Military

No decisions have been made on future exercises, Defense Department says.

Honoring the animals that work (and sacrifice) alongside our soldiers and sailors.

What today’s navalists can learn from the Allied success at sea in WWII.

With Republicans in charge of the White House and Congress, you might expect to see some budgetary restraint. Or at least some gesture to fiscal conservatism. You would be wrong. Consider the bloated budget deal the Senate arrived at on February 7.

“Republicans Just Killed The Bill To Make Sure Troops Get Paid During Shutdown,” or so ran a headline from Addicting Info, flagged as potential fake news by Facebook users.

I met Chris Gibson early in his first congressional race, at a campaign breakfast my family hosted at our house in upstate New York in April 2010. The sun was out that morning but winter was still in the air, as it often is there at that time of year. The fields and orchards of the Hudson River…

In the wake of the New York City truck attack that killed eight and for which ISIS claimed responsibility, President Donald Trump tweeted that "the Military has hit ISIS 'much harder' over the last two days." However, there is no direct evidence of a spike in anti-ISIS strikes, and the broader…

In week nine, many NFL head and assistant coaches were dressed in camo-stylized gear that suggested military fatigues. At attention along the sidelines were even larger than usual contingents of color guards from the services, dress-uniformed law enforcement officers, and other first responders.…

The operations of the U.S. military depend on space assets. Reconnaissance satellites allow us to find our adversaries; communications satellites allow us to coordinate movements against them; global positioning satellites allow us to direct our weaponry with unprecedented accuracy. In any…

At this juncture, we can stipulate that President Trump would probably have been well advised to follow Gen. John Kelly’s reported advice and write a letter of condolence to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson instead of calling her on the telephone. No doubt Trump had reasoned that words of regret,…

We take a backseat to no one in deploring the effects that social media have on our culture. However, sometimes they provide people platforms to announce to the world that they possess dangerous and/or idiotic beliefs. This can be useful.

As Kim Jong-un’s cavalcade of menace has proceeded across the 2017 calendar, revealing a North Korean arsenal that now includes a hydrogen bomb and missiles capable of reaching New York City and Washington, D.C., America’s strategic posture has been old and familiar (if now more colorfully…

As Kim Jong-un’s cavalcade of menace has proceeded across the 2017 calendar, revealing a North Korean arsenal that now includes a hydrogen bomb and missiles capable of reaching New York City and Washington, D.C., America’s strategic posture has been old and familiar (if now more colorfully…

Republican lawmakers praised President Donald Trump’s announcement Monday that he would maintain U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and base further action on conditions on the ground rather than a predetermined timeline.

President Donald Trump announced a troop increase for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, promising Monday night that “our troops will fight to win” our nation’s longest-running conflict while acknowledging his own change of heart on U.S. foreign policy.

The State Department outlined the administration’s legal justification for engaging the Syrian military in a letter to Sen. Bob Corker Wednesday. Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had written to the department in June to ask if the military had been properly authorized to…

At Fort Jackson in South Carolina, the Army chief of staff, General Mark Milley, recently handed out for the first time certificates of graduation to recruits who completed basic training. Thankfully, they stopped short of giving recruits medals for learning to march and orienteering badges for…

At Fort Jackson in South Carolina, the Army chief of staff, General Mark Milley, recently handed out for the first time certificates of graduation to recruits who completed basic training. Thankfully, they stopped short of giving recruits medals for learning to march and orienteering badges for…

In this latest micro-episode, the Substandard salutes our military and our favorite war movies. Sonny Bunch loves Inglourious Basterds and … Aliens? Vic and JVL remember meeting R. Lee Ermey, who explained how he landed the role of a lifetime in Full Metal Jacket. All on the latest Substandard!

Pensacola

Pensacola

There were plenty of worries that President Trump’s "America First" campaigning signaled a further retreat of American power and leadership abroad—a worry not mitigated either by his Inaugural Address or his speech before Congress, in which foreign and defense policy were given short shrift. Those…

Pensacola, Fla.

