Hagel proposes big cuts in Army in 2015 budget

FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2014 file photo, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon. A U.S. official says that as part of the proposed 2015 defense budget, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel is recommending shrinking the Army to its smallest size in decades. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2014 file photo, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon. A U.S. official says that as part of the proposed 2015 defense budget, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel is recommending shrinking the Army to its smallest size in decades. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday proposed shrinking the Army to its smallest size in 74 years, closing military bases and making other military-wide savings as part of a broad reshaping after more than a decade of war.

Hagel outlined his vision in a speech at the Pentagon, a week before President Barack Obama is to submit his 2015 budget plan to Congress.

Hagel said that U.S. forces must adjust to the reality of smaller budgets, even as he asserted that the United States faces a more volatile, more unpredictable world that requires a more nimble military.

“We are repositioning to focus on the strategic challenges and opportunities that will define our future: new technologies, new centers of power and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable and in some instances more threatening to the United States,” he said.

Under the Hagel plan, which Congress could change, the active-duty Army would shrink from its current 522,000 soldiers to between 440,000 and 450,000. That would make it the smallest since just before the U.S. entered World War II.

Hagel said Obama’s budget proposal will include a government-wide “Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative” that would provide the Pentagon with $ 26 billion on top of the $ 496 billion it is due to receive in 2015 under terms of the budget deal passed by the Congress two months ago.

Among the bolder moves in Hagel’s proposal is the elimination of the Air Force’s fleet of A-10 aircraft as well as its venerable U-2 spy planes, as well as reductions in the size of the Army National Guard. Those moves are expected to draw some opposition in Congress.

Hagel said the administration will propose a new round of domestic military base closings in 2017, while noting that Congress has rejected such requests in recent years.

Army leaders have been saying for months that they expect their service to shrink as the nation prepares to end its combat role in Afghanistan this year.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said recently that whatever the future size of the Army, it must adapt to conditions that are different from what many soldiers have become accustomed to during more than a decade of war. He said many have the misperception that the Army is no longer busy.

“People tend to think that the Army is out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is not much going on,” he said Jan. 23 at an Army forum. “The Army is not standing still. The Army is doing many, many, many things in order for us to shape the future environment and prevent conflict around the world.”

The last time the active-duty Army was below 500,000 was in 2005, when it stood at 492,000. Its post-World War II low was 480,000 in 2001, according to historical tables provided by the Army on Monday. In 1940 the Army had 267,000 active-duty members, and it surged to 1.46 million the following year as the U.S. approached entry into World War II.

Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday that Hagel consulted closely with the military service chiefs on how to balance defense and budget-saving requirements.

“He has worked hard with the services to ensure that we continue to stand for the defense of our national interests — that whatever budget priorities we establish, we do so in keeping with our defense strategy and with a strong commitment to the men and women in uniform and to their families, Kirby said.

“But he has also said that we have to face the realities of our time. We must be pragmatic. We can’t escape tough choices. He and the chiefs are willing to make those choices,” Kirby said.

Associated Press

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Hagel proposes big cuts in Army in 2015 budget

Hagel adds urgency to push for ethics crackdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Concerned that ethical problems inside the military might run deeper than he realized, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered service leaders Wednesday to add urgency to their drive to ensure “moral character and moral courage” in a force emerging from more than a decade of war.

Almost a year into his tenure as Pentagon chief, Hagel had been worried by a string of ethics scandals that produced a wave of unwelcome publicity for the military. But in light of new disclosures this week, including the announcement of alleged cheating among senior sailors in the nuclear Navy, Hagel decided to push for a fuller accounting.

Last month the Air Force revealed it was investigating widespread cheating on proficiency tests among nuclear missile launch officers in Montana, and numerous senior officers in all branches of the armed forces have been caught in embarrassing episodes of personal misbehavior, inside and outside the nuclear force. The Air Force also is pursuing a drug use investigation, and a massive bribery case in California has ensnared six Navy officers so far.

At the same time, hundreds of soldiers and others are under criminal investigation in what the Army describes as a widespread scheme to take fraudulent payments and kickbacks from a National Guard recruiting program.

The steady drumbeat of one military ethics scandal after another has caused many to conclude that the misbehavior reflects more than routine lapses.

“He definitely sees this as a growing problem,” Hagel’s chief spokesman, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, told a Pentagon news conference Wednesday after Hagel met privately with the top uniformed and civilian officials of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

“And he’s concerned about the depth of it,” Kirby said. “I don’t think he could stand here and tell you that he has — that anybody has — the full grasp here, and that’s what worries (Hagel) is that maybe he doesn’t have the full grasp of the depth of the issue, and he wants to better understand it.”

Hagel’s predecessor, Leon Panetta, had launched an effort to crack down on ethics failures more than a year ago, and the matter has been a top priority for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, for even longer.

Kirby said Hagel has come to realize that he needs to investigate as well.

“We don’t fully know right now what we’re grappling with here and how deep and serious it is,” Kirby said. “And I think, you know, for a leader at his level with the responsibilities that he carries every day, not knowing something like that is something to be concerned about. And he wants to know more.”

Hagel believes that the vast majority of military members are “brave, upright and honest,” and he is encouraged by efforts already under way to curb misconduct, including sexual assaults, Kirby said.

