What is each of the two wars and the total cost of war costing the United States? Click HERE to see the constantly rising figure.

Bexar County is pronounced “Behar” just as “Texas” ought to be pronounced “Tehas,” which undoubtedly explains the cluelessness of Fox News as they ejaculated their fear all over the airwaves this week. click here for YouTube I happened to be, literally, right across the street at the time that the TERROR scare was happening.

Barack Obama has answered a question David Petraeus posed eight years ago. A division commander as the Iraq invasion began in 2003, the General was troubled about what a young Illinois legislator would call a dumb war, asking “Tell me how this ends.” Over 4400 American lives and more than a trillion dollars later, President Obama has replied to Petraeus by withdrawing all troops from Iraq by year’s end. In...

A little more than a year ago, I wrote an article about a subject that I found fascinating: “The World War II Navajo Code Talkers.” It started with a reference to the great, 2002 movie “Windtalkers,” about the use of Native Americans, such as the Navajos, during World War II in the Pacific Theater by the U.S. intelligence services to transmit secret messages using “codes” built around their...

Mitt Romney has once again proved he has no ideology or substance  with this: President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women,” Romney wrote. “The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or...

As I was getting ready to brag about our President’s national security and foreign policy accomplishments in the wake of Libya’s Moammar Qaddafi’s ouster and death, USA TODAY beat me to it. So let me take the easy way out and just summarize what they have to say today about how “Obama builds on national security record.” The article starts with what President Obama said in December 2009, when he...

After eight and a half deeply tragic years highlighted by the deaths of nearly 4,800 U.S. and coalition forces, at least 100,000 Iraqis and millions of people displaced, the Iraq war finally is over. President Obama, on a military and foreign policy roll, announced yesterday a complete drawn-down of U.S. troops at year’s end after he failed to reach agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki...

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration has decided to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year after failing to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government. The agreement would have left several thousand troops there for special operations and training. President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki spoke Friday morning to cement that agreement in a scheduled...

A Yemeni boy watches the funeral of people killed this week in protests Observations in the wake of the death of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi: * The victory of middle-class professionals, rag-tag militias and tribal forces over a well-equipped, well-trained military in a relatively brief civil war is enormous. * Given the many conflicting stories, a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the despot’s...

Part of the U.S. military strategy during the Vietnam War was to remove the heavy foliage that provided cover for the enemy through the use of herbicides. “Agent Orange” is the name given to a blend of herbicides the U.S. military sprayed from 1962 to 1971 in Vietnam to remove such foliage. The name “Agent Orange” comes from the orange identifying stripe used on the 55-gallon drums in which...

And so 247 days after troops loyal to Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi opened fire on peaceful pro-democracy protesters, the favor has been returned. The world’s longest ruling despot is dead. The circumstances of Qaddafi’s death after he apparently was found in a tunnel in his hometown of Surt remain unclear. Initial reports said he had been shot in both legs and was being taken to a hospital for treatment,...

As reported here at TMV and several other sources, including the BBC, commanders for Libya’s transitional authorities say they have captured a wounded Col Qaddafi after claiming control of Sirte, Qaddafi’s birthplace. If true, this would come exactly two months after Libyan rebels captured the Libyan capital and overran Qaddafi’s fortified compound in Tripoli. In a post reporting on the Libyan rebels...

One wonders what would have happened for Cain if he made jokes about lynching black people who make no effort to work…but then later, much later, he said ‘awwwwww, that was a joke, and America needs to get a sense of humor.’ Unfortunately, Cain himself is becoming not a leader, but is seen as a reason to laugh as he blunders along trying to find his way into a presidential nomination. He had...

Police arrested 175 Occupy Chicago protesters in Grant Park yesterday, recalling not only the night Barack Obama was elected but one when I was tear-gassed there 43 years ago. [corrected: see comments] “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible,” the President-elect told 250,000 celebrants three years ago, “who still wonders if the dream...

Call it propaganda or call it delusion, but Tehran is crowing about not only predicting Occupy Wall Street and allied groups, but says it considers itself primarily responsible for all the unrest – Eastern and Western – since the Arab Spring began. So could it be that the protests which began in New York on September 17 and have now spread across the developed world reflect a yearning to reject...

*** This is the first article I’ve ever submitted to the Huffington Post that they have refused to publish. I await their response as to why. Meanwhile, I am delighted to be able to post it here. *** Most comments of those who disagree that the manner of killing of Al-Awlaki should not be acceptable to Americans assume two things: first, that the killing was necessary to keep us safe, and second, that...

Has Washington concocted a tale of Iranian terror in order to, a) divert the anger of the American people over the behavior of government leaders and financial officials, b) ruin Iran’s reputation among neighboring states, particularly with Saudi Arabia, c) divert the Arab Spring from following the example of the Iranian Revolution and, d) help Israel out of its current isolation? According to this news...

Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom. ~ HO CHI MINH Over the four decades since the death of Ho Chi Minh, debate continues to rage over whether he was a nationalist or a Communist, as well as whether he was as simple and gentle as his public persona made him appear to be or the instigator of brutal excesses carried out in his name. The questions are important because as the principal architect...

These are boom times if you are a collector of ironies, and none may larger than despite the fact that President Obama has been repeatedly accused of being weak on fighting terrorism by the Republican national security choir, he has been more successful in three short years than the bombastic and serially reckless Bush administration was in eight. The aggressive Obama administration push back has included stepped...

The clearest voice for sanity in the GOP race has gone all in for tonight’s New Hampshire debate with a foreign-policy speech that actually makes sense. But will sanity sell? “We still have remnants of a top-heavy, post-cold war infrastructure,” Jon Huntsman says. “It needs to be transformed to reflect the 21st Century world and the growing asymmetric threats we face.” The former ambassador to China...

As has been apparent from previous posts (here and here), I support the Obama administration’s decision to take out American-born, terrorist-turned, traitor Anwar al-Awlaki before he could do any more harm to America and Americans. My opinion was reinforced when I read that al-Qaeda—the same gang of terrorists that massacred more than 3,000 innocent American men, women and children; the same organization...

Are local forces ready to take control in Afghanistan? Troubling questions are raised by a UN report, The Christian Science Monitor reports: Half of all detainees in Afghan intelligence service custody have been tortured, according to a new United Nations report that raises grave concerns about the Afghan security force personnel that the United States and its NATO partners are meant to be training and supervising. In...

The killing of American-born, al-Qaeda-affiliated, terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki has sparked anger among civil liberties groups and has set-off a lively and legitimate debate in our country. In response to an article decrying the killing of American born al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist Al-Awlaki, I disputed the contention that the killing of the terrorist was Unconstitutional, illegal or amoral, or that it represented...

NATO’s apparent victory in Libya, led by France and Britain with full US support, unveils a defining moment for NATO cooperation to protect civilians from massacre by a tyrant. But it is not one that the Obama administration can welcome without reserve. It seriously eroded American influence by causing China to join Russia, which Beijing leaders distrust and despise, in casting a veto in the UN Security Council....

Way too many times have I cringed when the religious right uses the Bible to justify evil and prejudice in our lives. Way too many times have I been infuriated when the political right has used the Constitution to support and justify acts of war, torture and rampant violations of civil rights. Way too many times have I been incensed when the Bush administration used Office of Legal Council (OLC) memoranda,...