Pentagon Spending Bill Won’t Reverse Trump’s Transgender Ban
President Trump discusses current military operations with General Joseph Votel, commander of US Central Command.Smith Collection/Gado/Getty LGBTQ rights groups are blasting the latest version of a massive Pentagon spending bill after congressional negotiators removed language that would have reversed President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service members. In July, Democrats amended the House version of…
Our Defense Spending is Up Against a Wall—Trump’s Border Wall, That Is
President Donald Trump signs last year’s National Defense Authorization Act surrounded by soldiers in Fort Drum, New York.Thomas Scaggs/ZUMA It’s the last official week of the 116th Congress, and lawmakers are running out of time to finalize a military budget for the fiscal year that began October 1. The House and Senate each passed a version…
Civilian Casualties Are Skyrocketing in Afghanistan. The CIA Is Partly to Blame.
Afghan policemen display their skills at a police training center on the outskirts of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province.Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty This week brought more grim news from the US war in Afghanistan, which is now in its 19th year. The United Nations reported a 42 percent increase in civilian deaths in July-September compared to the same…
James Mattis Doesn’t Want You to Read This Book
Chip Somodevilla/Getty After James Mattis flew across the country nearly three years ago to interview with Donald Trump for the Secretary of Defense post, the retired Marine Corps general was sure he had flunked the test. “I certainly won’t be hearing back from those guys,” Mattis later recalled to his staff in one of many…
Congress Prepares to Unload on Trump’s Disastrous Syria Policy
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/Getty When President Donald Trump announced his decision to permit a Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria last week, outraged lawmakers were on recess and left with little recourse to register their concerns about the fate of the Kurds outside of Twitter and the Sunday news shows. Now they are assembling back in Washington for…
I Went to Syria and Met the People Trump Just Gave Turkey Permission to Kill
The Kurdish YPG of the coalition (Syrian Democratic Forces AKA SDF) taking thousands of women and children of Daesh jihadists (ISIS) out of Baghoz, the last jihadist stronghold in Syria, in trucks to drop them at Al Hol camp a few hours away. Chris Huby/ZUMA This story is part of Shane Bauer’s investigation into what…