ANTI-ISIS WAR UPDATE: President Obama travels across the Potomac later today to get an update on the U.S.-led effort to defeat ISIS in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. The president will attend a National Security Council meeting held at the Pentagon, and afterward will deliver defense of his strategy from the Pentagon briefing room.
The visit comes in a week of cautiously upbeat assessments from U.S. military spokesmen about progress in the multifront war. Monday Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook announced the beginning of U.S. airstrikes in Libya, the first designed to help local Libyan forces as they assault the Islamic State’s stronghold in the coastal city Sirte. The next day, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the ground forces, aligned with Libya’s western-backed Government of National Accord, had enjoyed “spectacular success’ and predicted Sirte would be clear of Islamic State fighters in weeks.
Yesterday, the U.S. military’s top spokesman in Baghdad, Army Col. Chris Garver described growing fear and desperation among Islamic State’s leaders in their de facto capital Mosul, in northern Iraq. Garver said the executions of low-level leaders in the efforts to intimidate the city’s residents were reminiscent of what happened in Ramadi and Fallujah, before they were liberated by Iraqi Security Forces. But Garver essentially conceded that the offensive against Mosul remains months away. The 560 American troops that are tasked with turning a captured airfield into a sprawling base of operations for the Mosul operation have yet to arrive or begin their work.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW: The Pentagon has another case of a terrorist, believed killed in an airstrike, showing up alive months later. In this case it was a notorious German-born former rapper known as “Deso Dogg,” real name: Denis Cuspert, who was said to have died in Syria last fall. The Pentagon released a one-sentence statement yesterday, “At the time, our assessment was the strike was successful. It now appears that assessment was incorrect and Denis Cuspert survived the airstrike.”
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RANSOM DENIAL: The White House argued a planeload of cash, $400 million in various international currencies, delivered to Iran back in January right after four Americans were released from detention was not a ransom payment. “Let me be clear: The United States does not pay ransom,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. We look at the arguments for here. GOP president nominee Donald Trump went on the attack, in a tweet “Our incompetent Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was the one who started talks to give 400 million dollars, in cash, to Iran. Scandal!” An AP fact check rated that statement false. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton dismissed the story as “old news.”
THE F-35 HAS A LOT TO PROVE: The F-35 joint strike fighter has the distinction of being not only the most expensive weapons program in Pentagon history, but also arguably the most-criticized, for being overdue, over budget and underperforming. So it will take some time for Lockheed Martin’s stealthy fifth-generation fighter to win the respect the pilots who fly it say it deserves. The Air Force declared IOC for its A-model version Tuesday. Check out our video here. And the Heritage Foundation weighs in with paper on the F-35 to be released this afternoon. The report includes findings from interviews with 31 F-35A pilots who previously flew other fighter jets and will “challenge public perceptions,” one of the authors told us. You can check it out on the foundation’s website when it drops, or check back with the Daily on Defense team for our rundown.
ZIKA IN THE MILITARY: The Pentagon announced yesterday that among the 1,600 Americans who have been infected with the Zika virus 33 are members of the U.S. military, including one pregnant women. All were said to have been infected while out of the country, presumably after being bitten by mosquitos. Many Zika victims show no symptoms, and recover quickly, but recently a link between Zika and birth defects has turned the infection into a major health concern. Zika is suspected of causing microcephaly in which babies are born with unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains. Late yesterday the Pentagon updated the number of military personnel infected to 41.
UNENDORSEMENT RALLY: A group of veterans will deliver a petition with more than 50,000 signatures to the offices of Sen. John McCain, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders today asking them to unendorse Donald Trump because of his feud with Khizr Khan, a Gold Star dad. “If Republican leaders do not outright disavow Trump’s dangerous rhetoric, they are not only endorsing Donald Trump’s candidacy, but also his attacks on veterans,” Perry O’Brien, an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran who started the petition, wrote.
Ben Carson said the two men should just apologize to each other, Al Weaver reports. “But I don’t see that happening,” he added.
