Iraq Airstrikes Are Strategic, Not Humanitarian
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[CORRECTED number of Mt. Sinjar airdrops] The Obama administration and the mainstream media can make the airstrikes in Iraq sound like a humanitarian war, a New Age operation driven not by realpolitik but by the high-minded and/or fuzzy-headed responsibility to protect. In fact, Obama is using deadly force for strategic goals, just like George Bush. The difference —… Keep reading →
US Bombs ISIS To Aid Kurds: Strikes By USS George H.W. Bush, Drones
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[UPDATED with details on latest strikes] Yesterday, President Obama ordered humanitarian airdrops to Iraqi refugees and authorized — but did not actually launch — airstrikes on Islamic State forces threatening either the refugees or Erbil, the capital of quasi-independent Kurdistan. This morning, at 6:45 am Washington time, the other shoe dropped, in the form of 500-pound smart bombs… Keep reading →
2 Overlooked Clues in Malaysian Jet Shoot Down
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[UPDATED 2:10 pm with comment from President Obama & Pentagon spokesman Kirby] Western media are hardly going easy on Russia. But in all the often-excellent coverage I’ve read so far of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 disaster – which claimed 295 lives – no one* is pointing out two basic facts that point towards Russia and… Keep reading →
Air Force One Back In Budget; Airbus Unlikely To Bid
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UPDATED: Adds FYDP Budget Plans To Spend $1.65 Billion On New Air Force One WASHINGTON: Airbus, Boeing’s only likely competitor, probably won’t bid on the new Air Force One even though the Presidential Aircraft Replacement program has reappeared in the 2015 budget. “Airbus could put together a dramatic candidate for Air Force One,” Allan McArtor, the… Keep reading →
Obama Boosts How Foreigners SIGINT Data Is Treated; Issues PPD 28
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WASHINGTON: In a speech that demonstrated just how important SIGINT really is, President Obama issued a new policy directive today that essentially says, we’ll be more careful in the future about containing leaks, making allies mad at us and giving American’s reason to think we might be violating their privacy. Perhaps most importantly, the new… Keep reading →
Isolationists Score While Hagel Scrambles To Maintain US Power; Lockheed To Furlough 3,000
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UPDATED: Lockheed Now Plans 2,400 Furloughs After DoD Decides To Bring Back Civilian Workers (10/7 at 12:45 p.m) WASHINGTON: OK. That headline is deliberately provocative. But here’s the evidence. The president of the United States cancels an important trip to Asia — including the first visit by a president to the increasingly powerful state of… Keep reading →
Mr. Singh Comes To Washington: India, China & The Pacific
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WASHINGTON: When Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh meets with President Obama at the White House this Friday, the rise of China may not be on the official agenda, but it will be on everybody’s mind – and Beijing will be watching warily. Friday’s meeting will be just the latest in a series of summits that… Keep reading →
Sequestration: Buck McKeon’s 3-Front War Will Fail — But At Least CR May End
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WASHINGTON: As House Speaker John Boehner went to the White House for fruitless talks on sequestration, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon convened reporters to tell both the President and his own party leadership, “we are done cutting our defense.” But the very fact that McKeon had to send this message via the media… Keep reading →
Mac Thornberry: Congress Must Empower Special Operations – EXCLUSIVE
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WASHINGTON: Tomorrow morning, overshadowed by sequestration, the House Armed Services Committee will hold a rare full-committee hearing on a topic that would normally be high-profile, even explosive: whether to give the Defense Department, and especially its elite special operators, broader legal authority to work with foreign forces worldwide, from Colombia to Mali to the Philippines.… Keep reading →
Is Sequestration Deal DOA After Boehner Comments? Obama Invites Hill Leaders To White House
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UPDATED: Added Grim Assessment By Todd Harrison of CSBA WASHINGTON: Hope springs eternal, even here in the nation’s capital. After the election, both President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner made nice noises. And many pundits hailed this, believing either that sequestration would get kicked down the road a fur piece or a Simpson-Bowles’ grand… Keep reading →