Free Republic

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno revealed this week that just two Army brigades are combat-ready, with budget cuts hampering the military's ability to train its own troops. The startling comments were made Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army conference. Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh both addressed the fallout from the budget cuts, as well as the recent partial government shutdown, and appealed to lawmakers to restore some stability to military funding. "Functioning like this is just dysfunctional," Odierno said. He said that after the sequester kicked in, "we had to stop training basically" in the...

WASHINGTON - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) testified Thursday "there was no silver bullet that could have prevented" the Sept. 11, 2001 terror strikes, conceding the United States was ill-prepared despite a threat two decades in the making. President Bush (news - web sites) "understood the threat, and he understood its importance," in advance, she told a national commission in implicit rejection of claims made last month by former terrorism aide Richard Clarke. Rice said the president came into office determined to develop a "more robust" policy to combat al-Qaida. "He made clear to me that...