PENTAGON BACKTRACK: It was just over five months ago that U.S. commanders were brimming with confidence about how President Trump’s new Afghanistan policy was a “game-changer” and would break the stalemate in Afghanistan. The top general in charge of the NATO-led mission, Gen. John Nicholson, even dared to say he agreed with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani that we had “turned the corner” and were “on a path to a win.”

HAPPENING TODAY: Top Pentagon officials have been shying away from what used to be a mainstay at the Department of Defense: On-camera briefings in the commodious high-tech Pentagon Briefing Room. But this afternoon, the Navy Department is bucking the trend with a news conference billed as an update on the state of its two services featuring all the most senior leaders, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller. The event will be streamed live at 1:30 p.m. on www.defense.gov/live.

WATCH THIS SPACE: Trump said yesterday he may reveal the location and date of his meeting with Kim as early as this week. A senior administration official has confirmed to the Washington Examiner that both Singapore and the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas are still under consideration for the site of Trump’s meeting.

CNN is quoting a source as saying South Korean President Moon Jae-in has convinced Kim to hold the summit with Trump at the Panmunjom Peace Village, the same location in the DMZ where Moon met with Kim last Friday.

SPEAKING OF: So what were Moon and Kim talking about last Friday as they sat outside on those park benches? The Washington Post reports that lip readers who watched their discussion from afar said they discussed nuclear facilities, a little bit about their personal lives, and Trump.

MILITARY IMBALANCE: The widely respected military analyst Anthony Cordesman is out with an in-depth analysis of the relative strengths of North and South Korea’s military and economic power. The report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies underscores the qualitative and quantitative differences between the two Koreas, includes the following insights:

• “North Korea’s steadily expanding missile ranges … allow it to strike at U.S. targets well beyond the Korean Peninsula.”
• “North Korea has massive conventional forces. … It has a nearly 2:1 lead in manpower, and a major lead in main battle tanks, artillery, and combat ships. It also, however, is sharply inferior in weapons quality.”
• “North Korea could almost certainly inflict major damage on the South,” but the South’s “qualitative advantages seem great enough to offset North Korean numbers and allow it to win any major conventional conflict with U.S. support.”
• North Korea’s “series of tunnels across the DMZ and a major sheltered missile-rocket-artillery threat just north of the DMZ … can pose a major threat to Seoul.” But “moving mechanized forces through closed tunnels without exposed major ventilation systems is difficult, as is moving infantry troops.”
• “Some of the higher estimates of South Korean civilian casualties in the greater Seoul area seem to be based on highly unrealistic rates of fire, exposed vulnerability, unrealistic range estimates, and survival in the face of modern precision counterstrikes.”

NOT IN THE CLEAR: A Navy official has confirmed to me that while Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson is still assigned to the White House medical unit, he is no longer the attending physician to the president. And while Trump has blasted Sen. Jon Tester for assassinating Jackson’s character with allegations that have “proven false,” the Pentagon confirms it is reviewing the allegations to determine if an inspector general’s investigation might be warranted.

Tester, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said more than 20 current and former military personnel raised questions about Jackson, alleging he improperly dispensed prescription pain medications, was intoxicated during an overseas trip, and created a toxic work environment.

“The DoD Inspector General is aware of the allegations and is assessing what investigations and reviews have already been conducted related to these issues, any jurisdictional issues that may relate to the allegations, and the scope of the allegations and complaints related to these issues,” said Tom Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman. “The Inspector General’s office will determine what investigations or actions are warranted regarding these allegations and complaints.”

While Jackson took himself out of consideration for the VA job, he’s still nominated by Trump for a second star, a promotion that requires Senate confirmation, and which a formal IG investigation could scuttle.

ACLU UNHAPPY WITH AUMF: The American Civil Liberties Union is waging a campaign against the update to the Authorization for the Use of Military Force being pushed in the Senate by Republican Bob Corker and Democrat Tim Kaine.

“The Corker-Kaine AUMF, which aims to correct the mistakes of the 2001 AUMF and the 2012 NDAA and limit the president’s war powers, does the opposite,” says a statement emailed to the Washington Examiner. “It is so poorly worded and broad that it would allow the president to unilaterally decide who is the enemy, where we are at war, and how long we fight. The result would be endless global war.”

