The initial commentaries sparked by this public statement demonstrated a major shortcoming in our discussion on Syria for months – a heavy fixation on tactics or means to achieve objectives, without much reference to the overall strategy with all of its components. At times it seems as if a “no strategy” zone has been imposed on the U.S. policy debate on Syria.

The Obama administration’s overall cautious strategy on Syria – and yes, it does have a strategy – remains largely intact and unchanged in the broad contours. The key question isn’t whether the administration has a strategy. Instead, the most important questions are whether the administration’s Syria strategy is effective in advancing U.S. security interests and values -- and whether the full range of means the United States is willing to invest in will produce the outcomes it hopes to achieve.

Continue Reading...

I did Tuesday afternoon on a visit to the only part of the clandestine agency that most people will ever be able to access, the National Cryptologic Museum. The museum is perhaps the largest bone an agency so secret that it's sometimes wryly referred to as "No Such Agency" throws towards public outreach, and it's not very big one. Sequestered in a squat concrete outbuilding behind the gas station in a corner of the NSA's Ft. Mead, Maryland campus, the museum feels a bit like a regional historical society that happened to stumble across a cache of some of (what was a the time) the world's most cutting-edge military communications and cryptology gear.

Continue Reading...

Right now, it's up to a suspect's commander whether or not to press charges for sexual assault or any other crime. Military prosecutors advise commanders, but don't have the final say. And if a court-martial finds the suspect guilty, the commander has the power to overturn that decision, as Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin did last year after a lieutenant colonel under his command at a U.S. base in Italy was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to a year in prison.

Continue Reading...

Political momentum to address the problem has been building since the Pentagon released statistics last month showing that sexual assault increased by 35 percent between 2010 and 2012. The outcry grew louder when a string of scandals came to light, including alleged sexual assaults by Army and Air Force officials who were in charge of preventing sexual abuse.

Continue Reading...

This, of course, is the true definition of the theology of militarism - a worship of all things martial. It is America's civic religion and explains much. For example, it explains why we have a Memorial Day that remembers those in the military who lost their lives but still excludes those other civilian public servants who also lost their lives while on the job. It also explains why we have a political culture of Military Exceptionalism - that is, a culture that deems it perfectly acceptable to slander civilian public employees but almost never acceptable to criticize the public employees who comprise the armed forces.

Continue Reading...

Seated side-by-side at a long witness table, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the head of each branch of the military testified on what is widely viewed as an epidemic of sexual assault plaguing the services.

Outraged by recent high-profile cases and overwhelming statistics, lawmakers have moved aggressively on legislation to address the scourge of sexual assault. They summoned the military brass to answer their questions at a jam-packed hearing.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the problem of sexual assault "is of such a scope and magnitude that it has become a stain on our military."

Congress has acted in prior years to ensure the aggressive investigation and prosecution of sexual assaults, Levin said, but more needs to be done. The committee is considering seven bills to deal with sexual assault.

Continue Reading...

The judge also ruled Monday that Major Nidal Hasan's attorneys will remain on the case, but only if he asks for their help.

The judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, said last week that a report indicates Hasan is mentally competent to represent himself.

A doctor testified Monday that Hasan's paralysis won't have a significant impact during proceedings. He's paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police the day of the attack on the Texas army post.

Jury selection is set to start Wednesday.

Hasan faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted in the attack that killed 13.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

In recent years, though, I have found our national celebration of Memorial Day lacking because while I am indeed the grandson of a soldier, I am also the son, son-in-law, nephew and friend of many other kinds of public servants. Through their civilian work, I have come to understand public service as something much more than only military service. Trouble is, while there may be a few lower profile days meant to honor their service, these public servants are not included as part of the high-profile Memorial Day - even though they should be.

Continue Reading...

As a liberal, I’m against drones essentially by reflex. At least, I used to be. Recently, I’ve begun to reconsider that view; and I’m no longer sure where I come down on the morality of drone strikes. Disturbing as I find state-sponsored violence, when drones do the killing instead of soldiers, it seems apparent that we have an easier time recognizing the violence as horrific. War, in its traditional form, distorts our moral reasoning. Drones do not. And as much it grates against my broader political commitments to say so, this is plainly a benefit of drone warfare, other shortcomings notwithstanding.

Continue Reading...

A Department of Veterans Affairs accounting released in response to inquiries from The Associated Press shows a heavy financial and emotional cost involving vets from Iraq, Afghanistan and even back to Vietnam, and lasting long after a victim leaves the service.

Sexual assault or repeated sexual harassment can trigger a variety of health problems, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. While women are more likely to be victims, men made up nearly 40 percent of the patients the VA treated last year for conditions connected to what it calls "military sexual trauma."

It took years for Ruth Moore of Milbridge, Maine, to begin getting treatment from a VA counseling center in 2003 — 16 years after she was raped twice while she was stationed in Europe with the Navy. She continues to get counseling at least monthly for PTSD linked to the attacks and is also considered fully disabled.