A debate over the military's budget is emerging between defense hawks on Capitol Hill and fiscal hawks in the Trump administration. The fiscal hawks, chief among them Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, want the next annual defense budget set at $603 billion, a 3 percent…

A debate over the military's budget is emerging between defense hawks on Capitol Hill and fiscal hawks in the Trump administration. The fiscal hawks, chief among them Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, want the next annual defense budget set at $603 billion, a 3 percent…

As Donald Trump tries to transform himself from reality TV star and King of Twitter into something more substantive and presidential, his principal argument is that he’s fulfilling his campaign promises. For several weeks now, the White House has been boasting that he is "already achieving results…

Foreign policy, Walter Lippmann wrote, entails "bringing into balance, with a comfortable surplus of power in reserve, the nation's commitments and the nation's power." If a statesman fails to balance ends and means, he added, "he will follow a course that leads to disaster."

A lot can be said about President Trump's speech Tuesday night, in terms of content and rhetoric. There's certainly much to be said about policy—Will Trump endorsing tax credits have an effect on Congress's Obamacare plans? Will Republicans come around to actually endorsing paid family leave?—but…

Foreign policy, Walter Lippmann wrote, entails “bringing into balance, with a comfortable surplus of power in reserve, the nation's commitments and the nation's power." If a statesman fails to balance ends and means, he added, "he will follow a course that leads to disaster."

The selection of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to be President Trump's new National Security Advisor has received near universal praise. But understanding why McMaster is highly regarded is another matter altogether. Here's list of illuminating articles on McMaster that helps explain why he's one of the…

The North Koreans appear to be preparing to test yet another missile, at any time, this one with a potential range that would put the entire United States—from Los Angeles to New York City—within reach. Last Sunday, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Meet the Press that the United States was…

The United States military has confirmed what previously was only hinted at: the Islamic State, otherwise known as ISIS, is producing its own drones—and they are weaponized. A "rocket and unmanned aerial vehicle factory" was among the many targets hit by the coalition near Mosul, Iraq this week.

Something to remember 75 years after Pearl Harbor: The United States Navy is the best in the world, by an order of magnitude. No other navy is remotely as powerful. There are 40 in-service aircraft carriers in the world; 19 of them are ours. (Russia has just one, and it's in bad shape.) By a…

For much of my life we didn't divide people into age groups. Today, some of the millennials are making a bad showing and taking a beating for it. As Dr. King would suggest, let's judge them by the content of their character.

Los Angeles

Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, has proposed a $26-billion "emergency" supplement to next year's defense budget. Speaking on the floor of the Senate Wednesday, the freshman Republican noted the threats from a resurgent Russia, an aggressive China, and a…

An observer of this summer's party conventions would get the idea that the use of military force is almost always and everywhere wrong and ill-advised. Any reference to the use of force was drowned out at the conventions by chants of "America First" and "no more war." With the exception of Donald…

An observer of this summer’s party conventions would get the idea that the use of military force is almost always and everywhere wrong and ill-advised. Any reference to the use of force was drowned out at the conventions by chants of "America First" and "no more war." With the exception of Donald…

Vice President Joe Biden once triumphantly declared that Iraq would one day be seen as the Obama administration's "greatest achievement." This was back when the plan was to bring all American troops homes. There was some talk of leaving a residual force of 10,000 or so, but this plan was never…

There was a time when the Obama administration was being urged to leave a residual force in Iraq. The presence of U.S. troops would, the argument went, have a stabilizing effect. The force, according to its proponents, would number somewhere around 10,000. This, of course, didn't happen. The…

In the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn't answer the phone.

Donald Trump's speech on national security at the Union League of Philadelphia Wednesday may have been his best imitation of a traditional, conservative Republican to date, particularly on his proposals to rebuild the U.S. military. When The Donald cites the 2014 National Defense Panel report, he's…

A new ad from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton argues "veterans deserve better" than her Republican rival, Donald Trump. The 30-second video features Trump's most infamous comments juxtaposed with images of military veterans—many of them with physical injuries—and their loved ones…

A super-PAC backing Hillary Clinton has released an advertisement quoting Donald Trump on nuclear weapons, the latest such spot from Clinton's side calling to mind former President Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" attack against Barry Goldwater.

