WASHINGTON (AP) — As part of its effort to expand private health care, the Department of Veterans Affairs is exploring the possibility of merging its health system with the Pentagon’s, a cost-saving measure that veterans groups say could threaten the viability of VA hospitals and clinics. VA spokesman Curt Cashour called the plan a potential … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military troops may be able to sidestep the Pentagon’s entrenched, 100-year-old “up or out” promotion system under sweeping new proposals unveiled Thursday June 2nd, aimed at keeping high-tech experts or other specialists on the job. In announcing the plan, Defense Secretary Ash Carter marked the third — and most dramatic — … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Friday, Mar. 25, it was moving to increase the number of American forces in Iraq and announced that U.S. forces have killed the Islamic State’s finance minister. “We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s cabinet,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday. Ali Awni al-Harzi “operated closely with multiple ISIL-associated extremists throughout North Africa and the Middle East,” Defense Department spokesman Col. … Continue reading
PARIS (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State is doubling down on its strategy to fight the extremists, insisting on staying the course it set last year despite the radical group’s recent conquests on both sides of the border between Iraq andSyria. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pressed his case Tuesday for more … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iraqi troops abandoned dozens of U.S military vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces when they fled Islamic State fighters in Ramadi on Sunday, the Pentagon said Tuesday. A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, estimated that a half dozen tanks were abandoned, a similar number of artillery pieces, a … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans vowed Thursday to toughen President Barack Obama’s day-old legislation to authorize military force against Islamic State fighters, and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi warned, “It’s going to be hard” to find common ground. Nothing underscored the yawning divide between the two parties more than Obama’s request to bar “enduring … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 