troops

Democrats Rankled by Slight Iraq Troop Withdrawal Plan

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is not the only Democrat criticizing President George W. Bush’s announcement today that the Pentagon will withdraw only 8,000 troops from Iraq by February — while shifting just 4,500 additional troops to increasingly restive Afghanistan.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he was “stunned” by the news, while Sen. Carl Levin, [...]

Getting Fed Up

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser is the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in the eastern sector of Afghanistan, known as RC-East. That puts him in charge of an Afghan population of nearly nine million, spread out across an area about the size of Pennsylvania — if Pennsylvania were pockmarked by [...]

Fallen Comrades

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – In the predawn chill of 4 a.m., in uniform, in silence interrupted only by the morning chirp of hungry birds and a distant muezzin’s call to prayer, the soldiers of Bagram lined up at attention along Disney Drive.
Behind the avenue, to the east, four vehicles — two white trucks and [...]

1 Brigade and 1 Battalion

ISTANBUL – It’s 10 p.m. in the lowest level of the Istanbul airport. In 20 minutes I’ll be allowed to board my plane to Kabul, bringing me to the capitol city of Afghanistan at the crack of dawn. Before I made my way down to the gate, an International Herald-Tribune headline caught my eye, for [...]