This from my Global Spin entry today:
As NATO’s war in Libya entered its 100th day on Monday, an end to the conflict may be in sight — but not necessarily a decisive one. Military and diplomatic signs point increasingly towards some measure of compromise by both sides in shaping an outcome that neither the regime nor the rebels
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That’s the word from Capitol Hill as detailed in this morning’s lead story in the Washington Post:
Freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) could serve as a poster boy for the new breed of conservatives who are eager to wipe out government waste and inefficiency, no matter where they find it. Kinzinger, an active-duty Air National
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David Willman’s new book, The Mirage Man, dives deeply into the anthrax mailings that took place shortly after 9/11 and further panicked an already-distraught American public. He hones in on Dr. Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator, and details a strong case implicating the Army bio-weapons expert, who committed suicide three years ago as …
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We’ve all seen the airplane-sized Predator and Reaper drones now flying and fighting over Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen. They’re fairly big (the Predator has a 48-foot [15-m.] wingspan) and costly ($5 million each). But there are fleets of smaller and cheaper man-launched …
The New America Foundation’s sponsored debate over defense spending showcased two schools of American political thought entirely comfortable with allowing American power and influence to decline on the global stage.
President Obama and Congress are on a collision course as the White House rejects congressional efforts to tinker with how the administration detains and prosecutes potential terrorists. The fight is being played out through the House and Senate versions of defense spending and authorization bills.
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Thousands of soldiers, gravely wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, become as much as they can be through months of rehabilitation in the Army’s Warrior Transition Units. Every once in awhile a story pops up about how things fells apart for a specific WTU …
We reported on the growing use of prescription drugs by troops in Afghanistan and Iraq more than three years ago. The Pentagon is finally catching up. It wants to spend $23 million next year for drug testing to make sure troops aren’t illicitly taking legal drugs like Valium and Vicodin.
But the House Appropriations Committee has …
Within minutes of my blog going live yesterday, Secretary Gates made a public statement that he was not going to certify the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) before he leaves his post on June 30. To be honest, I was crushed. I don’t understand what benefit there is in delaying the process any further.
A senior White House official was eager Thursday night to hear from a reporter on just how President Obama’s decision to pull 10,000 troops out of Afghanistan by year’s end was playing. “How do you think he did?” he asked at the fringe of Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqanni’s annual barbeque. “Well, Mullen and Petraeus were pretty …
The always impertinent Tony Karon, over on our Global Spin blog, has some questions he wants President Obama to answer:
1. What will Obama tell the loved ones of Americans killed in Afghanistan in the next three years?
2. How does the U.S. persuade Afghan civilians or neighboring countries to do its bidding when it acknowledges its …
During his confirmation hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday, California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Gen. David Petraeus whether he supported President Obama’s timetable to withdraw over 30,000 troops from Afghanistan. Rather than say “No,” he delivered this impenetrable monologue.
This is, of course, the title of a David Crosby song featured on the eponymous 1969 album Crosby, Stills and Nash. And more than just riffing on the title of my colleague Mark Thompson’s post from earlier today, it also describes the sensation I had during a meeting held at the Library of Congress for authors and historians as an …
