The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime is moving chemical munitions out of storage depots. It remains unclear whether the regime is deploying these weapons in the field or is trying to keep them from falling into the hands of rebels, who have …
There is some confusion in Foggy Bottom as to how the United States ought to define Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group based in northern Nigeria. Last week, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson testified in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, calling Boko Haram a “terrorist organization.” Yet …
The bad news: This week the Dutch parliament voted to scrap Dutch participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. The good news: Since the Dutch government dissolved back in April, and there will be a general election later in the year, the vote is non-binding. Nevertheless, this should …
Unless the President and Congress change current law, the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces will soon face an indiscriminate, across-the-board cut of more than $500 billion over the next decade. Known as “sequestration,” this massive reduction in defense spending comes in addition to the $487 billion in …
The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness is holding a hearing this week titled “Department of the Air Force Aircraft Force Structure Reductions.” The last word of this hearing—reductions—is telling. The subcommittee usually holds hearings in which military officials update the status of their respective branches. However, the U.S. Air …
While the President has reveled in recent U.S. military accomplishments (even at the expense of classified or sensitive information), his Administration has been guardedly quiet about the defense community’s elephant in the room: the automatic cuts mandated by sequestration. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has repeatedly stated that the cuts …
