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The grieving mother of a heroic Sergeant-Major gunned down by a rogue Afghan policeman has accused Labour of treating British troops like 'peasants'. Heartbroken Elizabeth Chant, whose son Darren was killed last week, is calling on the Government to invest in better accommodation. Warrant Officer Class 1 'Daz' Chant, 40, of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was one of five off-duty British soldiers shot dead last Tuesday by a man dressed in an Afghan police uniform who opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle at a police station in southern Afghanistan. Mrs Chant, 59, said: 'Every day now we are hearing...

On a wall near a makeshift classroom at Camp Pendleton hang 27 portraits. They are pictures of U.S. Marine Corps bomb technicians who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The portraits are a reminder to members of a newly commissioned bomb squad of the perils they face as they prepare to deploy to the war-torn region. "There's no question, it's one of the most dangerous jobs out there," said Capt. James Shelstad, commander of the base's newly created 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company. Shelstad and several members of his company sat down last week with the North County Times...

The bumper sticker on Robin and Paulette Tedford's red Ford pickup truck is as direct as they come. "If you don't stand behind our troops," it reads beneath a Canadian flag, "feel free to stand in front of them." The message might seem jingoistic and surprising in peace-loving Canada, but the sticker is a hot item in this small central Nova Scotia town, and nobody here would think to question the Tedfords' right to display it. On Oct. 14, 2006, their youngest son, Sergeant Darcy Tedford, 32, was on patrol outside Kandahar when his light-armoured vehicle was ambushed by Taliban...

In the protracted Washington debate over the war in Afghanistan, the most concise analysis so far has come from America’s top soldier: “If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance (there), then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference.”Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking two days after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner, by default, in August elections so massively rigged that a U.N.-backed electoral complaints committee threw out about a million Karzai votes. That forced a run-off from which his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah...

I know you’re not going to believe this, but remember that recently released partial list of White House visitors? SEIU’s Andy Stern at 22 visits must have moved into the Lincoln Bedroom. Movie stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt (if this were still the Clinton White House, it would have been Jennifer Anniston and Angie Jolie); Oprah; GE and NBC’s Jeff Imelt; phony anti-capitalist capitalist, Michael Moore; patriot short-seller and Israel-hater and what many think is to Obama what Cheney was to Bush, George Soros. My phone rang at 3 a.m. Wednesday. Groggily answering, I heard Hillary’s scratchy voice. She...

For NATO combat troops, Iraq and Afghanistan differ in several important ways. For one thing, nearly all the fighting is out in the countryside. In Iraq, most of the combat was in urban areas. Moreover, Afghanistan has many very different rural environments. There are heavily populated (by farmers living in villages or clan compounds) river valleys, deserts (often not far from the river valleys), and mountains (both barren and forested.) Some of the mountains are very high, but most are similar to the American Rockies. The other big difference is that the Pushtun tribesmen, that comprise most of the Taliban,...

Mideast: Iran tests an advanced warhead design as it gets caught shipping weapons to Hezbollah. Syria is reported to give the group operational control over Scud missiles. It's five minutes to midnight. Tyranny abhors a vacuum. While the U.S. and the West dither in Hamlet-like fashion over whatever we shall do in places such as Afghanistan and Iran, the Axis of Evil is in full swing in its plans to destroy Israel and threaten Europe and America. Israel last week seized what it said was the largest arms cache ever intercepted in the region. Israeli navy commandos boarded the Francop,...

I was wondering - I was born in France - may be in France they had german in the military since they love loosing wars and surrender but I was wondering if we had german in the US Army during world war 2 - did they have german in the english Army? Just saying.. The enemy is within and even our own army does not ahve the courage to acknowledge that THE ENEMY IS WITHIN. FREAKING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!! I AM SICK OF THAT. And soo soo sad. A 21 year old PRAGNET woman, just coming back from Irak, DIED YESTERDAY...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2009 – Afghan and international forces detained a group of suspected insurgents, including a Taliban leader, in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province yesterday, military officials reported. The Taliban leader is believed to be responsible for financing suicide bombings and planting roadside bombs in the area. He also is linked to Taliban leadership outside of Afghanistan, officials said. The combined force targeted a compound near the village of Spin Kalacheh, southwest of Kandahar City, after intelligence indicated militant activity there. The force searched the compound without incident and detained the five suspects, including the wanted man who identified himself as...

