What’s Eating Bill McRaven: Is Congress Too Ignorant Of The Military?

What’s Eating Bill McRaven: Is Congress Too Ignorant Of The Military?
What’s Eating Bill McRaven: Is Congress Too Ignorant Of The Military?

The US military is still at war but Washington is not. The resulting tensions are eroding the fundamental compact between America’s warrior and political classes. The recent op-ed by retired Adm. William McRaven, former head of Special Operations Command and the man who led the strike against Osama Bin Laden, might have caused a national furor…

New Military Strategy Shows A Dangerous World – But Not How To Deal With It

New Military Strategy Shows A Dangerous World – But Not How To Deal With It
New Military Strategy Shows A Dangerous World – But Not How To Deal With It

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is painfully aware the world is changing. What the military’s clearly still struggling with is how we should change to cope. That’s the less-than-reassuring implication of the new National Military Strategy, released a week ago by the outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey. (I discuss the strategy and its…

Proxy War Protocols: How To Make Syrian Opposition Work

Proxy War Protocols: How To Make Syrian Opposition Work
Proxy War Protocols: How To Make Syrian Opposition Work

If the United States arms the so-called “moderate Syrian opposition” to try and overthrow both ISIL and Bashar al Assad, president of Syria, will it work? A close look at the United States’ long and checkered history backing proxy forces reveals a very mixed record when we arm surrogates. The ledger includes historic fiascos such as the…

Syrian Ops Mean DoD ‘Budget Problems:’ CJCS Dempsey

Syrian Ops Mean DoD ‘Budget Problems:’ CJCS Dempsey
Syrian Ops Mean DoD ‘Budget Problems:’ CJCS Dempsey

PENTAGON: The services’ draft budgets delivered to the Office of Secretary of Defense early this month are probably being shredded in light of the campaign in Iraq and Syria against the terrorist group known as ISIL. “If you’re asking me, are we going to have budget problems, the answer is yes,” the president’s top military advisor told reporters this…

The New Great Power Triangle Tilt: China, Russia Vs. U.S.

WASHINGTON: The careful diplomatic stagecraft behind President Barack Obama’s recent European visit to celebrate the 70th anniversary of D-Day and to rally the Western alliance against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine was all but swept aside by strong new currents in geopolitics. While Obama talked tough in Poland to reassure NATO’s vulnerable eastern members, Russian President…

US-China To Set Up Video Hotline, Talk Of Joint Exercises

US-China To Set Up Video Hotline, Talk Of Joint Exercises
US-China To Set Up Video Hotline, Talk Of Joint Exercises

PENTAGON: Interspersed with strong declarations by Gen. Fang Fenghui,  head of the People’s Liberation Army’s general staff, that China is right in all of its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, there were clear indications that the United States and China are grappling with how to craft a more stable and more intimate…

DoD’s $26B Budget Hail Mary ‘Not Going To Happen:’ Rep. McKeon

CAPITOL HILL: Despair, distrust, and sequestration dominated yesterday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Pentagon’s 2015 budget request. Almost everyone on HASC hates the automatic budget cuts, and the president has proposed a way to bypass them, but comments from committee leaders and backbenchers alike showed how political gridlock makes any solution look far…

The Army’s Mission For 2014: Holding Its Ground

The Army’s Mission For 2014: Holding Its Ground
The Army’s Mission For 2014: Holding Its Ground

Yesterday’s Senate passage of the budget deal took $20 billion worth of pressure off the Pentagon. But for the Army the deal just dials the pain back down from “agonizing” to “acute.” The largest service has more to lose in the post-war drawdown (which happens to have begun before the war is actually over). In…

Hagel, Dempsey Cut OSD Staff, Reorg Homeland & Cyber

Hagel, Dempsey Cut OSD Staff, Reorg Homeland & Cyber
Hagel, Dempsey Cut OSD Staff, Reorg Homeland & Cyber

PENTAGON: The world’s biggest office building is about to get a little less busy. Starting today, the Office of the Secretary of Defense is going to shrink by about 200 government personnel and a to-be-determined number of contractors by 2019, Sec. Chuck Hagel announced this afternoon. Reducing OSD’s staff below 2,200 is just the start of…

Amos & Dempsey: Don’t Just Stop Sequester, Save The Ground Force

Amos & Dempsey: Don’t Just Stop Sequester, Save The Ground Force
Amos & Dempsey: Don’t Just Stop Sequester, Save The Ground Force

REAGAN LIBRARY, SIMI VALLEY, CA: Sometimes you have to listen closely to the soft-spoken Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sometimes the Commandant of the Marine Corps says “hey, Sydney!” and hands you his message on a plate. But this Saturday, both Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and Marine Gen. James Amos were talking about…

Can Dems, Pro-Defense GOP & Tea Party Come Together At Reagan’s Tomb?

Can Dems, Pro-Defense GOP & Tea Party Come Together At Reagan’s Tomb?
Can Dems, Pro-Defense GOP & Tea Party Come Together At Reagan’s Tomb?

Less than three weeks from today, a four-star-studded convoy of Obama administration appointees will head west to the modern GOP’s most hallowed ground, the Ronald Reagan Library – and burial site – in Simi Valley, Calif. The one-day conference is a rare attempt to build a national consensus on defense both between the parties and,…

Kerry, Hagel Press Senate To Approve Syrian Strikes: ‘Deter And Degrade’

Kerry, Hagel Press Senate To Approve Syrian Strikes: ‘Deter And Degrade’
Kerry, Hagel Press Senate To Approve Syrian Strikes: ‘Deter And Degrade’

UPDATED: Through End of Today’s Hearing. CAPITOL HILL: Secretary of State John Kerry, taking the lead in arguing the administration’s case for limited strikes against Syria for killing more than 1,400 civilians with chemical weapons, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Iran and North Korea are watching what we do. Kerry told the committee…

SCMR Concludes Pacific Pivot Needs More Cash, Missions: Gen. Dempsey

SCMR Concludes Pacific Pivot Needs More Cash, Missions: Gen. Dempsey
SCMR Concludes Pacific Pivot Needs More Cash, Missions: Gen. Dempsey

CAPITOL HILL: The next Pentagon budget will almost certainly include increased spending for the Navy, Marines, and Air Force to boost their presence and operations in the Asia-Pacific region. That’s because the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon’s strategic review found we…

First DoD Meet With China On Cyber Next Week; Gen. Dempsey Offers Glimpse of Cyber ROE

First DoD Meet With China On Cyber Next Week; Gen. Dempsey Offers Glimpse of Cyber ROE
First DoD Meet With China On Cyber Next Week; Gen. Dempsey Offers Glimpse of Cyber ROE

WASHINGTON: The United States military will meet next week with People’s Liberation Army officials to begin the challenging process of hammering out cyber rules of the road, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said today. So far, Dempsey told an audience of several hundred at the Brookings Institution, Chinese officials…