army

Don’t miss this mammoth USA Today investigation into retired generals and admirals receiving heaps of Pentagon cash for occasional “mentoring” work to their previous service branches — usually while they’re receiving not only their duly-earned pensions, but also generous military contractor dollars. Tom Ricks, who thinks the piece ought to contend for a Pulitzer, puts [...]

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) might have postponed this week’s planned Senate Armed Services Committee briefing on the Fort Hood shooting after President Obama asked Congress to await the results of ongoing Army and FBI inquiries. But today the committee will go forward with a closed-door briefing on Fort Hood, held at the Russell office building [...]

If President Obama orders an additional 30,000 to 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, he will be deploying practically every available U.S. Army brigade to war, leaving few units in reserve in case of an unforeseen emergency and further stressing a force that has seen repeated combat deployments since 2002.

A statement released by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence:
“Due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood, the President has instructed the National Security Council to assume control of all informational briefings. The NSC has directed that the leadership, [...]

Adam Doster of ProgressIllinois reports that Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) is reacting in a revealing manner to the prospect of the Obama administration moving Guantanamo detainees to a prison his district. Manzullo told a local TV station that the detainees are “driven by some savage religion.”
That would be the same religion that members of the [...]

This is my favorite part of President Obama’s remarks at the Fort Hood memorial:
It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know – no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for [...]

The post-Fort Hood right-wing attack on their fellow American citizens continues. Here’s conservative Christian commentator Pat Robertson yesterday on “The 700 Club,” via ThinkProgress:
That is the ultimate aim. And they talk about infidels and all this, but the truth is that’s what the game is. So you are dealing with not a religion. You’re dealing [...]

I wrote yesterday about Adm. Robert Harward, the deputy commander of Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., a key ally of Gen. Stanley McChrystal who’s been playing a leading role in the White House Afghanistan debates. Harward will, as I reported, go to Afghanistan by the end of the month to lead a new task [...]

Following up on ABC’s report that U.S. intelligence knew Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Malik Hasan tried to contact al-Qaeda facilitators online, The New York Times reports the aftermath:
[T]he federal authorities dropped an inquiry into the matter after deciding that the messages from the psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, did not suggest any threat of [...]

It really takes an amazing amount of chutzpah for Bill Kristol to pretend he cares more about the Army than Gen. George Casey, the Army’s chief of staff, and I doubt he’d ever have the nerve to say any of this stuff to Casey’s face. But even so, his post is an example of an [...]