But Hagel told the service leaders Wednesday that he “also believes there must be more urgency behind these efforts” and that all Pentagon leaders must “put renewed emphasis on developing moral character and moral courage in our force.”

Kirby was asked whether Hagel believes ethics lapses are a symptom of over-use of the military for the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“He believes that that is a factor that should be looked at,” the spokesman said.

A significant portion of the concern about military misbehavior is aimed at two segments of the nuclear force: the Air Force’s land-based nuclear missile corps, and the Navy’s training program for operators of nuclear reactors used as propulsion systems for submarines and aircraft carriers. Neither of those fields was directly involved in significant ways in either of the wars since 2001.

The Navy announced on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into cheating allegations against about 30 senior sailors representing about one-fifth of its instructors at a Charleston, S.C.,-based school for naval nuclear power reactor operators.

Unlike an Air Force cheating probe that has implicated nearly 100 officers responsible for land-based nuclear missiles that stand ready for short-notice launch, those implicated in the Navy investigation have no responsibility for nuclear weapons.

The Navy said its implicated sailors are accused of having cheated on written tests they must pass to be certified as instructors at the nuclear propulsion school. A number of them are alleged to have transmitted test information to other instructors from their home computers, which if verified would be a violation of restrictions on the use and transmission of classified information.

The matter is being probed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Separately, Kirby announced that the Pentagon has picked two retired officers to lead an independent review of personnel problems inside the Air Force and Navy nuclear forces. They are Larry Welch, a former Air Force chief of staff, and John Harvey, a retired Navy admiral and nuclear-trained surface warfare officer.

Associated Press

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Hagel adds urgency to push for ethics crackdown

Hagel seeks root cause of nuke missile problems

This image provided by the U.S. Air Force shows Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, right, and Tech. Sgt. Justin Richie, a 341st Maintenance Operations Squadron team trainer, riding in a work cage on Nov. 20, 2012, inside the T-9 maintenance trainer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. The Air Force says 34 nuclear missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana have been implicated in a cheating scandal and have been stripped of their certification. It is believed to be the largest such breach of integrity in the nuclear force.(AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Beau Wade)

This image provided by the U.S. Air Force shows Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, right, and Tech. Sgt. Justin Richie, a 341st Maintenance Operations Squadron team trainer, riding in a work cage on Nov. 20, 2012, inside the T-9 maintenance trainer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. The Air Force says 34 nuclear missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana have been implicated in a cheating scandal and have been stripped of their certification. It is believed to be the largest such breach of integrity in the nuclear force.(AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Beau Wade)

This photo taken Jan. 9, 2014 shows a mockup of a Minuteman 3 nuclear missile used for training by missile maintenance crews at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo. As disclosures of disturbing behavior by nuclear missile officers mount, to now include alleged drug use and exam cheating, Air Force leaders insist the trouble is episodic, correctable and not cause for public worry. The question persists, nonetheless: At what point do breakdowns in discipline put nuclear security in jeopardy? (AP Photo/Robert Burns)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — In taking a deep look at trouble inside U.S. nuclear forces, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is searching for the root causes of recent Air Force missteps but also for ways to make the nuclear warrior’s job more attractive at a time when the military has turned its attention away from such weapons.

Nuclear missile duty has lost its luster in an era dominated by other security threats. It’s rarely the career path of first choice for young officers. And yet Hagel and others say it remains important to U.S. national security.

On Friday he put the magnitude of the Air Force’s nuclear responsibilities in stark terms, quoting President John F. Kennedy who said in 1963 that nuclear airmen “hold in their hands the most awesome destructive power that any nation or any man has ever conceived.” And so it is worrisome, Hagel said, to realize that some of those same airmen may use drugs, cheat on their proficiency tests and have engaged in other dangerous misbehaviors.

The Associated Press in 2013 exposed a number of serious missteps in the nuclear missile force, including training gaps, leadership lapses, inspection failures, deliberate violations of security rules and elevated levels of domestic violence and other misconduct.

Hagel now wants to know what ails the force.

“We know that something is wrong,” he said, and it includes what some call an attitude problem inside the force.

Dissatisfaction among the officers responsible for operating intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, is not new, but it appears to be grabbing the attention of more senior Pentagon leaders, including Hagel and Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, who was sworn in Friday as the service’s top civilian official.

“Recent allegations regarding our ICBM force raise legitimate questions about (the Pentagon’s) stewardship of one of our most sensitive and important missions,” Hagel said Friday at the swearing-in ceremony for James, who has been on the job for four weeks and is only the second woman to lead the Air Force.

“Restoring confidence in the nuclear mission will be a top priority,” he added.

One repair tool that James and Hagel might choose is incentive pay or other extra benefits for the young officers who do as many as eight 24-hour shifts per month in the underground command bunkers from which they would execute any presidential order to launch a nuclear-tipped Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM.

The ICBM force has shrunk by about half since its Cold War peak, with 450 Minuteman 3 missiles now stationed in underground silos spread across vast expanses of Montana, North Dakota and portions of Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. It’s not a growing business. The Obama administration is considering reducing to 400 missiles as it prepares to adhere by 2018 to limitations under the New START treaty with Russia.