Continue Reading...

"There is no silver bullet to solving this problem," Obama said Thursday after meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the top brass from all the military services.

"We will not stop until we've seen this scourge, from what is the greatest military in the world, eliminated," he told reporters.

Senior military officers are speaking about the problem with increasing bluntness and expressions of regret. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday called it a "crisis" in the ranks, and on Thursday the Army chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, publicly acknowledged his service's efforts are "failing."

"They care about this and they are angry about it," Obama said.

"Not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful, but it also is going to make and has made the military less effective than it can be," the president said.

Those summoned to the White House by Obama included not just Hagel, Dempsey and the chiefs of each military service but also the civilian heads of each service and senior enlisted advisers.

Continue Reading...

Sheehan's remarks served as a defense of the military's current drone strike policy. While the majority of U.S. drone strikes are carried out by the CIA and authorized by the president directly, the Pentagon oversees strikes in Pakistan and will take increasing control of U.S. drone programs. Sheehan also defended the current structure of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Act (AUMF), passed after 9/11, which, in its present iteration, grants the president wide-ranging powers to wage drone wars. “At this point we’re comfortable with the AUMF as it is currently structured,” said Sheehan. He admitted that there was no expiration date or geographic boundary to the War on Terror.

Continue Reading...

Last week, that opposition went right to the top, when Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “It is my strong belief — and I think others on Capitol Hill and within our institution — the ultimate authority has to remain within the command structure.” He was saying that, of course, while unveiling an annual report showing the number of sexual assaults within the Army had actually gone up in the past year. But on Monday the Pentagon press secretary backed away somewhat, saying the secretary was “open to all options.”

Continue Reading...

Just last week an Air Force officer who headed a sexual assault prevention office was himself arrested on charges of groping a woman in a parking lot.

The Army said a sergeant first class, whose name was not released, is accused of pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates. He is being investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. No charges have been filed.

He had been assigned as an equal opportunity adviser and coordinator of a sexual harassment-assault prevention program at the Army's 3rd Corps headquarters at Fort Hood, Texas, when the allegation arose, the Army said.

"To protect the integrity of the investigative process and the rights of all persons involved, no more information will be released at this time," an Army statement said.

Continue Reading...

Though next month's 40-year anniversary of the end of conscription will likely be as forgotten as Stone, it shouldn't be. In operations across the globe, the all-volunteer military has been employed by policymakers to birth what Gen. George Casey recently called the "era of persistent conflict." Four decades later, we therefore have an obligation to ask: How much of the public's complicity in that epochal shift is a result of the end of the draft?

There is, of course, no definitive answer to such a complex question. However, a look back at some lost history shows that today's public acquiescence to militarism was exactly what the government wanted when it ended the draft.

That loaded term -- "militarism" -- was, in fact, a prominent part of the 1970 report by President Nixon's Commission on an All-Volunteer Force. In its findings, the panel worried about "a cycle of anti-militarism" in a nation then questioning America's increasingly martial posture.

Continue Reading...

"We can agree to give them the bases – them staying on after 2014 is for the good of Afghanistan," Karzai said in a speech at Kabul University. "The condition is that they bring peace and security and take action quickly … on the basic strengthening of Afghanistan, helping the economy of Afghanistan."

Continue Reading...

Moreover, it turns out the Air Force lieutenant colonel in charge of preventing sexual assault has been arrested for  … sexual assault. According to the police report, a drunken Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski allegedly approached a woman in a parking lot in Arlington, Va. Sunday night, and grabbed her breasts and buttocks.

Why has it been so difficult for the Air Force or the Defense Department to remedy this problem?

Continue Reading...

Syria isn’t Barack Obama’s Vietnam by a long shot. And I seriously doubt that Obama feels the same way Johnson did. But Johnson’s conundrum is in many ways Obama’s, too. In Syria, there are no good options, American credibility is at stake, and the pressures to act are considerable in the face of great uncertainties.

Doing nothing is unacceptable in the face of almost 80,000 dead and millions of Syrians displaced internally and abroad. Limited involvement – even on the military side -- will likely be ineffective, and getting stuck with the check through undertaking a massive military intervention is out of the question.

So what’s a guy to do? Sure, there are risks of acting; but there are consequences of not acting, too.

Indeed, in this regard, Syria is a moral tragedy and humanitarian disaster. It’s hemorrhaging refugees and radicalized jihadists. It’s a threat to regional stability and to Turkey, Jordan and Israel. It’s a potential proliferator of chemical weapons, a way to weaken Iran if only the Americans would recognize the opportunities; and it’s a threat to America’s credibility if Obama doesn’t act boldly in the face of self-declared “red lines.”

Continue Reading...

That's been McCain's line for years on big strategic questions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: defer to the military's advice and don't swerve. The military happened to agree with him then on the need to keep troops in those countries, but when it comes to Syria, where the Pentagon is at odds with McCain's gung-ho interventionism, McCain is suddenly uninterested in heeding the military's advice.

Continue Reading...