WASHINGTON: After two decades, thousands of dead and millions of lives impacted, the US has ended its formal combat mission in Afghanistan. The last C-17 exited Hamid Karzai International Airport at 3:29 PM eastern time – just before the calendar flipped to Aug 31 Kabul time, the deadline for America’s withdrawal. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the…
By Aaron MehtaAmerican leaders have reached “out to the Taliban who are actually providing the outer security cordon around the airfield, to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us and we will continue to coordinate with them as they go forward,”
By Aaron Mehta“Our budget accounts for ‘over the horizon’ requirements — it creates some space there as we determine what that will look like,” DepSec Kathleen Hicks said.
By Theresa HitchensWhile Israeli sources fear China has military ambitions in Syria, the issue of Chinese intentions there is a subject of intense debate among experts.
By Arie EgoziIn an “unfunded priorities” list sent to Congress, the Centcom chief points in the direction of an expanding US footprint in the region.
By Paul McLearyWASHINGTON: In one of the largest coordinated international air operations in years, over 100 American, British and French guided missiles slammed into three Syrian chemical weapons facilities early Saturday morning, launched from an armada of aircraft, submarines, and ships offshore. The Pentagon was careful Saturday to say that the assault didn’t seek to topple the…
By Paul McLearyARMY WAR COLLEGE: Global conflicts require global military decisions so the Joint Staff must step up to coordinate operations around the world, said a top aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But, Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told faculty and officer-students at the Army War College here, the Joint Staff can manage this…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.PENTAGON: Even the name is cumbersome. The congresionally-mandated strategic exercise known as the Quadrennial Defense Review has a reputation, hardly undeserved, for being ponderous, bureaucratic, and irrelevant — to the point that some policymakers want to kill the QDR altogether. But the QDR chief for the smallest of the services, Marine Maj. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.[updated Tuesday 1/29 with Rep. Forbes’ recommendations & McKeon selections for QDR independent panel] WASHINGTON: It’s that time again. Though delayed by the still-unsettled strife over sequestration and the continuing resolution, deep inside the Pentagon the ponderous machinery of the Quadrennial Defense Review is gearing up. But this may be the QDR’s last chance. With…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.