Following up on his campaign promise to have a surge-like push in Afghanistan to see if it could help the country. From Fox News: “This reinforcement will contribute to the security of the Afghan people and to stability in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement. “I recognize the extraordinary strain that this deployment places on [...]

Here is the simple way to ground a country’s air force… The Telegraph is reporting that fighter planes in the French navy were unable to take off after their computers were infected by a computer virus. The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had [...]

As promised, this is one of the first orders of business. And given that we eventually freed the majority of those we kidnapped and held indefinitely without access to legal counsel, this move is yet another signal that America is starting a new chapter. From AP: The U.S. moved Tuesday to halt the Guantanamo Bay [...]

Kind of an odd statement coming from a guy who accepted a paid gig to be a war correspondent, but hey…it’s not like Pajamas TV is paying Wurzelbacher to be consistent or even correct. AP reports… And here’s a partial transcript just in case you can’t see the video… I’ll be honest with you. I [...]

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answers a lot of questions for the transition. Definitely try to watch them all. However, check out the last question/answer around 4:15 of this video. All I can say is…it’s about time. I’ve never understood the claim that somebody disclosing their sexuality would destroy troop morale, especially when it has been [...]

The fighting is growing more intense as Israel has started their ground offensive. And if Israel doesn’t realize that they’ve overreached here and are losing sympathy around the world, then they better wake up and realize it soon. You can’t kill this many women and children and not get a ton of backlash. From CNN: [...]

Looks like it’s a little bit longer than the 16 months Obama talked about during the primaries, but as long as the plan is to get out during his first term I bet he’ll allow the generals more time to execute a plan they think is realistic. From NY Times: The plan was proposed by [...]

I missed this yesterday, so here’s his introduction and Shinseki’s acceptance. Shinseki was absolutely correct that more troops were needed back in 2003 and he was punished for speaking truth to power. So there’s certainly some poetic justice that he’s now in charge of helping those who suffered in some small part from the naive [...]

Want to know why I look to the Pentagon first when asking “Where can we get some money?” It should be obvious from the graph above. Their budget has almost doubled in the last 8 years. And that doesn’t even include the additional funds appropriated for the Iraq war, which would easily put the yearly [...]

This looks like the following will be broadcast on tomorrow’s Meet The Press. More on this pick here.

Looks like Obama will announce this tomorrow on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. If you’re not familiar with Shinseki, he become a bit of a lightning rod in the 2004 election when he backed John Kerry over Bush. Here’s more from TPM: Shinseki is the former Army chief of staff who upset his civilian bosses [...]

With the current financial crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t been leading many news stories. But those conflicts are still going on and, just as importantly, the effects of those wars are still being felt by the soldiers who fought them. Whatever you think of the policies behind our current wars, I think it’s always important [...]

To those who made it home, and to those who didn’t: thank you for being there.

And no, it wasn’t a mistake. From AP: DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as “serious aggression.” A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted [...]

At this point, it’s looking to be Obama. Because apparently McCain hasn’t been in touch with Powell for months! Now, that doesn’t mean Powell will necessarily give a standard endorsement on MTP tomorrow. And honestly, this would fit with his demeanor. But saying something like, “I think we need a change” would be all he [...]

She got the name of the top general in Afghanistan wrong. It’s actually “McKiernan.” That can’t be good for people who think she’s inexperienced. Also, it turns out she was just plain wrong when she claimed he didn’t say an Iraq style surge didn’t work. And I quote… “Afghanistan is not Iraq,” said Gen. David [...]

That’s right. Nobody there. Let’s hope this ist true… BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that an agreement had been reached in negotiations on a security pact with the United States to end any foreign military presence in Iraq by the end of 2011. “There is an agreement actually [...]

With a start date of June 30, 2009 no less! From AP: The negotiations over a withdrawal timetable follow long insistence by President Bush that setting any schedule for U.S. troops to leave would be dangerous. The draft agreement with Iraq would link troop reductions to achievement of certain security milestones, although the details have [...]

Honestly, I find this to be a bit of a surprise. I think we’ve always been led to believe that people in the military will overwhelmingly support the Republican candidate, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year. Open Secrets shares how the numbers break down… Obama – $60,642 – 134 donors Paul [...]

We’re paying through the nose now because we didn’t plan ahead back then. From CS Monitor: The Army may begin paying a retention bonus of as much as $150,000 to Arabic speaking soldiers in reflection of how critical it has become for the US military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks. [...]