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2009 – Civil affairs members of the provincial reconstruction team hosted an Afghan-led agricultural training event in the Bermel district here. Afghan farmers gather around a garden while working a practical exercise during an agricultural training class in Bermel, Afghanistan, Nov. 1, 2009. Civil affairs members of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Paktika province hosted efforts in an Afghan-led agricultural training event. U.S. Army photo by Cpl. David Ferris  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The training offered instruction and discussion on agricultural topics for seven Bermel area farmers. “Most of the people in...

RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 6, 2009 – When he joined the Navy 15 years ago, Cmdr. Trent Kalp probably expected to serve six-month deployments to the middle of the ocean during his career. But at the time, it might have come as a surprise to learn he also would one day be packing his bags at his home in Midlothian, Va., for six months in Afghanistan. Navy Cmdr. Trent Kalp served six months as commander of Defense Logistics Agency’s support team in Afghanistan. His team worked to develop an aviation hub to provide food for U.S. forces in Regional Command South....

The U.S. Marine Corps today released video of its V-22 Ospreys arriving in Afghanistan. Ten MV-22s flew from the USS Bataan and are now operating in southern Afghanistan. The video is of MV-22Bs with the Marine Medium tiltrotor Squadron 263, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit taking off in three waves from the flight deck of the Bataan. And here is video of the arrival and flight of the first Osprey to be use in Afghanistan.

Washington DC - Today, U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter returned from a trip to Afghanistan, where he met with civilian and military leadership and service personnel undertaking combat duties. Hunter once again called on President Obama to take decisive action and immediately implement General Stanley McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy. "This trip to Afghanistan provided a great opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing our combat personnel and the efforts of military and civilian leadership to achieve victory," said Congressman Hunter. "There appears to be unanimous agreement among military commanders and their civilian counterparts that additional combat troops are needed - and...

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - More than 25 NATO and Afghan troops were wounded during a search Friday for two missing U.S. paratroopers in western Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said. The Taliban said the missing two missing soldiers were dead and it had recovered their bodies.

Two soldiers are missing in western Afghanistan after failing to return from a routine resupply mission two days ago, Nato officials have said.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan SNIPPET: "Dr. Jim Radike, an expert in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Role 3 Trauma Hospital at Kandahar Air Field, told The Washington Times that Sgt. Robert David Gordon, 22, from River Falls, Ala., died Sept. 16 from what turned out to be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever after he was bitten by a tick. The virus is transmitted by infected blood and can be carried by ticks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."

Tuesday night, when my financially-flogged, nerve-wracked husband announced the election returns, he breathed a deep sigh of relief and beamed, "It may not be much, but I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel." To which I replied, "Yep, but it's still a locomotive." He threw a pillow at my head and switched to the ultimate fight on SPIKE. So, down to brass tacks on saving the Republic. Did the two GOP victories this week -- in purple Virginia and bluer-than-blue New Jersey -- signal a beam of sunshine in a tunnel gone dark with fear and...

The body of a Marshall County soldier was on its way back to the United States on Thursday. 25 year-old Julian Berisford's body will be flown back with a military escort. Julian's death is still very raw to all of his family, especially to his wife Gina. However, they agreed to talk to 7News Reporter Melissa Reid. They want everyone to know just who this hero was.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2009 – Combined Afghan and international forces killed or detained suspected militants in Afghanistan’s Wardak and Khowst provinces yesterday, and officials are investigating whether an International Security Assistance Force rocket attack caused civilian casualties, military officials reported. A combined force targeted a compound near the village of Babur Kheyl in Wardak’s Sayed Abad district after intelligence indicated militant activity there. After entering the compound, the force received hostile fire and returned fire, killing the militants. The patrol searched the compound and detained a group of suspected militants. No civilians were harmed during the operation, officials said. In...

What Are We Fighting For - - Part 999 Karzai Embraces the Enemy byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org Afghan President Hamid Karzai today called for a rapprochement with the Taliban, who have established in permanent presence in 80% of the country. But his remarks failed to capture the attention of the major news outlets. Karzai seeks not only reconciliation with the radical insurgents but offers them the right to equal share in the shaping of government policies. In the televised speech, he said: "We call on our Taliban brothers to come home and embrace their land,” Mr Karzai made...