Hagel wondered out loud Friday whether the remoteness of these ICBM locations might be a factor in dampening morale among missile operators.

“Do they get bored?” he asked.

More broadly, Hagel is searching for the underlying reason for the failures in the Air Force ICBM force that prompted him Thursday to order an “action plan” from military leaders to identify remedies. He also said he would convene a nuclear summit at the Pentagon to address nuclear personnel problems.

The incentives idea has bounced around the Air Force for at least several years but gained little traction, likely because it does not address the root cause of weak morale in the unheralded ICBM force.

“I’m not sure that simply throwing money at the problem is going to cure all the issues,” said Dana E. Struckman, a retired Air Force colonel who served as a Minuteman 3 missile squadron commander in 2003-05.

“What the young men and women on the crew force would like to see is, this is a viable career path for me even if I’m not the star of the squadron,” he said in an interview Friday. Struckman, who retired in 2010 after 22 years in the Air Force, is an associate professor in national security at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

ICBM duty may never have been glamorous, but in the years after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 it appears to have become less attractive as the Air Force shifted some of its focus to wars in the Mideast and emerging threats like cyberwarfare. Hagel’s review is likely to tackle this aspect of the problem, although solutions seem elusive.

The challenge of keeping reliable and experienced people in the ICBM field was highlighted in a little-noticed report published last year by the RAND Corp., a federally funded think tank that has long studied nuclear issues.

“As the role of the nuclear mission is perceived to be less important to the country, it may be more difficult to attract and retain the high-quality workforce needed,” the report said, referring not only to the ICBM force but also segments of the defense industry that support the nuclear mission.

Air Force leaders have been aware for some time that its missile crews feel high levels of stress. Last September the Air Force said the commander of its ICBM forces, Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, had fashioned a “Professional Actions” campaign that it said was designed to “mitigate stressors” on the troops. The campaign’s details were not made public, and Carey was fired in October for what investigators called inapproporiate behavior overseas.

The nuclear mission has faded so far into the consciousness of the American public over the past decade or two that 20-something Air Force officers who are pulled into duty at ICBM bases sometimes know little of its purpose.

Col. Robert W. Stanley II, commander of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., which has responsibility for 150 of the Air Force’s 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear missiles, recalled in an interview his astonishment at hearing one security troop’s response when Stanley asked him what is the ICBM mission.

“He said, ‘Sir, I think probably to guard the frontier,’” Stanley recalled. “And I thought to myself, ‘Oh, my God.’”

Air Force leaders say some of the problems that have surfaced recently can be attributed at least in part to the fact that the ICBM force is populated with some of the youngest people in the Air Force. The men and women who operate the missiles, for example, are generally lieutenants and captains, the youngest of the Air Force officer corps.

In recent years the ICBM force has recorded higher levels of courts martial and administrative punishments than the overall Air Force, according to statistics obtained by the AP through the Freedom of Information Act.

Last year, for example, there were 28 courts martial in the ICBM force, which is comprised of the 90th, 91st and 341st missile wings. That is about 3.5 for each 1,000 members of the force, compared to 2.27 per 1,000 in the overall Air force. There were 19.9 cases of administrative punishment, known in military parlance as Article 15 actions, per 1,000 ICBM members last year, compared to 18.4 per 1,000 in the overall Air Force.

___

Follow Robert Burns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

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Hagel seeks root cause of nuke missile problems

Chuck Hagel Offers Troops Rare Hope On Defense Budget

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Chuck Hagel Offers Troops Rare Hope On Defense Budget

Hagel cites "troubling lapses" among nuke forces

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013. Hagel said the projected defense budget cuts of nearly $ 1 trillion over 10 years is too much, too fast, and will cause a dangerous erosion of U.S. military power. In a speech about U.S. defense priorities, Hagel said Tuesday that it would be a mistake to let these cuts happen. But he also said officials are not assuming the government’s budget crisis will be resolved soon. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013. Hagel said the projected defense budget cuts of nearly $ 1 trillion over 10 years is too much, too fast, and will cause a dangerous erosion of U.S. military power. In a speech about U.S. defense priorities, Hagel said Tuesday that it would be a mistake to let these cuts happen. But he also said officials are not assuming the government’s budget crisis will be resolved soon. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Air Force members Friday there is “no room for error” within America’s nuclear forces, commenting publicly for the first time on what he called “troubling lapses” in professionalism within the ranks.

Speaking at the headquarters of the military’s nuclear war-fighting command in Omaha, Neb., Hagel alluded to a series of missteps revealed by The Associated Press, including lapses among those who operate and support the Air Force’s nuclear missile force. Last month, two senior nuclear commanders were fired amid misconduct investigations, and in August, service members working at a nuclear-missile base in Montana failed a safety and security inspection.

“You have chosen a profession where there is no room for error,” Hagel said, directing his remarks to the hundreds gathered at U.S. Strategic Command for a change-of-command ceremony. “That’s what the American people expect from you, from all of us. And you must deliver.”

Hagel said the failures had been exposed by what he called “close scrutiny” and the Pentagon’s most rigorous evaluations. But while he credited the retiring head of the command, Gen. Robert Kehler, for enforcing tough standards, he also insisted that “perfection must be the standard of our nuclear forces.”

Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were at Offutt Air Force Base for the ceremony, as Kehler steps down and Navy Adm. Cecil D. Haney takes the helm.

Last month, Maj. Gen. Michael Carey was fired as commander of 20th Air Force, which is responsible for all 450 of the Air Force’s Minuteman 3 nuclear missiles. Carey was fired for behavior that officials have said is linked to alcohol abuse.

His firing and the removal of a Navy admiral for alleged misconduct related to gambling came amid a series of disclosures by the AP about serious security and leadership lapses, morale problems, training flaws, and an assertion by one midlevel nuclear officer that he had found “rot” inside his nuclear missile unit at Minot Air Force Base, N.D.

Air Force and Pentagon officials insist that despite these issues, the nation’s nuclear arsenal is being operated and maintained safely.

___

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Hagel cites "troubling lapses" among nuke forces

Hagel, thought a dove, readies for action

Chuck Hagel was supposed to be the defense secretary who disentangled the U.S. from foreign wars and shrank the defense budget. Now, he’s poised to launch his first attack.

It’s a tricky position for the Vietnam combat veteran who once said he’d do everything he could “to avoid needless, senseless war.”

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As recently as December, before he was secretary of defense, Hagel questioned whether the U.S. or any nation could affect the civil war in Syria. But this week he said if President Barack Obama ordered the Navy to strike Damascus in punishment for last week’s chemical weapons attack, the Pentagon would be ready.

“I didn’t say — would never say — that no nation should ever go to war,” Hagel told reporters during one of his stops on his week-long trip through Southeast Asia. “If mankind has not learned that you don’t resolve differences among people by other ways other than going to war, then we haven’t learned very much.”

(PHOTOS: Chuck Hagel’s career)

But there are reasons for going to war, he added. “Obviously, when a nation is threatened, a nation has the option always to protect itself, the right of self-defense. And there are humanitarian issues.”

One senior defense official said that “Hagel has an extremely practical perspective on war: when it’s avoidable, avoid it. When you must use force, use it. When it’s a closer call, consider it.”

Despite his support of the president, however, Hagel so far has not been the Cabinet member most out front on Syria. That would be Secretary of State John Kerry, who appeared on all the Sunday talk shows and made an earlier speech detailing the case against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

As a Republican senator from Nebraska in 2002, Hagel endorsed the resolution to authorize military action in Iraq, but he quickly became an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush’s handling of the conflict.

“The Iraq experience showed that it’s one thing to overthrow a regime, it’s another thing to remake a society,” said Larry Korb, a senior Pentagon official during the Reagan administration who’s now with the Center for American Progress. “I think that also goes with his experience in Vietnam, where we were trying to deal with the internal problems there.”

(See POLITICO’s full Syria coverage)

Because of these experiences, Hagel is probably quite supportive of the “president’s wanting to just use cruise missiles to send a message about the chemical weapons and not to intervene in the conflict,” Korb said.

Hagel’s Army experience in Vietnam and his time in the Senate debating Iraq and Afghanistan certainly make him a valuable adviser to Obama, said former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), Hagel’s onetime colleague in the Senate who introduced Hagel at his confirmation hearing in January.

“He has a strong feeling about the utilization of force having experienced it himself in Vietnam and a great, deep and abiding conscience that the welfare of the men and women in the armed forces is his primary responsibility,” Warner said.

(PHOTOS: International response to Syria)

Still, with so much still in question about the consequences of a U.S. strike in Syria, Hagel is having to walk a fine line between his own beliefs and leaving the door open for Obama to use military force if he chooses to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Hagel deserves credit, Korb said.

“What I think is terrific about the way he’s handling this is, unlike some of his predecessors, he’s not trying to publicly influence the president. He’s said, ‘We’re prepared to do whatever the president wants.’ That’s probably why Obama wanted him.”

In his public comments this week, Hagel continued to stress that the U.S. would not act without international support or a legal justification, even though both of these seem increasingly difficult to achieve with each passing day.

(PHOTOS: Scenes from Syria)

“Whatever is done or not done, it should be in concert with the international community. It should subscribe to and fall within the boundaries of international law,” Hagel said in his interview with the BBC in Brunei.

Hagel has long stressed the importance of consensus-building for the United States as it flexes its might and over the last few days, he has worked hard to build that consensus and show that he’s doing so.

The Pentagon shared photos of Hagel on the phone with British Secretary of State for Defense Philip Hammond and French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian, talking about Syria. Then he spoke by phone with German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere, pledging to continue consultations with him on Syria.

Meanwhile, as a former senator who fought publicly with his own Republican Party over Iraq, Hagel knows all too well how important it is to involve Congress when deciding whether to go to war, and yet he is serving in an administration that so far does not seem interested in a full congressional debate.

(Also on POLITICO: White House emphasizes proof, not strategy, on Syria)

Warner and another colleague of Hagel’s from his time in the Senate — former Republican Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana — said that would not help sell the case to the public.

“These are very complex issues that are not going to be resolved through a teleconference,” Lugar said, noting the phone calls the White House used to brief members of Congress on Syria.

For Warner, congressional debate is crucial before making a decision this important.

He cited the days-long debate that took place in the Senate in 1991 over whether to use force in Iraq.

