From Telegraph.co.uk: Mr Karzai also said there would be no progress in the nine-year-long campaign while insurgents still had safe havens in Pakistan. His comments have intensified the debate about whether the July 2011 milestone outlined by Washington was feasible or had encouraged rebels to believe they could hold on until foreign troops start leaving. [...]

From Telegraph.co.uk: The timetable for the US withdrawal from Iraq was set out in the Status of Forces Agreement signed by American and Iraqi officials in November 2008, and endorsed by Iraq’s parliament later that month. It envisaged the departure of all US military forces by the end of 2011. President Obama, who opposed the [...]

From Telegraph.co.uk: In his haste to withdraw America’s remaining combat troops from Iraq, President Barack Obama appears to have overlooked one rather vital consideration. The Iraqis are desperate for them to stay. Iraq might be a very different place today from the country that was oppressed by Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, but it still has some [...]

From CNSNews.com: The 1,200 National Guard troops that are being deployed incrementally to the southwest border “will not be doing direct law enforcement,” said U.S. National Guard Bureau Director of Communications Jack Harrison when asked if the forces would be interdicting drugs and undocumented immigrants. “The two mission sets are criminal analysts and enter-identification team,” [...]

From NewsMax.com: Saddam Hussein’s leading lieutenant accused the United States of abandoning Iraq and leaving the country to die, according to a British newspaper interview to be published Friday. Tariq Aziz, whose long tenure as Saddam’s foreign minister made him the international face of the Iraqi dictator’s regime, was quoted by The Guardian newspaper a [...]

From CNSNews.com: As of July 31, almost half of all U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan have happened on President Barack Obama’s watch. Since Obama took office in January 2009, 558 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan, out of 1,127 since the war began nine years ago, according to CNSNews.com’s tally. And the violence is escalating. July 2010 [...]

From NewsMax.com: President Barack Obama declared Monday that the Iraq war was nearing an end “as promised and on schedule,” touting what he called a success of his administration though it comes amid persistent instability and uncertainty in Iraq. Obama cited progress toward meeting his deadline of withdrawing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by [...]

From NewsMax.com: From indefinite detention of terror suspects, to closed military commissions, low transparency, and targeted drone hits: Barack Obama’s administration and its security stands have raised eyebrows of many of those to his own left. Indeed, some fear he is following in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush, a national security hardliner. [...]

From Telegraph.co.uk: The provocative proposal came as Iran dealt with a new wave of international sanctions – driven by Washington – aimed at pressuring the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme. “Toward the end of summer we will hopefully be there for the (UN) General Assembly and I will be ready for one-on-one talks with Mr Obama, [...]

From CNSNews.com: A majority of all combat-related U.S. casualties in the nine-year-long war in Afghanistan have occurred since President Barack Obama was inaugurated a little more than 17 months ago. Between Jan. 20, 2009 and July 2, 2010, according to CNSNews.com’s database of Afghanistan war casualties, U.S. military personnel suffered 452 combat-related deaths in Afghanistan. That amounts to more than [...]

From CNSNews.com: Gen. David Petraeus testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that President Barack Obama’s July 2011 drawdown date for U.S troops in Afghanistan was not proposed by military officials. Petraeus said that he understood that the “president has to be interested in fiscal considerations, political considerations, diplomatic considerations” in making decisions [...]

From NewsMax.com: Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele says Afghanistan is “a war of Obama’s choosing” and the conflict “is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in,” comments that drew an immediate rebuke from Republicans and Democrats. In remarks captured Thursday on camera and posted online, Steele criticized President [...]

From Telegraph.co.uk: For the Washington cognoscenti, the appointment of General David Petraeusmarked the crescendo of President Barack Obama’s Wonderful Week. In firing General Stanley McChrystal, Mr Obama, the ultimate cool cat, was transformed into Mr Angry. The law professor finally became commander-in-chief. Obama, so the Beltway groupthink goes, turned a lose-lose situation into a political victory by asserting [...]

From Townhall.com: Unless you live on the oil-saturated bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, you’re probably well aware that our President, who happens to have skin thinner than that of an Iberian Ribbed Newt, fired General Stanley McChrystal for committing the unpardonable sin: He told the ugly truth about Obama. Now, before I get flooded [...]

From The Heritage Foundation: When is a timeline not really a timeline? When the President says so. See GITMO, Healthcare, etc…now add Afghanistan. At a press conference today, President Obama said of his Afghanistan withdrawal timeline, “We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us. We said we’d begin a [...]

From NewsMax.com: The man handpicked by President Obama to rescue the flagging American war effort in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, must wage a critical battle on two fronts: Taking on the Taliban while quelling bureaucratic rivalries in Washington that present a serious threat to military morale. The Pentagon brass joined with members of Congress in [...]

From CNSNews.com: Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a candidate in the 2009 Afghan presidential election, said the July 2011 date set by President Barack Obama for U.S. troops to draw-down from Afghanistan is problematic because it creates a perception of mixed messages about U.S. commitment to the country. Dr. Abdullah explained that talks about withdrawing troops send [...]

From The Heritage Foundation: This weekend, President Obama will skip Memorial Day services at Arlington National Cemetery, and instead he will take his family to Chicago for rest and relaxation. The gesture has rankled many on the right and caused the left to swing into full ‘defend Obama’ mode. However, the fact remains that during a time [...]

From Michelle Malkin: President Obama went to Arlington Cemetery to lay the wreath last year, but this year Obama’s handing the wreath to Plugs and heading off to the more welcoming political climes of Chicago: WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to spend a long holiday weekend in Chicago. The White House says Obama and his [...]

From GOPUSA.com: WASHINGTON (AP) – A key to the U.S. approach to fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is this seemingly backward logic: The more aggressively you protect your own troops, the less secure they may be. The idea is that troops who put themselves at risk to protect innocents will ultimately help decrease violence [...]