President Obama’s latest announcement that he intends to seek $400 billion in reductions from his current security funding plans between FY 2012 and 2023 is only the latest signal that a defense build-down is under way. What is missing is a detailed plan for managing the build-down; that will be the responsibility of the next …
National Security
“And Don’t Let It Hit You On The Way Out!”
Colleague and columnist Joe Klein, over on Swampland, doesn’t like the way LTG Dave Rodriguez is being shown the door after his long service in Afghanistan.
Don’t Take The Money And Run
Our country loves our troops so much we’ll do anything to give them more money — like extending, yet again — for the sixth time — the government’s deadline for them to apply for bonuses if they had to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq beyond their enlistment period. You may recall the controversial “stop loss” orders issued to troops …
Restrepo director Hetherington killed in Misratah
Restrepo director Tim Hetherington is reported killed in Misratah. Photographers Chris Hondros and Guy Martin were with him when the three were apparently hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. Hondros’ wounds are reported as extremely grave.
Pentagon just worried about Manning’s welfare
President Obama, administration, and military officials have insisted for months that the pre-trial confinement conditions of suspected Wikileaker Pfc. Bradley at the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va., including effective solitary confinement and periods of forced nudity, were in the best interest of Manning’s apparently frail mental …
Cordesman: Libyan Operation Bordering On Farce
Tony Cordesman is one of the most prolific national-security analysts working these days. The Center for Strategic and International Studies scholar is important because he doesn’t live in the fringe, as do so many of his contemporaries. He inhabits, generally, a sensible middle, and imbues his work with a gravitas based on his wide …
Libya: As Misrata Burns, The West Debates
While the third-largest Libyan city, the rebel stronghold of Misrata, continues to burn — ignited by Muammar Gaddafi — the West continues to fiddle. Rhetorical war rages between European capitals and Washington, even as a growing number of European nations — including Britain, France and Italy — say they will be dispatching dozens of …
Pentagon to move Manning from harsh treatment at Quantico
Top Pentagon officials announced Tuesday evening that suspected Wikileaker Pfc. Bradley Manning would be moved from the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va. to the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson and Army Under Secretary Joseph Westphal opened a Pentagon press conference by arguing that …
Manning moving to Leavenworth. But why?
Here is an eyebrow raiser. The Associated Press is reporting that suspected Wikileaker Pfc. Bradley Manning will be transferred from the Marine Brig at Quantico, Va. to the Army prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. According to the AP, an announcement is likely Wednesday and the transfer comes “in the wake of international criticism about …
“F— You” could not be independently verified
Mark Thompson noted the Pentagon inspector general’s review of the Rolling Stone article that torpedoed the career of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, so I won’t go over that again here.
I will, however, note my favorite part of the inspector general’s investigation, a probe into McChrystal’s middle finger:
The incident, described in the
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Deciphering Obama’s Pentagon Remarks
President Obama was sharpening his Pentagon ax in remarks at a town hall meeting in northern Virginia earlier today. Defense contractors hang on every word when the government is in a cutting mood like this. They’re eager to adopt any strategy to blunt the impact of the coming cuts on their programs. So let’s look at what the President …
If only GTMO were like Nuremberg
Media organizations are increasingly worried that they won’t be able to accurately cover the pending military trial of alleged 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-conspirators. Among the concerns are how many reporters will be able to see what is happening in the military courtroom – even through closed-circuit TV – …
Chilling Report From Afghanistan
A Taliban suicide bomber reached deep into the Afghan defense ministry Monday — one of the most secure buildings in the country — before he was discovered, The Long War Journal reports.
The bomber reached the third floor of the Ministry of Defense and came close to the Afghan defense minister’s inner circle. He was stopped by Afghan
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