LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Saagar Enjeti One U.S. Army special operator helped dispel a complex Taliban attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan in 2013, saving more than 1,000 personnel, newly released documents obtained by USA Today reveal. The formerly classified documents detail the Silver Star award narratives of several U.S. Army special operators…
By Saagar Enjeti The Pentagon’s semi-annual assessment of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan portends a grim situation for President-elect Donald Trump when he assumes control of America’s longest war. The sum of the assessment basically amounts to two ideas: The scale of the problem is much larger than the current U.S. commitment, and the pace of…
by Jonah Bennett A government watchdog is asking the Department of Defense (DOD) to explain why tens of thousands of Afghan troops who don’t actually exist are receiving large sums of money. In an August letter sent to the DOD and made public on Friday, John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, noted that it’s…
By Saagar Enjeti Poor Afghan Security Force’s Soldiers are selling US taxpayer-funded ammo to scrap metal dealers, Reuters reports. The revelation highlights the vast network of graft and corruption that permeates the Afghan security forces, and one of the major reason it has been so ineffective against the Taliban. One scrap dealer told Reuters if soldiers don’t have…
By Casey Harper Pope Francis expressed horror over the Orlando terror attack that left 50 people dead and 53 wounded Sunday. Omar Mateen reportedly called 911 to declare his allegiance to Islamic State before opening fire on in Pulse, an Orlando gay nightclub. The Holy See Press Office released a statement Sunday mourning the “dreadfully high number of…
By Russ Read Nearly half of the police force in the contentious Helmand province in Afghanistan does not actually exist, yet the U.S. continues to spend billions to fund it. Afghanistan’s Ministry of the Interior is poised to conduct an investigation of former police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang for creating so-called “Ghost Police.” His replacement…
Sergeant 1st Class Charles Martland is the Green Beret who discharged from the Army for delivering justice in the form of a beat down to a Afghan police chief who Martland and others came to learn had been raping a little boy. Concerned with what they had learned, Martland and former Captain Daniel Quinn reported…