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The US navy has decided to allow women to serve on submarines, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, ending one of the last all-male bastions in the American military. Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the recommendation and sent letters to Congress on Monday informing lawmakers of the plan, officials said. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, had briefed Gates on the change and "he's endorsed it and sent it on to Congress," press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. Lawmakers have 30 days to comment on the move before it goes into effect, officials said. American...

President Barack Obama has launched a wave of high-stakes US diplomacy in the Middle East as Washington seeks to ratchet up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. Obama has enlisted his top deputies in the diplomatic drive to isolate Tehran and impose stricter sanctions on the regime, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, chief military officer Admiral Mike Mullen and senior diplomats travelling to the region this week and Vice President Joe Biden due next month. Clinton signaled the administration's tougher tone during a visit to the Gulf, warning on Monday that Iran was turning into a “military dictatorship”...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen will testify next week on the repeal of a controversial law preventing openly gay people from serving in the military. The Senate Armed Services Committee announced Thursday that Gates and Mullen will testify Tuesday on repealing the 1993 law, commonly known “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” President Barack Obama on Wednesday renewed his commitment to repeal the law, but supporters say the real test will come this spring with the Pentagon budget.

Despite the lingering demonstrations and disorder in Tehran, Iran’s ruling mullahs are confident anew in their country’s ability to surge to a hegemonic position in the Middle East without a major war. The main reason for the mullahs’ confidence is their interpretation of the appeasement policies of the US Barack Obama Administration. Most significant is the undeclared – yet widely projected – profound change in US policy regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran and all other regional governments are convinced that the US now strives to “contain” a nuclear Iran rather than continue the declared objective to prevent the nuclearization of...

Diplomacy offers the best way to resolve tensions over Iran's nuclear program but the Pentagon must be ready with military options if needed, the top US military chief said on Monday. "No resolution is yet in sight, but I fully support the effort to focus on diplomatic solutions to existing tensions" with Iran, Admiral Mike Mullen wrote in a memorandum setting out strategic priorities for the US armed forces in 2010. "My belief remains that political means are the best tools to attain regional security and that military force will have limited results," said Mullen, chairman of the Joints Chiefs...

As South Korea’s military transitions to full operational control, it’s important to remember the past 60 years of U.S. commitment to the country and to not waver in that support, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen talked yesterday with servicemembers and defense civilians at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, Korea. He spoke about his earlier meetings with his South Korean counterpart, citing “tremendous change” on the horizon. The Korean military is expected to assume a larger defense responsibility there in April 2012. The alliance will only get stronger, the chairman said, with...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is bungling its outreach to the Muslim world and squandering good will by failing to live up to its promises, the nation's highest-ranking military officer wrote Friday. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there is too much emphasis on telling the U.S. story and not enough on building trust and credibility. "We hurt ourselves and the message we are trying to send when it appears we are doing something merely for the credit," Mullen wrote in an essay published in a military journal. "We hurt ourselves more when our words...

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication” with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting. The critique by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, comes as the United States is widely believed to be losing ground in the war of ideas against extremist Islamist ideology.

Here is video of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen talking about the road ahead in Afghanistan, particularly the problem of Afghanistan now producing 93% of world's poppy crop, which is used for Opium. Much of the money from that poppy crop is being used to fund the insurgents fighting U.S. and Afghan Forces. Mullen also said they are keeping a very close eye on events in Iraq, where violence escalated last week. As the U.S. pulls troops out of Iraq in the months to come, he said they will be very mindful of the situation, and that...

Obama faces hard choices on Afghan war plans Military situation is ‘serious and deteriorating,’ JCS chairman says WASHINGTON - As public support for the Afghanistan war erodes, President Barack Obama is faced with two equally unattractive choices: increase U.S. troops levels to beat back a resilient enemy, or stick with the 68,000 already committed and risk the political fallout if that's not enough. The decision is just a few weeks away. Gen. Army Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is completing an assessment of what he needs to win the fight there. Already, one leading Republican is suggesting...

White House military adviser Adm. Mike Mullen said on Sunday he was concerned that any U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran carried a notable risk of more turmoil in the Middle East. "I think it would be significant. I worry about it a lot," Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the "Fox News Sunday" television program.

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2008 – Ongoing debate within Iraq’s political realm about negotiations over the U.S.-Iraq strategic framework agreement indicates the healthy development of Iraq’s young democracy, the U.S. military’s top officer said here today. The completion of the agreement would allow for continued U.S. military operations in Iraq after the United Nations security resolution ends Dec. 31. Political debate in Iraq “historically, has not taken place,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted at a Government Executive Magazine-hosted breakfast at the National Press Club. Mullen said he is encouraged by what he called the...

