Rowan Scarborough

Green Berets reveal Afghan National Army soldiers’ incompetence

Elite Army Green Berets are knocking the performance of the Afghan National Army, telling war tales of its soldiers hiding and quitting the fight. The Green Beret criticisms, contained in a U.S. Central Command "friendly fire" investigative file, provide a window into the flaws of a national army more than a decade in the making.

October 26, 2014

Air Force fires controller who called in ‘friendly fire’ airstrike in Afghanistan

The Air Force has kicked out the air controller who called in the June 9 airstrike from a B-1B bomber in Afghanistan that killed five American soldiers.

October 22, 2014

Marines engage in tweeting war over TWT report on commandant

A Marine Corps public affairs director is lashing out at The Washington Times on Twitter for a report about the former Marine commandant padding his official resume submitted to the Senate in 2010.

October 19, 2014

Semper Lie: Marine Corps Commandant James Amos padded resume

The Marine Corps is acknowledging that the retiring commandant, Gen. James Amos, did not attend the Corps' officers training school, though he told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a signed resume that he had graduated in 1972.

October 14, 2014

Hagel: Climate change will put strain on U.S. military

The Pentagon on Monday released an alarming new war plan to combat climate change, saying it will "likely lead" to food and water shortages, pandemic disease and overall destruction.

October 14, 2014

Taliban adopts Islamic State terror tactics as U.S. troops exit Afghanistan

The Islamic State army's unleashing of terror bombings and assassinations in Iraq last year is being played out by insurgents in Afghanistan who want to intimidate and destroy local forces as American troops exit.

October 12, 2014

Pentagon sees Baghdad at risk of Islamic State takeover, expects Kobani to fall

The Pentagon on Wednesday made the sobering prediction that more towns in Syria and Iraq will fall to the Islamic State in the coming weeks, and that air power alone is not going to be enough to prevent the fall of the Syrian city of Kobani near the Turkish border.

October 8, 2014

Key House leader says Obama needs new war strategy, U.S. ground troops

The chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services said Wednesday that President Obama’s war strategy in Iraq is failing and the commander in chief needs a new plan.

October 8, 2014

Automatic budget cuts will nearly break the Army, generals warn

The Army is calling on active and retired generals to spread the word in Congress that another spate of automatic budget cuts would cripple America's largest ground force, an internal memo says.

October 6, 2014

Islamic State withstands bombing campaign, plots Baghdad invasion

The Islamic State holds just about the same number of towns in Iraq today as it did two months ago, when the U.S. began a bombing campaign to whittle down the terrorist army and support Iraqi ground troops trying to retake territory.

October 5, 2014

U.S. Navy sailors harbor widespread distrust of senior leadership: report

Navy sailors harbor "widespread mistrust" in the admirals who command them, complaining of poor leadership and a disciplinary environment that tolerates absolutely no mistakes, says a survey of the fleet.

September 30, 2014

U.S. military limits warplanes used for ISIS bombing in Iraq, Syria

The U.S. is relying mostly on warplanes already positioned in the region for its air war against the Islamic State, as opposed to dispatching a major buildup of aerial forces that happened in previous campaigns.

September 28, 2014

U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State and Khorasan Group insufficient, critics say

President Obama is playing too nice in the air war against the Islamic State and the Khorasan Group, critics say, pointing to a spared bombing target in Syria as an example.

September 24, 2014

NSA scores victory in foiling Khorasan Group’s U.S. terror plot

The U.S. ability to pinpoint with airstrikes the operational hubs of the al Qaeda offshoot Khorasan Group in Syria and penetrate one of its bombing plots shows the importance of the much-maligned National Security Agency, defense analysts said Tuesday.

September 23, 2014

President Obama’s war advisers not instilling confidence on Islamic State strategy

President Obama's war Cabinet is not instilling confidence in the public about his "no boots on the ground" strategy to defeat the Islamic State now anchored in two countries and in more than a dozen towns.

September 21, 2014

Iran’s Quds force aiding Iraqi Shiites with Obama administration’s blessing

The battle for Mosul Dam in northern Iraq could be the first clash in which Americans fought on the same side with Iranians.

September 20, 2014

CENTCOM leader sought ground troops in Iraq

The top U.S. commander for the war against the Islamic State wanted to insert air controllers on the ground in Iraq to help warplanes locate targets, but he was discouraged by higher-ups.

September 16, 2014

Obama sought repeal of Bush war statute now used to justify Islamic State strikes

President Obama's first initiated war against an Islamic terrorist group is authorized, the White House says, by George W. Bush-signed legislation that Mr. Obama has criticized and wanted to repeal since last year.

September 14, 2014

Pentagon downplays role in destroying Islamic State: ‘It’s about defeating its ideology’

The Pentagon on Friday downplayed the U.S. military's role in defeating the Islamic State, saying the prime target is not it's army, but its ideology.

September 12, 2014

Obama inevitably will need to use U.S. ground troops to defeat Islamic State, experts warn

Trying to uproot and destroy the Islamic State's army of terrorists in Iraq without American ground troops, as President Obama promoted Wednesday night, is doomed to failure, national security experts say.

September 11, 2014