Unlike today’s situation with Syria, a United Nations resolution had been passed and the public was overwhelmingly supportive of U.S. action — and even then, the Senate had a “long and intensive debate,” before narrowly passing the resolution, Warner said.

With Syria, “we’re moving forward judiciously at this point and I hope we continue to as a country,” Warner said.

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Hagel, thought a dove, readies for action

U.S. would only act on Syria with international community: Hagel

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel attends the opening ceremony of the Pentagon’s permanent Korean War exhibition near Washington June 18, 2013.

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U.S. would only act on Syria with international community: Hagel

Hagel holds first Pentagon talks with Chinese

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Hagel warned that the Pentagon may have to mothball up to three Navy aircraft carriers and order more sharp reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps if Congress does not act to avoid massive budget cuts beginning in 2014. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Hagel warned that the Pentagon may have to mothball up to three Navy aircraft carriers and order more sharp reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps if Congress does not act to avoid massive budget cuts beginning in 2014. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — In his first Pentagon meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faces a familiar agenda marked with tensions over U.S. missile defenses, Chinese cyberattacks and other issues.

But if the talks follow form, they will be wrapped in public expressions of goodwill and pledges of cooperation.

Gen. Chang Wanquan, the Chinese defense chief, is at the Pentagon for a series of meetings with Hagel.

Hagel is presiding over a Pentagon making a deliberate pivot to Asia after more than a decade of wars in the greater Middle East, and improving ties with China is at the heart of the Obama administration’s Asia strategy.

“While the U.S. and China will have our differences – on human rights, Syria and regional security issues in Asia – the key is for these differences to be addressed on the basis of a continuous and respectful dialogue. It also requires building trust and reducing the risk of miscalculation, particularly between our militaries,” Hagel said in a speech at an Asian security conference in Singapore on June 1.

Among the positive signs cited by U.S. officials are U.S.-China naval cooperation in anti-piracy exercises and China’s acceptance of a U.S. invitation to participate in next year’s Rim of the Pacific military exercise, the region’s largest naval exercise. Hagel has accepted China’s invitation to visit Beijing next year.

Defense officials attribute the current upswing in U.S.-China military relations in part to the U.S. and Chinese presidents’ summit in California in June, which was an attempt to set a positive tone despite Washington’s growing anxiety about Chinese cybertheft. Chinese officials have dubbed the summit a new starting point for relations.

But there was no accord on cybersecurity during that summit. Obama confronted Xi Jinping with specific evidence of intellectual property theft the U.S. says is emanating from China. Xi said China was also a victim of cyberattacks but did not publicly acknowledge his own country’s alleged activities.

The topic is likely to be high on the agenda for Monday’s Pentagon meetings.

Chang spent Friday in Hawaii for talks at U.S. Pacific Command and was at U.S. Northern Command in Colorado over the weekend.

A Northern Command spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said the visit was a chance for Chang and Gen. Chuck Jacoby, the commander of Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Command, “to share views on how the military provides support to civil authorities during man-made or natural disasters.”

Also of U.S. concern are disputes between China and several other Asia nations, including the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, over South China Sea territorial boundaries and resources.

Another source of tension is China’s handling of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. During high-level U.S.-China talks in Washington in July, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said the U.S. was very disappointed that Beijing and semi-autonomous Hong Kong refused to extradite Snowden before he flew to Russia.

Associated Press

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Hagel holds first Pentagon talks with Chinese

Defense chief Hagel expresses regret over Taliban joke

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel attends the opening ceremony of the Pentagon’s permanent Korean War exhibition near Washington June 18, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

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Defense chief Hagel expresses regret over Taliban joke

Hagel Stresses Accountability to Army"s Newest Officers

By Amaani Lyle
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2013 – Noting the new demands of a “shifting and complicated world,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today emphasized the need for accountability and integrity in the responsibilities awaiting the Army’s newest officers in his commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

“You’ve made a courageous decision to offer yourself for a very purposeful life,” Chuck Hagel said to the more than 1,000 members of the academy’s 215th graduating class. “You’ve learned the meaning of duty, honor and country, and you will now be asked to lead our nation’s soldiers – an awesome responsibility.”

Hagel said his time in the Army forever shaped him, and that while tactics, techniques and training have changed over the decades since served as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam, some things are enduring.

“The basic principles of soldiering and leadership remain the same,” he said. “Character and courage are still the indispensable requisites of both life and leadership.”

The most important part of leadership is taking responsibility for your own actions and decisions and holding all around you accountable, the secretary told the graduating class, noting that the career of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower “provides one of the greatest examples of this kind of accountability.”

“On the eve of the Normandy invasion, which he would command, Eisenhower scribbled a message on a piece of paper in the event that D-Day was a failure,” Hagel said. “Eisenhower’s framed words hung in my Senate office for 12 years. They read: ‘Our landings have failed, and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.’

“That is accountability, “and I often think of that story when I look at Eisenhower’s portrait in my Pentagon office,” he continued. “Eisenhower’s simple and honest statement should be a guiding point for all of us in positions of authority and responsibility, and for all of you as you embark upon your military careers.