As President Obama decides whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, we should remember that most of the conventional pessimism about Afghanistan is only half-truth. Remember the mantra that the region is the “graveyard of empires,” where Alexander the Great, the British in the 19th century, and the Soviets only three decades ago inevitably met their doom? In fact, Alexander conquered most of Bactria and its environs (which included present-day Afghanistan). After his death, the area that is now Afghanistan became part of the Seleucid Empire. Centuries later, outnumbered British-led troops and civilians were initially ambushed, and suffered many casualties,...

War On Terror: Sen. John Kerry, who was so wrong about Iraq, now says our commander in Afghanistan is "reaching too far, too fast" and that a "good enough" policy should suffice. It won't. Offering his advice on how to micromanage the war against the Taliban, Kerry said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, President Obama's hand-picked general to fight what he called a "war of necessity," is wrong in saying he needs 40,000 more troops to fight and win it. Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Kerry advocated a "good enough" policy designed not to achieve victory in al-Qaida's...

Surrounded by her family, Maj. Stella Carroll looked out over a sea of fluttering American flags Wednesday morning at Parma Elementary School. More than 400 tiny voices greeted the mother of five with the national anthem and other patriotic songs, and the children presented her with letters calling her a hero. Carroll, who has served in the U.S. Army Reserves for more than 20 years, will leave Saturday for a year-long tour in Kandahar, Afghanistan. "We want you to know how much we respect and appreciate you," Parma Elementary School Principal Sue Haney told Carroll during the send-off ceremony at...

Tomorrow morning — Thursday, November 5 — Afghanistan and Iraq veterans from across the country will be in Washington, D.C. to petition their members of Congress and the White House to fully support mission success in Afghanistan. Our message is simple: Provide our commander in Afghanistan, General Stan McChrystal, and his troops, the manpower, resources, and support they need to defeat America’s enemies. The Afghanistan mission is tough and complicated, and will require continued American sacrifice for years. But as we learned in Iraq from General David Petraeus, “hard is not hopeless;” and with the right combination of strategy, manpower,...

KABUL, Nov. 4, 2009 – Combined Afghan and international security forces killed or detained several militants and recovered multiple weapons and explosives in operations in Afghanistan yesterday, military officials reported. A combined security force detained a group of suspects in Khowst province, including a Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin militant group commander believed to be responsible for managing a homemade-bomb network and working with Haqqani terrorist network elements in the area. Recent media reports profile the Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin as one of the three main militant groups in Afghanistan, officials said. The group keeps a low profile by cooperating with Taliban and Haqqani elements...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2009 – Many U.S. servicemembers working and living alongside Afghan soldiers here find they have much in common with their Afghan counterparts. Army Capt. Jacob White discusses planning with Afghan soldiers Maj. Mohammed Ahmen and Capt. Zalmay at Forward Operating Base Bullard in Afghanistan’s Zabul province, Sept. 29, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Stephen Decatur  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team live on the same bases with their Afghan counterparts and work side by side with them during combat operations. The U.S. soldiers advise and...

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. David Raymond Baker was buried Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday morning.

AS EVERYONE scrambles to predict a possible future outlook for war-ravaged Afghanistan, the negative variables continue to mount. The Taliban have boldly stepped up their attacks in the power vacuum created by the failed August elections and the countrywide apathy in anticipation of the upcoming Nov. 7 presidential run-off vote. October was by far the deadliest month of the war with 50 Allied soldiers killed, including yet another Canadian. The daring assault against the United States guest house in the fortified centre of Kabul last Tuesday — coincidental with an equally brash attack against the posh foreigners-only Serena Hotel —...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main political rival is questioning the president's commitment to fighting corruption. Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah withdrew days ago from a second-round runoff vote because of concerns over fraud. On Tuesday, he said Mr. Karzai's government lacks legitimacy because of the controversial election process that declared Mr. Karzai the winner by default. Abdullah addressed a news conference in Kabul. It followed a similar conference by Mr. Karzai Tuesday in which the president vowed to "make every possible effort" to eradicate government corruption, but also appeared to reject removing high-level officials in any anti-corruption purge.

Three Grenadier Guards and two Royal Military Police were attacked as they rested inside a compound. The soldiers, who had removed their body armour and helmets, were shot by an Afghan national policeman who then fled. It is not known whether he was a member of the Taliban or being coerced by the insurgents. The gunman is thought to go by the name Gulbuddin and is believed to have had an accomplice. There are also suggestions that he had animosity towards his superiors after being repeatedly moved around the country as part of his duties. He is now being hunted...

