Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “United States Secretary of Defense”
RAMADI, Iraq — So complete was the destruction of Ramadi that a local reporter who had visited the city many times hardly recognized it. “Honestly, this is the main street,” Amaj Hamid, a member of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces, told the TV crew as they entered from the southwest. He swerved to avoid the aftermath of months of fighting: rubble, …
If the highest ranking U.S. and NATO military commander in Afghanistan gets his way, America’s longest official war could become even more protracted. Army General John Campbell said in a USA Today article published on Tuesday that he wants to keep the 9,800 American troops currently in Afghanistan there for as long as possible—and is considering asking for even more …
“The funding to continue the war against ISIL is an authorization of force against ISIL, albeit a quiet one, designed not to attract public attention.” Jack Goldsmith, Lawfare, Dec 17, 2015 Money is raining down on the US military complex in the $1.15 trillionspending bill that was unveiled on Wednesday by various leaders of Congress. Of that portion, a good $572.7 billion is …
There is “strong” evidence that the U.S. military attack on a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan two months ago constituted a criminal act, and should be investigated as such, Human Rights Watch said Monday in a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter(pdf). “The attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz involved possible war crimes,” said the …
The New York Times reported last week that climate change is forcing environmental researchers to seek cold-water refuges for imperiled salmon. This raises an obvious question for Republican candidates in the US presidential race: how do we ensure no Muslim salmon are swimming among the pink refugees? Clearly, we need a religious test for lox. The idea is absurd, of course. Climate change …
In a scathing attack on President Barack Obama’s drone war, four former operators of the remote-controlled killing machines declared that this kind of warfare is actually fueling terrorism. Meanwhile, the soldiers who pull the triggers are cast aside when they break down under the incessant stress of long-distance killing. “This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that …
On Sunday, Fars News said US warplanes killed 27 ISIS field commanders – 26 in a bombing raid on a Raqqa, Syria command center, the sole survivor eliminated separately. According to Fars, they “sought to break allegiance with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the…main (ISIS) ringleader, a move (looked on as) surprising (and) suspicious.” It’s more evidence of ISIS in disarray since …
If, as seems likely, President Barack Obama retains enough support to complete the nuclear deal with Iran,it will be largely because enough members of the House and Senate are persuaded by his argument that the only other real option is war. This was the rhetorical gauntlet the president threw down at his press conference last week. Equally significant, Mr. Obama omitted …
Wednesday, the Pentagon released its 2015 National Military Strategy, a 24-page blueprint for ruling the world through military force. While the language in the report is subtler and less incendiary than similar documents in the past, the determination to unilaterally pursue US interests through extreme violence remains the cornerstone of the new strategy. Readers will not find even a hint …
NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels Wednesday and Thursday agreed to the enlargement of the organization’s Response Force to 40,000 troops from the current level of 13,000. On Tuesday, ahead of the meeting, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced the positioning of hundreds of American tanks, military vehicles and heavy artillery pieces in the Baltic States as well as Poland, …
