. The claim was made in a lengthy video released on the Taliban’s official website, Voice of Jihad, earlier this month. Footage from the exchange is shown […]

Watch: Airman Seeks to Rejoin Pararescue Team Despite Loss of Leg

In July 2011, Air Force Staff Sgt. August O’Neill, a pararescueman, was sent to rescue a group of Marines pinned down in Afghanistan when enemy insurgents opened fire on his team’s helicopter. A round bounced off the helicopter’s door, tearing through both of O’Neill’s lower legs and critically wounding his left, resulting in 20 surgeries […]

US drone strikes outnumber warplane attacks for first time in Afghanistan

Drones are firing more weapons than conventional warplanes for the first time in Afghanistan and the ratio is rising, previously unreported US Air Force data for 2015 show, underlining how reliant the military has become on unmanned aircraft. The data show strikes by unmanned aircraft accounted for 56% of weapons deployed by the air force in Afghanistan […]

Green Beret returns to service after amputation

A Special Forces noncommissioned officer has returned to full active duty service two and a half years after his hand was amputated. Sgt. 1st Class Ivan Morera, a Special Forces medic, continues to serve with the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) despite being severely wounded in a vehicle roll-over in Afghanistan. In August 2013, an […]

U.S. Marines are Evolving to Counter New IED Threats

With the counterinsurgency slog through Iraq and Afghanistan in the rear-view mirror, the Corps is retooling the way it trains Marines to deal with the threat of improvised explosive devices around the world. The Marine Corps Engineer School recently developed a streamlined counter-IED course to provide deploying units with more hands-on training and up-to-date intelligence tailored […]