The secretary said he learned in Vietnam that “combat is a furnace that can consume” soldiers, but it can also forge them into something better than before. Today’s ground forces have shouldered a heavy burden over the longest period of sustained combat in American history, he added.

In addition to budget constraints that are forcing the Army and all services to cancel training and curtail exercises, Hagel noted other significant menaces to the health and quality of the all-volunteer force, such as alcohol, drug abuse, suicide, mental illness, sexual harassment and sexual assault.

“You’ll need to not just deal with these debilitating, insidious and destructive forces, but rather, you must be the generation of leaders that stop it,” Hagel said. “This will require your complete commitment to building a culture of respect and dignity for every member of the military in society.”

Hagel described sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military as profound betrayals of sacred oaths and trusts.

“This scourge must be stamped out,” the secretary said. “We’re all accountable and responsible for ensuring that this happens. We cannot fail the Army or America. We cannot fail each other, and we cannot fail the men and women that we lead.”

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Hagel Stresses Accountability to Army"s Newest Officers

Hagel swears in as defense chief after bruising confirmation battle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chuck Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran, swore in as the defense secretary at a small, closed-door ceremony on Wednesday, after a bruising confirmation battle in the Senate.

Reuters: Top News

Hagel swears in as defense chief after bruising confirmation battle

Senate Votes to Close Debate on Hagel Nomination

Obama suggests we keep “Washington” out of the arguments against his health-care plan.

The Senate voted for cloture on the dbeate over the nomination of former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel for defense secretary Tuesday afternoon. Seventy-one senators, including 18 Republicans, voted to end the debate and move to an up or down vote on Hagel. Carl Levin, the chairman of the armed services committee, said he expects a vote on the nomination later on Tuesday afternoon.

The Weekly Standard

Senate Votes to Close Debate on Hagel Nomination

Ted Cruz: Texans Elected Me to "Speak the Truth"

Ted Cruz glanced at his black cowboy boots, beneath a silver Texas belt buckle, waiting for the admirers to stop clapping.

His arrival had turned a drop-by at a Houston lumber yard into a virtual campaign rally. At an earlier stop near Austin —at a gun manufacturer that churns out AR-15 rifles — cheering fans crowded next to employees, and one held a sign reading “Ted Cruz rocks!”

The new troublemaker of the U.S. Senate was home again, and savoring nothing short of a victory lap.

In just seven weeks on the job, the insurgent Republican elected with the tea party’s backing and bankroll has run afoul of GOP mainstays, prompted Democrats to compare his style to McCarthyism and has voted against nearly everything of significance that came before him.

“My view is simple: Washington is a rough-and-tumble place. If folks want to attack me personally, they’re welcome to it,” Cruz said during a visit this week to a Houston lumber wholesaler. “Texans elected a senator to go to Washington and speak the truth.”

His approach was unusual for a freshman in Washington, and its effectiveness long-term far from certain, but the reaction at home so far is effusive.

Other Texas politicians are celebrating him, and supporters have turned his constituent visits during the congressional recess into revivals. On Twitter, Texas’ popular attorney general Greg Abbott, a rumored candidate for governor next year, is among those beaming about the “Cruz Missile.”

“He’s been a terrific partner,” declared the state’s senior senator, Republican John Cornyn. “What he’s finding is there’s a lot of critics in Washington when you try to change the status quo.”

As the lone tea party candidate to win a Senate seat in last year’s election, the brash 42-year-old Harvard-trained attorney has aimed to become a force the GOP — and Democrats — must deal with. Having beaten a heavily favored establishment candidate in the Texas primary, he’s made good on promises to be combative, uncompromising and absolute in his adherence to conservative principles.

His profile as an Cuban-American in a party struggling to appeal to Hispanics, and his pedigree as a top Ivy League debater and former clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist have made him the freshman to watch in Washington.

Yet Cruz’s transition from the campaign trail to the Senate has been anything but smooth.

His sharp questioning of Defense Secretary-nominee Chuck Hagel during his confirmation hearing — and public challenges to Hagel’s integrity— drew a sharp rebuke from Democrats and even a Republican. In pressing for more documents about Hagel’s speechmaking in the private sector, Cruz suggested that Hagel, a former Republican senator, had received money from radical sources and possibly was hiding it.

While some Republicans attempted damage control, in Houston this week, Cruz didn’t back down.

“The flurry of attacks on me has had their intended effect, which was to shift the conversation away from Chuck Hagel,” Cruz said. “Away from his record, away from his refusal to provide financial disclosures, and toward the direct, nasty, personal attacks leveled at me.”

Privately, some Republicans expressed surprise that Cruz was barely on the job five minutes before he was saying no to a Cabinet choice. As the latest iteration of “Senator No,” he voted against Senate rule changes to modestly curb filibusters, aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy and the Violence Against Women Act.

The attention Cruz received has cast a spotlight on Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the leadership, who hasn’t strayed far from Cruz on those votes as he looks ahead to his own re-election in 2014 and the possibility of a challenge from the tea party. The only votes against Sen. John Kerry to be the next secretary of state came from Cruz, Cornyn and Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Cornyn called it a “phony construct” that Cruz is pulling him farther to right in an act of political self-preservation.

