Word: pentagonal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that the military was better equipped to deal with interrogating prisoners of war; the military, after all, had its own interrogation school. But, as the message came down, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, apparently aware of the potential political firestorm that would result, had grown nervous about the Pentagon's initial involvement...
...years, a fierce debate about Bejing's military intentions has raged among defense intellectuals and the brass inside the Pentagon. Hawks insist that the Chinese are seeking to drive the U.S. military out of the Pacific, and make it Beijing's lake rather than what it has been for decades, an American pond. They point to episodes such as the March 8 incident involving the U.S.S. Impeccable, a Navy surveillance ship that was harassed while cruising 75 nautical miles off the coast of Hainan. Five Chinese vessels surrounded it and tried to snatch its towed array radar from the water...
...next generation of cruisers, drives those who believe in the China threat up the wall. As AEI's Donnelly writes, "as the air defense and air combat capabilities of other nations, most notably China, increase, the demand for F22s would likewise rise." For years, as defense analyst and occasional Pentagon consultant Thomas P.M. Barnett writes in his new book Great Powers: America in the World After Bush, the promoters of what he calls Washington's "Leviathan" force have used the prospect of war with China over Taiwan or possibly North Korea as justification for the purchase of "big ticket items...
...festivities in Qingdao this week, Admiral Gary Roughead, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, visited his counterpart in Beijing, Vice Admiral Wu. There, the two talked up the two nation's cooperation in combating Somali pirates, but that wasn't the real point of the meeting. For years, the Pentagon has been frustrated by China's secrecy over its military budgeting and its intentions. The U.S. brass simply doesn't believe Beijing when it says its defense spending in 2008 was only $60 billion. It's double or three times that, Pentagon planners believe. Even Barnett concedes that China "goes...
That, in the past, has fueled the suspicion that has driven the Pentagon's budget - which in turn convinces China's hawks that Washington does indeed see Beijing as an enemy. The Gates budget can change that dynamic - if China now responds, and levels a bit more with the outside world about its military. Big anniversaries come and go, but moments like this arise only rarely. Is the Chinese leadership smart enough to seize...