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SLOWLY AND painfully, the U.S. Army has adapted itself to the unconventional wars the country has faced since Sept. 11, 2001. Following a reorganization of forces, a rewrite of doctrine and the emergence of new commanders such as Gen. David H. Petraeus, American ground troops are winning counterinsurgency wars in Iraq and eastern Afghanistan -- and are recognized as state-of-the-art by NATO allies. In contrast, the U.S. Air Force, which dominated the 1990s with its smart bombs and stealth planes, has lost its way in the new century. Its top leaders have remained stubbornly focused on the production of advanced...

Obama Has Been Highly Critical Of The U.S. Operation In Afghanistan; Said "We Have Taken Our Eye Off The Ball": Obama Said The U.S. Took Its "Eye Off The Ball" In Afghanistan. Obama: "We went into Iraq, a war that we should have never authorized and should not have been waged. ... It has ... allowed us to neglect the situation in Afghanistan. We know right now ... that al Qaeda is hiding in the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan. And because we have taken our eye off the ball, they are stronger now than any time since 2001." (Sen....

The fourth thing I would do as president would be to pull out of Iraq... but with serious conditions. The US must allow the Iraqis to fight a civil war. We pull out of Iraq, but not out of the area entirely. The US should build, with the help of other nations as well, a coalition base outside of the most dangerous areas in the region. That base should be on the Pakistani border, because the Pakistanis are a shitty ally, are full of bull and need to be watched every moment and their country is a haven for Al...

Military adviser rips Democrats over Iraq bills July 28, 2007 By S.A. Miller - A top U.S. military adviser yesterday rebuked the Democrat-led Congress for ignoring recent success of the troop surge in Iraq and trying to hamstring the war effort with legislation. "Your actions here in the Congress appear to be in direct conflict with the realities on the ground where the trends are up and progress is being made," retired Army Gen. John M. Keane, adviser to U.S. commanders in Iraq, told a House panel that is considering time limits on troop deployments. "Your resolution, like so many...

When it comes to the troop surge in Iraq, a bunch of arm chair generals in Washington are influencing the Bush Administration as much as the Joint Chiefs or theater commanders. A group of military experts at the American Enterprise Institute, concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a calamitous failure in Iraq, almost single handedly convinced the White House to change its strategy. They banded together at AEI headquarters in downtown Washington early last December and hammered out the surge plan during a weekend session. It called for two major initiatives to defeat the insurgency: reinforcing the...

In a dramatic game of brinksmanship, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered an expanded ground war in Lebanon because of dissatisfaction over an emerging U.N. cease-fire deal, but later Friday indicated he might be ready to accept an amended version. The zigzag reflected Israel's dilemma after a month of fighting. Israel has been unable to defeat Hezbollah by force and is concerned about growing Israeli casualties and international condemnation if the war persists. However, Olmert also fears accepting a cease-fire deal that does not rein in the guerrillas could lead to another war and hurt him politically. The day's tumultuous...

Mr. Murtha, speaking yesterday at a Post-Gazette editorial board meeting, was asked if he favored a cease-fire in the campaign north of Israel's border. "I think so," he said. "I think it would be very difficult to justify continuing on." Referring to the Bush administration's position, he said: "You know, they say, 'Well, we want a long-term cease-fire.' It seems to me you start with a cease-fire, and then you try to work out the details long term. If you don't, and you continue to have heavy-handed military action -- and I support heavy-handed military action because it saves your...

WASHINGTON - the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will announce Friday the first details of a "diplomatic plan" international for the Middle East, indicated to AFP a high person in charge for the State Department.Mrs. Rice, who prepares to go in the area, "will have something to say this afternoon", declared the person in charge American."We are working in a diplomatic plan which would tackle the violence to which we attend and the roots of this violence", it added. "It will be an international effort".According to the American chain NBC, Mrs. Rice tries to organize a meeting of...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should stay home if her mission is to go to the Middle East in an attempt to tell Israel to stop the war against Hezbollah. President Bush's message that Israel should use "restraint" in dealing with Hezbollah is equally off the mark. In his first term, President Bush understood the use of pre-emptive war as a necessary national security strategy designed to deal effectively with terrorists. Would President Bush refrain from going to war if Hezbollah sleeper cells launched a terrorist attack in the United States? Hezbollah committed an act of war when terrorists crossed...

