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U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Wednesday that the U.S. will back proposals to phase out the use of “unabated” fossil fuels at the ongoing COP27 climate summit. “It has to be unabated oil and gas,” Kerry told Bloomberg in Egypt Wednesday. “Phase down, unabated, over time. The time is a question, but ‘phase down’ is the language we supported.” The “unabated” distinction will open the door to continual operation of fossil fuel developments that offset their greenhouse gas emissions with technology like carbon capture.

President Joe Biden is reportedly pulling troops and equipment out of the Gulf region.President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to remove some United States military assets and forces from the Gulf, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.At least three Patriot anti-missile batteries have reportedly been withdrawn, including one from a base in Saudi Arabia.Biden has pledged to recalibrate US-Saudi ties since taking office in January, including freezing the sale of some weapons used by the kingdom in the war in Yemen. But his administration also says it does not want to destroy the relationship. It says it...

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that more than 2,000 troops will be withdrawn from Iraq and the administration is looking to announce a drawdown in Afghanistan in coming days. CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said the reduction will go from about 5,200 troops in Iraq to 3,000 and happen this month, which he said will 'allow us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq,' according to CNN. Reporters first caught wind of the president's plan when a senior administration official discussed it with the press pool on...

President Trump’s surprise decision to rapidly withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria is meeting with intense criticism by foreign policy experts, who denounce it as strategically stupid, reckless for national security and a blow to America’s global credibility. But inside Syria, the consequences are even more serious. For one example, 50,000 Syrian civilian refugees living under the direct protection of the U.S. military are suddenly fearing for their lives. For three years, civilians living in the Rukban refugee camp in the southeastern Syrian desert have survived because of the protection of U.S. forces encamped 10 miles away on a base...

WASHINGTON—A day after a contested decision to pull American military forces from Syria, officials said Thursday that President Trump has ordered the start of a reduction of American forces in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2008 – U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman has a gavel, and he’s not afraid to use it. At the fourth appearance in front of a congressional audience by the United States’ top military commander and envoy to Iraq, Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cut to the chase. Already, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker had both seen more than 12 hours of combined testimony before the start of their final appearance on Capitol Hill this afternoon. Berman asked for only a summary of their previous testimony so the committee members...

Late in the day on April 4th (just before AFPC closed its doors and unplugged its phones for the weekend), notices began going out to airmen retracting previously approved retirements, explaining that approval had been “erroneous.” They’d been given permission to retire, allowed to act on it for a few days, and then informed AFPC was “taking back” that approval. In some cases, this second notice came after the acceptance of a job offer or the hiring of a real estate agent. Spouses gave notice at work or accepted new jobs. In some cases, child care providers were given notice...

Afghanistan Gains Will Be Lost Quickly After Drawdown, U.S. Intelligence Estimate Warns By Ernesto Londoño, Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller December 28 A new American intelligence assessment on the Afghan war predicts that the gains the United States and its allies have made during the past three years are likely to have been significantly eroded by 2017, even if Washington leaves behind a few thousand troops and continues bankrolling the impoverished nation, according to officials familiar with the report. The National Intelligence Estimate, which includes input from the country’s 16 intelligence agencies, predicts that the Taliban and other power brokers...

Many analysts believe that the US draw down in Iraq is damaging to Obama’s electoral chances. And now information is emerging that Obama acted to keep troops deployed. In a September 15 New York Post editorial, CNN and BBC contributor Amir Taheri writes that, according to Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Senator Obama in June told visiting Iraqi officials that President Bush’s government was in a ‘”state of weakness and political confusion’” so the negotiations should be postponed until after the election.

... One of the first considerations is cost: is it worth the trouble and expense to ship a given item home? A quick trip around the yard reveals hundreds of white four foot by four-foot cardboard containers called “kicker boxes,” each of which costs about $5,000. They are used to ship equipment back to the U.S. As Pagan rummaged through a random box, he pulled out several small pieces of gear worth about $20,000 each. Many of the boxes, he explained, can contain as much as $200,000 worth of equipment. As retrograde has become a larger focus, these sorting operations...

