Dempsey Won’t ‘Stir the Pot’ As Joint Chiefs Chairman

Washington: With Gen. Martin Dempsey the Pentagon may have gotten just who it wanted for its new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but he may not be the man who is really needed right now. The four-star general is set to go before the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow morning to make his case to…

Pentagon Struggles To Keep Ships Sailing, Planes Flying As Budget Cuts Loom

The U.S. military faces a readiness crisis. A recent Congressional hearing generated headlines about the Navy’s surface fleet falling into disrepair. But that was news four years ago. Across all the services, long-standing readiness problems are worsening; breakdowns are happening more frequently. Several years ago, an Air Force F-15C literally broke in half during flight.…

Wobbly Afghan Forces Unready to Replace U.S. Military

U.S. troops will start pulling out of Afghanistan this summer. This raises the basic question — is the Afghan military ready to take over and would it survive the departure of much of the U.S. military. The plan is still to end the “combat mission,” whatever that means, in 2014, leaving behind trainers, advisers and…

New Cyber Strategy Falls Short

The Pentagon is set to unveil its new strategy for dealing with cyber attacks. Because the cyber world now touches every aspect of our lives, the debate on what our cyber strategy should be has become one of the most important debates of its kind in our history. We must develop a cyber strategy that…

Defense Energy Security Caucus Launches

The military has been moving full force into the energy efficiency space. Now it might get a little help. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of congressmen announced the launch of the Defense Energy Security Caucus, a government group that will focus on educating Congress and the American people on the importance of deploying sustainable and…

Dems Join Tea Party Stalwart Calling for Early, Full Afghan Withdrawal

Three senators used the New York Times op-ed page today to call for complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan two years earlier than the Obama administration plans call for. “We commend the president for sticking to the July date he had outlined for beginning the withdrawal. However, his plan would not remove all regular…

Academics Estimate Huge Human, Fiscal Costs of U.S. Wars: $3.7 Trillion and Up

Today marks the end of the Gates era. As I write, Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s farewell ceremony is underway. At almost the same time, Gen. David Petraeus, incoming CIA director, should have his nomination approved. These two men have defined America’s defense policy and martial qualities for much of the last decade and they have…

Peacemaking In A War-Torn Middle East

With continued unrest in the Middle East, an awkwardly tense relationship between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and an ongoing American military effort in Libya, army officials are worried about increasing costs and tightening budgets. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn delivered a speech “The Future of War” recently that focused exclusively on…

The Deputy Secretary of Defense Gets It Wrong

Sometimes — not very often, to be sure — someone in government feels so strongly that things are headed in the wrong direction that they feel compelled to break ranks and tell the American people. We have such a case here. Our author, who agreed to be identified only as ‘Anonymous in Government’, knows a…