Not all Republicans have been as comfortable with Cruz. After Cruz’s rough treatment of Hagel, Sen. John McCain defended his fellow Republican and Vietnam veteran.

“I just want to make it clear Senator Hagel is an honorable man. He served his country. And no one on this committee at any time should impugn his character or his integrity,” McCain said.

At Hagel’s confirmation hearing, Cruz employed charts and a scratchy tape from an Al-Jazeera interview with Hagel to challenge the nominee. But it was his guilt-by-association line of questioning that surprised several in the Senate, particularly when Cruz tried to link Hagel to Charles Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia who resigned in March 2009 as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Freeman was undone by congressional criticism over his comments about the Israel government and alleged ties to foreign governments.

Cruz cited media reports that Hagel traveled with Freeman to China. Hagel said he had never been on a trip with Freeman and hadn’t spoken with him in years.

Cruz shifted the questioning.

“Is he someone whose judgment you respect?” he asked.

Cruz’s questioning raised the specter of 1950s communist-hunter Joe McCarthy, the former Wisconsin senator. He has dismissed those suggestions, and conservatives have come to his defense.

In Texas this week, those who came to meet Cruz at stops like Lodge Lumber and La Rue Tactical in Leander took no issue with his line of questioning.

At the end of a tour at Lodge Lumber, Cruz was met by a supporter who carried in his billfold several fake dollar bills bearing Obama’s face, including one that read, “The People’s Republic of Hollywood.” He said it was the president he wanted Cruz to keep in his sights.

Owner John Lodge said he felt that for the first time in a long while, someone in Washington was on his side.

“He gets with them. He’s gotten down to business,” Lodge said. “He’s the man.”

© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Newsmax – Newsfront

Ted Cruz: Texans Elected Me to "Speak the Truth"

Ted Cruz: Texans Elected Me to "Speak the Truth"

Ted Cruz glanced at his black cowboy boots, beneath a silver Texas belt buckle, waiting for the admirers to stop clapping.

His arrival had turned a drop-by at a Houston lumber yard into a virtual campaign rally. At an earlier stop near Austin —at a gun manufacturer that churns out AR-15 rifles — cheering fans crowded next to employees, and one held a sign reading “Ted Cruz rocks!”

The new troublemaker of the U.S. Senate was home again, and savoring nothing short of a victory lap.

In just seven weeks on the job, the insurgent Republican elected with the tea party’s backing and bankroll has run afoul of GOP mainstays, prompted Democrats to compare his style to McCarthyism and has voted against nearly everything of significance that came before him.

“My view is simple: Washington is a rough-and-tumble place. If folks want to attack me personally, they’re welcome to it,” Cruz said during a visit this week to a Houston lumber wholesaler. “Texans elected a senator to go to Washington and speak the truth.”

His approach was unusual for a freshman in Washington, and its effectiveness long-term far from certain, but the reaction at home so far is effusive.

Other Texas politicians are celebrating him, and supporters have turned his constituent visits during the congressional recess into revivals. On Twitter, Texas’ popular attorney general Greg Abbott, a rumored candidate for governor next year, is among those beaming about the “Cruz Missile.”

“He’s been a terrific partner,” declared the state’s senior senator, Republican John Cornyn. “What he’s finding is there’s a lot of critics in Washington when you try to change the status quo.”

As the lone tea party candidate to win a Senate seat in last year’s election, the brash 42-year-old Harvard-trained attorney has aimed to become a force the GOP — and Democrats — must deal with. Having beaten a heavily favored establishment candidate in the Texas primary, he’s made good on promises to be combative, uncompromising and absolute in his adherence to conservative principles.

His profile as an Cuban-American in a party struggling to appeal to Hispanics, and his pedigree as a top Ivy League debater and former clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist have made him the freshman to watch in Washington.

Yet Cruz’s transition from the campaign trail to the Senate has been anything but smooth.

His sharp questioning of Defense Secretary-nominee Chuck Hagel during his confirmation hearing — and public challenges to Hagel’s integrity— drew a sharp rebuke from Democrats and even a Republican. In pressing for more documents about Hagel’s speechmaking in the private sector, Cruz suggested that Hagel, a former Republican senator, had received money from radical sources and possibly was hiding it.

While some Republicans attempted damage control, in Houston this week, Cruz didn’t back down.

“The flurry of attacks on me has had their intended effect, which was to shift the conversation away from Chuck Hagel,” Cruz said. “Away from his record, away from his refusal to provide financial disclosures, and toward the direct, nasty, personal attacks leveled at me.”

Privately, some Republicans expressed surprise that Cruz was barely on the job five minutes before he was saying no to a Cabinet choice. As the latest iteration of “Senator No,” he voted against Senate rule changes to modestly curb filibusters, aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy and the Violence Against Women Act.

The attention Cruz received has cast a spotlight on Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the leadership, who hasn’t strayed far from Cruz on those votes as he looks ahead to his own re-election in 2014 and the possibility of a challenge from the tea party. The only votes against Sen. John Kerry to be the next secretary of state came from Cruz, Cornyn and Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Cornyn called it a “phony construct” that Cruz is pulling him farther to right in an act of political self-preservation.

Not all Republicans have been as comfortable with Cruz. After Cruz’s rough treatment of Hagel, Sen. John McCain defended his fellow Republican and Vietnam veteran.