Donald Trump has also taken heat for accepting a Purple Heart from a veteran at a rally in Ashburn, Va., earlier this week, but retired Lt. Col. Louis Dorfman said he was “proud” to give his medal to the GOP nominee and that the whole situation has been taken out of context, Gabby Morrongiello writes. “They’re not showing the before and the after, they’re just showing what he said. He had told me backstage how much of an honor it was and he really asked me, ‘do you want to give me this or do you want me to give it back to you?’” he said.
LOOSE NUKE TALK: Trump has been taking flak for allegedly failing to grasp the essential concept of nuclear deterrence, after MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough claimed a national security expert briefing Trump months ago reported Trump questioned the value of nuclear weapons if they are never used. “Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times, he asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked — at one point, ‘If we have them, why can’t we use them?’” Scarborough said. Presumably Trump was advised that nuclear weapons are used every day to deter any potential adversary from starting a major war with the United States. It’s worked for 70 years.
Former nuclear weapons officer John Noonan slammed Trump on Wednesday for the account provided by Scarborough, “It’s clear you can’t roll the dice on this lunatic. Stakes are too high, his knowledge and judgment is too low,” Noonan told T. Becket Adams.
FUTURE OF DIUX: Defense Secretary Ash Carter has made innovation, including his Defense Innovation Unit Experimental hubs in Silicon Valley and Cambridge, Mass., a priority of his tenure so far at the head of the Pentagon. While the push for innovation will continue because of budget realities and the state of technology today, experts said the DIUx project may look different under a Clinton or Trump administration
PROP PLANES TO ARGENTINA: The State Department on Wednesday announced that it had approved the sale of Raytheon T-6C+ aircraft to Argentina. The sale of planes, training and support is expected to cost $300 million.
A NEW MEDAL?: Adding to the long list of inflammatory sound bites that have come from Trump already this week, he said that Hillary Clinton deserves an award for her role in founding the Islamic State. “It was Hillary Clinton – she should take an award from them as the founder of ISIS,” Trump supporters at a mid-afternoon rally in Daytona Beach, Fla.
THE RUNDOWN
War on the Rocks: How Congress and the Pentagon joined forces to worsen the Navy’s carrier gap
Defense News: Next GPS III launch contest begins
Breaking Defense: First Osprey flight with critical 3D printed part
USNI News: Navy, Marines put V-22 to the test in carrier experiment
UPI: General Dynamics gets DARPA classified network contract
Military Times: Former NSA head Hayden: I may not vote this fall
Task and Purpose: Why Medal Of Honor recipients are taking a stand in this election
Washington Post: Mike Pence said in 1999 that women shouldn’t be in the military. So much has changed.
Defense News: US Air Force secretary skeptical of no-first-use nuclear policy
USNI News: Document: Notice to Congress on 8 proposed Navy ship names
Navy Times: U.S. admiral warns Asia-Pacific may be next front in ISIS fight
New York Times: How a secretive branch of ISIS built a global network of killers
Wall Street Journal: Islamic State newspaper names new leader of Boko Haram
Breaking Defense: How to secure NATO’s frontline states
Calendar
THURSDAY | AUGUST 4
10 a.m. New America, 740 15th St. NW. Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James speaks on energy security and the Department of Defense.
7 p.m. Marine Corps Barracks, Washington. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller provide remarks at the retirement ceremony of Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. John Paxton Jr. The invitation-only event will be live streamed on defense.gov.
TUESDAY | AUGUST 9
9 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Hudson Institute hosts a panel of experts to discuss how the U.S. should defend Taiwan. hudson.org
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. CSIS hosts Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps, to discuss maritime security. csis.org
WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 10
12 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Atlantic Council hosts a panel to bridge the gap between the Las Vegas “Hacker Summer Camp” and cybersecurity policy. atlanticcouncil.org
THURSDAY | AUGUST 11
12:30 p.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. Stimson hosts General Mark Milley to discuss U.S. foreign policy and national security policy. stimson.org