This week Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump made the obligatory campaign stop to address the American Legion. Despite the rhetoric, which at times made both candidates sound like Reagan defense hawks, the reality is that the two presidential campaigns offer conflicting narratives over the state of…

New York

There's an old joke that goes "for sale–French rifle, never fired and only dropped once." It comes from an ugly old stereotype about the French military, one of white flags, hands thrust aloft, tails tucked in retreat. There's nothing wrong with good natured ribbing between military forces (just…

Writing at the Federalist, Susan Kristol reflects on the sacrifices made by the parents of those members of the military deployed into or killed in combat—and suggests Donald Trump should have responded much more empathetically to the appearance of two such parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, at the…

Defense secretary Ash Carter announced a new policy last week to lift the ban on transgender people openly serving in the military. The chairman of the House Armed Services committee blasted the decision Thursday, calling it the "latest example of the Pentagon and the President prioritizing…

The Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act Tuesday by a wide margin, 85 to 13. One controversial provision included in the bill, however, will have to be reconciled with the House of Representatives: requiring that women register for the draft.

Should women be required to register for the Selective Service in case there’s ever a draft again? It's an obvious question now that the Obama administration has ruled—over the objections of the Marine Corps—that all combat roles must be open to women.

If there’s one thing Donald Trump wants veterans to know, it's that he loves us, he's going to take care of us, and by the way, he's going to rebuild the military so that it's "so big, so strong, so powerful, nobody is going to mess with us." Going into South Carolina — a state where something like…

When Ash Carter stood at the podium on December 3 to reveal the most profound social change in military policy in at least a half-century, he stood alone. Absent from the defense secretary's announcement that all ground combat jobs were to be opened to women were the uniformed service chiefs and…

On Thursday, Defense secretary Ash Carter denied the Marine Corps's request to keep some combat roles exclusively open to men. "There will be no exceptions," Carter said in remarks announcing that all combat units must be open to women. "This means that, as long as they qualify and meet the…

When Britain's Tory-led coalition government issued the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), the signal sent to Washington and the rest of the world was that London was in full-scale strategic retreat. The government's priorities were domestic. Getting the country's finances under…

At a White House ceremony on November 12, President Obama will award the Medal of Honor to retired Army captain Florent Groberg. When the president fastens the medal’s light-blue ribbon behind Groberg’s neck, Obama will be doing more than honoring a single American hero. He will be reaffirming what…

President Eisenhower’s Commission on Veterans’ Pensions–the Bradley Commission—voiced concern in 1956 that if exclusive emphasis was placed on granting generous post-service benefits to prospective soldiers, then military service would become a mere negotiated economic relationship between the…

The latest episode of Conversations With Bill Kristol features Thomas Donnelly and Gary Schmitt:

The U.S. Navy is stretched thin, especially when it comes to aircraft carriers and as Richard Sisk writes at Military.com:

The Pentagon Friday announced the death of Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, a soldier who had been serving in Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. He died of wounds received during a hostage rescue mission. But in keeping with the Obama administration's insistence that the president ended combat…

The recent outrage over reports of systematic child rape by Afghan security forces may be justified, but sadly there is little novelty to the reports themselves. Even the Sunday New York Times article that brought the matter into public view cited a list of earlier dispatches addressing it:…

Disputes between the political appointees who run the Pentagon and the military officers who serve there are not unheard of, but the nastiness and public nature of the fight over women in combat being waged between Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and the Marines who answer to him is unprecedented…

Update: Turns out Trump re-sent the tweet hours later in 2013, and has not yet deleted it.

The blogger Angry Staff Officer writes at taskandpurpose.com that

That, supposedly, is the first question asked in Pentagon and White House briefings during time of crisis. Now, as Kristina Wong of The Hill writes,

“We have already cut defense … about 30 percent over the last 10 years, and we’re still at war. We’re actively involved on multiple continents in real combat operations. We should not be drastically reducing our troop levels.” That, as Bradford Richardson of The Hill reports, is the position taken…

The Army and the Navy cannot do what they once could and might soon be required to do again.  They don’t have enough soldiers and enough ships.  Even reduced to the lowest force levels in years, the Army, as USA Today reports:

The following is an excerpt from a fact sheet prepared by Omri Ceren of the Israel Project that explains the significance of the Obama administration’s latest concession to Tehran—the reported collapse on the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program.

Here's a news bulletin from the Iran talks in Vienna:

A top commander in southwest Asia reminded U.S military personnel stationed in Muslim countries in the Middle East of the restrictions placed on them during Ramadan. According to a report by the U.S. Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs, Brig. Gen. John Quintas, 380th Air Expeditionary Wing…

First Lady Michelle Obama hosted a surprise baby shower for expecting mothers at the U.S. Army Garrison in Vicenza, Italy. She brought along the "glam squad" from New York to join the festivities.

At a press conference in Germany, President Obama admitted that he does not have a "complete strategy" to defeat ISIS:

Many Americans have a friend or family member who has served in the military. Now, American Corporate Partners (ACP), a non-profit that helps returning veterans transition into new post-service careers, is promoting a unique way to honor them. It’s called #GiveThem20. Give them 20 push-ups or…

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says the United States is "not making progress" in its fight against ISIS. In a recent interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Fiorina said President Obama "understates the significance of the situation" with the terrorist group that has taken over large…

Oklahoma City

Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said President Obama is "not providing the resources" to defeat the Islamic State in and that United States ought to send "a few thousand more" troops into Iraq to combat the terrorist group in that country.

A DoD News story, published on Defense.gov, claims that the "Strategy to Defeat ISIL is Working, Military Official Says."

In the course of trying to explain to Tom Friedman why his diplomatic outreach to Iran is no threat to America or our allies, President Obama sounded for a brief moment like the kind of warmonger he is normally heard denouncing.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer Michael Warren on how President Obama's Bergdahl and Iran Nuke deals keep just getting worse.

The A-10 may now have all the supporters it needs to stay operational.  As Stephen Losey of Air Force Times reports, Chuck Norris:

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas delivered his maiden speech from the floor of the Senate on "Ending America’s Retreat, Restoring America’s Military Dominance," as the speech was titled. Watch here:

The Veterans Affairs secretary lied about serving in the special forces, a report in the Huffington Post alleges.

While answering questions from service members in Kandahar, Afghanistan, newly sworn-in Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter revealed that he is "open-minded" about transgendered individuals serving in the military, adding, "I don't think anything but their suitability for service should preclude…

At what point do we—the institution and our nation—lose our soldiers’ trust? The trust that we will provide them the right resources—the training and equipment—to properly prepare them and lead them into harm’s way. Trust that we will appropriately take care of our soldiers, our civilians, and…

American Sniper is easily the most authentic looking and sounding movie that Hollywood has made about American troops at war since Black Hawk Down.

Ever since the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, proponents of robust economic growth and sensible regulation have been trying to rein it in.

Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren addressed reporters Monday about the start of the U.S. military training mission of Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Iraq. According to Nick Simeone of DoD News, the Defense Department's own media unit, Warren said that "four battalions of Iraqi security forces…

Speaking with troops in Hawaii on Christmas, President Obama repeated his pledge to end the "combat mission" in Afghanistan "next week."

Justin Sink of The Hill writes that:

Outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recently reported on the efforts his department has made against sexual assault within the ranks of the military. A year ago, President Obama directed Hagel to conduct a full review of progress being made, and while Hagel reported a decrease of twenty-five…

The shaky cease-fire in Ukraine may be falling completely apart.  Reuters is reporting that:

During the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, the U.S. military used a new generation of technological weapons that left the rest of the world far behind. But according the Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology, and logistics, that advantage is…

Republican Scott Brown took issue with Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen's characterization of the American military operations in the Middle East as an "occupying force" in the two candidates' final debate Thursday evening. The New Hampshire politicians were debating the use of U.S. troops against…

The boss tells Politico what Washington can get done in President Obama's last two years in office:

The Chinese want a modern and formidable blue-water Navy.  Hard to be a serious global player without one.  Equally difficult, it seems, to create one. Especially the aviation component, where the United State has no equals and, in fact, no other nation even comes close.  

Satellite photographs released yesterday show that the explosion Monday at an Iranian military base at Parchin, where the clerical regime is believed to be working on its nuclear weapons program, did significant damage. The images obtained by Israeli media outlet Israel Defense and “analyzed by…

The U.S. is running up against a shortage of surveillance drones to conduct reconnaissance of the various battlefields where it is engaged.  Right now, the theater where its combat troops are directly engaged is getting priority … as it most certainly should be.