“I just want to make it clear Senator Hagel is an honorable man. He served his country. And no one on this committee at any time should impugn his character or his integrity,” McCain said.

At Hagel’s confirmation hearing, Cruz employed charts and a scratchy tape from an Al-Jazeera interview with Hagel to challenge the nominee. But it was his guilt-by-association line of questioning that surprised several in the Senate, particularly when Cruz tried to link Hagel to Charles Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia who resigned in March 2009 as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Freeman was undone by congressional criticism over his comments about the Israel government and alleged ties to foreign governments.

Cruz cited media reports that Hagel traveled with Freeman to China. Hagel said he had never been on a trip with Freeman and hadn’t spoken with him in years.

Cruz shifted the questioning.

“Is he someone whose judgment you respect?” he asked.

Cruz’s questioning raised the specter of 1950s communist-hunter Joe McCarthy, the former Wisconsin senator. He has dismissed those suggestions, and conservatives have come to his defense.

In Texas this week, those who came to meet Cruz at stops like Lodge Lumber and La Rue Tactical in Leander took no issue with his line of questioning.

At the end of a tour at Lodge Lumber, Cruz was met by a supporter who carried in his billfold several fake dollar bills bearing Obama’s face, including one that read, “The People’s Republic of Hollywood.” He said it was the president he wanted Cruz to keep in his sights.

Owner John Lodge said he felt that for the first time in a long while, someone in Washington was on his side.

“He gets with them. He’s gotten down to business,” Lodge said. “He’s the man.”

© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Newsmax – Newsfront

Ted Cruz: Texans Elected Me to "Speak the Truth"

Shelby’s Endorsement Gives Hagel Enough Votes for Confirmation

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel has lined up the necessary votes in the Senate to be confirmed next week as Secretary of Defense — as a senior Republican lawmaker said on Thursday that he would support him and 15 GOP senators called on President Barack Obama to withdraw his name.

“He’s probably as good as we’re going to get,” five-term Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama told The Decatur Daily Herald about Hagel.

Unless any new, damaging information on Hagel emerges before an expected Senate vote on Tuesday, Hagel has Shelby’s vote, spokesman Jonathan Graffeo told the Associated Press.

Shelby is the third Republican to announce his support for Hagel, joining Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Mike Johanns of Nebraska.

If confirmed, Hagel, the former two-term Nebraska senator, would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta is returning to California after four years as CIA director and then as head of the Pentagon.

Last week, Senate Republicans filibustered a vote on Hagel’s nomination last week, forcing Democrats to take up the issue after senators return from recess next week.

Meanwhile, the 15 GOP senators called on Obama to withdraw Hagel’s nomination, saying it would be “unprecedented,” since so many Republicans opposed it. The letter came after Shelby’s announcement.

“Over the last half-century, no secretary of defense has been confirmed and taken office with more than three senators voting against him,” the senators wrote in a letter that was quoted by The New York Times. “The occupant of this critical office should be someone whose candidacy is neither controversial or divisive.”

Joining Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas in signing the letter were Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina; Roger Wicker of Mississippi; David Vitter of Louisiana; Ted Cruz of Texas; Mike Lee of Utah; Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania; Marco Rubio of Florida; Dan Coats of Indiana; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; James E. Risch of Idaho; John Barrasso of Wyoming; and Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

“Senator Hagel’s performance at his confirmation hearing was deeply concerning, leading to serious doubts about his basic competence to meet the substantial demands of the office,” they said in the letter.

But Sen. John McCain of Arizona did not sign the letter. While he opposes Hagel’s nomination — calling him unqualified for the position — the former GOP presidential candidate has said he would allow a final vote on the nomination.

Graham also has said he would back a vote on Hagel’s nomination.

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday complained that the letter demonstrated that Republicans had put politics ahead of national security. He pointed out that the administration wants Hagel to be part of decisions on the size of the U.S. force in Afghanistan as American and coalition forces wind down combat operations.

“This waste of time is not just meaningless political posturing because we firmly believe that Sen. Hagel will be confirmed. The waste of time is of consequence,” Carney said, the Associated Press reports.

The Senate also is holding up the nomination of John Brennan to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as both Republicans and Democrats seek more information about the U.S. policy on the use of drones.

Hagel and Brennan would join Secretary of State John Kerry in Obama’s new national security team.

Hagel is expected to get all 55 Democratic votes and the backing of the three Republicans. Two other GOP members, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted last week to allow the nomination to proceed.

They are expected to do the same next week, giving Hagel the requisite 60 votes out of 100 necessary to end a filibuster, the Associated Press reports.

A vote on confirmation, with only a majority necessary, could occur as early as Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – Newsfront

Shelby’s Endorsement Gives Hagel Enough Votes for Confirmation

Hagel: Let"s Not Go to the Videotape

Last week, Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon discovered a contemporaneous account of a 2007 speech Chuck Hagel gave at Rutgers University. The account, from Hagel supporter George Ajjan, was posted on Ajjan’s website the day after the speech. During the Q&A segment of his appearance, Hagel argued the U.S. State Department had become an adjunct of the Israeli government.

The Weekly Standard

Hagel: Let"s Not Go to the Videotape