President Barack Obama will ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of a record $708 billion for the Defense Department next year, The Associated Press has learned — a request that could be an especially hard sell to some of the administration’s Democratic allies. The extra $33 billion in 2010 would mostly go toward the expansion of the war... 

Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban. Share/Save Read More →

By Holly Bailey Big news from the West Wing: Mark Lippert, one of President Obama’s closest foreign-policy advisers, is leaving to rejoin the Navy. Lippert, who is deputy national-security adviser and chief of staff of the National Security Council, has worked for Obama since his first days in the Senate and later advised him during the campaign. Perhaps no one on the foreign-policy team, save... 

Another American died in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the final day of September–and exactly one month after the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan sent a confidential war assessment to the Obama administration, warning that more forces are needed–soon. The as-yet-unnamed American serviceman who died on Wednesday was caught in a suicide attack in Khost Province, in eastern Afghanistan, press... 

By Jonah Goldberg When John McCain said we could just 'muddle through' in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights," Barack Obama thundered as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president... 

By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air The latest New York Times/CBS poll has some bad news for Barack Obama, although the two media outlets did their best to avoid it in their sampling.  He has lost ground on Afghanistan, almost certainly from his liberal base, and his media blitz has done nothing to change minds on health care.  His approval ratings remain relatively high, but that has more to do with... 

By Ed Morrissey General Stanley McChrystal’s assessment of the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater and request for more troops has not yet received any action from Barack Obama, but according to McClatchy and the Long War Journal, he may not have a lot of time to make a decision.  McChystal has grown frustrated with President Obama’s “deliberative pace,” and may resign if Obama... 

By Joseph Curl Facing the first real rough patch of his presidency, President Obama and his supporters are once again resorting to a tried-and-true tactic: attacking George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Share/Save Read More →

By Leonid Ragozin and Igor Prokopyev Translators were baffled by Vladimir Putin's recent response to President Obama. Leading up to his summit in Moscow, Obama had announced that the Russian premier had one foot in the old way and one foot in the new. "We cannot stand vraskoryachku," Putin replied in a steely voice. This rarely used idiom means "an awkward position," but even... 

By Ben Feller  President Barack Obama opened his first Moscow summit with confidence on Monday, predicting "extraordinary progress" out of meetings set to test his diplomatic skills on important priorities such as nuclear arsenal reductions and the fight in Afghanistan. Share/Save Read More →

A couple of surprising words were missing from President Barack Obama’s 55-minute news conference on Wednesday: “Iraq” — and “Afghanistan.” Also MIA: “Korea,” “Pakistan,” “soldiers,” “surge” and “war” — as well as the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Share/Save Read More →