FOREIGN SERVICE officers do unspeakably dangerous work and rarely get noticed unless one of them dies. We found that out when Christopher Stevens was murdered in Benghazi. In Afghanistan recently, a deadly attack took another American life. Anne Smedinghoff was the best of what the United States foreign services offers. From a report today by [...]
Tag Archives | military
U.S. Navy’s New Toy Kills Drones [Video]
THE NEWS comes from Spencer Ackerman. Long in testing and even older in ambition, the chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, triumphantly heralded the dawn age of the shipboard laser gun during the Navy’s annual conference outside Washington. In tests aboard the destroyer USS Dewey last summer off the California coast, the Laser Weapon [...]
Hillary’s Mark Penn Question Answers Itself
The question for someone considering whether or not to support Clinton in 2016 is, will a Clinton 2016 campaign pass the Mark Penn Test? The Mark Penn Test, which I just invented, determines whether or not a person should be trusted with the presidency, based solely on one criterion: Whether or not they pay Mark [...]
Reagan Budget Chief: George W. Bush “Bankrupting the Nation” through Two “Unfinanced Wars”
This dynamic reinforced the Reaganite shibboleth that “deficits don’t matter” and the fact that nearly $5 trillion of the nation’s $12 trillion in “publicly held” debt is actually sequestered in the vaults of central banks. The destruction of fiscal rectitude under Ronald Reagan — one reason I resigned as his budget chief in 1985 — [...]
Veterans Waiting Longer Under Obama [Video]
PBS INTERVIEWED Secretary Shinseki, who is making no excuses. Of course, Shinseki isn’t at the top of this food chain, President Obama is. Shinseki also noted that Vietnam, as well as Gulf War veterans, and PTSD sufferers, added hundreds of thousands to the claim logs. President Obama is taking the hit and he should. We [...]
Hide the Photos! China’s First Lady Serenaded Troops in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square
WHAT’S A modern Chinese leader like Xi Jinping to do? His wife once serenaded the troops, complete with “green military uniform, her windswept hair tied back in a ponytail.” Above all things, hide the photos! From the Associated Press [picture at the link]: A photo of China’s new first lady Peng Liyuan in younger days, [...]
Gallup: 65% of Americans Approve of Drone Attacks, but Half Not Following Subject Closely
ANYONE SURPRISED that most people aren’t following the drone issue closely at all? Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) think the U.S. government should use drones to launch airstrikes in other countries against suspected terrorists. Americans are, however, much less likely to say the U.S. should use drones to launch airstrikes in other countries against U.S. [...]
News Desk: Marine Kills Two at Quantico, Then Kills Himself
THERE are few places where the military is held in higher esteem than the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia. From Reuters: A Marine shot dead two fellow service members at a base in Quantico, Virginia, then killed himself, the Marines said on Friday. The shootings took place late on Thursday near the officer candidate [...]
Top Story — Netanyahu and Obama Agree, Israel’s Right to Self-Defense is Sacrosanct, Meets with Abbas *Updates*
“Netanyahu has been able to get a bump every time he says no to the president. When he upbraided him in the Oval Office, he got a 10 percent rise in the Israeli public opinion. That is unheard of,” said Martin Indyk, Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Israel, during a roundtable discussion in Washington last week. [...]
Women: Join the Military and Increase Your Chances of Being Raped
According to an NPR report, citing the Pentagon: (emphasis added throughout) About 19,000 sex crimes take place in the military each year. … Many of the victims are male, but men in the service face the same risk of sexual assault as civilian men do. It’s a different story for women. Women who join the [...]
Showtime’s Dick Cheney Doc Reveals What Obama and Hillary Clinton Did in Resurrecting America’s Foreign Policy Brand
“If you’re a man of principle, compromise is a bit of a dirty word. The President made the decision that he wanted to avoid major controversy. It was his call, so that’s what we did.” – Dick Cheney on George W. Bush’s decision to reverse himself on warrantless wiretaps when he finds out what Cheney [...]
Congressional Progressive Caucus Unveil “Back to Work” Budget *Updated*
WHILE EVERYONE is listening to the squealing talking heads on morning cable, none of whom know much about what a real budget looks like that doesn’t channel the disastrous notion of austerity, House progressives showed the Democratic party, the White House, and everyone else in Washington, how it’s done. You can read the Progressive Congressional [...]
Chuck Hagel, The Grunts’ SecDef, Asked to Downgrade Drone Medal
THE PHOTO essay at DOD is worth a look for those appreciating the history of Chuck Hagel’s appointment. Hagel is the first former enlisted man to ever become Defense secretary. In other news, Secretary Hagel is being lobbied to reconsider the prowess of a drone and cyberwarfare medal being considered. From the Washington Post on [...]
Who Says Climate Change is a Serious Concern? – Chief of U.S. Pacific Forces
Maybe the fact that it’s someone from the military talking about climate change as a serious concern will help sway a few more people. Scientific study after study doesn’t seem to do it. The Boston Globe has the story, based on an interview with Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III last Friday. Locklear had just [...]
Pres. Karzai Causes More Trouble Than He’s Worth, This Time for Hagel
President Hamid Karzai leveled particularly harsh accusations against the United States on Sunday, suggesting that the Americans and the Taliban had a common goal in destabilizing his country. The comments cast a shadow on the first visit by Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. [New York Times] THERE’S really nothing nice to say about Pres. Hamid [...]
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