The day after President Bush announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time SECDEF appeared at Kansas State University for the Alf Landon Lecture Series, offering his view of the way forward in the war on terror. Among several suggestions, Rumsfeld told the 5,000-strong audience, “National security policies can no longer be separated into the functions of defense, diplomacy, and development.” In what is becoming a familiar call, Rumsfeld advocates better collaboration among DOD, State, CIA, Homeland, Justice, and more. He also laid some blame for current circumstances in Afghanistan and Iraq on the budgeting process. Rumsfeld asserted, “The realities on the ground in the rest of the world do not correspond to the yearly federal budgetary process—where it can take one year to craft a budget, another to get it approved by Congress, and then a third year to execute that then somewhat stale program.”
Hawaii F-22s Wrap Up Deployment to Japan
April 9, 2021
F-22s and Airmen from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, forward deployed to Japan for almost one month to train with Japanese and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft as part of a “dynamic force employment” operation. The Raptors from the Active-duty 19th Fighter Squadron and Air National Guard 199th Fighter Squadron deployed…