Five soldiers have been shot dead by a "rogue" Afghan policeman in an attack at a police checkpoint. Three Grenadier Guards and two Royal Military Police were attacked as they rested inside a compound. The soldiers, who had removed their body armour and helmets, were shot by an Afghan national policeman who then fled. It is not known whether he was a member of the Taliban or being coerced by the insurgents.

had a four-hour dinner once with Rush Limbaugh at the “21” Club in Manhattan, back in the days when I was still writing profiles as a “reporterette,” to use a Limbaugh coinage. He was charming, in a shy, awkward, lonely-guy way. Not a man of the people. He arrived in a chauffeured town car and ordered $70-an-ounce Beluga, Porterhouse and 1990 Corton-Charlemagne. But he was not a Neanderthal, though he did have a cold and blew his nose in his napkin. He talked about Chopin’s Polonaise No. 6, C.S. Lewis and how much he loved the end of the movie...

Former president George W Bush thought that the United States could turn Kabul into Peoria, the archetypal American city in the state of Illinois. President Barack Obama thinks that Kabul is just as good as Peoria. America has shed idealist delusion - that imposing the outward form of democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan would implant its content - in favor of an even stranger delusion, which refuses "to elevate one nation or group of people over another", as Obama told the United Nations on September 23. It was mad to believe that America could remake the world in its own...

In the early stages of his presidency, many decisions by President Obama have been viewed as being rash, uninformed, and more than slightly arrogant. But for me, his latest transgression upon the nation singularly stands out. The president's midnight run to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to "honor" 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan was a sensationalistic but desperate political stunt, and he should be called out on it.

11/3/2009 - QALAT, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Airmen and Soldiers from the Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team delivered school supplies to an Afghanistan National Army compound here Oct. 27. The delivery of supplies is part of an ongoing project to help educate the young soldiers, many of whom have nothing more than an elementary school level education. The program grew from a request from senior ANA officials to help raise the literacy levels of the soldiers, said Major J.D. Loftis, the PRT's information operations officer. "This program is basically just like your average elementary school program," he said. But, unlike that average...

11/3/2009 - ZABUL PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- "Roads bring people. People bring business and business improves life for everyone." These words, spoken in 2006 by Canadian Brig. Gen. Daniel Pepin, then the deputy general for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, have proven prophetic, as, three years later, the ability to move vehicles and goods along roads here has been greatly enhanced, improving the lives of Afghans across the country. In response, Taliban insurgents routinely target the newly-built infrastructure. Air Force engineers assigned to the Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team have countered, along with Army security forces, by conducting missions along Highway One,...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 3, 2009 – Afghan soldiers in armored Humvees led a combined convoy of Afghans and Americans down Highway 1. As dawn broke, they passed an Afghan National Police checkpoint and dismounted by an Afghan army combat outpost. Their objective was Shah Hasan Kheyl, a village about a half mile off the road. Army 1st Lt. Sean Snook emerges from an orchard with his fellow paratroopers Oct. 3, 2009, in Afghanistan’s Zabul province. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Stephen Decatur  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Starting in August, small, embedded training teams dispersed throughout Afghanistan started getting...

KABUL, Nov. 3, 2009 – A combined Afghan and international security force detained several suspected militants today and yesterday in Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces, military officials reported. A combined force detained several suspects in Helmand province today after searching a compound known to be used by a Taliban leader in charge of coordinating attacks and supplying homemade bombs to other militants in the region. The force targeted the compound near Koshtay village in Garmsir district after intelligence indicated militant activity there. The force searched the compound without incident; no shots were fired and no one was injured. Elsewhere, a...

Hamid Karzai Reaches Out To 'Taliban Brothers' In Afghanistan Hamid Karzai offered an olive branch to his "Taliban brothers" in a victory speech a day after he was declared president. Ben Farmer in Kabul 03 Nov 2009 He promised an inclusive government and said he would "eradicate the stain of corruption" as his foreign backers pressured him to clean up his regime. In a televised speech he said: "We call on our Taliban brothers to come home and embrace their land". Mr Karzai's previous calls for talks with Mullah Mohammad Omar, former head of the Taliban regime, have so far...

