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John Chapman among 7 killed in Afghanistan trying to rescue comrade Wednesday, March 13, 2002 By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer WINDBER, Pa. -- He was born in Connecticut; he wasn't a hometown boy. Truth is, most of the 4,600 people around this northern Somerset County town didn't even know Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Chapman. As Air Force Tech Sgt. John Chapman's casket is lowered into the ground in Windber, Somerset County, one of his team members is consoled; another stands at attention. Chapman was one of seven soldiers who died in the mountains of east Afghanistan when they...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — They call it the Battle of Roberts Ridge.The 15-hour firefight cost more American lives — seven — than any other engagement in the war against terrorism. It was named after the first American to die amidst the snowy, 10,000-foot mountains of eastern Afghanistan. But so many troops performed with such extraordinary courage during that long night and day that it could just as easily have been named after any one of at least a dozen men. This is the story of that March 4 battle, and of one of those heroes.A fusillade of fireIt...

Former Fort Myers teacher among U.S. casualties in Afghanistan [left teaching for more pay in army] Army Ranger, Marc A. Anderson - a former math teacher at a FL public school. Wednesday, March 6, 2002 By MARY KELLI BRIDGES, mkbridges@naplesnews.com and KARIE PARTINGTON, kjpartington@naplesnews.com Students in Cathy Kane's Fort Myers Middle School social studies class watched on television Tuesday as the flag-draped coffins of seven soldiers were carried off a plane in Germany. They knew that the body of Army Ranger Spc. Marc A. Anderson — a former teacher at the school — was among them. The 30-year-old Anderson ...

It was March 4, 2002. American special operations forces were fighting to establish observation posts high above Afghanistan’s Shah-i-Kot Valley, as conventional troops continued their push through the valley floor below. One of those men, Air Force Technical Sgt. John Chapman, was alone in the pitch-black, wounded and slowly regaining his consciousness in the thigh-deep snow of a 10,469-foot peak known as Takur Ghar, as scores of Al Qaeda fighters closed in. The operators were due to lift-off from their Gardez base around midnight and quietly land near the base of the peak before climbing to the top. But maintenance...

One of the biggest ongoing problems of U.S. foreign policy is a failure to understand what we’re really up against. This problem is nothing new, although Barack Obama took it to new heights by banning all mention of Islam and jihad from counterterror training, with many of his loyalists still in place and hampering our ability to deal realistically with the jihad threat today. This myopia goes back decades. In Theodore H. White’s America In Search of Itself, there is this telling passage about the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979: Of the negotiating effort, the most biting summary was...

Who Was Tamerlane? Timur was a 14th Century Turko-Mongol military leader who conquered most of the Muslim world, central Asia, and parts of India. His Timurid Empire rivaled the size and power of the Mongolian domain forged by Genghis Khan a century earlier.Known by his nickname, Tamerlane, it's unclear why many people in the Western world have never heard of this brutal and ingenious warlord. To rectify this neglect, the following is a list of interesting facts about Tamerlane. The list includes notable events in his life; analyzes his acerbic personality, and remarks on current impressions of this fascinating...

<p>If someone had told me a few months ago that I’d be writing a piece for Front Page on this theme, I would’ve dismissed him as a lunatic. After all, then I was supporting the positions expected from those on the so-called antiwar right. I was harshly critical of Israeli defense initiatives, more willing to talk up for Noam Chomsky than the sitting President, and insistent upon baiting “neo-conservative” Michael Ledeen of National Review into admitting that he sought to see the regime in Tehran overthrown by any means necessary, including US Military involvement.</p>

The innocent dead in a coward's war Estimates suggest US bombs have killed at least 3,767 civilians Seumas Milne Thursday December 20, 2001 The Guardian The price in blood that has already been paid for America's war against terror is only now starting to become clear. Not by Britain or the US, nor even so far by the al-Qaida and Taliban leaders held responsible for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. It has instead been paid by ordinary Afghans, who had nothing whatever to do with the atrocities, didn't elect the Taliban theocrats who ruled over them ...

The Department of Defense released details — and video — of an April 5 airstrike that killed top Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) commander Qari Hikmatullah and his bodyguard in northern Afghanistan.

A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot flies over Afghanistan after completing aerial refueling operations with a KC-135 Stratotanker on March 12, 2018.DVIDS I recently had the chance to speak on the phone with a US Air Force A-10 pilot serving in Afghanistan, and he told me about how the Warthog's "presence alone scares the enemy into submission." "Lot of times [when] we're overhead, they'll just put their guns down and go away because they know the A-10 is overhead," the pilot, who asked to be called "McGraw," said. "We've heard that for years." "Do you mean that literally...

