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By MARCUS WEISGERBER Three years ago, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that he was recommending Congress approve the termination or truncation of 33 programs. With total contract values in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the programs collectively touched just about every state, sending lawmakers on both sides of the aisle into a frenzy …
Continue reading "Lawmakers: U.S. Air Force Numbers Lack Credibility"
THE historian Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote a brutally clear-eyed piece in The National Review, looking back at America's different approaches to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Afghanistan and how, sadly, none of them could be said to have worked yet. "Let us review the various American policy options for the Middle East …
TheNewYorker.com March 14, 2012 Daily Comment The sound coming from Afghanistan these days—painfully familiar to those who have travelled there over the past three decades—is of fabric ripping. Periodically, Afghanistan unravels. The country remains very weak after decades of continual violence, emigration, upheaval, return, clandestine war waged by neighbors, and overt war waged by international …
Continue reading "What Is Plan B In Afghanistan? By Steve Coll"
SmallWarsJournal.com March 23, 2012 This Week at War On March 19, the New York Times described a classified U.S. Central Command war game conducted this month that simulated the outcome of an Israeli attack on Iran. According to U.S. officials who discussed the results with the newspaper, the game "forecasts that the [Israeli] strike would lead to …
National Journal March 24, 2012 The Politician The new Defense secretary has a daunting agenda. To achieve it, he'll need to win over a skeptical institution. Good thing he's been practicing for four decades. "Have you seen my bin Laden corner?” It’s a late afternoon in March, and Leon Panetta is showing off mementos from …
By Mackenzie Eaglen For the men and women of the U.S. Air Force, March 2011—while slightly different than the NCAA men's division I basketball championship—is also known as "March Madness." Why? Because for the first time, according to the Pentagon’s Transportation Command chief, every combatant commander had a priority one mission requiring the help of …
Washington -- When the gentleman from North Carolina mentioned “Uncle Chang,” it hit with an awkward clang. “We are spending $10 billion a month that we can’t even pay for,” said Congressman Walter Jones, that rarest of birds, a Southern Republican dove. “The Chinese — Uncle Chang is lending us the money to pay that …
Washington Post March 20, 2012 Pg. 15 Fine Print By Walter Pincus Which would be worse if sanctions and diplomacy fail: the aftermath of an Israeli or U.S. attack on Iran to set back its nuclear program, or the Tehran regime having the bomb? Of course, one hopes the sanctions/diplomacy route succeeds. But what if …
Newport News Daily Press March 19, 2012 Military Update What if the military gave every service member an expensive car as a reward for honorable service, but they could take delivery only at night and the headlights didn't work? Many of those gift cars might end up damaged. Something similar is happening to thousands of …
Continue reading "Bill Would Strengthen New GI Bill By Tom Philpott"
New York Times March 19, 2012 Pg. 21 WHEN you've been wrong about something as important as war, as I have, you owe yourself some hard thinking about how to avoid repeating the mistake. And if that's true for a mere kibitzing columnist, it's immeasurably more true for those in a position to actually start …
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