News Alert: AP: Police said Israeli warplanes attacked a Lebanese army air base near the Syrian border, the first strike on Lebanon’s army in Israel's fight with Hezbollah guerrillas.

10:15 Israel intends to impose sea and air blockade on Lebanon (Army Radio)

WASHINGTON— Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign, in part because "our policy in Iraq is just not working." "My view is the secretary should step aside," Richardson said at the outset of a 10-minute interview on "Face the Nation." Richardson, a Democrat who is viewed as a likely presidential contender in 2008, said the fact that six military generals have publicly called for Rumsfeld's resignation...is significant. "We should listen to what these generals are saying," Richardson said. "These are six distinguished military officers who were involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq....

According to actor and comedian Richard Belzer, American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are too uneducated to be expressing support for the U.S. military mission since they're just "19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job" and "they don't read twenty newspapers a day." Belzer, who's best known as Detective John Munch on NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit," is a frequent guest on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." On one previous appearance, he threatened to walk off the set when told columnist Ann Coulter was also appearing, calling her a...

PASADENA, Calif. (Jan. 15) - Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he'd say the same thing today about Iraq. "It's my belief that we should get out now," Cronkite said in a meeting with reporters. Now 89, the television journalist once known as "the most trusted man in America" has been off the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter-century. He's still a CBS News employee, although he does little for them. Cronkite said one of his proudest moments came at the end of a...

I was wrong. Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told -- and what many of us believed and argued -- was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda. It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a...

The War on Terror is over. What started as a bold campaign to “bring justice to our enemies” across the globe has been redefined as, essentially, a counter-insurgency action in Iraq, the express goal of which is to prepare the new Iraqi government to defend itself, “and then our troops will come home with the honor they have earned.” As President Bush himself stated during his June 2005 speech at Fort Bragg: “Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.” “Stand down.” In military parlance, this means to stop fighting. But...

MOORPARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2005--"Enough is enough!" said Delores Taylor, alongside her husband, Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack). The quintessential activist heroine and hero of the 1970's are back with a vengeance. They are determined to end the war in Iraq, by restoring America to her moral purpose, before subway terrorists possess nuclear weapons in suitcases. To reveal this new exciting exit plan, Laughlin will be holding a press conference at Peace House located at 9142 5th Street, Crawford, Texas, on Thursday, August 18, 2005 at 1 p.m. (CT). "This plan is a win/win situation for the Iraqi people, and especially...

A persistent theme of some critics of the Iraq war--again ascendant during the past few weeks of violence--has been the Bush administration's alleged failure to appease the Baath Party and other elements of Saddam Hussein's former regime. One of the more visible exponents of this point of view has been David L. Phillips of the Council on Foreign Relations. But his "Losing Iraq" reveals just how hollow and wrongheaded the critique really is. The book supposedly offers a perspective from, as the subtitle has it, "Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco." Yet Mr. Phillips's "inside" experience seems confined to trips to...

One of the most experienced and respected figures in a generation of American warfare and peacekeeping yesterday accused the US administration of 'failing to prepare for the consequences of victory' in Iraq. At the end of a week that saw a war of attrition develop against the US military, General William Nash told The Observer that the US had 'lost its window of opportunity' after felling Saddam Hussein's regime and was embarking on a long-term expenditure of people and dollars for which it had not planned. 'It is an endeavour which was not understood by the administration to begin with,'...

A former US diplomat has told the Arab world not to judge America by the current US regime's actions. Madeleine Albright, secretary of state during Bill Clinton's second term in office, said that many Americans are concerned about President George W. Bush's foreign policy.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain is attacking the Pentagon's approach to the war in Iraq, saying it's letting militants take the initiative. McCain told "Fox News Sunday" that while troop levels are too low, the bigger problem is "the Pentagon has been reacting" to militants and is too reluctant to set its own agenda. He said if the Pentagon had planned better it wouldn't now be extending tours of duty of thousands of troops in Iraq ahead of next month's election. By doing that, McCain said, the Pentagon is straining morale and persuading troops not to re-enlist with the military....

