Accolades.

On Tuesday, President Obama signed an executive order meant to enhance our country’s cyber-defenses by directing government officials to improve the channels of cybersecurity information-sharing between the federal entities and companies that manage the various aspects of our digital infrastructure. Reviews were mixed, via Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed an executive order [...]

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"Are you surprised that the president of the United States never called you, Secretary Panetta, and say, ‘how’s it going?'"

We didn’t get to this yesterday, but it’s definitely worth watching — especially for the skill shown by Lindsey Graham in his examination of Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey.  The headline takeaway will be what is remembered most: the revelation that Barack Obama never bothered to keep in touch with his chair of the [...]

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"The United States military is not and should not be a global 911 service ..."

Via Daniel Halper, John McCain extracted some significant testimony from a clearly reluctant chair of the Joint Chiefs in an Armed Services Committee hearing on Benghazi today.  Appearing with outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, both tried arguing that there are too many threats and places requiring defending to have the American military act as [...]

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Readiness.

Via the WFB, Panetta is really sounding the alarm on this recently; at a speech on Wednesday, he warned not only of the degrading effect of the pending spending cuts on military readiness, but also spoke about cyberspace as the new frontier on which the United States will increasingly need to do battle in the [...]

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The usual suspects.

When outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta defended the Pentagon’s newly-approved plan to drastically expand their cyber security force, he was not messing around. “Unidentified” foreign entities certainly have been ramping up the scale of their cyber attacks of late, and I don’t just mean at the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The [...]

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The other side of the COIN

Previously, I offered some of my own admittedly last century feelings about sending American women into direct, front line combat roles. That sparked a fair bit of discussion, including the submission of a letter from a woman who has seen action in the war and who was surprisingly sympathetic with at least some of my [...]

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The best defense is a good offense?

Leon Panetta is wrapping up his tenure as secretary of Defense, but the Pentagon is moving forward with initiatives to beef up the United States’ cybersecurity forces and better prepare for what the government points to as the coming arms race of the evolving digital frontier. The NYT reports: The expansion would increase the Defense [...]

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Norms.

I don’t know if part of the rationale for yesterday’s kinda’-sorta’ out-of-left-field announcement that the Pentagon is lifting the ban on women serving in direct combat is supposed to be some kind of barrier-breaking, legacy-building last hurrah for Leon Panetta, but if that’s the case, I’m not sure that that legacy will be a very [...]

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"Historic."

As Ed previewed this morning, President Obama nominated Chuck Hagel to replace Leon Panetta at the Department of Defense, as well as John Brennan to take over at the CIA, at the White House on Monday afternoon. Here’s the full vid, for your viewing pleasure (and here’s the transcript):   Why President Obama seems so [...]

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Friday night news dump.

Ah, the Friday night news dump, a tradition that transcends party in Washington DC.  Is there nothing it can’t underplay?  Yesterday, more than two months after the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi left four Americans dead and the American response a confused mess, the Pentagon finally got around to releasing its version of [...]

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“There’s a basic principle here, and the basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on..."

One of the unanswered questions about the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi is why the US military didn’t intervene.  Rumors had swirled that the US asked the Libyan government in Tripoli for permission to fly into Benghazi to break up the attack but had been refused, although no one has claimed that on [...]

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"They stood and they watched, and our people died."

By now we’ve gotten the basic details of the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi — no thanks to the White House, which tried to pass it off as a “spontaneous demonstration” that “spun out of control” for more than a week after the attack. Not too many people may have understood that the [...]

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Stability.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has already made it clear that the upcoming sequestration cuts currently set to take place in January, which would shave nearly $500 billion from an already-”leaner” military and defense budget, would be practically “unworkable” and a “disaster.” But, even worse than the damage that the cuts themselves will inflict, is [...]

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Romney: "The time for stonewalling is over."

Weeks after Congress opened a probe into national security leaks that mysteriously arose making Barack Obama look good, we seem to have gotten a little close to the source.  Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said publicly yesterday that at least some of these reputation-burnishing leaks came from the White House that benefited from them: Sen. Dianne [...]

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See, it's green, because it costs so much money.

Okay, just to establish the lay of the land here: Ever since last summer’s embarrassment of a budget deal, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that the pending automatic cuts to the Defense budget would be ‘disasterous.’ Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pleaded with Congress Wednesday to avoid the disaster of automatic defense cuts even as [...]

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Plus: Karzai calls for U.S. troops to pull back to bases next year.

Oddly enough, this might not be directly related to the Koran-burnings or last weekend’s rampage against Afghan civilians. The sticking point appears, rather, to be a prisoner exchange: The Taliban wants one but the White House, which needs congressional approval and is unlikely to get it in an election year, probably can’t deliver. And since [...]

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"Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say."

I have a hunch about what happened here but I’m interested in hearing from military readers. Is this SOP when the SecDef or some other bigwig comes to speak to you at a base? CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta landed here Wednesday morning for an unannounced and tense visit, the first [...]

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"We would come to the Congress and inform you."

Via Breitbart.com, stick with this until at least 2:40, when things start to heat up, through 3:30 when the absurdity is fully revealed. His point about international approval is mundane: If we decide to act in Syria as part of a coalition, then there needs to be some sort of joint international resolution laying out [...]

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Elections.

This makes twice in 24 hours that the SecDef has telegraphed a hugely consequential military decision to the enemy. Either (a) he’s a moron, (b) he’s lying for strategic advantage, or (c) he has something else in mind. I don’t think he’s a moron and I can’t fathom what the strategic advantage to this might [...]

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To the brink.

I’m skeptical, but the degree of saber-rattling at the Herzliya Conference today was off the charts. First the IDF’s intel chief estimated that Iran has enough uranium to make four bombs, the first of which could be ready in a year. Later Ehud Barak claimed that Iran’s underground enrichment facility at Fordow would soon be [...]

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Scandal.

“Senior military officials in Kabul and at the Pentagon confirmed that the video was authentic and that they had identified the Marines as members of the Third Battalion, Second Marines, which completed a tour of Afghanistan this fall before returning to its base at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The officials did not release the Marines’ names [...]

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Secrets.

“Since the al Qaeda leader was killed May 1 in a U.S. special operations forces raid on a compound in Pakistan, numerous details about the raid and materials confiscated at bin Laden’s home have been leaked to the media. “In Panetta’s letter, obtained by CNN, he says the operation, ‘has led to an unprecedented amount [...]

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