About two weeks ago I was talking to an Obama administration official about the prospects for Pakistan accepting a larger contingent of U.S. counterinsurgency trainers. The administration was pressing somewhat gingerly, the official indicated, not wanting to push the Pakistani military too far — it would be counterproductive to imply More…
Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are before the Senate Armed Services Committee to defend their defense budget in the face of GOP criticism over its program cuts. (Comptroller Robert Hale is in there too.) Their opening statements are careful More…
One more thing really quickly about Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s ascension to commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. On Friday, I blogged about changes in the command structure in Afghanistan emanating from, among other places, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s review of Afghanistan strategy. What More…
To adapt, clumsily, one of the more memorable quips of what used to be called the War on Terror: in Afghanistan, we set up the military command structure that we can, and in Iraq, we set up the military command structure that we must. Except maybe not anymore. (You More…
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line catches Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appearing to stretch the available evidence from the U.S. intelligence community on the Iranian nuclear program. “There’s nothing more important,” she recently said in Prague, “than trying to convince Iran to cease its efforts to obtain More…
Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen visited Pakistan this week for the their first trip to Islamabad since the release of the Obama administration’s Af-Pak strategy. It could have gone better. From The New York Times:
With the chairman of the More…
In a conference call with reporters immediately after President Obama’s Iraq withdrawal speech, Defense Secretary Bob Gates said that the withdrawal plan has the support of key military leaders.
I’m obviously very supportive of the decision the president has made, as is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) asks about President Obama’s discussions about the pace of withdrawal from Iraq. Gates says they’re discussing transitioning forces from combat troops into an advisory role, which might adhere to the 16-month timeline Obama advocated during the presidential campaign, or could take until 2011 to complete. It’s More…
The first meeting of President Obama’s national security council is scheduled this afternoon, on the topics of Iraq and Afghanistan and the dicey situation in Israel/Palestine. According to The Associated Press and The Washington Post, Obama will receive military advice on his planned troop withdrawals in Iraq and More…
To contrast with Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) question about American sovereignty, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) swings over to the progressive side by asking Clinton about foreign development assistance for the benighted places of the globe. He wants to go beyond just being told that Jack Lew will be on it. More…
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