Word: pentagonal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Department of Defense Review Team continues his tradition of security-oriented public service: White served as deputy secretary of defense from 1995 to 1997 during the Clinton administration, and as assistant secretary of defense from 1977 to 1978 during the Carter administration. As an adviser on the Pentagon review team, White will help to select candidates for positions within the department and prepare them for confirmation process. Prior to his appointment, White conducted defense-policy research as a board member of the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and chaired the school?...
...Pentagon, after pushing for nearly a year for new rules governing the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, is already back-pedaling. On the one hand, the agreement between the Bush Administration and the Iraqi cabinet - which still requires a potentially contentious vote of approval by the Iraqi parliament - simply codifies a U.S. redeployment already in the making. But the agreement's hard deadline for the removal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011 represent a significant retreat for a Bush Administration that has long opposed setting a timetable for withdrawal. And it also poses a challenge...
...that the SOFA simply recognizes what is already happening inside Iraq. "We're kind of already moving in that direction - even prior to the SOFA - with the Iraqi army taking more and more responsibility, more and more of the lead, particularly the targeting of the bad people," Hort told Pentagon reporters in a video press conference. "So I don't see a significant change...
...Hort said some of his forces in Baghdad would "probably have to push more out towards the perimeter of the city, but I think that we can work through all of that." Still, Pentagon officials continue to express concern about the ability of the Iraqi military to keep the peace as the Americans pull out. Deep historical animosities among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish groups remain, and local troops loyal to a specific sect won't be as capable of defusing tensions, U.S. officials fear. But Hort said that the Iraqi military "has got a tremendous amount of confidence...
...election of Barack Obama was one of the factors that pushed the SOFA process along, Pentagon officials say. The President-elect had proposed on the campaign trail to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, a position closer to the Iraqi government's than to that taken by the Bush Administration. The intra-Iraqi squabbling over the pact, partly fueled by Iran's concerns, evaporated following Obama's election two weeks ago. "I am hopeful that conditions will continue to improve, so we can continue" to withdraw U.S. troops, Mullen said. But if ordered...