Almost as soon as Gen. McChrystal’s Rolling Stone comments went into the internet ether, speculation started about a replacement as commander of the Afghanistan war. And quickly there came, in email debates and blog posts and on Twitter, a frontrunner, at least in the minds of wags, speculators and analysts: More…
What was reported a few months ago is now official: Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. commander in Iraq, will head up the Joint Forces Command, pending (a certain) Senate confirmation. In the language of JFCOM’s press release, Odierno will “oversee UFJFCOM’s roles in joint concept development and More…
Still lethal, if today’s coordinated bombings in Baghdad are any indication. But in the wake of last week’s surprise killings of AQI leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, I asked Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza, spokesman for the U.S. military command in Iraq, for a sense of More…
Last week’s two drone strikes in Afghanistan rattled journalists. Didn’t Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, sharply restrict offensive air strikes? Laura King, reporting from Kabul for the Los Angeles Times, wondered if the two strikes, occurring in rapid succession, “signaled what More…
Tom Ricks reported earlier this week that Gen. Odierno’s relationship with the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Chris Hill, is “deteriorating rapidly.” Hill denied it to Ricks’ Foreign Policy colleague Josh Rogin. Ricks sticks to his story. So now Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) asked Odierno how it’s More…
Nice try from Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. In asking Gen. Odierno to explain the case for keeping troops in Iraq in accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement, he slipped in a reference to “why” the Unnited States ought More…
Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wants Gen. Raymond Odierno to address “how fast [we can] responsibly redeploy,” especially given the demands on the U.S. in Afghanistan. “What are the risks in speeding up” redeployment? The short answer: Odierno doesn’t play up the prospects More…
Gen. Raymond Odierno is testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, the first time he’s addressed the panel, about the Iraq mission he commands. “I believe we are now in reach of our goals,” he said. Iraq is slowly reestablishing diplomatic and economic ties with its neighbors, and has More…
The war cabinet convenes this afternoon for the first of a series of debates over Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy. Previews that don’t preview much can be found here and here. And before that happens, word comes from Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, that More…
At the bottom of Ann Scott Tyson’s Washington Post piece about Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s assessment of the Afghanistan war is a bit of contradiction-heightening from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
In an interview with The Washington Post last week, Mullen said it might not be possible
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