Word: pentagonal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...quietly significant in a number of ways. The trip was organized and led by the State Department's indefatigable special representative, Richard Holbrooke, with Mullen happily playing second fiddle (except in the closed-door meetings with Afghan and Pakistani military leaders) - a striking reversal of fortune after the Pentagon dominance of the Bush years. It was a demonstration of the Obama emphasis on diplomacy and economic development, a strategy that tracks with the military's new counterinsurgency tactics - "We've developed the best counterinsurgency capability in the world," Mullen said several times - that focus on protecting the public and building...
...prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border ... causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians." Mexico has seen more than 7,000 drug-related killings since early 2008, and the violence now threatening to spill north hasn't escaped attention. Late last year, somewhat hyperbolically, a Pentagon study lumped Mexico in with Pakistan as states that might face a "rapid and sudden collapse...
...here's why Defense Secretary Robert Gates kept discussions on the Pentagon's 2010 budget so secret that he swore the military's high command to silence ahead of the budget's unveiling. Aiming to shift military spending priorities from billion-dollar Cold War-era weapons to the simpler armored vehicles and spy drones needed for the "wars we are in today and scenarios for the years ahead," Gates on Monday proposed, among other things, to end funding of the advanced F-22 Raptor fighter. That cut alone will spark fierce resistance on Capitol Hill, but it's only...
...intercontinental rocket. But on Sunday morning, North Korea launched it anyway - as it pledged to - saying the rocket bore nothing more than a communications satellite. With six U.S. cruisers equipped with Aegis anti-missile systems deployed in the region - to watch and gather intelligence, not fire on the rocket, Pentagon officials had said late last week - North Korea sent the Taepodong II rocket over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. That, by itself, meant the launch for Pyongyang was a success: two years ago, an earlier version of the same long-range rocket broke up shortly after the launch...
...Such coordination is not easy. The abilities and equipment of the U.S. military are on a different level from armies in the rest of NATO. The Pentagon spends about 15% of its huge defense budget on researching new weapons systems, while the next-biggest research spender - Britain - spends just 9%, and many other NATO members spend "nil - that's zero [on military research], according to Jonathan Eyal, Director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Although the EU's economy is slightly bigger than that of the U.S., Europe "remains an absolute dwarf when...