The nation’s military can swallow the basic budget cuts in the new debt deal, but not the more drastic slashing that would take place if the “trigger” sets in, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
The debt deal calls for about $350 billion in Pentagon cuts over the next 10 years. But if by Thanksgiving a special congressional …
A report by a defense panel in the British parliament explores the impact of upcoming budget cuts on the UK military. Among other shockers, there is an upcoming 10-year period where the Brits will have no — zero — aircraft carrier strike capability while old carriers are retired and new carriers are not in the ocean yet.
The …
The same day President Obama signed legislation that is likely to dictate future budget cuts at the Pentagon of an unknown, but potentially significant size, the White House nominated the guy who is likely to carry out some of that cutting. The White House announced that Obama intends to nominate Ashton Carter to be the new deputy …
Just an update as promised to my quest for benefits from the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. On July 21, I had my Compensation and Pension(C&P) examination at my local VA medical center. That was exactly 366 days after I had first filed for benefits.
Let me explain what has happened to …
The debt deal trigger that could impose a separate round future cuts at the Pentagon will gut the Defense Department budget, dramatically weaken the military, and place national security at risk. Or, the cuts are not that steep and are not that big of a deal, depending on who you ask.
The “trigger” or “enforcement mechanism” everyone …
Some reports are surfacing about worsening employment numbers for veterans. This report claims that among all veterans the unemployment rate is 13% but it’s nearly double that, 24%, for younger veterans. No wonder the military is having no problem meeting its retention goals.
There are several programs run by the federal government …
The New Yorker has the big page-turner we’ve all been waiting for on the bin Laden raid. For those who got obsessed with whether or not there was even the facade of a plan to capture the guy, the piece includes this graph:
A second SEAL stepped into the room and trained the infrared laser of his M4 on bin Laden’s chest. The Al Qaeda
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Michael Scherer has some interesting insight on this debt deal enforcement mechanism that will take a hatchet to the Pentagon budget starting in 2013 unless Congress gets serious about the deficit. Here is his post in a nutshell:
Both Democratic and Republicans leaders have realized that they don’t have enough political heft on their
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This post was co-generated with Michael S. Smith II of the strategic advisory firm Kronos
As al-Qa’ida leaders the world over signal their intent to stay the course — challenging assumptions that the integrity of their network has been perhaps irreversibly jeopardized by the death of bin Laden — national security managers …
Earlier today I made a mistake in a post about how deep defense cuts could become under the budget deal. They are, in fact, deeper than I thought.
The way the deal works, a congressional committee by Thanksgiving is supposed to come up with $1.5 trillion in savings over ten years. If the committee fails, or if Congress fails to agree …
If you are a defense contractor and you make weapons or trucks or planes or whatever, beware the “enforcement mechanism” in the budget deal. Here is the summary from the White House.
- Immediately enacted 10-year discretionary spending caps generating nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction; balanced between defense and non-defense
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If press reports are accurate, the young soldier arrested for allegedly planning to shoot troops near Fort Hood was inspired by Major Nidal Hasan, who slaughtered 13 people at Fort Hood in November 2009. Pfc. Naser Abo, 21, also had in his hotel room bombmaking materials and a copy of an article from Inspire, published by al-Qaeda’s …
Following World War II, perhaps it was inevitable that the U.S. military would be consigned to walking beats around the world like a neighborhood cop — from Europe to Asia — especially as the Cold War heated up. But now that the Cold War has been over for a generation, does it still fall to the U.S. to patrol the world’s …
