London Sunday Times March 25, 2012 Pg. 16 Britain has no aircraft carrier and new ones won't be ready for years. Worse, ministers don't even know what type of fighter will fly from them. Tim Ripley investigates. Last Monday morning Britain's Navy — or what is left of it — seemed to have lost its …
Future Of American Power By David Ignatius
Washington Post March 25, 2012 Pg. 19 The inescapable foreign policy issue for U.S. presidential candidates this year is whether American power is declining and, if so, what to do about it. This strategic conundrum lies behind every challenge the United States faces, from Egypt to Afghanistan to China. For your election-year reading table, I …
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Lawmakers: U.S. Air Force Numbers Lack Credibility
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 …
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A Festival of Lies by Thomas L. Friedman
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 …
What Is Plan B In Afghanistan? By Steve Coll
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 …
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Rules Of The Game By Robert Haddick
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 …
The Politician By Yochi J. Dreazen
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 …
The Air Force’s ‘March Madness’
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 …
Heart Of Darkness By Maureen Dowd
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 …
Time To Consider An Iran With The Bomb
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 …
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