The BBC is reporting that:

Aaron MacLean, writing for the American Enterprise Institute, on how military culture "contributes to the American civic character":

In deciding how to destroy ISIS, President Obama has rejected the "best military advice." The advice was recently given to the commander in chief from his military leaders.

With the president attending this week's NATO summit in Wales, and the heightened concerns among the organization’s members – especially the newer ones with experience of hand’s-on Russian domination and rule – it might be profitable for our “allies” to consider some facts reported by Gideon…

Yesterday, in response to the news that jihadi savages had killed an American journalist on YouTube, the Obama administration revealed that there had been a special forces operation that attempted and failed to rescue James Foley. For the life of me, I can't figure out why this was necessary…

Yesterday, in response to the news to the news that jihadi savages had killed an American journalist on YouTube, the Obama administration revealed that there had been a special forces operation that attempted and failed to rescue James Foley. For the life of me, I can't figure out why this was…

The Kurds need heavy weapons in their fight (also our fight) against ISIS. And as Mitch Swenson of War is Boring reports: 

Western nations should intervene militarily in Iraq to stop ISIS, argues Max Boot in a new article for the Spectator (UK). Boot cautions against the "wrong-headed" belief that intervention, not the retreat of Western forces, is the cause of the current problems in Iraq:

Can the United States maintain a "limited" military force in Iraq to stop the Islamist militants targeting ethnic minorities in that country? At Politico, Philip Ewing notes how difficult that strategy may be for President Barack Obama:

Back in the day when it was fashionable for the press to criticize the president and senior military officials for mismanaging a war--that is, from 2003 to 2009--such stories often focused on the colonels, majors, and captains who saw firsthand the practical problems with their superiors' approach…

This week senior officials from the Pentagon will testify before Congress on their request for emergency appropriations, known as the Overseas  Contingency Operations funding (OCO in military speak). A decision to maintain troop presence in Afghanistan, a resurgence of radical Sunni terrorism…

American strategists are taken with the idea of India’s strategic potential: a large democracy with a blue-water navy and the world’s third-largest armed forces that happens to be jammed between an imploding Pakistan and an expansionist China. But a deeply dysfunctional Indian defense community has…

Most Republicans say the United States should doing something about the violence in Iraq, according to a poll from CBS News and the New York Times. The poll found 52 percent of Republican adults say the U.S. has a "responsibility" to act in Iraq over the recent wave of terrorism there, and 53…

President Barack Obama said there would not be combat troops deployed to Iraq, but he left the door open for sending 300 military "advisors" to the country. In a Thursday afternoon White House press briefing, Obama said the United States has "humanitarian...strategic...and counterterrorism…

Jack Keane and Danielle Pletka, writing for the Wall Street Journal: 

The Big Hangover is a flopped ’50s film that is better forgotten, but it is the permanent state of Barack Obama, still in his bathrobe and feeling quite queasy, due to a headache called Bush. “Six years in, Barack Obama is still battling a Bush hangover,” says Politico. “The hangover was much, much…

The Scrapbook was dimly aware that the U.S. Army was reengineering its ammo but still was taken aback to read that it took 15 years and an estimated $100 million to come up with a new 5.56 NATO round for our infantrymen. It cost so much and took so long because, you know, it’s not easy being green.…

Secretary of State John Kerry says that he "would anticipate timely decisions from the president" on what to do in Iraq. 

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough got in a heated debate with colleague Chuck Todd Thursday morning over whether the father of recently released POW Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl should be subject to criticism over his actions. Scarborough criticized the Obama administration for including Bob Bergdahl in a Rose…

A U.S. Army soldier goes missing at night from a remote post on the edge of enemy territory. Depressed and anxious, he has expressed doubts about the U.S. mission and disillusionment with the war. He allegedly leaves behind a note recording these doubts. There are some reports that he consumes…

The Obama administration is facing mounting questions about the controversial prisoner swap that freed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from jihadists in Pakistan in exchange for the transfer and ultimate release of five senior Taliban commanders previously held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

The Huffington Post reports that the "Obama Administration Plans To Let Some Young Undocumented Immigrants Join The Military." The plans have been approved by the Pentagon. 

