Now that the U.S. military has left Iraq, it’s time to tally how much the nation wasted putting it back together. Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, bluntly calls it a “disorganized American …
Military
North Korean Antiques
It’s photographs like this that should make us recognize how the U.S. military hierarchy works. Sure, the snapshot is from 1995, but it has appeared several times since Kim Jong Il’s death on Saturday. What’s amazing is not only Kim Jong Il’s glasses – they do make him look rather like an Asian bug with a pair of those …
North Korea: The View From Japan
TOKYO – Troops are not on high alert. Cities are not being evacuated. Leaders are not sprinting for fortified bunkers.
As odd and erratic as the North Koreans might be, they are not about to inaugurate new leadership by …
Celebrating Iraq Withdrawal: Tempting Fate?
It has been three days since the last U.S. troops left Iraq. Tuesday will mark the third time President Obama has celebrated the end of the war. No one is going to quibble with a heartfelt Hooah! for the troops for a job well …
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’ …
“Respond to Query Only”
Americans often believe government bureaucracy often prevails over common sense. This certainly happened to the Air Force earlier this year, when it sought to avoid embarrassment by curtailing its workforce’s communications …
North Korea: Kim Jong Il’s Death “A Watershed Moment”?
The fuse that is North Korea is sputtering again with the news that King Jon Il has died. “This is a watershed moment,” says Victor Cha, a former White House Korea expert now with the Center for Strategic and International …
Bullet Dodged
Pilot Error
The Air Force released a pair of probes into high-profile airplane accidents last week. Both play peek-a-boo with that phrase aviators hate: pilot error.
The first blames an F-22 pilot for crashing as he apparently – and …
Is War Obsolete?
This question surfaces anew every several years. Certainly, the advent – now there’s a perversion of the word – of nuclear weapons, despite all their challenges, seems to have placed great-power wars on hold. But Joshua S. …
The Few. The Proud. The Increasingly Costly.
Something has changed in the Marine Corps over the past generation. “We cost 5% of the DoD budget — a nickel out of the defense dollar,” General Carl Mundy, the Marine commandant, bragged to Congress in 1993. “In return, the …
Is This Any Way to Run a Country?
White House: We’ll Gloat If We Want
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When we suggested Thursday that it might be nice if people toned down their political rhetoric for awhile over the end of the U.S. military’s role in Iraq, we didn’t have President Obama in mind. Turns out, we should have.