"America is a strange country. All of its best generals are journalists," quipped Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith in the middle of an interview Thursday. Touché, as fencers say. I never served in the military, haven't been to Iraq and don't know if the criticism that the Bush administration has not put enough troops in Iraq is accurate or not -- although I pay attention when veterans who return from Iraq say as much. So I'll pass on what Feith said to me and you can decide. Columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times Thursday that more troops...

I see so many miltary talking heads on the MSM , from all ranks and of course,Clark. Can anybody help me understand why so many seem to be ready to take a shot at the current US Forces strategy and tactics?

The troop redeployment plan announced yesterday by President Bush makes little long-term strategic sense. It is certain to strain crucial alliances, increase overall costs and dangerously weaken deterrence on the Korean peninsula at the worst possible moment. Meanwhile, it will do nothing to address the military's most pressing current need: relieving the chronic strain on ground forces that has resulted from failing to anticipate the long, and largely unilateral, American occupation of Iraq. Mr. Bush provided few new details yesterday, confirming only that over the next 10 years, about 60,000 to 70,000 uniformed troops, along with some 100,000 family members...

Bubba thinks W jumped the gun with Iraq. Former President Bill Clinton thinks President Bush made a big mistake in not letting UN inspectors finish their hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he said in interviews publicizing his new book, "My Life," due out Tuesday. The man who preceded Bush also thinks the President should not have shifted the focus away from America's No. 1 enemy. "I still believe, as I always have, that the biggest terrorist threat by far is Al Qaeda and the Al Qaeda network," Clinton said. Regarding the March 2003 "launching of the war,...

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called for increasing the U.S. military by 40,000 troops, probably for a decade, in order ``to match its new missions'' in the war on terror and homeland security. ``I make this simple pledge,'' Kerry, 60, said in remarks prepared for delivery to veterans and military families in Green Bay, Wisconsin. ``If I am president, I will fight for a constant standard of decency and respect for those who serve their country in our armed forces -- on active duty and as veterans.''

WASHINGTON, April 30 — A National Guard member from New York who served almost a year in Iraq will deliver the national Democratic radio address on Saturday morning, filling a role usually reserved for prominent members of Congress and other political figures. The serviceman, First Lt. Paul Rieckhoff, 29, whose unit was attached to the Third Infantry and was stationed in Baghdad, is expected to deliver a critique of President Bush's leadership of the war on the first anniversary of his appearance on the carrier Abraham Lincoln with the posted "Mission Accomplished" banner. He will also recount his own experiences....

<p>Kerry Calls for UN-Backed High Commissioner in Iraq (Update2) April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called for an international high commissioner backed by the United Nations Security Council to oversee the transition of power in Iraq and help with its reconstruction.</p>

Iraq aftermath a mess Virtually every Fox News military analyst believes that the Department of Defense has screwed up the aftermath of the Iraq war, yet Rumsfeld won't give a straight answer as to why this happened. Bill speaks to Fox News analyst Newt Gingrich. Media vs. President Bush There is a strong liberal bias in the elite media, and plenty of new books and movies to be released just prior to the election is the proof. Bill speaks to Greg Mueller, President of Creative Response Concepts, a PR agency.

NEW YORK - Democrat John Kerry faulted President Bush for a unilateral approach toward Iraq that has created greater dangers for the U.S. military, but the presidential candidate was heckled Wednesday for failing to back the immediate withdrawal of American forces. "We shouldn't only be tough, we have to be smart. And there's a smarter way to accomplish this mission than this president is pursuing," the four-term Massachusetts senator told reporters at City College of New York following an education event. Kerry backed the 2002 congressional resolution authorizing the president to use force in Iraq, but since then has been...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic presidential contender John Kerry (news - web sites) called the US occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) a "mess" and said it was time for President George W. Bush (news - web sites) to acknowledge his difficulties to the world. -snip- "They're doing it in such a frankly inept way," he told CNN. Kerry called for the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority to hand over responsibility for reconstruction and establishing a new government to "a legitimate international entity." He added that "people don't want to go to work for Paul Bremer" the US civilian administrator in...

