The first time Donald Trump talked privately about shooting missiles into Mexico to take out drug labs, as far as his former aides can recall, was in early 2020. And the first time those comments became public was when his second defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, wrote in his memoir that Mr. Trump had raised […]
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For generations, the Navy SEALs have attracted top athletes who compete for slots on elite teams and take on harrowing missions, but never in all those years did the Navy regularly test the force for illicit steroids and other drugs that could boost performance. Now that is about to change. Naval Special Warfare, which oversees […]
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Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. is known for being steady in a storm. There was the time in 1991 when his F-16 was struck by lightning and he had to eject into the alligator-infested Everglades, earning the call sign “Swamp Thang.” The time in 2020, just days before his Senate confirmation vote to be Air […]
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The Republican-led House voted on Wednesday to reduce the salary of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to $1, as right-wing lawmakers tried to transform a Pentagon spending bill and a series of other funding measures into weapons to take aim at President Biden, his agenda and his top officials. There is little chance that […]
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On an unseasonably warm night in February, dinner guests at Gen. Mark A. Milley’s Virginia home were wondering, a bit nervously, what could possibly be going on. General Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been called away once, twice, three times, retreating upstairs to a secure room to consult with other […]
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“When there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it,” he says. The remarks cause a furor: Ukrainians worry that the Biden administration is preparing to abandon them, and White House officials scramble to reassure them that U.S. support remains solid. Feb. 11, 2023 The text from a reporter comes to General […]
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For much of the 20th century, Fort Ord was one of the largest light infantry training bases in the country, a place where more than a million U.S. Army troops were schooled in the lethal skills of firing a mortar and aiming a rifle — discharging thousands of rounds a day into the scenic sand […]
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The video may seem too simple, too understated to mark a serious international incident in the South China Sea: a quick clip of a diver using a knife to cut a section of rope underwater. But that diver was with the Philippine Coast Guard, and the rope was part of a sea barrier placed by […]
Read More The video may seem too simple, too understated to mark a serious international incident in the South China Sea: a quick clip of a diver using a knife to cut a section of rope underwater. But that diver was with the Philippine Coast Guard, and the rope was part of a sea barrier placed by […]
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Nearly a year ago, as Ron DeSantis’s political stock was rising, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee came forward with a stunning claim: Before he was Florida’s governor, as a young Navy lawyer, Mr. DeSantis had taken part in a forced feeding of a hunger striker at the notorious American prison, and laughed as he did […]
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The Chinese military base on Mischief Reef, off the Philippine island of Palawan, loomed in front of our boat, obvious even in the predawn dark. Radar domes, used for military surveillance, floated like nimbus clouds. Lights pointed to a runway made for fighter jets, backed by warehouses perfect for surface-to-air missiles. More than 900 miles […]
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A group of Ukrainian Army soldiers pierced by Russian grenades and mortar shells arrived at a hospital recently in need of surgery. It would have been a familiar scene from the bloody war grinding on in Ukraine, except for two crucial differences: Most of the wounded soldiers were American, and so was the hospital — […]
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The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly confirmed Gen. Randy George of the Army and Gen. Eric Smith of the Marines as the chiefs of staff of their respective services, circumventing a single senator’s blockade against senior military promotions but leaving hundreds more still in limbo. The action followed the confirmation on Wednesday night of Gen. Charles […]
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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine plans to make his second wartime visit to Washington on Thursday, meeting with President Biden and congressional lawmakers as he tries to preserve his country’s most critical source of funding and weapons. Mr. Biden will be looking to get a “battlefield perspective” on the war from Mr. Zelensky, said John […]
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The Senate was expected on Wednesday to confirm three generals to serve on the president’s top military advisory council, steering around a monthslong blockade of military promotions by Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, who has held up hundreds of nominees in protest of a Pentagon abortion access policy. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New […]
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Deep Republican divisions erupted onto the House floor on Tuesday as a handful of far-right conservatives blocked a Pentagon spending bill from coming up for debate, dealing an embarrassing setback to Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he struggled to round up votes to prevent a government shutdown in less than two weeks. In a development rarely […]
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The group that won a major Supreme Court victory against affirmative action in June sued the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday, arguing that the court’s ruling barring race-conscious college admissions should extend to the nation’s military academies as well. The group, Students for Fair Admissions, was the driving force behind the lawsuit […]
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Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday that he intended to resurrect a stalled Pentagon spending measure and try to push it to the House floor this week despite pledges by members of the far-right Freedom Caucus to oppose the move unless their sweeping demands on spending were met. His decision, announced on Fox News, was […]
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As China’s spy balloon drifted across the continental United States in February, American intelligence agencies learned that President Xi Jinping of China had become enraged with senior Chinese military generals. The spy agencies had been trying to understand what Mr. Xi knew and what actions he would take as the balloon, originally aimed at U.S. […]
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Since a military coup in Niger this summer, work days for Ahmed Alhousseïni have been consumed with calls from increasingly worried clients and colleagues asking the same questions. How, and where, could they get food? An executive for a leading food importer in Niger, Mr. Alhousseïni said one recent morning that he had spent his […]
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Near the river entrance of the outermost ring of the Pentagon, where visiting dignitaries are greeted with full honors, the hallways that usually house photos of senior military leaders are more bare these days. A section reserved for the country’s most senior military leaders will be missing four photos out of eight when Gen. Mark […]
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