Iraq

Authored by Jonathan Rochford via Narrow Road Capital,

In a widely anticipated national address, President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he will not pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying he’s committed to a new strategy aimed at winning the nation’s longest war, now in its 17th year. Admitting that his "original instinct was to pull out" of Afghanistan - which in retrospect had been a mistake - Trump said he’s arrived at three "fundamental conclusions" about America’s core interests in Afghanistan:

In a highly unusual decision sure to open old wounds among Iraqis and further prolong an already protracted legal saga, a US appeals court has thrown out the murder conviction of an ex-Blackwater security guard and ordered three co-defendants to be resentenced for their roles in the deadliest incident involving the controversial private security firm to date.

Via BattleSwarmBlog.com,

According to this Intel Center list, there are currently 43 worldwide terrorist groups which have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State. I started wondering how many of those were active, how many weren’t covered by that list, and what was the most recent documented activity of each. Hence this list.

Authored by Curt Mills via NationalInterest.org,

The headline of the New York Times piece was breathless: “Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. Handed the Country Over.” The content was only slightly less so:

“But after the United States’ abrupt withdrawal of troops in 2011, American constancy is still in question here - a broad failure of American foreign policy, with responsibility shared across three administrations.”