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry said on Monday the United States made a mistake in setting an arbitrary date for handing over power in Iraq and suggested President Bush may have chosen June 30 for political reasons. Bush has vowed to stick to the deadline for handing over Iraqi sovereignty, even as a Shi'ite uprising against the U.S.-led occupation stirred fears of a possible civil war. Calling the turn of events and the loss of American lives "deeply disturbing," Kerry told reporters: "I have always said consistently that it is a mistake to set an arbitrary date and I...

NEW YORK In the wake of Richard Clarke's dramatic personal apology to the families of 9/11 victims last week -- on behalf of himself and his government -- for failing to prevent the terrorist attacks, one might expect at least a few mea culpas related to the release of false information on the Iraq threat before and after the war. This has not happened so far, with President Bush on Wednesday going so far as to joke about the missing weapons of mass destruction at a correspondents dinner in Washington. While the major media, from The New York Times on...

About two weeks ago, the world's attention suddenly turned to a dramatic battle in Pakistan. The Pakistani Army, we were told, had trapped a large force of al Qaeda, including a "high-value target," possibly Ayman Zawahiri. The Pakis brought in artillery and air power. The fate of the al Qaeda fighters was sealed. Then the whole thing evaporated into thin air. First, Zawahiri wasn't there. Then no other "high-value target" was there either. The Pakistani Army invited local tribal elders to mediate, declaring a cease-fire while they did so - not the sort of thing you do when you are...

Sat. Jan. 24, 2004; 10:12 p.m. EST Dean: I Would Have Toppled Saddam Using Different Tactics Former Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean said Friday that he if he were president, Saddam Hussein would have relinquished power by now without the U.S. firing a shot. Asked if Saddam would be in power today if he were in the Oval Office, Gov. Dean told WRKO Boston talk radio host Howie Carr, "Probably not." CARR: He wouldn't? DEAN: No CARR: Well, how would he have been removed? DEAN: Because we - I would have treated the whole thing totally differently than President Bush...

<p>When President Bill Clinton moved to lift the discriminatory ban on gays in the military 11 years ago, veterans bombarded Capitol Hill with angry letters and phone calls. Clinton and the gay community got a quick, painful education about the clout of America’s 27 million veterans and the nearly 500 groups that represent them: When veterans talk, Congress snaps to attention.</p>

When we lost the military draft a generation ago, we lost a lot: We lost the ability to have a meaningful discussion about anything that involves the military. The Pentagon recently began a significant call-up for the next major rotation of troops in Iraq, but it has no realistic plan for covering our military and domestic security commitments without exhausting our reserve forces. Yet we give no serious attention to a bill Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) introduced last January to reactivate the draft. Further, any suggestion to reconsider the military status quo is met with a charge of not "supporting...

A new poll measuring Americans' attitudes towards gays in the military reveals significant support for allowing lesbians and gay men to serve openly. Seventy-nine percent of the 1,004 adults surveyed said they believe people who are openly gay should be allowed to serve. The CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, conducted December 5-7, found that 91 percent of people aged 18-29 were supportive of allowing gays to serve openly, as were 85 percent of all women, and 73 percent of all men. These numbers represent a significant increase in Americans' support for gay and lesbian servicemembers in recent years. In August 2003, a...

<p>Anthony Zinni's opposition to U.S. policy on Iraq began on the monsoon-ridden afternoon of Nov. 3, 1970. He was lying on a Vietnamese mountainside west of Da Nang, three rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle in his side and back. He could feel his lifeblood seeping into the ground as he slipped in and out of consciousness.</p>

The good news is that Saddam Hussein was yanked out of his rat hole and put behind barbed wire where he isn't a threat to anyone. The better news is that the U.S. military cannot be defeated in Iraq, not by terrorist car bombs, booby traps and snipers. The bad news is that Iraq is still America's to lose, or America's to throw away. If it goes south it will be due to the extraordinary interagency bickering, bureaucratic constipation, self-imposed isolation and misguided personnel policies of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) that runs civil administration and nation-building in a place...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York sharply criticized President Bush's policies in Iraq during an unusual series of back-to-back appearance on the Sunday morning talk shows. Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, argued that the Bush administration had failed to prepare adequately for the task of restoring order in Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Appearing on the ABC News program "This Week," Mrs. Clinton suggested that the administration was now altering its plans for a new government in Iraq in search of "some kind of exit strategy, some kind of transition before our elections." She also accused the White...

