Policy & Strategy

The State Department announced North Korea has agreed to a moratorium on nuclear tests, missile launches and uranium enrichment.

Six members of the House — three from each party — warned House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) earlier this month that the war in Afghanistan is not going as well as the Obama administration has said, and urged the leaders to instead read the government's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan from last December.

The members' Feb. 10 letter also noted the assessment of Afghanistan given by Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who said, among other things, that Afghan troops are not well-trained and will likely be over-run once the United States leaves. 

President Obama nullified major provisions of the 2012 Defense Authorization law on Tuesday.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Tuesday that the anti-American protests of the Quran burnings in Afghanistan would likely lead to greater public support for a quicker drawdown of U.S. troops there.

Levin said that he also expects lawmakers on Capitol Hill will not want any delays in troop withdrawals after the surge forces pullout from Afghanistan in the fall.

“I think the American people generally are concerned and probably instinctively would want to see a faster drawdown,” Levin told reporters.

The House Homeland chairman warned the United States would "re-assess" its position if the protests continued.

It's the first time the general has discussed his controversial remarks about a possible Israeli strike on Iran.

Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.) on Monday introduced legislation that would fix controversial language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that many believe could allow the U.S. government to detain Americans suspected of working with terrorists.

Gibson's bill, H.R. 4092, would add language to the NDAA that says, "Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the writ of habeas corpus shall remain available to any individual detained within the United States and no American citizen or lawful resident may be detained without all the rights of due process." Due process is defined as the right to a public trial, the right to be informed of the government's accusations and other procedural norms.

Israeli officials will not warn the United States ahead of a pre-emptive strike on Iran to stop its nuclear program, The Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed U.S. intelligence official.

Israeli officials would not inform U.S. officials in order to decrease the chances that the United States is held responsible for the attack, the AP said, a message that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delivered to U.S. officials in Israel in recent weeks.

The Obama administration is sending a clear message that it will not change its strategy of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials said Monday that the U.S. military is not planning to change its strategy in the wake of violence over the burning of Qurans last week that has left more than 30 Afghans dead and seen four U.S. troops killed.

Pentagon press secretary George Little acknowledged that the situation in Afghanistan is tense, but said that the “fundamentals of our strategy remain sound."

“We're not going to let the events of the past week, which are regrettable and unfortunate and tragic, influence the long-horizon view that we're taking,” Little said in a Pentagon briefing Monday.