The American Military Partner Association (AMPA) held its first National Gala Dinner in Washington Sunday, and the Department of Defense used the opportunity to tout the rapid advances the military is making in erasing gender distinctions in policies regarding military spouses and partners. As…

A book event on May 22 for the book Brothers Forver at the American Enterprise Institute, featuring retired Gen. John Allen:

The fight to keep the A-10 flying continues and those who believe in the ugly bird saw their high opinion of it validated recently when, as David Axe of War Is Boring writes:

The first question that national security types, including the president, supposedly ask in an international crisis is, “Where are the carriers?” Soon, that opening line will be rephrased to something like, “Where are the … oh, never mind.”

The time for building ships is when your nation is at peace.  Once the shooting starts, it may be too late and playing catch-up is hard.  So it is disturbing that, as Christopher Bodeen of the AP reports:

Media reports suggest that President Obama is looking to declare victory and withdraw from Afghanistan, as he did from Iraq. The military commander in Afghanistan, General Joe Dunford, has said that he needs 10,000 US troops to accomplish the missions the president has said he wants to accomplish…

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is "looking" at banning the sale of tobacco at military installations. According to one military publication, Hagel appears to support it.

President Obama is keeping up the rhetorical pressure on Russia. As Justin Sink of the Hill reports:

Iran appears to be constructing a mock-up of the U.S.S. Nimtiz.  The ship is not operational.  Only 2/3s scale.  And not militarily capable of much of anything. 

As the war in Afghanistan winds down, commanders face the question of what to do with all that equipment.  It costs too much to bring it home where it is not needed so, as Richard Sisk at DoD Buzz reports:

Steven Lee Myers and Alison Smale of the New York Times are reporting:

The A-10 has been designated for retirement in the Pentagon’s quest to downsize. (Not for the first time, either.) According to the plans under review, those few hundred copies still in service will be decommissioned and, presumably, shipped of to some boneyard. Or, perhaps, cut up for scrap.…

“I think that cutting the defense budget in significant ways right now is a serious mistake. When we’ve cut the budget before at the end of the Cold War, at the end of Vietnam and other times, it’s been because we thought the world was going to be safer place. No one can make that case right now."…

First question asked, supposedly, in situation rooms when there is … well, a situation: Where are the carriers?

From CNN:

Russian president Vladimir Putin is everywhere. The former KGB officer has used virtually everything at hand to catapult himself as well as his country, the shell of a once mighty empire, on to the world stage. Whether it’s Putin’s determination to host the Winter Olympics in a semi-tropical…

As Andrew Tilghman at Military Times reports, Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, is telling the troops that, while they may not be getting much in the way of pay raises, they will be better off for it and that:

News broke this week that under a plan released by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the United States Army will be reduced to its smallest force since before World War II.  Though not directly related to that plan, another announcement this week by the Defense Department gives, perhaps, a taste of…

It's been almost a year since THE WEEKLY STANDARD quoted Philip Larkin’s great 1969 poem, “Homage to a Government." Yesterday the Obama administration released its 2015 defense budget, shrinking the Army to its lowest size since 1940 and reducing base defense spending to less than 3 percent of GDP.…

The Department of Defense (DOD) has just announced that the public will be invited to vote in a video competition called "Fight the Enemy."  In this case, the enemy is tobacco.  The innovation office of the military's assistant secretary of defense for health affairs is sponsoring the competition…

The Swiss airforce only works during normal business hours. And don't expect it to react between noon and 1:30 -- that's lunch time.

You would guess that an agreement between the United States and Japan to move a Marine air base from one location to another on Okinawa would be good news. And it is, for three reasons. First, because there has been opposition to relocating the base on the island, and negotiations had stalemated.…

A Request For Information by the defense department's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in July 2011 culminated this month in contract awards to seven different companies worth up to $4 billion over the next ten years.  The contract awards, posted in a notice entitled Combating Weapons of Mass…

Let me add a word to my comments from Tuesday night supporting the budget deal.

