Policy & Strategy

Gates said he would likely not have approved sending a special forces team had he been in charge.

Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a veteran of the Iraq war, said military leaders have failed to do enough to prevent or punish sexual assault.

McCain accused top military leaders of resisting efforts to help rebels in Syria.

Top officials discussed the terms of an agreement outlining the U.S.'s role in Afghanistan as it prepares to remove troops.

President Obama is nominating the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq to serve as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

Ryan Crocker, who spent 37 years in the foreign service before leaving government to teach at Yale University, would oversee broadcasting organizations like the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which are supported by the government but run by civilians and offer news to international audiences.

The BBG, which is an independent agency that requested $731 million for fiscal 2014, has been responsible for non-military government broadcasting since 1999. Its network of seven broadcasters reach more than 165 million people each month, the agency claims.

There are no good options to secure Syria’s chemical weapon stockpiles without putting troops on the ground, Thornberry said.

A top Senate Republican is questioning whether senior Pentagon officials were upfront with lawmakers in disclosing all the department knew about last year's terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. 

Moscow is walking a fine line on possible sales of heavy weaponry to Syrian president Bashar Assad's regime, vowing to block any new sales to the embattled leader, but promising to deliver on previous sales to the regime. 

“People may be starting to use the I-word before too long,” Inhofe said on a radio program.

Growing tensions within the Syrian opposition along sectarian lines are worsening as the civil war in the country enters its third year, raising concerns that the Syria will shatter under the strain. 

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