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2008 – Although al-Qaida’s operations in Iraq have been battered, the terrorist organization remains a threat to be reckoned with, the U.S. military’s top officer said here today. Al-Qaida is “on the run in Iraq,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted at a Government Executive Magazine-hosted breakfast at the National Press Club. The terrorists, he said, are being pressured by U.S. and Iraqi security forces, as well as concerned citizens who want al-Qaida out of their country. However, al-Qaida remains a “lethal foe” of the United States, Mullen cautioned, noting the...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The chief of the U.S. military said Sunday he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been "pretty damaging" to the image of the United States. "I'd like to see it shut down," Adm. Mike Mullen said in an interview with three reporters who toured the detention center with him on his first visit since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last October.

A national defense analyst says it's absolutely crazy that Pentagon officials will push the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to recommend the quick ratification of the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty. Cliff Kincaid, president of America's Survival, has already expressed his concerns that the Chinese have been using their huge trade advantage with the U.S. to build up their navy, while the U.S. Navy plans to further reduce the number of ships in its fleet. (See earlier article) But Kincaid says instead of changing course and rebuilding to counter the Chinese threat, top Naval officials, including Chief of Naval Operations...

Mike Mullen's Surprise Promotion By Tom Bowman CNO will carry a reputation as a pragmatist and problem-solver to the JCS Chairman’s office. When American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, Admiral Mike Mullen was talking budgets with then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark. Suddenly he felt something that reminded him of an earthquake in his native California. His office down the hall was closer to the impact. It quickly filled with smoke. His staff said the plane, slicing into the Pentagon some four floors below, appeared to roll under their feet. “It was a...

American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, June 28, 2007 - As he nominated his picks for the nation's top two military posts, President Bush said today they will succeed "two of America's finest military officers," Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani, vice chairman. Bush named Adm. Michael G. Mullen as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Marine Gen. James E. "Hoss" Cartwright as vice chairman, subject to Senate approval. Flanked by Mullen, Cartwright and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in the White House Roosevelt Room, the...

The Navy admiral tapped to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday he favors a diplomatic approach in dealing with Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, yet he offered few clues on how he would handle the war in Iraq. Adm. Michael Mullen accused Iran, without being more specific, of giving aid to insurgent forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still he called diplomacy "the right path." "I'm concerned about what Iran's doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, you know, broadly providing capability to which we are losing American soldiers on the ground and Marines on the ground, and I...

WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) — Associates of Adm. Michael Mullen, the Bush administration's pick to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he thinks current wars are straining the military. Longtime military associates of Mullen, who currently serves as chief of naval operations for the U.S. Navy, said he is concerned that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are straining the U.S. fighting force and if he accepted as chairmen of the Joint Chiefs he would likely push for political solutions to the conflicts, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. He's concerned the Army has been carrying the heavy load for...

Pace’s not being renominated has nothing to do with his performance as chairman of the JCS. It has everything to do with what he symbolizes (American leadership while fighting a difficult war in Iraq) to the usual salivating suspects on Capitol Hill. And it was clear to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and surely to President Bush, that Pace’s reconfirmation hearings would have been turned into a congressional circus: With poll-driven politicians focusing less on Pace’s performance and plans for the present and future prosecution of the war, and more on what has gone wrong in Iraq for the purposes of...

By recommending Adm. Michael G. Mullen to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has chosen a low-key pragmatist without a well-established stake in the Iraq strategy to be the country’s next senior military adviser. Unlike the two previous chairmen, Admiral Mullen, 60, was not in a top Pentagon post when the Bush administration made the decision to invade Iraq. Those who know him say that if confirmed as chairman, he has little reason to stick with a policy if he decides it is not working. “He will be pragmatic about Iraq,”...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration sidelined Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Friday, announcing plans to replace him as the nation's top military officer rather than reappoint him and risk a Senate confirmation struggle focusing on the Iraq War. "It would be a backward looking and very contentious process," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a Pentagon news conference where he announced he would recommend Adm. Mike Mullen to replace Pace. Mullen is the chief of naval operations, and Gates praised him for having the "vision strategic insight and integrity to lead America's armed forces."...

It really is a privilege and an honor to be here. I was with the all hands call this morning – saying my time in Pittsburgh has actually been fleeting. I grew up on the other side of this country. As a kid I hadn't spent any time on the East Coast. My first time in the area was to come up here for the Navy football game in 1964, for those of you who were here then. I don't remember who won the game but I do remember how fun the reception was and it certainly translates to what's...