Gen. Wesley K. Clark assured a crowd at a college campus here on Thursday that he had a strategy to secure Iraq and bring American soldiers home, criticizing the Bush administration for not producing a timeline to withdraw troops. But General Clark later refused to specify when he would bring troops home or how many more soldiers might be needed to stabilize Iraq. "I'm not going to produce a political answer that doesn't have the basis underneath it to be justified," General Clark, who is retired from the Army, said in a contentious exchange with reporters after a town hall...

Just hours after returning from her trip to Iraq, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton put her foot in her mouth once again, this time suggesting that U.S. troops who fought in Iraq during the most intense period of combat had it easy. Speaking to reporters Monday afternoon about what she saw in Iraq, Mrs. Clinton contended, "The hard part started on May 1," referring to the date when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations there. Then, with an ill-timed laugh, the former first lady added, "The easy part, if you look at it, was the military...

washingtonpost.com Dean Assails Bush on Defense Rival Cites Combat Pay, Veterans' Health Benefits By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 1, 2003; Page A06 MERRIMACK, N.H., Nov. 30 -- Howard Dean launched a full-throated attack on President Bush's foreign policy acumen Sunday, saying Bush has "no understanding of defense," is conducting diplomacy by "petulance" and lacks "the backbone to stand up against the Saudis." Amid a crush of well wishers seeking autographs at a high school here, Dean said of Bush: "I think he's made us weaker. He doesn't understand what it takes to defend this country, that...

<p>The Republican National Committee - and, by implication, the White House - is running a TV commercial defending President Bush's handling of the Iraq War, saying Democrats are attacking him "for attacking the terrorists." Not really. It's for doing such a bad job of it. This despicable attempt to muffle criticism by throwing the flag over it may or may not work. But it does not change the fact that America went into Iraq for reasons that now appear specious and so distantly related to the war on terrorism that the connection seems merely rhetorical. Saddam Hussein lives, and Osama Bin Laden lives. And yet, somehow, the Bush White House wants nothing but congratulations.</p>

Hannah Storm on CBS’s The Early Show on Thursday treated retired General Wesley Clark as a wise military sage, soliciting advise from him on what to do in Iraq, and not as a Democratic presidential candidate with a liberal political agenda which includes criticizing Bush policy in Iraq. One of Storm’s questions: "What about the change in military strategy? Now we're hearing about this Operation Iron Hammer is what they've dubbed it. New air strikes, is that prudent military strategy?" Storm set up the November 13 segment: "President Bush has been pushing to speed up the transfer of political power...

URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/11/12/national0350EST0456.DTL (11-12) 00:50 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Criticizing President Bush's efforts, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark says he would press Saudi Arabia to provide commandos to accompany U.S. troops in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders. Clark, a former four-star Army general, says although the Bush administration did the right thing by going after al-Qaida after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, it failed to finish the job it started. "They still haven't found Osama bin Laden. And every day, Americans live at risk because of this failure," Clark said in remarks prepared for delivery...

After a week when 34 more American soldiers were killed in Iraq, leading Democrats called anew Sunday for President Bush to change course and seek more foreign help by offering to cede control over Iraq to the United Nations and NATO. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, laid out the most specific alternative policy to Bush's, challenging the president to call an international summit on Iraq and offer there to restructure the entire occupation command. "I think it's time to make a fundamental shift in the way in which we're going about...

PRNewswire--The day after Arizona Sen. John McCain blasted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a speech for being "irresponsible" and defeatist regarding Iraq, Rumsfeld met with McCain and told him that he read his speech and then explained why he'd continue to do things the same way. McCain, who says the U.S. military is badly undermanned in Iraq, insisted that "the facts on the ground did not coincide with a successful ongoing effort to bring democracy to Iraq." Rumsfeld and his team responded that they "believed there was no need for additional troops," McCain later related. The real question now, the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark called for a radical change in US policy in Iraq that would leave an international organization in charge. "My plan is to change the strategy overall," Clark told CNN. "In the first place, we need to change the leadership at the top: We need an international organization." Clark led North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Bosnia and he prescribed similar medicine for Iraq. "NATO would do the military side, but above NATO would be a political organization, like we did in Bosnia that's been so successful there: Bring in a number of...