Word: pentagon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Still, U.S. officials inside and out of the Pentagon were quick to say Iraq needs such high-powered weapons, and that the U.S. defense industry would be more than glad to supply them. "We sometimes roll our eyes when foreign defense ministers come here and want to buy fighters and things like that," a senior Pentagon official said, speaking privately. "But we don't feel that way about Iraq - given their history and neighborhood, they need to have a capable air force." Iraq has not committed to buying the warplanes and, if it does, it will be several years before...
...been able to procure arms since it invaded Kuwait in 1990, and the U.S. invasion in 2003 pretty much crushed whatever military hardware Saddam Hussein had left. So Iraq is starting from scratch in rebuilding its military. "The Iraqi military is growing in strength and capability very rapidly now," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says. "They are turning into a very formidable force that not only will be able to deal with internal threats, but also handle external threats in a very dangerous part of the world." While the deal would require reviews from the Pentagon, State Department and Congress...
...western Afghan village of Azizabad. What is not in dispute is that U.S. special forces on the ground ordered an AC-130 gunship to attack at least two houses after they and their Afghan allies came under fire. The result of the attack, however, is far from certain. The Pentagon concluded that up to 35 insurgents and as many as seven civilians were killed. But the Afghan government, backed by a United Nations inquiry, puts the toll at 76 to 90 civilians, including 60 children. That would make it the deadliest strike since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan...
...guided weapons hasn't been matched by the quality of intelligence needed to drop them in the right place. "Technology has leaped forward, but the ability to know precisely who's at your target hasn't," says HRW's Garlasco, who spent nearly seven years plotting targets for the Pentagon. The military sometimes launches air strikes based on tips from Afghan tribesmen, some of whom are not above using American firepower in their own feuds. For some observers, the surest way to improve the quality of intel is to put more Americans on the ground--to use more snipers instead...
...Pentagon recognizes that the mounting toll is making a hard job in Afghanistan even harder. In August, the Air Force stopped issuing the daily airpower summaries boasting only of U.S. successes. When asked why, the Air Force said in an official statement that there is a "need to review the way information is collected." But the sad reality is that so long as the war persists, Afghan civilians will be the ones paying the heaviest price...