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…
Elizabeth Warren Wants to Cut Veteran Suicides in Half
Scott Olson/Getty Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled a wide-ranging plan Tuesday to improve care for America’s veterans, active-duty service members, and their families, proposing to end discrimination toward LGBTQ, immigrant, and HIV-positive troops while substantially increasing the number of staff employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Her campaign’s suite of ideas comprise Warren’s most…
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…
Trump Keeps Eyeing Syria’s Oil—But There’s Not Much There
US soldiers at the Omar oil field in eastern Syria in March 2019.Delil Souleiman/Getty As he announced the death of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi this morning, President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to keep some US troops in Syria to secure control of its oil. “The oil is so valuable,” he said. ISIS had…
Trump Announces ISIS Founder’s Death in a Boastful, Rambling Press Conference
President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House on October 27, 2019.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP This morning, President Donald Trump announced that US special forces killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of the global terrorism group ISIS, in a raid in in northwestern Syria late Saturday. “Last night, the United…