Afghanistan became President Obama's war on Tuesday, when he ordered two more U.S. combat brigades into the fight. He will send 17,000 combat troops to join the 36,000-strong U.S. force already in the theater. The fact that the units now ordered to Afghanistan had originally been slated for Iraq underscores the new Administration's shift in priorities. The reinforcements include about 8,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., who should be in Afghanistan by late spring, and a 4,000-strong Army ...

President Obama signed the $787 economic stimulus bill Tuesday in Denver, Colorado. Here is a full transcript of his remarks. President Obama: It is great to be in Denver. I was here last summer to accept the nomination of my party and to make a promise to people of all parties that I would do all I could to give every American the chance to make of their lives what they will and see their children climb higher than they ...

President Barack Obama has approved a significant troop increase for Afghanistan, Pentagon officials told CNN Tuesday. The new troop deployment is expected to include 8,000 Marines headquartered from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as well as 4,000 additional Army troops from Fort Lewis, Washington. "This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said in a written statement. "The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his country would join the strategic review of the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, Karzai said he is "very, very thankful" that President Barack Obama accepted his proposal to join the review. Holbrooke is visiting Afghanistan after a trip to neighboring Pakistan. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tapped Holbrooke as special representative for the two countries, a signal of how ...

Fresh off victory on President Obama's signature $787 billion economic recovery plan, several top White House aides say they're planning an ambitious agenda for the rest of February. The Senate had waited for the return of Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was returning from his mother's wake in his home state of Ohio, to close the voting late Friday. For the rest of the month, the White House agenda will focus on addressing the housing crisis, cleaning up the banking ...

You can tell right away when a magician loses his touch. Even if the tricks work, you see the effort involved. Barack Obama was traveling the US this week, trying to pull more than $800 billion out of his hat to boost the economy. It worked and the Congress is preparing to give him the money for an enormous stimulus plan that has become a test of his new administration. But for the first time in months, Obama lost his ...

President Obama took his economic stimulus proposal back on the road Thursday, urging final congressional passage of the now-$789 billion bill during a visit to a Caterpillar plant in the state that launched his political career. In an exclusive interview with CNN Thursday, Abhisit Vejjajiva said he could not pinpoint who in the government approved the practice, but said he was working on rectifying the problem. "It's not exactly clear whose work it is," Vejjajiva said. "All the authorities say ...

Negotiators have resolved the differences between the House and Senate versions of the stimulus bill, Sen. Harry Reid said Wednesday. "The bills were really quite similar, and I'm please to announce that we've been able to bridge those differences," said Reid, the Senate majority leader. "Like any negotiation, this involved give and take, and if you don't mind my saying so, that's an understatement," he said. Negotiators worked late into the night to iron out differences between the two versions ...

She's being hailed as the "face of the economic crisis," and now Henrietta Hughes has become something of a media star after reaching out to President Obama on Tuesday in an emotional plea for help. Her message: My son and I are homeless, and we need immediate help. "I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in," Hughes told Obama at a town hall rally in Fort Myers, Florida, ...

With the noon sun high over the U.S. Capitol, Barack Obama yesterday took the oath of office to become head of the United States. On one equal, it was a ingenuous material of civic process -- the symbolic resettlement of muscle. Yet confrontation alone cannot take its implication. The rough-skinned hands of , the voices of abolitionists, the hearts of who important in the naïve oathSynonyms that any child can become premier, will find some reward in a flash that was ...