Failure in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of the country and "have severe consequences for the United States and the world," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday as the Obama administration set out to sell its new war strategy on Capitol Hill. ...more

December 2, 2009

Tell us, Robert Gates, what's the difference between working under Barack Obama and working under George W. Bush? ...more

March 2, 2009

A suspected U.S. missile killed seven people in a Taliban stronghold in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, officials said, while a hard-line cleric rattled peace efforts elsewhere by demanding the government launch Islamic courts within two weeks. ...more

March 1, 2009

The top U.S. military officer cautioned Monday against comparing the Pentagon's renewed focus on Afghanistan to the Vietnam War, citing terrorism and a non-occupation strategy as "dramatic differences" between the two conflicts. ...more

February 2, 2009

He has read "Ghost Wars," the history of the long adventure by the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan and its fruitless effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. ...more

January 4, 2009

The Bush administration on Saturday blamed the more than week-old onslaught in the Gaza Strip squarely on Hamas militants, but did not mention the invasion of Israeli ground troops into Gaza and avoided any criticism of Israel despite mounting world outrage over the growing death toll. ...more

January 4, 2009

The top U.S. military officer said Saturday that the Pentagon could double the number of American forces in Afghanistan by next summer to 60,000 — the largest estimate of potential reinforcements ever publicly suggested. ...more

December 20, 2008

The Bush administration, in the midst of a wide review of its war strategy in Afghanistan, is likely to recommend soon to the incoming Obama administration that the United States push for further expansion of the Afghan army as the surest path to an eventual U.S. withdrawal, The Associated Press has learned. The strategy review, which began in September amid increasing militant violence and a growing U.S. and allied death toll, is being coordinated at the White House and is expected to be presented by December. ...more

November 17, 2008

It takes a brave soldier to do what Army Maj. Gen. David Blackledge did in Iraq. It takes as much bravery to do what he did when he got home. ...more

November 8, 2008

David Petraeus knows Iraq and he's learning Afghanistan. But the biggest test facing the four-star general as he takes charge of U.S. Central Command is probably Pakistan - threatened with financial ruin, torn by an Islamic extremist insurgency and armed with nuclear weapons. ...more

November 1, 2008