Word: pentagonal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...first in a new class of amphibious ships - blue-water buses - each of which carries 350 sailors and is responsible for ferrying 700 Marines and their gear to global hot spots. And the ship's sad plight represents in miniature all that is wrong with the way the Pentagon buys its weapons. The pattern of haste and waste accelerated in the Cold War's wake and simply exploded following 9/11. It highlights the challenge facing President-elect Barack Obama as he contemplates retooling an Industrial Age military - primed for state-on-state warfare - into the more agile force better suited...
...problems so baked into its design that many Navy officials fear it can never be made right, despite its price tag's having risen from $644 million to $1.8 billion. "Some significant fraction of the welds in that ship were flawed and had to be redone," John Young, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, told Congress in June. "I shouldn't be forced to pay on behalf of taxpayers any price for any level of deficient performance." Still, that's just what the Navy did, forking over an additional $100 million to make it seaworthy after the Navy had taken...
...Already, the drawdown of troops is accelerating. The Pentagon announced Wednesday that a brigade of the 101st Airborne division will rotate out of Iraq before Christmas, as much as two months ahead of schedule, bringing the total number of combat brigades in Iraq down to 14 from its late 2007 peak of 20. But there is a limit to how quickly U.S. soldiers can depart the country while maintaining the current level of security. Although security has improved dramatically in many neighborhoods in Baghdad over the past year, the ability of the Iraqi security forces to act independently and effectively...
...Should Gates be passed over or decline to continue serving, former Clinton Navy Secretary Richard Danzig is a leading contender to run the Pentagon. And Danzig made clear last month where an Obama Administration might lean in the wars currently underway. Iraq in "now a political problem; security and the presence of military is important, but we need to get the Iraqis catalyzed to come to grips with handling front line combat issues themselves," said Danzig in a breakfast with reporters. While the Pentagon must begin "moving additional combat brigades to Afghanistan," Danzig stressed that "there are opportunities...
...been advertised," she told TIME's Karen Tumulty. "I think that we're going to find a lot of snakes under the rocks when we start picking them up, looking at this Administration." Obama has had teams of people already working closely with the Treasury Department and the Pentagon in the event of a victory. They have submitted countless names to the FBI to be sure that they are packing security clearances as soon as possible. McCain mocked the presumption of Obama's "measuring the drapes," but Obama's preparations for a transition reflected the fact that the rest...