Articles written by Robert Burns
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Biden approves $800M in new military assistance for Ukraine
WASHINGTON (AP) — In anticipation of a new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, President Joe Biden on Wednesday approved an $800 million package of military assistance, including additional helicopters and the first provision of American a...
Risk of a Ukraine war spreading in Europe rests on unknowns
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Russian invasion of Ukraine would be devastating and a wider European war even worse. Whether a larger war happens would depend partly on Russian President Vladimir Putin's ambitions, partly on the West's military response and par...
Officials: Russia at 70 percent of Ukraine military buildup
WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has assembled at least 70 percent of the military firepower it likely intends to have in place by mid-month to give President Vladimir Putin the option of launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, U.S. officials say. The o...
Biden orders forces to Europe amid stalled Ukraine talks
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is ordering 2,000 U.S.-based troops to Poland and Germany and shifting 1,000 more from Germany to Romania, demonstrating to both allies and foes America's commitment to NATO's eastern flank amid fears of a Russia...
Biden orders forces to Europe amid stalled Ukraine talks
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is ordering 2,000 U.S.-based troops to Poland and Germany and shifting 1,000 more from Germany to Romania, demonstrating to both allies and foes America's commitment to NATO's eastern flank amid fears of a Russia...
US orders 8,500 troops on heightened alert amid Russia worry
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert Monday to potentially deploy to Europe as part of a NATO "response force" amid growing concern that Russia could soon make a military move on Ukraine. President Joe Biden c...
Biden-Putin talks on Ukraine crisis rooted in older dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Cold War ended 30 years ago this month, but one unresolved issue — how closely Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, can ally with the West — is now creating some of the deepest U.S.-Russian tensions in years. The dispute over...
Oklahoma bid for Guard exception to vaccine mandate denied
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday rejected a request by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt that his state's National Guard be exempt from a Pentagon requirement that all military members be vaccinated against COVID-19. Stitt, a R...
Pentagon: Chinese nuke force growing faster than predicted
WASHINGTON (AP) — China is expanding its nuclear force much faster than U.S. officials predicted just a year ago, highlighting a broad and accelerating buildup of military muscle designed to enable Beijing to match or surpass U.S. global power by mid...
Colin Powell dies, trailblazing general stained by Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) — Colin Powell, the trailblazing soldier and diplomat whose sterling reputation of service to Republican and Democratic presidents was stained by his faulty claims to justify the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq, died Monday of COVID-19 c...
Milley defends calls to Chinese at end of Trump presidency
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. military officer told Congress on Tuesday that he knew former President Donald Trump wasn't planning to attack China and that it was his job to reassure the Chinese of that fact in the phone calls that have triggered o...
Joint Chiefs chairman calls Afghan war a 'strategic failure'
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. military officer called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a "strategic failure" and told Congress on Tuesday that he believes the U.S. should have kept several thousand troops in the country to prevent the unexpectedly r...
Pentagon reverses itself, calls deadly Kabul strike an error
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State e...
Milley: US coordination with Taliban on strikes 'possible'
WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that it's "possible" the United States will seek to coordinate with the Taliban on counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan against Islamic State militants...
AP FACT CHECK: Biden's shaky claim of US readiness in Afghan
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden made dubious assertions that the U.S. was well-prepared for the sudden collapse of Afghanistan's government during the U.S. drawdown and glossed over his broken promise to keep U.S. troops there until the last Am...
Biden warns of more attacks as military begins final pullout
WASHINGTON (AP) — On alert for more terrorist attacks, the U.S. military has begun its final withdrawal from Afghanistan in the closing stages of a frantic airlift of Americans, Afghans and others desperate to escape Taliban rule before the e...
Biden promise to strike extremists faces new Afghan reality
WASHINGTON (AP) — By promising to strike the extremists who killed 13 Americans and dozens of Afghans, President Joe Biden now confronts the reality of finding and targeting them in an unstable country without U.S. military and intelligence teams o...
US to evacuate until deadline, but it's brutal at airport
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials pledged Wednesday that the military airlift of Americans and others from Kabul will continue until the final hours before President Joe Biden's Tuesday night deadline. But refugee groups described a disorganized, b...
Biden sticking to pullout deadline though lawmakers complain
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has decided to stick with his deadline next week for completing the U.S.-led evacuation from Afghanistan, an administration official said Tuesday. The decision reflects a growing fear of extremist attacks at the...
US troops surge evacuations out of Kabul but threats persist
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military reported its biggest day of evacuation flights out of Afghanistan by far on Monday, but deadly violence that has blocked many desperate evacuees from entering Kabul's airport persisted, and the Taliban signaled t...
Marine vanguard lands in Kabul as US speeds up evacuations
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first forces of a Marine battalion arrived in Kabul on Friday to stand guard as the U.S. speeds up evacuation flights for some American diplomats and thousands of Afghans, spurred by a lightning Taliban offensive that i...
Analysis: How Afghan war showed limits of US military power
WASHINGTON (AP) — It took only two months for U.S. invaders to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, a seemingly tidy success against a government that had given refuge to 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Twenty years later, the United States i...
Pentagon cancels disputed JEDI cloud contract with Microsoft
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday it canceled a disputed cloud-computing contract with Microsoft that could eventually have been worth $10 billion. It will instead pursue a deal with both Microsoft and Amazon and possibly other cloud s...
EXPLAINER: Much about US pullout from Afghanistan is unclear
WASHINGTON (AP) — When he pulled the plug on the American war in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said the reasons for staying, 10 years after the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, had become "increasingly unclear." Now that a final d...
Nonpartisan budget report says future nuke costs are rising
WASHINGTON (AP) — The projected cost of modernizing the U.S. nuclear force is escalating, including billions of dollars more to operate nuclear-armed submarines and to update Energy Department nuclear weapons laboratories and production f...