A bomb disposal specialist who had defused more than 60 improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan died when one went off as he tried to disarm it. Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, was on his last day before two weeks of rest and recuperation after a five-month tour in charge of an improvised explosive device (IED) search team in Helmand province. He was due back there next month. He died instantly when an IED that he was examining by the British forward operation base in the town of Sangin exploded on Saturday. The Ministry of Defence said that Staff Sergeant Schmid...

November 02, 2009, 4:00 a.m. A New Isolationism?A few months ago, Afghanistan was a “war of necessity.” What changed? By Conrad Black The Obama administration’s shilly-shallying in Afghanistan is a textbook case of how not to conduct a war, and how not to lead an alliance. In the 2006 and 2008 campaigns, the Democrats demanded the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and accused the Bush administration of conducting an unnecessary war in that country while ignoring the original campaign in Afghanistan, where the 9/11 terrorist attacks were planned. As recently as two months ago, President Obama called Afghanistan a...

Here is an interesting tidbit of information from the charge sheet against David Coleman Headley, the US jihadi indicted for plotting attacks in Denmark. Headley traveled to North Waziristan and afterward offered his view on the number of al Qaeda and other foreign jihadis in the tribal agencies' largest towns (in response to a think tank survey that said a significant number of people in the northwest approved of the Predator attacks against al Qaeda):

The Air Force Times' Sean Naylor scored an interview with Major General Mike Flynn, director of intelligence for General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. There isn't a lot new here to longtime readers of The Long War Journal and Threat Matrix. Flynn gives an overview of the Taliban groups, notes that al Qaeda operatives serve as combat enablers for the Taliban, estimates Taliban forces in Afghanistan at between 19,000 to 27,000 fighters, and said Pakistan remains a major haven for the Taliban and al Qaeda. Of particular interest are Flynn's comments on Iran and the role...

Democrats said that the outing of a CIA agent, personnel, whatever, was bad, and said that someone's head in the Bush Administration had to roll. Democrats wanted Cheney, but didn't get him. When the New York Times outs Karzai's brother as supposedly being paid by the CIA to do who knows what, Democrats act as if it is no big deal. What gives?

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The Oct. 9 Congressional Research Office report "Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security and U.S. Policy" says that from 2003-08 the United States spent nearly $10 billion training and equipping the current Afghan National Army force of roughly 90,000 soldiers. That is approximately $110,000 per soldier. In his Aug. 30 report U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal states that the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police are not sufficiently effective to take ownership of Afghanistan's security. One of his four main pillars to accomplish the mission and defeat the insurgency is to increase the size of the...

Watch the Full Program Online Warning: Graphic Language and violent imagery Viewer Discretion Advised. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/view/

Obama used the War in Afghanistan to get elected. He then announced that the “War on Terror” was “over”. And now, stuck between either keeping his campaign promise or surrendering to his far-left base that is slowly abandoning their support for the war, he is stalling on making clear decisions on Afghanistan (while using the dignified transfer of our fallen soldiers as yet another opening for a photo-op.) Rapid response. Taking the necessary actions under pressure. Making the right decisions and sticking to them. All of these are qualities a president absolutely needs to have in wartime for the sake...

It seems the planned protest of Lance Cpl. David Raymond Baker's funeral by Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kan.-based church known for picketing at the funerals of American troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, never materialized. "If they were there, they didn't make themselves known," said Painesville Police Capt. Rick Kline. Painesville police received word from another department that protesters may have been on Walnut Avenue, though none were found upon investigation. There were also two buses that passed by the church before the funeral, but again, no protesters were involved. "(The buses) slowly drove by because of...

Click to watch on You TubeWASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2009 -- Embedded above is a b-roll video of the ATV MRAP in Afghanistan. Scenes include the vehicle driving through the base and interviews. (Courtesy Video, American Forces Network Afghanistan. Length: 00:01:38.)

Moscow, 1953. Stalin calls in Khrushchev. "Niki, I'm dying. Don't have much to leave you. Just three envelopes. Open them, one at a time, when you get into big trouble." A few years later, first crisis. Khrushchev opens envelope 1: "Blame everything on me. Uncle Joe." A few years later, a really big crisis. Opens envelope 2: "Blame everything on me. Again. Good luck, Uncle Joe." Third crisis. Opens envelope 3: "Prepare three envelopes." In the Barack Obama version, there are 50 or so such blame-Bush free passes before the gig is up. By my calculation, Obama has already...