Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified before the House Armed Services on Wednesday, and it’s funny to see how many times lawmakers questioned him on the Pentagon’s proposal to shutter military bases. Panetta has been there. He watched Ford Ord — “which represented 25% of my local economy” — shut down in his own California …
Congress
President Obama’s Defense Budget Falling Flat on Capitol Hill
Thursday morning, the Defending Defense coalition—The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and the Foreign Policy Initiative—will host members of Congress discussing the negative consequences of the Obama …
Tokyo Stumbles Again On Okinawa Marines
TOKYO – What were they thinking?
A plan that was supposed to ease the controversy over a noisy Marine Corps air base in Okinawa has instead infuriated local officials and galvanized opponents. And could hasten the removal of …
A Battle For the GOP’s Soul
It’s kind of funny to watch the Republicans on Capitol Hill come up with repeated schemes to protect defense spending from next year’s budget cuts ($500 billion over a decade, mandated by the sequestration law) without raising taxes. The House Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Howard McKeon of California, has detailed one, …
Reduced U.S. Role in Afghanistan: Politics, By Other Means
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s statement Wednesday that the U.S. plans to hand off all combat missions in Afghanistan sometime in 2013 has triggered howls from hawks who maintain it’s a step down a slippery slope headed to …
Talk is Cheap in Washington When It Comes to Politicians and the U.S. Military
Last night, President Obama opened his State of the Union address by referencing the sacrifices and courage of America’s military personnel as they return home from combat. The President’s rhetoric was moving, but unfortunately, words are simply words and have not been fully backed up with action that supports America’s heroes.
“Embrace Our Solution”
The Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have posted a new video timed to President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. They’re calling on him to join with them in cutting the federal workforce so that a second $500 billion batch of Pentagon budget cuts required under existing law can be …
About That Trillion-Dollar Cut
Seems all the bluster about cutting military spending by $1 trillion over the next decade – about 15% — isn’t the hair-on-fire moment that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his congressional allies have been …
Happy 10th Birthday, Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay remains the persistent headache that pretty much all Americans would like to go away. Wednesday marks its 10th birthday as home to alleged terrorists scooped up by the U.S. following the 9/11 terror …
The Changing of the Guard
I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.
The sentiment is usually attributed to Groucho Marx, but as of this week it works for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, too.
Retired Generals and Wartime Sales Jobs
General Newt
Former – and missed! — colleague Karen Tumulty takes a look at GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s military bonafides in Tuesday’s Washington Post. Just not sure getting Doug Feith — the No. 3 official at the …
The Super Committee: Failure at Any Cost
It comes as no surprise that the bicameral and bipartisan super committee — that 12-person debt panel charged with finding $1.2 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years — failed in its mandate. Its members’ …