Reducing the number of deaths caused by our use of violence is a worthy goal, and Obama does seem genuinely engaged in drawing the number down. So for the sake of argument, I will take him at his word. But (yo ...

Something happened last week and I still can’t shake the funk of it off me. It happened in Boston and Texas; I saw it in Chicago as well, and the week before in Afghanistan. Last Sunday I tried to be a dutiful ...

Shane Claiborne Can getting to know people on the "other side" help tear down the walls between us? It already has. ...

Mary Kate MacIsaac Making Friends Among the Taliban: A Peacemaker's Journey in Afghanistan. Herald Press ...

Sen. Rand Paul's filibuster sparks public debate. Sen. Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster last week against the administration’s drone policy brought a long-simmering debate to ...

THIS JUST IN — horrific news from our friends in Kabul. Over the weekend two kids, age 7 and 8, were killed by NATO forces while herding cattle in the Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan. ...

February 1, 2013 Sojo in the News Jim Wallis ...

A foreign policy of fewer troops on the ground, but more drones in the air. Ross Douthat posits that President Obama’s nominations of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defen ...

Addressing "moral injury" among veterans. Counter-insurgency wars, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, frequently place soldiers in morally ambiguous situations. What ...

Yet the community in Kabul seems agreed — we heard it mentioned at some point during each visit — that their greatest need and greatest hope is to somehow give their children an education. ...

Even in the most troubled places on earth, there always seems to be a little group of people who refuse to accept the world as it is and insist on building the world they dream of, a little group of people who ...

We call upon the United Nations to negotiate an immediate cease-fire to the war in Afghanistan, and to start talks aimed at ending the war and beginning the long road to healing and recovery. ...

Air Force reports 447 drone strikes in Afghanistan this year. Most drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen are eventually reported. Not so in Afghanistan. Since they are part of an on ...

Lindsay McLaughlin We should honor slain diplomats by keeping the flame of diplomacy alive. WHEN AMBASSADOR C ...

The UK is sending five additional drones to Afghanistan. The U.K. has had five Reaper drones, which it has used for combat and surveillance missions against insurgents in Afghanis ...

“Stop fighting,” suggests Farzana, a brave 22-year-old Afghan stage actress. Significantly, her statement is in sharp contrast to what seems to be the democratic world’s unquestioned modus operandi of today, e ...

2,000 US troops have died in Afghanistan. After nearly 11 years of war, the New York Times reports that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan went over 2,000 this week.  In an analys ...

Stories of drone victims seeking justice for relatives who have been killed or injured.   In the news today are two stories of drone victims seeking justice for relatives who h ...

Bill Moyers interviews a decorated Vietnam veteran on his experience and the current war in Afghanistan. On the PBS Moyers & Company , Bill Moyers recently interviewed Kar ...

Will civil war hit Afghanistan when the U.S. leaves? Dexter Filkins, a former New York Times reporter who covered the war in Afghanistan, has a long and sobering but well ...

The U.K. has been using Reaper drones in Afghanistan for the past four years. More than four years ago, the U.K. Ministry of Defence bought 6 Reaper drones from the U.S.  The ...

American negotiators working with Pakistan to reopen critical supply routes into Afghanistan have been called back to the United States Carlo Munoz reports for The Hill: ...

With White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan’s recent public acknowledgment of their use and revelations of President Obama’s direct involvement in deciding which targets are struck, the world medi ...

Christopher Sofolo reflects on the NATO demonstrations in Chicago earlier this month: "Amidst a swirl of percussion the crowd was chanting: 'We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!'" ...

This unfathomable amount of money was approved by the House of Representatives in the National Defense Authorization Act. These funds will serve to bring suffering and pain to innocent people, further militari ...

Antiwar amendment blocked in House. The House of Representatives has been debating the defense authorization bill for the past two days, including more than 140 amendments. But th ...

Withdrawing from Afghanistan by the end of this year. In his successful run for president of France, one of Francois Hollande’s campaign promises was to withdraw all French troops ...

Gen. John Allen, the U.S./NATO commander in Afghanistan, is reorienting the military mission in Afghanistan. As U.S. troops leave, Afghan troops must take the lead. Gen. John All ...

Only 27 percent of Americans saying they back the effort of the war in Afghanistan. From  The Associated Press '  Anne Gearan : "Support for the war in Af ...

The American military claimed responsibility and expressed regret for an airstrike that mistakenly killed six members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan and American military officials confirmed M ...

President Obama issued his annual proclamation on Monday, making special mention of prayers for the military as befitted his surprise visit to Afghanistan.   As reported by  C ...

From  Joe Scarborough's  Politico  blog last night: The takeaway of President Obama's speech tonight is simple. The neocons won, the troops lost and the endless war grinds on in a land that humbled the Soviet Union, the British Empir ...

Watch videos of President Obama's surprise visit to Afghanistan today and read the transcript of his address to the American people tonight inside the blog. Below are several ...

Presidents Obama and Karzai have signed in Kabul a strategic partnership agreement between the two countries. The Associated Press reports: “The partnership spells out the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan beyond 2014, covering security, e ...

President Barack Obama landed in Afghanistan this afternoon on an unannounced trip. He will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and sign a strategic partnership agreement pledging U.S. support for Afghanis ...

The analogy with Tet is not exact, but the lesson from history is worth heeding. An indigenous insurgency, with safe haven in another country, fighting an occupation force and a government it has installed, wi ...

After weeks of tumultuous upheaval, the slaying allegedly by a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant is just the most recent incident undermining U.S. objectives to win hearts and minds. Frankly, that mission has long been ...

If you were walking down the street and a stranger approached you and punched you in the face what would you want to do in that moment? Sure, this is an odd hypothetical situation, but really, answer the quest ...

There is no way to measure the loss for the families of the victims, no way to understand the harm done to peace process in the country and no way to calculate the additional deaths of Americans, Afghans and o ...

The Taliban is attempting to capitalize on the outbreak of violence that followed the inadvertent burning of a Quran by NATO troops by characterizing the war as a conflict between infidels and Islam, analysts ...

When you read the news as much as I do, you learn which bylines to look for if you want the most comprehensive and well-written coverage of a story. Mr. Shadid was one of those correspondents. ...

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, during his second tour in Afghanistan last year, traveled throughout the country, meeting with and interviewing American troops. He came away convinced that military ...

"God, I think, had better plans for me," Balbale said, looking back. And so it is for a number of military chaplains who, by twists of fate or perhaps divine Providence, found their calling to become ...

While the mid-Atlantic basks in higher than normal temperatures, it isn’t like that everywhere. Two stories from The New York Times on the struggle for warmth. While the mid-Atla ...

THE HUFFINGTON POST: Searching For The Common Good In Political Discourse In a political campaign among contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, it is striking that one central Christian religious theme seems absent: the theme of the ...

A jury on Sunday found three members of an Afghan family guilty of killing three teenage sisters and another woman in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a &qu ...

No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built it together. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we ho ...

At 9pm ET, President Barack Obama will address a joint session on Congress to give them information on the State of the Union. THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama To Take On Economic Anxiety In Election-Year State Of The Union, Amid GOP Attacks ...

“I've never felt compelled to step out of the reporter's role to help someone this way. This time, with this person, I did,” Watson says. “Roya is an extraordinary young woman, the daughter of a fath ...

Over the past few days, news sources have reported on a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan delivered to the White House in December. NIEs represent the consensus view of the CIA and 15 oth ...