HER-STORY IS MADE: Hillary Clinton wrapped up the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with an hour-long acceptance speech in which she argued she would be a commander in chief who would project American strength with smarts, judgment, cool resolve and the precise and strategic application of power. “That’s the kind of commander in chief I pledge to be.” Clinton summarized her strategy for defeating the Islamic State in three sentences: “We will strike their sanctuaries from the air and support local forces taking them out on the ground. We will surge our intelligence so we detect and prevent attacks before they happen. We will disrupt their efforts online to reach and radicalize young people in our country,” adding “It won’t be easy or quick, but make no mistake, we will prevail.”
The most muscular military endorsement came earlier in the evening from retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen. The former four-star commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and special presidential envoy to the counter-Islamic State coalition, was flanked by a group of retired military officers and war veterans. Barking out his speech with the tone of a drill instructor, Allen called Clinton “exactly the kind of commander in chief America needs.”
Without mentioning Donald Trump by name, Allen drew contrasts between his statements and Clinton’s positions. “Our armed forces will be stronger,” he said, with the “finest weapons, the greatest equipment.” Veterans, he said, will be “cared for in the manner they deserve,” and in a swipe at Trump’s insistence that NATO allies must be paid up in full before expecting U.S. military support, Allen said, “With her as our commander in chief, our international relations will not be reduced to a business transaction.”
Trump’s not backing down on his vow to bring back waterboarding, and Allen took a swipe at that, too, saying that under Clinton, “our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture.”
Visually, this convention will most likely be remembered for the moment Khizr Khan, father of fallen Army Capt. Humayun Khan, pulled out his pocket Constitution and offered to lend it to Trump. “Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America — you will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities,” Khan said. “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
INTEL BRIEFINGS BEGIN: Now that both major-party candidates candidates have been officially nominated, they will begin to get classified briefings from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. DNI chief James Clapper says the briefings will be conducted on a non-partisan basis by an intel officer who is not a political appointee. On Fox News, Trump again argued Clinton should not be trusted with national secrets: “She was negligent and she lied,” Trump said referring to Clinton’s private servers and her mishandling of classified information. “She should absolutely not be allowed to get briefings.”
In that interview, Trump also insisted he wasn’t serious about asking Russian hackers to find and release to missing emails. “I was being sarcastic and a lot of people really smiled and laughed. It was said in a sarcastic manner obviously.”
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PUTTING NEW AUTHORITIES TO GOOD USE: The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson, says since President Obama gave new counterterrorism authorities to commanders last December, the “Islamic State-Khorasan” the terrorist group’s regional affiliate in Afghanistan, has lost a significant amount of territory. Nicholson says Afghan troops did the fighting with the help of U.S. air cover and advisers on the ground.
THE LONG LONG WAR: Gen. Joe Votel, head of Central Command, spoke at the Aspen Security Forum yesterday, and while he wouldn’t say the U.S. would be in Afghanistan forever, our mission there will be a “protracted, protracted fight,” Joel Gehrke reports. “I don’t know if it’s a ‘forever war;’ define forever,” Votel said. “I think we have to be committed to this. I think this is a protracted conflict against these organizations. A successful operation in Mosul won’t eliminate ISIL. They will go to the next version of ISIL. They will adapt and we will have to adapt.”
During the same talk, Votel said he doesn’t believe Iran has changed its behavior since the Iran nuclear deal. “I think it addresses a specific threat that existed, and I think it’s probably been successful in addressing that or certainly at least putting it off for a number of years. But it has not necessarily changed the behavior that we see in Central Command.”
THIS MORNING: Marine Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, will be speaking about Marine Corps aviation at 9 a.m. at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute and the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The event will also feature retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula and military expert Thomas Donnelly. You can watch it here.
ON TARGET: The Pentagon insists the bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria is the most accurate in history, with an unprecedented focus on avoiding collateral damage. A U.S. Central Command investigation that covered nine months of aerial bombardment has confirmed just 14 deaths of civilians. The review did not include the latest reports of civilian deaths near Manbij, Syria, where as many as 70 people may have died in two separate strikes on July 20 and 23.
FORCE OF THE FUTURE: Defense Secretary Ash Carter wrapped up his three-day trip on Thursday with a visit to Chicago’s military entrance processing station to talk with officials there about how to computerize the paper-intensive recruiting process as part of his Force of the Future initiative. He also swore in seven new recruits, each of whom has a thick, paper personnel file that Carter is trying to get rid of. One new idea will see recruiters get tablets to collect information out in the field that can be sent digitally to boot camp.
Later in the day, Carter headed to Naval Station Great Lakes, where he met with recruits, spoke with troops and toured Battle Stations 21 aboard the USS Trayer, the Navy’s capstone of boot camp where recruits are tested on both scenarios they’d face every day at sea as well as disaster scenarios inspired by historical examples like flooding or an explosion.