The ACLU also objects to what it calls a “sleeper provision” in the proposed legislation which it argues would greatly expand the authority of the executive branch to use the military to detain anyone indefinitely without charges if they are believed to be associated with groups such as the Taliban and al Qaeda.

NEW THREAT: Iran is threatening to retaliate against Israel over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dramatic presentation on how the regime hid its nuclear weapons program.

STOP SIGN OR GREEN LIGHT: Meanwhile, supporters and detractors of the Iran nuclear deal are seeing what they want to see in Netanyahu’s presentation. Few doubt that Iran lied about its nuclear weapons ambitions in the past, but the question remains whether that’s an argument for ripping up the deal, or using its intrusive inspection provision to keep Iran in check for now.

“Clearly, he’s trying to influence President Trump’s decision to get him to rip up the deal,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen on CNN yesterday. “I think it would isolate the United States, not Iran. And it would also allow Iran to proceed with more nuclear enrichment and with no inspectors, so we would be flying blind and we would be giving a green light to Iran. Very dangerous.”

If Netanyahu was really speaking to an audience of one, Trump clearly got the message. “What we’ve learned has really shown that I’ve been 100 percent right,” he said after Netanyahu’s performance.  

AS GOOD AS IT GETS: In an interview on CNN yesterday morning, Netanyahu stuck to a long-standing policy not to confirm whether Israel has nuclear weapons. “Well, you can make all your assumptions. One thing is clear: Israel is not threatening the annihilation of any country,” Netanyahu said.

If you are accusing Iran of lying about its nuclear weapons program, why not come clean in the interest of transparency, asked host Chris Cuomo, noting that the whole world already believes Israel has nukes.

Here’s the exchange:

Cuomo: A yes-no question for you. Does Israel have nuclear capabilities and nuclear weapons? Yes or no?

Netanyahu: We’ve always said that we won’t be the first to introduce it, so we haven’t introduced it. And I’ll tell you one thing —

Cuomo: But that’s not an answer to the question. Do you have them or do you not?

Netanyahu: It’s as good an answer as you’re going to get.

TRUMP REPRISES ‘SPACE FORCE’: Like it or not, the military could still get a Space Force as its sixth service branch, the president said on Tuesday. “You will be part of the five proud branches of the United States Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and the Coast Guard. And we’re actually thinking of a sixth, and that would be the Space Force,” Trump said when presenting the Commander in Chief Trophy to the U.S. Military Academy football team in the Rose Garden. He first touted the idea in March despite opposition from the Air Force, which currently handles most military space operations, amid a political tug-of-war between the service and Capitol Hill on the issue. Members of the House Armed Services Committee have charged the Air Force with bungling the space mission.

THERE’S A SHIRT FOR THAT: For fans of the Space Force idea, or observers just riveted by the political debate, Ranger Up has you covered. The military clothing line is selling what it calls the Space Force Mattis vintage-style T-shirt. You can pick one up for $30 here.  

THE RUNDOWN

Breaking Defense: Pentagon’s Big AI Program, Maven, Already Hunts Data in Middle East, Africa

Daily Beast: Ex-CIA Official Says Some Torture Videotapes May Still Exist

Air Force Times: Air Force B-52s patrol South China Sea

Defense News: US Navy wants future ship-killing missile for its new frigate, Raytheon says

Business Insider: Watch the Su-57 stealth fighter flap its wings before its debut in Russia’s massive Victory Day Parade

Army Times: How many bombs have been dropped in Afghanistan?

Defense One: The Dead Metaphors of National Security

Foreign Policy: U.S. Soldiers Might Be Stuck in Korea Forever

Defense Tech: New Air Force Acquisitions Chief Aims to Rid F-35 of Software Glitches

Fox News: Russian fighter jet buzzes US military spy plane over Baltic Sea, officials say

USA Today: Behind Kim Jong Un’s new role as peacemaker: Confidence in his nukes played a key role

Task and Purpose: The War In Afghanistan Is (Still) Going Terribly