In his speech tonight announcing a military surge for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama owes it to U.S. troops and to taxpayers to get specific about his goal for that impoverished, unruly place. ...more

December 1, 2009

Old Soviet joke: 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." ...more

October 30, 2009

The U.S. military announced Sunday that 12,000 U.S. soldiers would withdraw from Iraq by September, marking the first step in the Obama administration's plan to pull U.S. combat forces out of the country by August 2010. ...more

March 9, 2009

Islamic insurgents appeared to be scrambling for power Saturday, taking over several police stations in the capital as Ethiopian troops who have been propping up the government began to pull out, witnesses said. ...more

January 4, 2009

In an unusual instance of cross-border cooperation, Pakistani authorities arrested a ranking figure in Afghanistan's Taliban movement after receiving a tip he had crossed into Pakistan, officials disclosed Saturday. ...more

January 4, 2009

Somalia's president will resign today to try to end government infighting before the country's Ethiopian allies leave, a senior ally said Sunday in the latest in a series of conflicting statements on the leader's future. ...more

December 29, 2008

NATO defense ministers agreed Friday to allow troops operating in Afghanistan to attack drug lords and their networks that support the escalating insurgency in the country. ...more

October 11, 2008

Under intense U.S. pressure, Iraq's parliament approved a law Wednesday that paves the way for the first provincial elections in four years after months of deadlock that U.S. commanders warned could jeopardize the dramatic decline in violence. ...more

September 25, 2008

On a piece of barren land on the western edge of this capital, a refugee camp is steadily swelling as families displaced by the heavy bombardment in southern Afghanistan arrive in batches. ...more

August 3, 2008

Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength. ...more

July 1, 2008