House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon doesn’t look like an insurgent.  The quintessential Californian – a man of Reaganesque optimism whose congressional district now includes the Gipper’s presidential library – McKeon has been a steadfast supporter of House speaker John…

It’s Congress’s fault if there’s a war with Iran, says the White House. Last week administration officials showed their frustration with lawmakers who seek to impose another round of sanctions on the Iranians. "It is important to understand that if pursuing a resolution diplomatically is disallowed…

Next month’s meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade in China will feature a familiar ritual. American negotiators will face intensified pressure for Washington to lift restrictions on the sale of military and dual-use technology to China. Over time, the perennial drip-drip…

It is widely recognized that the effects of the Sequester are felt most emphatically at the Pentagon and in the services. As reported by Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. at Breaking Defense, the point was driven home, yesterday, by chief of staff of the Army, General Ray Ordierno, who said:

A new report on sequestration's impact on defense from the Bipartisan Policy Center:

One year after renewing its ties with Naval ROTC, Columbia University held a welcome ceremony for its returning midshipmen yesterday afternoon.

A few hours before midnight in Iraq as September 11 approached, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad posted an "Emergency Message" warning "U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq."  Although the notice referenced the anniversary of 9/11, the main reason for the warning is apparent threats…

One of American conservatism's leading thinkers, James Ceaser of the University of Virginia, weighs in on "To authorize or not to authorize:" 

The week started with the White House seemingly determined to punish Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for his use of chemical weapons, but on Wednesday Obama let the air out of the ball. Last night on the PBS Newshour he explained he may yet choose not to pull the trigger. “I’ve not made a…

The man who bears the ultimate responsibility for the gassing of his countrymen in Syria has been told by the White House that the bell does not toll for him.  The Americans are coming and people will die.  But he will not be one of them.  Not this time, anyway.   

Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing for the New York Times:

The British launched the opening attack of the 3rd battle of Ypres on July 31, 1917.  The objective was to destroy a rail junction on which the German army depended for Western Front supplies.  The plan included British naval as well as amphibious assaults on the nearby Belgian coast.  The naval…

This morning President Obama announced that he is cancelling this year’s joint military exercise with Egypt, Operation Bright Star. It’s a symbolic gesture intended to show that, should the army continue to pursue its present course, the White House may eventually decide to suspend military aid.…

The Pentagon just released this statement to the press, announcing "Same-Sex Spouse Benefits" to "uniformed service members and Department of Defense civilian employees."

"When word of a crisis breaks out in Washington, it's no accident that

In the midst of a fair amount of depressing news from Afghanistan (e.g., al-Qaeda backers get U.S. military contracts, U.S. cites “due process rights” as reason not to cancel), here's a report from the front that offers some grounds for hope.

Mackenzie Eaglen, writing about the weakening of the military:

The Wall Street Journal reports:

As the sequester sinks in and starts to hit the U.S. military, many have focused on the impact of unpaid furlough days for civilians, air shows grounded, and fireworks foregone.  

On Thursday, Republican senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Democratic senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri joined with several female veterans of the armed forces to speak out against a proposal that would create a new justice system for serious military prosecutions, independent of military…

In 2012, the Department of Defense spent a total of $651 billion, including the costs of fighting in Afghanistan. According to the budget plan submitted by the White House a few months ago, projected 2014 spending will be $547 billion. If, as seems nearly inevitable, the “sequestration” provision…

Since forcing Egypt’s first elected president from office two weeks ago, Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has become a folk hero. Popular songs praising the 58-year-old head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces fill the airwaves, while hagiographic portraits of the man who saved the…

National Review editorializes:

The Obama administration has worked diligently to shrink, underfund, and demoralize the military. Now, Politico reports, two Republican senators, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, are joining an effort led by New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand that goes beyond where even the Obama administration is willing…

Singapore

Remember how the sequester was supposed to ravage the landscape?  The automatic spending cuts would, we were told, cause all manner of pain and suffering – inconvenience, even – as David A. Fahrenthold & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post report, we were warned:

An Air Force vet with experience in the nuclear program writes in:

Budget may be strained and deficits may be insupportable but there is money, $70 million worth, for IRS bonuses.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had some words about the cyber threat from China while speaking today in Singapore. But a Chinese general, in the room for the speech, immediately responded by saying, "China is not convinced."

Spain has its problems, including an unemployment rate that could be a prelude to revolution or ruin ... or both.  But the country seemed to feel it needed a fleet of warships.  To include submarines.  It made plans to build four of them,  but there was a problem.  As Roberto A. Ferdman…

The Pentagon has been on a long and expensive quest to make its personnel invisible. Or something close to it. So new camouflage patterns have been researched. Several of them, in fact. At least one for every branch of the service, including the Air Force, most of whose people do not need to hide…

A top U.S. diplomat will testify Wednesday that as fighting raged in Benghazi, Libya, in the early morning hours of September 12, 2012, military officials in the region told a second rescue team preparing to deploy from Tripoli to Benghazi not to make the trip.

