While the Pentagon refuses to put a price tag on the almost 4,000 air missions US warplanes and drones have flown over Iraq and Syria since early August, analysts have tried to step in and fill the hole. The latest to enter the fray is Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments,…
(US Army soldiers firing the M198 Howitzer. US Army photo) When the Iraqi Army’s 2nd Division broke and fled ahead of the advancing columns of ISIL fighters near Mosul earlier this summer, they left behind a treasure trove of US supplied military equipment that the jihadists have since turned on the civilian population. Among the…
The White House will speed delivery of weapons to the Iraqi military after al-Qaida fighters captured Fallujah — and congressional Republicans are eager to pin the city’s fall on President Barack Obama Senate GOP hawks John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were quick to react to reports that extremist forces had…
Choosing to do something is an action. But, sometimes, so is choosing to not do something. That’s generally true with Congress. Which is why it’s always instructive to consider what lawmakers opt to exclude from legislation. The recently passed 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is no different. Left out of the compromise version of…
As the Iraqi government struggles to contain the exploding violence that slaughtered more than 8,000 civilians in 2013—which the United Nations says is the highest level of violence since 2008—the Baghdad government is looking to the United States for help. According to a report in the New York Times, Iraq has requested ten relatively low-tech…
It’s an awkward relationship between US and Iraqi leaders. At the end of 2011, after the two sides couldn’t agree upon the conditions for a continued US troop presence in Iraq, President Obama abruptly pulled forces out of the country leaving the still youthful Iraqi government to manage a difficult security situation. Now the Iraqi…
The history of fielding, supplying, and repairing the thousands of ground vehicles given to the Afghan Army and Police hasn’t always been a happy one, and as NATO heads for the exits in a little over a year, western forces are scrambling to leave behind as much capacity as possible. That’s why the NATO Training…
The government of Iraq continues to snap up American defense products, and is now adding advanced robots that American soldiers are currently using in combat to its arsenal. On Sept. 26, robot maker QinetiQ North America announced that it had inked a $20 million deal with Baghdad to acquire its Talon IV ‘bot, a deal…
Back in the bloody Iraqi spring of 2006, a group of retired Army and Marine Corps generals including former Central Command chief Gen. Anthony Zinni and several two-star generals who had left the service after commanding troops in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, created a huge stir when they publicly demanded the resignation of Secretary…
ESSAY Sen. John McCain clearly would rather have someone not named Martin Dempsey as America’s top military officer. After all, the Arizona Republican is threatening to place a hold — a move that essentially freezes a nomination — on the Army four-star general’s nomination for a second two-year term as Joint Chiefs chairman. McCain…