Planners fear showing sequestration is doable By Rowan Scarborough The Washington Times Sunday, May 20, 2012 For Pentagon planners, automatic spending cuts slated to begin in January have become the $600 billion contingency they can’t plan for. Military planners are under strict orders not to devise scenarios for meeting the demands of “sequestration,” as the [...]

May 21, 2012 7:50 AM (AP) CHICAGO – NATO says that its European missile shield is up and running with a basic capability to shoot down incoming missiles.  NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sunday the declaration of “interim capability” at the alliance’s summit in Chicago is a first step toward a goal of [...]

From Elise Labott and Mike Mount, CNN updated 4:07 AM EDT, Sun May 20, 2012 Chicago (CNN) — The road map out of the war in Afghanistan is expected to be drawn up by U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders when they gather Sunday at the NATO summit in Chicago. Against a backdrop [...]

May 18, 2012 Federal Priorities: A new report shows we have spent $70 billion on climate change since 2008 while our strapped military is ordered to become energy-efficient. Imagine weapons that don’t harm the environment. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and a senior member of [...]

By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr. Published: May 18, 2012 WASHINGTON — China is pressing a long-range modernization of its military, part of a strategy aimed at maximizing its leverage over Taiwan, extending its influence farther abroad, but avoiding conflict around its borders or with the United States, the Pentagon said on Friday in an annual [...]

May 18, 2012 The Pentagon is telling Congress that China’s increasingly sophisticated military is pursuing “new historic missions” that go beyond its traditional role of defending the homeland. In a report released Friday, the Pentagon says these new missions include humanitarian aid, combatting piracy and counter-terrorism operations. The Pentagon cited as an example China’s evacuation [...]

May 17, 2012 – Paul Bedard When they published their revealing book last August about the nation’s fight against terrorism, the authors, two New York Times national security reporters, immediately felt heat from the Pentagon for dishing too much operational info about the killing of Osama bin Laden. “I was stopped by a very senior [...]

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS | Wed May 16, 2012 7:22pm EDT  (Reuters) – Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iransanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Iran, like Russia, is one [...]

May 16, 2012 The United States is leading what it described as the “largest military exercises in the Middle East in 10 years” in Jordan on Tuesday. Eager Lion 2012 “is the largest exercise held in the region in the past ten years,” Major General Ken Tovo, head of the US Special Operations Forces, told [...]

Obama may be ‘flexible.’ But the U.S. owes Russia nothing. May 14, 2012 – WSJ By JON KYL Within hours of reassuming the Russian presidency this month, Vladimir Putin demanded that the United States provide “firm guarantees” that a U.S.-led missile-defense system in Europe won’t be aimed against Russia. President Barack Obama can’t offer any [...]