He always watches for the kids.

Peering through cameras and sensors from his computer station thousands of miles away, he absorbs the details of daily life in the villages below. He develops an eerie intimacy with his targets. Which house these kids belong to. When that mom goes out to...

WASHINGTON -- A no-fly zone over Syria means American boots on the ground.

Among President Obama's difficult options as he grapples with growing pressure to intervene with force in the war in Syria is a no-fly zone, an option that would effectively block Syria's ability to use its air power...

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. -- In the secretive U.S. war of armed drones, the kill chain runs through a highly classified, windowless brick building here.

In the darkened spaces inside, hundreds of young Air Force intelligence analysts work 12-hour shifts, carrying out a controversial strategy of long-distance remote attacks...

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said Tuesday he is "cautious" about U.S. military intervention in Syria because of doubts that it would halt the violence or achieve political reconciliation.

He cast doubt on the effectiveness of establishing a no-fly zone, saying that...

On his first combat mission in Afghanistan's bloody Wardak Province, Thom Kenney was blown up by an improvised explosive device. The vehicle in which he was riding was destroyed, and when he came home a year ago he was still dealing with the effects of mild traumatic brain injury.

On...

WASHINGTON -- Despite growing pressure for budget cuts, the Obama administration next week will propose spending $63.5 billion for veterans services in fiscal 2014, asking for a 4 percent increase over current spending.

The money is targeted at eliminating the backlog of veterans claims for benefits and increasing mental health...

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Nobody knew with certainty how North Korea would react when President Obama recently ordered nuclear-capable B-52 bombers of the Air Force Global Strike Command here to thunder over the Korean peninsula in simulated bombing attacks.

North Korea's young dictator, Kim Jong Un, gathered his...

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- From the aircraft commander's seat of a nuclear attack-capable B-52 bomber known as Lucky 13, Lt. Col. Eric Sikes sees trouble.

Thanks to political gridlock in Washington D.C., unplanned and indiscriminate across-the-board budget cuts caused by congressional sequestration have hit the bomber pilots and...

Nightfall and still over 100 degrees as the gun trucks of a U.S. military convoy known as Dagger Three Seven growl in S-turns past the concrete barriers and blast walls and concertina razor wire that guard the back gate of Camp Anaconda, lurching out onto a pitted two-lane road known...

WASHINGTON -- In nine years of war in Iraq, 4,448 Americans died and 32,221 were wounded in battle, leaving behind a deeply divided country steeped in corruption. And despite a $60 billion U.S effort to rebuild Iraq, life for most Iraqis has not improved significantly, according to a bitter and...

WASHINGTON -- An unchecked flood of weapons out of Libya, including thousands of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, is providing new firepower to al Qaeda-linked jihadist militias across northern Africa, according to Defense Department officials, accelerating conflict and raising new risks for U.S. and western interests.

There has been a continuing flow...

WASHINGTON -- After a CIA Predator drone released its guided bomb high over Yemen on Nov. 3, 2002, the resulting explosion did more than kill six suspected al Qaeda terrorists riding in the targeted car.

This strike, the first by an armed drone outside a traditional, recognized war zone, also...

WASHINGTON -- With an arsenal that could rain down hundreds of devastating nuclear warheads on North Korea, the United States can afford to react calmly to North Korea's testing of a nuclear device on Tuesday -- and perhaps even proceed with nuclear reductions talks, a top arms expert said.

President...

President Obama insists that the big U.S. role in Afghanistan is coming to an end -- he may use his State of the Union speech Tuesday to announce more cuts from the 66,000 American troops currently deployed there.

What's not coming to an end is the gusher of billions of...

WASHINGTON -- The debate over armed drones and whether the United States should use missile-firing robots to kill people identified as terrorists is an interesting one but it misses the point, many hardened warfighters say.

The real issue is about killing.

The debate, many say, should focus not on the...

WASHINGTON -- Smarting under the U.S. drone attacks it calls a violation of its sovereignty and international law, Pakistan has threatened to withhold cooperation with the United States on counter-terrorism operations until the drone strikes stop.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, said Tuesday that the continuing drone...

Until the white-bearded Afghan man on a bike showed up, the joint patrol with Afghan national police and paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne had gone without incident. It was hot and tense, boots kicking up dust, men and boys squatting in shopfronts watching with indifference or hostility. One of the...

WASHINGTON -- In roughly eight hours of often heated discussions with the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, defense secretary-nominee Chuck Hagel raised and then left unanswered the critical question looming over the Pentagon: with defense budgets sinking, should U.S. defense strategy shrink as well?

And no one on the committee...

WASHINGTON -- For more than a decade, Congress and the Pentagon have spent money on the nation's 1.3 million active-duty troops and their families. Salaries and benefits soared far above civilian compensation, military bases and housing were refurbished, support services like day care, family counseling and on-base college courses were...

The U.S. exit strategy for Afghanistan is taking a beating in the northern city of Kunduz, a bustling, cosmopolitan, university town where women often shun the burqa in favor of bright turquoise gowns and scarves.

A peaceful place last time I was there, with Afghan police and army units...