The Navy doesn’t like specifics of Battle Stations to get out so recruits can’t prepare for the problems they’ll face, just like in the real world, but suffice it to say, those who designed the indoor ship didn’t skimp on the details. The model is meant to be in Norfolk, Virginia, and the seagulls and boat horns that can be heard on the indoor dock were actually recorded on a dock in Norfolk, according to one sailor.
While at Naval Station Great Lakes, Carter fielded a question during a troop event about how the Navy’s boot camp would change as a result of his decision this summer to lift the ban on transgender troops serving openly. Carter said he had “complete confidence” in Navy leaders, who he was giving “considerable latitude and time” to work out any challenges. Carter held the troop talk aboard the USS Whitehat, or so called “ship in a bottle,” because the ship is contained inside a building.
GAY RIGHTS ICON HONORED: Navy Secretary Ray Mabus plans to name a support ship after Harvey Milk, a Navy veteran. Milk, who served in the Navy during the Korean War, was a San Francisco politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. The plan to name Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk, was first reported by USNI News. Mabus plans to names all the John Lewis-class ships after civil rights leaders. Mabus, the longest-serving Navy secretary since World War I, has come under criticism for his ship names. In 2011, he named a dry cargo ship after labor organizer Cesar Chavez, which raised the ire of Rep. Duncan Hunter.
THE “D” WORD: On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator during his speech before the Democratic National Convention. That forced the State Department and White House into rhetorical contortions as to whether they agreed with the nation’s No. 2.
“I’m not in a position to … further characterize the vice president’s statement. I think they speak for themselves,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. “Our focus here is much less on a title one way or the other, and more on working with Russia to try to achieve progress on very difficult issues like Syria.”
At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest clarified that the U.S. government doesn’t have a specific “dictator” designation. However, a State Department report outlined the authoritarian nature of Putin’s regime, and Earnest said he doesn’t see daylight between it and Biden’s remarks. “The Russian Federation has a highly centralized authoritarian political system dominated by President Vladimir Putin,” Earnest read from the report. It also noted that Russia’s institutions “lacked independence from the executive branch.”
REBRANDING “SHAM”: The Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al Nusra, which is being targeted by the U.S. and Russia in Syria, has announced it is cutting ties to al Qaeda and changing its name to Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham. The rebranding left Kirby unimpressed. “We certainly see no reason to believe that their actions or their objectives are any different, and they are still considered a foreign terrorist organization.”
MISSILE SALES: Raytheon announced a 3 percent increase in total net sales for the second quarter of the year, mostly due to increases in missile orders, Diana Stancy writes.
PINNING THE BLAME: The North Carolina GOP really stepped in it Wednesday night while vice presidential nominee was giving his speech to the Democratic National Convention. The party org noticed that Kaine, who worked in Honduras years ago, was wearing a Honduras flag pin, which the state party called “shameful.” Except it was actually a Blue Star lapel pin, in honor of Kaine’s Marine son who’s deploying to Eastern Europe. They were caught, deleted the tweet, then apologized yesterday.
VIDEO: Watch Defense Secretary Ash Carter administering the oath of enlistment to seven new service members at an enlistment event in Great Lakes, Illinois here.
THE RUNDOWN
Washington Post: The Air Force is close to declaring the controversial F-35 ready for combat
RealClearDefense: Retire and Replace the A-10 Warthog
Defense News: BAE Says Brexit Vote Had No Short-Term Impact on Revenue
Breaking Defense: How Many B-21s? Answer Pending, Says AF Global Strike
Associated Press: Trump has a record of siding with Putin on key issues
Defense One: Imagine a Russian Invasion of the Baltics, If Trump Were President
Defense News: US Monitoring Plane Makes Emergency Landing in Russia
Reuters: China says to hold drills with Russia in South China Sea
Military.com: Decision Coming Soon on Navy Job Title Review, Mabus Says
Military Times: Thousands protest outside U.S. base in Turkey
Wall Street Journal: Islamic State Threat in Europe Shifts
Washington Post: Former Guantanamo detainee reappears in Venezuela, hopes to travel to Turkey
Calendar
FRIDAY | JULY 29
9 a.m. 1150 17th St. NW. AEI hosts Marine Lt. Gen. Jon Davis and Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) David Deptula to discuss the readiness crisis in Marine Aviation. aei.org
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. CSIS hosts Lt. Gen. Trey Obering to discuss how fewer resources, more responsibilities, and a growing budget squeeze affects the Missile Defense Agency. csis.org
MONDAY | AUGUST 1
1:30 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. CSIS hosts a panel to discuss religious extremism in Africa and how states and non-state actors are responding. Csis.org
