Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Monday. He's trying to smooth over the latest disputes with President Hamid Karzai.
On the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, journalist Aaron Glantz talks about the challenges American service members face in accessing disability and other benefits. Glantz says there is a backlog of 900,000 claims and that the average waiting period is 273 days.
Over the past three decades, the U.N. says Afghanistan's forest cover has decreased by about 50 percent — to just about 2 percent of the country's land. The main reason is the illegal harvesting and trade of timber. A visit to Kunar province, near the Pakistan border, reveals that many people, from top officials down, are involved.
U.S. and other NATO troops are spending less time fighting the Taliban and more time making local Afghan governments self-sufficient. It's a slow process.
The military has to pack up more than 11 years worth of equipment and send it home. The number of containers to move is in the six figures, and some question whether everything can be shipped out by the end of 2014.
For nearly three years, the Afghan parliament has tried to pass a law banning violence against women. Supporters say they've made concessions to address conservatives' concerns. But critics say the proposal still violates Islamic law.
In a new book, the CNN anchor tells the story of Combat Outpost Keating. The ill-fated American military base was in a remote Afghan valley, and on Oct. 3, 2009, it became the site of one of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops in the history of the war in Afghanistan.
U.S. Army Spc. Tyler Jeffries lost both legs in a roadside bombing last October in Afghanistan, and he has been learning to walk on prosthetic legs. But Jeffries was determined to meet his buddies when they returned from duty in January.
Without a deal by March 1, across-the-board federal spending cuts will kick in — including deep cuts to the nation's defense budget. Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy, and NPR's Tom Bowman discuss what sequestration might mean for the U.S. military.