Russia is supporting and even supplying arms to the Taliban, the head of US forces in Afghanistan has told the BBC. In an exclusive interview, Gen John Nicholson said he'd seen "destabilising activity by the Russians." He said Russian weapons were smuggled across the Tajik border to the Taliban, but could not say in what quantity. Russia has denied such US allegations in the past, citing a lack of evidence... "We see a narrative that's being used that grossly exaggerates the number of Isis [Islamic State group] fighters here," Gen Nicholson told BBC News. "This narrative then is used as...

President Donald Trump is expected to fire VA Secretary David Shulkin and is strongly considering replacing him with U.S. Army Veteran Pete Hegseth, according to three sources who spoke to Townhall under the condition of anonymity. It has been rumored former Texas Governor Rick Perry is also on the list for the job.It has been widely reported President Trump called Hegseth on Monday during a meeting with Shulkin in the Oval Office to go over options for reform. According to Axios, Trump specifically asked Hegseth to analyze new VA legislation while Shulkin listened in on speaker phone. Since Shulkin took over, the...

March 9 (UPI) -- Orbital ATK has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force for services in support of aircraft for the Afghanistan Air Force. The deal, announced Thursday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $86.4 million under the terms of a firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract. The agreement between the U.S. Air Force and Orbital ATK will provide the Afghan Air Force with an AC-208 Eliminator, an armed intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft is equipped with AGM-114 HELLFIRE missile payloads. Work on the contract will occur in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected...

It's past time the United States did some soul-searching and accept responsibility for exacerbating an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. This will require a rethink of Washington's current handling of Afghanistan and indeed its entire view of the region. Steve Coll recently made a cogent argument in the New York Times that the U.S. should seriously engage with China and other regional powers. However, this is impossible so long as Washington remains convinced that Pakistan alone is the primary impediment to peace rather than its own mistakes... Both Islamabad and Washington compete to wear the cloak of victimhood. Pakistan remains in...

Another very good article by Pilger. Gavin. Please visit my nonprofit website. Exposing the Cancer Racket. Gavin. Please Click Here JOHN PILGER: THIS WAR OF LIES GOES ON Click Here Legendary foreign correspondent argues the conflict is a sham.. not one terrorist has either been caught or killed There is no victory in Afghanistan's tribal war, only the exchange of one group of killers for another. The difference is that President Bush calls the latest occupiers of Kabul "our friends". However welcome the scenes of people playing music and shaving off their beards, this so-called Northern Alliance are no bringers ...

The decision marks a victory for the nearly 64,000 active service members and retirees who have put their names on a Burn Pit Registry created by the Veterans Administration, bringing them one step closer to getting adequate medical coverage, something that has never been guaranteed. Private contractors who were also exposed to the burn pit toxins also have been denied coverage.

On December 8, 2017, the leader of Iraq’s Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Qais al-Khazali paid a visit to the Lebanese-Israeli border to inspect Lebanese “Hezbollah” resistance positions and to issue a threat to the southern neighbor. In a leaked video, he was shown as saying: “We are here with ‘Hezbollah’ and we announce our complete readiness to stand side by side with the Lebanese people and Palestinian cause against the Israeli occupation.” Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, or Khazali Network, is affiliated with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). -excerpt- His statement however demonstrated the common interests of pro-Iran regional militias to allow Tehran...

Feb 11 is normally a day for rallies all over the country in Iran. It is the anniversary of the Islamic revolution. All over the country, people boycotted the rallies. The regime did their best to scare people in participating, threatening punishment & threatening people's jobs for not participating. School children & their teachers were forced to participate. Many of those who were forced were reluctant to join in, as videos showed only a small group answering to the calls for chants on loudspeakers. As usual, the regime sent buses to transport people to rallies in other cities to try...

US President Donald Trump today unveiled a US$ 4 trillion annual budget for the fiscal 2019 beginning October 1, proposing US$ 256 million in civilian assistance and US$ 80 million in military aid to Pakistan. The proposal of aid to Pakistan comes weeks after Trump administration suspended nearly US$ 2 billion in security assistance to Islamabad due to its inability to take action against terrorist groups operating from its soil. The White House has said it would consider lifting the freeze if it sees action by Pakistan against terrorist groups. The budgetary proposal says that the military aid depends on...

Major who led unit calls for more public apology The United States Marine Corps has finally exonerated a group of special forces Marines accused of war crimes in connection to a 2007 ambush in Afghanistan. Major General Frederick M. Padilla, speaking on behalf of Commandant General Robert B. Neller, sent a letter to Rep. Walter Jones (R., N.C.) acknowledging that seven members of the Marine Corps' first special forces unit acted appropriately when they returned fire following a suicide bombing and ambush from enemy forces. Padilla quoted from a 2008 Marine Corps Court of Inquiry, saying the Marines "acted appropriately"...