Free Republic

WASHINGTON—Two centrist Republican senators said they opposed the nomination of President Trump’s defense-secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, injecting new drama into what was expected to be a nail-biter of a vote Friday. In a statement Thursday, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said Hegseth’s “nomination to the role poses significant concerns that I cannot overlook,” pointing to worries about his character and his lack of experience running large organizations, as well as his past opposition to women serving in combat roles in the military. “I cannot in good conscience support his nomination,” she said. Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) followed with...

WASHINGTON—During his first term, Donald Trump would sometimes interrupt meetings on military or veterans’ issues to call Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host who impressed the president with a blunt style that mirrored his own. Hegseth railed against Pentagon leaders on television and pushed pardons for soldiers convicted of war crimes, a contrast to the cautious career officials who frustrated Trump. For his second administration, the president-elect has nominated the telegenic 44-year-old Army veteran to be his defense secretary, despite—or because of—a résumé thin on government experience. “President-elect Trump might look at Pete Hegseth as someone who will carry out...

MOSCOW—Close to 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine, according to estimates from U.S. and European officials, a toll that is likely to continue to rise as the Kremlin readies a fresh offensive in the coming weeks. The U.S. military, which keeps rough estimates on Russian casualties in Ukraine, puts the figure for wounded and dead at roughly 180,000, though officials stressed such figures aren’t precise, a U.S. defense official said. The tally matched assessments by Norway’s defense chief Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, who said last week that the number of Russian soldiers killed or...

As many as 80,000 Russian troops have been wounded or killed in less than six months of fighting in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Monday, the first time the U.S. military announced its estimates of the toll of the invasion on Russia. According to U.S. estimates, Russia has suffered 70,000 to 80,000 casualties, Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters at a press briefing Monday. In the days leading up to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Western officials estimated that Russia had staged roughly 150,000 troops near Ukraine’s border.

The U.S. is sending some of the Soviet-made air defense equipment it secretly acquired decades ago to bolster the Ukrainian military as it seeks to fend off Russian air and missile attacks, U.S. officials said. The systems, which one U.S. official said include the SA-8, are decades old and were obtained by the U.S. so it could examine the technology used by the Russian military and which Moscow has exported around the world. The weapons are familiar to Ukraine’s military, which inherited this type of equipment following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

In the space of two weeks, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set off one of the largest and fastest arms transfers in history. By road and rail, the Czech Republic sent 10,000 rocket-propelled grenades to Ukraine’s defenders last week alone. In Poland, the provincial airport of Rzeszow located about 60 miles from the Ukrainian border has been so crowded with military cargo jets that on Saturday some flights were briefly diverted until airfield space became available. On the country’s highways, police vehicles are escorting military transport trucks to the border, with other convoys slipping into Ukraine via snow-covered back roads...

It’s being called a “revolt” by intelligence pros who are paid to give their honest assessment of the ISIS war—but are instead seeing their reports turned into happy talk. More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military's Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned. The complaints spurred the Pentagon’s inspector general to open an investigation into the alleged manipulation of intelligence. The fact that so many people complained suggests there are deep-rooted, systemic problems in how...

'Thugs' attack Islamists outside Egypt's Defense Ministry, killing 11 By NANCY A. YOUSSEF AND AMINA ISMAIL McClatchy Newspapers CAIRO -- In the deadliest outbreak of violence in weeks, at least 11 protesters were killed and at least 150 wounded early Wednesday outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo in clashes with civilian attackers, putting Egypt's presidential election and already-fragile democratic transition in further turmoil. Several Islamist presidential candidates announced Wednesday that they were suspending their campaigns - some for 48 hours and some indefinitely - in response to the violence and the military-run government's apparent unwillingness to stop it. Officials also...