Nearly 10 years ago, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld provoked outrage by referring to "old Europe." How dare he, snapped the French and Germans, call us "old" when the utopian European Union was all the rage, the new euro was soaring in value, and the United States was increasingly isolated under the George W. Bush administration!
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked the Pentagon inspector general to report whether Sen. Carl M. Levin is trying to influence the wording of a report that exonerates a Pentagon war-briefing program.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is intervening with a Pentagon investigator to influence the final wording of a report that exonerates George W. Bush-era officials who gave war briefings to retired military TV and radio commentators.
Politics is a full contact sport tended by frantic journalists. But the show must go on.
The first statue near ground zero to salute the heroes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will not depict a New York firefighter or policeman — but a lone U.S. commando on horseback in the Afghan mountains.
Many were surprised when, early in his first term as secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld vowed publicly to rein in the power of the generals. Conservative Republicans especially found it hard to imagine a Republican secretary taking on the military - usually closely aligned with the Republican Party - in such a public manner. What had gone so wrong in civil-military relations?
A three-year government investigation has found no wrongdoing by Bush-era Pentagon officials when they gave war briefings to retired military analysts who served as TV and radio commentators.
Former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is apparently unconcerned about the rise of China ("China vs. America," Comment & Analysis, Monday) but China's troubles are exactly why we should fear the country and prepare for the worst.
