War In Afghanistan, Middle East | featured news

An Afghan policeman shot dead three British soldiers at a checkpoint in southern Helmand province on Sunday, Afghan officials said, the latest in a chain of increasingly frequent rogue killings.

As the war in Afghanistan winds down, the impact on the nation’s employment picture goes beyond veterans returning home who are looking for work.

Suicides are surging among America's troops, averaging nearly one a day this year - the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war....

The top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan offered a somber apology on Friday in an eastern province where officials say 18 civilians — half of them children — were killed in a coalition airstrike this week.

It was what President Barack Obama called a "war of necessity," a conflict thrust upon America by the 9/11 attacks. As NATO's mission here winds down nearly 11 years later, the insurgents remain undefeated, corruption runs rife and the peace process is stuck in the sand.

While the Taliban publicly disavowed the new group, Mullah Dadullah Front, Afghan intelligence officials depicted it as a faction of the Taliban.

When it comes to negotiating with the Taliban, it's always one step forward, two steps back. Despite several serious rounds of violence this week, including the assassination of a top peace negotiator, the United States will continue to try to negotiate with the Taliban, experts say. Afghanistan has been violent for a long time, they argue. This week just brought more of the same.

Assaults on coalition service members by uniformed Afghan soldiers, what the military calls "green on blue" attacks, are undermining the future of the mission.

President Obama has wound down America’s war in Iraq, ordered the operation that killed Osama bin Laden and set in motion the end of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan. He also has focused particular attention on veterans and military families, increasing funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs, implementing the post-Sept. 11 G.I. Bill and launching job programs for returning troops.

Ask your average American whether the defense budget should go up or down in 2013, and by how much, and they’ll tell you to cut spending by a whopping 18 percent. Ask your average member of Congress the same question, and no matter which party they’re from, you’ll likely hear that defense spending should barely budge from where it is right now.