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WASHINGTON, May 5, 2010 – The Pentagon’s top policy official told Congress today she’s “cautiously optimistic” about progress in Afghanistan as the new strategy there begins to show signs of success. “I believe we are achieving success. We are on the right road for the first time in a long time in Afghanistan,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy told the House Armed Services Committee. “I would argue for the first time, we finally have the right mission, the right strategy, the right leadership team in place. And we have marshaled both the international and Afghan resources, civilian and...

OBAMA NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY: HOPE THEIR BOMBS DON'T WORKMay 5, 2010 It took Faisal Shahzad trying to set a car bomb in Times Square to get President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to finally use the word "terrorism." (And not referring to Tea Party activists!) This is a major policy shift for a president who spent a month telling Americans not to "jump to conclusions" after Army doctor Nidal Malik Hasan reportedly jumped on a desk, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and began shooting up Fort Hood. After last weekend, now Obama is even threatening...

The White House is moving closer to finishing a sweeping review of U.S. development strategy that aims to put development on par with diplomacy and defense as a "central pillar" of U.S. national security, according to sources familiar with the issue. The Cable has obtained a draft copy (pdf) of the review, which is titled "A New Way Forward on Global Development" and is known internally as the Presidential Study Directive on Global Development or PSD-7. "The Obama Administration recognizes that the successful pursuit of development is essential to our security, prosperity, and values," the draft document reads. It promises...

The Gates’ Pentagon will make significant changes to the language used in its National Security Strategy, dropping: the controversial concept of preemptive attack, also known as preventive force; the idea of a “war” on terror; and the identification of Islamists as the root of terror. An NSS is always one of the most important defense policy documents of any administration is its National Security Strategy. While it may not guide every action, an NSS — required by the Goldwater-Nichols law — serves as a template, a broad statement of how and why an administration will go to war and what...

The U.S. Army has commissioned a study that concluded conventional ground forces would be required to battle the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. The Rand Corp. has relayed a study to the U.S. Army that analyzed Israel's 2006 war with Hizbullah. The report, titled "Military Capabilities for Hybrid War," concluded that Israel's air combat strategy against Hizbullah was flawed and that infantry and armor would be required to fight the Lebanese-based militia, trained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Finally, heavy forces — based on tanks and infantry fighting vehicles — are key elements of any force that will fight sophisticated irregular opponents,...

President Obama's push for health care raised more than a few hackles, including the ire of 19 state attorneys general. "On behalf of the residents in Florida, and the states joining our efforts," declared Bill McCollum, who is spearheading one of the lawsuits, "we are committed to aggressively pursuing this lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to prevent this unprecedented expansion of federal powers, impact upon state sovereignty and encroachment on our freedom." Questioning the constitutionality of Obamacare raises another question: Is flouting the law a pattern for how the president plans to govern? By law, the Pentagon...

Some militaries are defeated in battle; others lose the war before the firing even begins. For example, it is the general consensus among military historians that the French military lost in World War Two before the first German panzer had crossed the frontier. A combination of preparing to fight the last war, inadequate investment in modern air and ground power, the wrong organization and French politics basically ensured that Germany would defeat France. The United States may be replicating the French experience. Rather than maintaining control of the high ground and with it control of the initiative in future conflicts,...

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday he was very satisfied with Pentagon planning to counter the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program.

The U.S. Army and the Comedy Channel – which broadcasts the cartoon “South Park” -- share a common fear: alienating Muslims. And, giving in to that fear, last week both exorcised views that threatened to alienate Muslims. Those actions empowered Islamic radicals, trampled freedom of speech and ignored legitimate criticism of Islam that endangers American security. The Army rescinded an invitation for Christian evangelist Franklin Graham to speak at a Pentagon National Day of Prayer event. That decision was a reaction to criticism from groups like the Council of American-Islamic Relations that complained Graham “calls Islam evil and claims Muslims...

The signs all point to an imminent release of President Obama's National Security Strategy. The administration has prepped the battlefield with a flurry of puff pieces fed by exclusives and on-the-record quotes about the administration's strategic dexterity (see here, here, here, here and here. The high-profile events of the past few weeks -- an arms control treaty signing and a mega-summit on nuclear proliferation -- nicely tee-up the roll-out of a Big Think Piece. And not a moment too soon. The National Security Strategy is technically overdue (under the provisions of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, it was supposed to be handed...

Speaking of Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, his speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last night also offered an early glimpse of the administration’s long-awaited National Security Strategy. (I hear it’s going to actually come out the week after next, but the broad contours have been in place for a while.) Longtime Obama-watchers won’t really find it surprising to hear what Jones outlined: "In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing a new National Security Strategy that formalizes the President’s approach—an approach that is rooted in and guided by our national security interests. These interests are...

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command are updating military plans to strike Iran's nuclear sites, preparing up-to-date options for the president in the event he decides to take such action, an Obama administration official told CNN Sunday. The effort has been underway for several weeks and comes as there is growing concern across the administration's national security team that the president needs fresh options ready for his approval if he were to decide on a military strike, according to the official who is familiar with the effort. The official did not want to be identified because of the sensitive nature...

Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER April 17, 2010 WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document. Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, came in the midst of an intensifying effort inside the Pentagon, the White...

Gates Says U.S. Lacks Strategy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document. Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, touched off an intense effort inside the Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence agencies to...

The New York Times reported that it required 150 interagency meetings, including 30 by the National Security Council, to produce the new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and START follow-on treaty. Give the guys on the E-Ring credit for holding out as long as they did. In the end, however, the Defense Department was reduced to agreeing to the following extraordinary decisions: c The United States will not design, produce or test any new nuclear weapons. This condemns the nation to relying for the indefinite future (Mr. Obama says for more than his lifetime, and he's a fairly young man) on...

Their assignment: Come up with a national security strategy for the United States. So a group of 15 military officers and government employees at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces studied the issue for months -- and decided that, first, consideration had to be given to the economy, which they found is heading toward disaster, even as the recession eases. The economy, the Seminar 11 group agreed in its report last month, is "the foundation for everything else." With the nation's yearly deficits running at about $1 trillion and the national debt expected to more than double by 2020,...

The United States Military is in the midst of a troop surge in Afghanistan, but the surge has caused the ratio of resources to troops to widen. Many American Forward Operating Bases are experiencing food and water shortages. Sgt. Hill, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, has been in Afghanistan only a few months as part of the new troop surge into the country. The troops are mainly focused on training and promoting the Afghanistan army and police force. The training is the United States' attempt to "teach a man to fish," in the security department of...

This all started after Sarah Palin threw the first punch after Obama announced his nuclear arms strategic revision this week: "It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. No administration in America's history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out that President Obama is supporting today," Palin, a former Alaska governorand now a Fox News contributor, said Wednesday in an interview with Sean Hannity. "You know that's kind of like getting out there on the playground a bunch of kids ready to fight and one of the kids saying go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm...

The United States announced this week a new strategic policy for its nuclear weapons that puts unprecedented emphasis on the nuclear threat from terrorists and rogue states, as opposed to traditional nuclear powers like Russia and China. Some analysts see the new policy as an important step in meeting the changing international situation. But critics call the move reckless and irresponsible. The Nuclear Posture Review - the third since the end of the Cold War - limits the circumstances under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, with a long-term goal of achieving a nuclear-free world. The Obama administration's...

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Wednesday that the Obama administration has failed to issue a national security strategy report because the deadline set by Congress "is a completely unrealistic requirement."