by Aamer Madhani

In some of the meetings former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had with retired military generals turned television news analysts, he offered sharp tongued assessments of Iraqi and American officials, according to transcripts and audio files released by the Pentagon.

As you may recall, the New York Times published an article last month that unveiled that the Pentagon was running a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the Bush administration's wartime performance by offering some retired officers special access to top Pentagon officials as well as arranging for VIP trips to Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

The retired generals who worked for all the major network and cable news stations met with officials such as Rumsfeld, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of the Army.

Some Congressional critics were aghast at the revelation that the Pentagon was trying use the retired officers, who the network news programs billed as military analysts, to carry the department's water. The Pentagon has suspended the program, but Sen. John Kerry has called for the Government Accountability Office to launch an investigation.

The Pentagon has dumped thousands of pages of documents, transcripts and audio files on its web site related to the military analysts program.

by Aamer Madhani
The lawmakers and veterans' advocates who gathered behind Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) this afternoon for a Capitol Hill rally to promote an overhaul of educational benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan vets were an A-list lot.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), gushed about the importance of doing right by the current crop of veterans. And Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a Korean War and a World War II veteran, reminded the crowd that it was unlikely that he would have become a senator if it weren't for the fact that the GI Bill paid for his undergraduate and law school tuition.

Even the actor that played the head of NBC on Seinfeld showed up to cast his support for the Webb-Hagel proposal.

Just a few months ago, Webb's and Hagel's call to modernize the bill was hardly registering with their colleagues. They repeatedly pointed out to their colleagues that service members serving in a war time were receiving a GI Bill that had been last updated with a peace time standard, while the administration expressed concern that an overhaul could push active-duty troops to ditch the military for college.

As of today, their proposal now has 58 sponsors in the Senate and 249 in the House.

Despite President Bush again today calling on Congress to send him a $108 billion war spending bill free of extraneous programs, Democratic leaders will likely include the proposal in the upcoming supplemental war spending bill, a senior Democratic aide said.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

by Matthew Hay Brown

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't foresee any effort to block the nomination of Gen. David Petraeus to lead the U.S. Central Command. Nonetheless, he's looking forward to the confirmation hearings.

"Here's the man that's going to be in charge of what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan," the Nevada Democrat told reporters this afternoon. "I think it's very important that we ask him questions."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended the appointment of Petraeus, the architect of the troop surge that is credited with decreasing violence in Iraq, to replace Adm. William Fallon as chief of the command that overseas U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia. Fallon resigned last month after clashing with the Bush administration over policy, notably on Iran.

Reid, not a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he planned to submit questions that he wants committee members to ask Petraeus.

"For example, I was in Iraq when Petreaus was in charge of training the Iraqi troops," Reid said. "I'd like to know what's gone wrong, and what went wrong when he was there with that.

"We also know that there's been a lot of problems during his watch about tons of amunition gone to the wrong place.

"I want to find out what his plan is when we have a new administration. Is he willing to listen to the new commander-in-chief?"

by Frank James

One of the glories of the U.S. is the way the Founding Fathers provided for civilian control of the military, at least that's what most school children are taught.

That's the ideal, of course. Then you have the reality that often differs from the textbooks.

An example of that was found today with Defense Secretary Robert Gates complaining publicly that the Air Force is not doing enough for the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan War.

He didn't quite go as far as asking "Why does the Air Force hate America?" but he's obviously fairly upset with them to call them put publicly in a speech he made at, in of all places, Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. (At least no one can accuse him of engaging in that Washington practice of back-stabbing. This was right up front.)

Specifically Gates, an old Air Force man himself, said the Air Force won't send more unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an Associated Press report by Robert Burns: