Free Republic

...Obama will visit U.S. Central Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, on Wednesday for a briefing from his commanders on battle plans against the Sunni insurgent group Islamic State. ....White House officials made it clear that there would also be no U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria to coordinate airstrikes, nor have any done so in Iraq. But as the President continues to coalesce U.S. and international efforts to “degrade and ultimately defeat” IS, and Pentagon officials say they are making headway against IS in Iraq, two former Centcom commanders offer mixed reviews of his plans. “I...

DOHA, Qatar — The United States military is installing a new command center at a heavily guarded base in this small Persian Gulf state that would be ready to serve as the main headquarters for a war on Iraq. The official purpose of the work at the base, As Sayliyah, is to prepare for a major American military exercise in December called Internal Look. But it will be no ordinary exercise. American officials say that it will be the first time that a war game of its type has been conducted outside the United States and that the command and...

The US military has begun moving significant numbers of troops and equipment to the Gulf over the past two months, military analysts say, a sign that the Pentagon is girding for war on Iraq even as the Bush administration continues to hammer out a resolution on weapons inspections at the United Nations. This week's announcement by General Tommy Franks, the head of US central command, that he would personally oversee the movement of more than 600 personnel from his headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to a new forward command base at Qatar's al-Udeid air force base in December, is just part...