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On Thursday evening, the Pentagon confirmed that at the direction of President Donald Trump, US forces killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike near Baghdad's airport, the most drastic step toward conflict with Iran in the 21st century. Soleimani was for decades one of the most important and highly regarded military figures in Iran, playing a pivotal role in shaping Iranian foreign policy and the politics of the Middle East today. The killing of the high-level commander, first reported by Iraqi state TV and later confirmed in a Pentagon statement, is the US's most significant escalation of tensions...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fight in Afghanistan is at a stalemate, and the significant number of Afghan troop deaths in the war is not sustainable, the Marine officer nominated to command U.S. forces in the Middle East told lawmakers on Tuesday. Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie warned the Senate Armed Services Committee against an abrupt withdrawal of American forces or change in strategy despite frustration over the status of the 17-year conflict. He said he doesn’t know how long it will take to develop an Afghan force capable of defending its own country. “If we left precipitously right now, I...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Wednesday he had not yet decided whether to strike Syria, but expectations of US military action hardened when Washington said a bid for a last-minute UN mandate was futile. Political uproar in London meanwhile cast doubt on whether Britain will join American military action to punish President Bashar al-Assad's regime for a chemical weapons attack should the response take place before next week. And a team of UN inspectors pressed on with its hazardous work in Damascus, testing victims of the alleged poison gas attack, which killed hundreds of people last week and threatens...

"When Chad Draper finished eating at a fish-fry in his grandmother's garden in suburban Dallas earlier this year, he took a walk with some of the friends and relatives he would soon be leaving for Afghanistan. As they reached number 10141 in the neatly kept cul-de-sac in Preston Hollow, Private Draper paused to glance at the home of the man who, a decade earlier, started the war he was about to join. And George W. Bush looked back. Spotting Pvt. Draper's uniform, Mr Bush came outside and threw an arm around the 26-year-old Army Pathfinder for a photograph. "Thank you...

MIAMI – When the empire strikes back, it hits hard. The Republican establishment is deploying every weapon and every soldier – even Bob Dole – in an increasingly desperate attempt to pulverize the Newt Gingrich rebellion. Eventually, the shock-and-awe campaign may work. But then what? In the establishment’s best-case scenario, the party is left with Mitt Romney, a candidate whose core message, as far as I can tell, seems to be: “Yes, I made a ton of money. You got a problem with that?” It is remarkable that the well-orchestrated blitzkrieg to save Florida for Romney was designed solely to...

Delightful: She begins slamming Bush for why we went into Iraq and the mic goes dead and she keeps on talking, waiting, check, check....She thinks it's a conspiracy..(Video)

WASHINGTON — For the first time since .........(Bla) 2001 — the BlackBerry as we know it wasn’t on the market yet — the alumni of the Clinton Administration have returned to their old haunts. This time, they are members of “transition teams,” but several say they feel like more like political archaeologists. “The buildings look the same,” one said over coffee, “but everything inside is unrecognizable.” And as they dig, they have tripped across a few surprises. .........(BLA BLA BLA) In the Pentagon’s deepest crevices, the Joint Special Operations Command has mushroomed in size and influence because of the demands...

Democrats outraged by Bush "appeasement" remark. Bush said, “America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” And: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” he said. “We...