Word: afghanistan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...dearth of targets offered by terrorist foes frustrates military planners. Too often, they end up bombing chemical-weapons factories that turn out to be pharmaceutical plants (as in Sudan in 1998) or vainly firing missiles that do little more than rustle the flaps on terrorists' tents (in Afghanistan the same year). Such strikes run the risk of highlighting America's impotence rather than its might...
...Unlike an Afghanistan run by the Taliban, missile strikes into a country run by allies could prove politically disastrous for a nation whose citizenry seethes with anti-American sentiment. That's a big reason why there have been so few details about the two strikes earlier this month - although the operation was undertaken by the Yemeni military, some missiles may have come from U.S. ships or planes in the neighborhood. Just as in Pakistan, another weak government that leans Washington's way and whose territory is infested by al-Qaeda, it is important for these governments not to be seen...
...sets over the coconut palms and tin roof homes on the remote tropical island of Yap, Tony Untalan anxiously adjusts the radio on his windowsill. He is trying to catch the news from Afghanistan, where one of his two sons in the U.S. military is stationed. But the reception in his village is poor and on this evening, he can't hear anything through the static...
...high schools annually and students sign up in droves. For FSM youths, military service means money, adventure and opportunity, a way off tiny islands with few jobs. In 2008, the country had more Army recruits per capita than any U.S. state. It also has more casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, per capita. The islands have lost nine soldiers in the wars out of a population of 107,000 - a rate five times the U.S. national average. (Only American Samoa has lost more soldiers, per capita, among U.S. territories...
...Vang Pao's troops gained a reputation for being fierce jungle fighters who rescued downed U.S. aircrews, gathered military intelligence and fought the communists to a stalemate. The effort was for many years the CIA's largest covert operation, until the agency funded the mujahedin against the Soviets in Afghanistan. In 1969, Richard Helms, director of the CIA, told President Richard Nixon that Vang Pao had 39,000 troops engaged in active fighting. But casualties were so bad, he wrote, that Vang Pao's forces were using teenagers as young as 13 to fill their lines. This massive effort...