The reaction of most Americans to the tragedy in Boston was typical: We came together as a nation, mourned our fallen, and applauded our newest heroes.  The sight of first-responders running to the sound of danger within mere seconds of the explosions, not away from disaster as human instinct might…

Since the Shermans of General Patton's Third Army crossed the Rhine on March 22, 1945, there have been American tanks in Germany.  No more, as John Vandiver of Stars and Stripes reports.

Mackenzie Eaglen, writing for Time:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s address to the National Defense University today, hyped by the administration as a “strong message that the time has come for [the Department of Defense] to consider fundamental change in how it is organized and how it operates to better reflect 21st century…

When news broke that the Obama administration was lifting the rule excluding women from combat units, the rare sound of bipartisan applause reverberated on Capitol Hill. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, one of two conservative women in the Senate, said she was “pleased” with the change, issued in…

Eric Edelman, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, and Dan Senor, all board members of the Foreign Policy Initiative, released the following statement this morning: 

ABC reports that most folks support spending cuts, as long as defense budgets aren't slashed:

Stephen D. Abney, the chief public affairs official for the Army’s Joint Munitions Command, recently sent a message to all 6,000 employees he speaks for: Don’t criticize President Barack Obama or any political party to members of the press. The message was received by civilian contractors as well.

Mackubin Owens, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

It can be tempting, if you are not a Washington insider or intimate, to put the Chuck Hagel business out of mind.  Or try, anyway. He did so badly in the confirmation hearings that, as Stephen Hayes writes, “any senator who takes the advise-and-consent role seriously had to have real concerns about…

The planned cuts to the defense budget as a result of the sequestration could mean reductions in benefits fo active members of the military and their families. Adam Kredo reports:

America’s military presence in the Persian Gulf serves as deterrence to Iran, reassures our increasingly nervous Arab partners, maintains peace, offers stability to our ally Israel, and has many other benefits. But nevertheless, the Pentagon earlier this week quietly announced the reduction in the…

At a hearing today on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned that sequestration will lead to America becoming a "second-rate power":

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the State Department never requested "support" in Benghazi:

The U.S. military announced today that instead of keeping mulitple aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, only one would be kept there. The reason offered? Uncertainty surrounding budget cuts.

After a meeting today in Paris with the French president, Francois Hollande, Vice President Joe Biden praised "the incredible competence and capability" of the French military. He was specifically referring to the recent military action taken by the French in Mali.

President Barack Obama said today in a pre-Super Bowl interview that he has no hesitation about sending women to the frontlines of combat:

Chuck Hagel, who has been nominated by President Obama to be the secretary of defense, does not understand the defense budget. Gary Schmitt explains:

Chuck Hagel, Barack Obama's nominee to head the defense department, said in his confirmation hearing Thursday that he doesn't "know much" about military programs and technology. "I've said I don't know enough about it," Hagel said, in a response to Maine senator Angus King. "There are a lot of…

Ever since outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced a week ago that the U.S. military would lift its ban on women in combat roles, the debate, which has been simmering for decades, boiled up again. Much of the argument has centered on cultural, social, and morale-related effects that such…

President Barack Obama fired General James Mattis, the head of Central Command, without even calling the general to let him know he was being replaced.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Ryan Smith, a retired Marine infantryman who fought in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, urges caution about the Pentagon's new directive to allow woment to fight as combat infantry. Smith describes his experience in 2003:

It seems clear that American civil-military relations have been healthiest when there is a high level of trust between civilian and military leaders, i.e. when there is mutual respect and understanding between them that leads to the exchange of candid views and perspectives between the two parties…

Former senator Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee to be the next secretary of defense, has drawn sharp criticism for championing even deeper cuts to military spending, making statements hostile or indifferent to Israel, denigrating pro-Israel groups in the United States as “the Jewish lobby,”…

There is at least one thing to like about the tax-raising, can-kicking deal that avoided the fiscal cliff: It gave the U.S. military a 60-day reprieve from the consequences of sequestration.