WASHINGTON — In December 2009, our commander in chief went to West Point and proclaimed that he would withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by 2014. Since then, he has proudly emphasized that "We are on a course to end this war responsibly." Now U.S. and NATO troops and loyal Afghan soldiers and police officers are reaping the bitter harvest of the seeds that Barack Obama planted with those words. Over the last 10 days, in five separate incidents, seven American military personnel were killed in what used to be called "green on blue attacks" — where Afghan soldiers or...

WASHINGTON — Four-star general-turned-CIA director David Petraeus almost resigned as Afghanistan war commander over President Barack Obama's decision to quickly draw down surge forces, according to a new insider's look at Petraeus' 37-year Army career. Petraeus decided that resigning would be a "selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications" and that now was "time to salute and carry on," according to a forthcoming biography. Author and Petraeus confidante Paula Broadwell had extensive access to the general in Afghanistan and Washington

"President Barack Obama's decision to order a bigger and speedier reduction in troop numbers than advised by his top military commanders will increase American casualties during the pull-out, Pentagon planners fear." *** "On the ground, US commanders believe the announcement means it will now be necessary to abandon plans to take their fight against the Taliban to the violent eastern mountains bordering Pakistan where the Afghan war was born. They had wanted to try and repeat the successes since Mr Obama's "surge" was begun in 2009 during fierce fighting in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand."

I was listening to Mark Levin tonight; Levin pointed out that there were no flags behind the podium for the address to the nation. Usually when President gives an address to the nation, there are flags behind him.

You have to read carefully to recognize the change in policy here, but it’s a doozy. From the very beginning of The One’s surge last year, July 2011 has been held out as a set-in-stone date on which withdrawal will begin. Even at the time, they were playing games with that: The date was fixed but the number of troops to be withdrawn was conditions-based, so in theory Obama could keep his pledge by pulling out 50,000 troops next summer — or, if need be, just one platoon. As White House spokesman Tommy Vietor is quick to point out to...

BAGHDAD – Set to play a key-role in the reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq this summer, an all-in-one aviation unit from Fort Riley, Kan., arrived here in March; one of the U.S. Army’s last active-duty aviation battalions to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A U.S. Army Chinook helicopter with the 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, performs a hover test before departing on a cargo-moving mission from Taji Army Airfield, Iraq, July 7. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Roland Hale.As the Army draws down in Iraq, aviators with the...

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2010 – Iraq’s government and security forces have improved to the point that the commander of U.S. Forces Iraq says he is comfortable drawing down to 50,000 U.S. troops there by September. Video Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who outlined the improved situation in Iraq during a Pentagon press briefing today, said U.S. forces are ahead of schedule on the drawdown there. “I can’t overemphasize how much Iraqi Security Forces have improved. That’s what’s different today from a year ago,” Odierno told reporters. “I think it’s the right time to go to 50,000 and it’s my assessment...

Nearly every airman has forgotten to salute, missed a meeting, showed up for work late or flubbed a test. By and large, those moments strike fear in airmen’s hearts — and for good reason. A little thing, or a seemingly little thing, can kill a career as much as a big thing. You don’t have to commit a crime to get kicked out of the service. You can be handed your walking papers for simply being in an overmanned career field or flunking the PT test. And in these times when the Air Force is looking to get rid of...

4/28/2010 - AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFNS) -- Airmen from the 732nd Expeditionary Prime Beef Squadron are assisting with preparations for the increase of U.S. military members who have started to arrive as military officials begin to drawdown of U.S. military forces in Iraq. As members of the facility engineer team, a group of engineer assistants have set out to survey and provide visual representation of this 18 square mile installation. Their surveys will be used for construction management, base maps and drafting projects that will help use land and infrastructure for more than Soldiers transitioning through the base...

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2010 – Iraqi forces are doing a good job in maintaining security in the country, and the American withdrawal can proceed as planned, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said yesterday. Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said on “Fox News Sunday” that he expects it will take a couple of months for the Iraqis to form a government based on the results of the March 7 election. In that election, the bloc headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi earned two more parliament seats than the bloc led by current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Odierno said...