Don’t Let Anyone Tell Trump How Much His New Intelligence Chief Disagrees With Him
President Donald Trump uses a map to argue that ISIS has been defeated in the Middle East. Pentagon reports have disputed that assessment.Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Years before Donald Trump became president of the United States, he made his hiring preferences well known. “I value loyalty above everything else—more than brains, more than drive, and more than…
The Pentagon’s Top Ranks Have Been Empty for a Long Time. Now 1,581 Problems Are Waiting to Be Solved.
Mark Wilson/Getty One day after taking over as the Pentagon’s first Senate-confirmed leader in seven months, new Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was asked by a reporter to assess what the impact has been of the months-long lack of stable leadership at the largest federal agency. His careful answer attempted to endorse the department’s vast civilian workforce, whose…
Dozens of Scientists Are Pushing the UN to Make Environmental Destruction a War Crime
US Air Force jet in 1966 spraying defoliants in Vietnam.AP Photo/Department of Defense, File This story was originally published by Grist and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. War (huh!) what is it good for? Certainly not the environment. From the U.S. dropping the herbicide agent orange on jungles in Vietnam to Saddam Hussein’s…
There Is Finally a Confirmed Secretary of Defense. What About All the Other Pentagon Vacancies?
Sha Hanting/China News Service/VCG/Getty It only took 204 days, but the Department of Defense finally has a Senate-confirmed leader again. Ninety lawmakers voted Tuesday afternoon to elevate Mark Esper permanently to the position of Secretary of Defense and put an end, at least for now, to the bizarre game of musical chairs Pentagon officials have been forced…