Page 18 - Combat Capability News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Rotating them in is a good step but it's only one step in a long, long climb back to u.s. ground force capability. we have the same american pattern over and over again. after something like the cold war, we cut too deeply. now we have gone from half a million troops at the heist our involvement in the cold war to fewer than 7,000 and that includes marines, navy, air force. so sending back these brigades on training missions, great idea. but that doesn't mean you have combat capability there. we dismantled the struck there. it's about having the spare parts, the mechanics, the food, the fuel. ...

>> the president's logic at the time look, it's been a decade. we can't stay forever. the united states, you know, can't hold a country together. iraq has to be ready to have democracy and stand on its own. ultimately wasn't that a decision that had to be made? trillions of dollars had been spent. it was continual, hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and things weren't getting better. >> you know, i sat in on the margins of the national security meetings when george bush was president. and he used to say iraq and the future needs to look like south korea. if you look at south korea today, ...

He admitted there are difficult times ahead, but 2014 is a hard and fist deadline for u.s. troops to come home. >> this time of war began in afghanistan and this is where it will end. >> reporter: shortly after arriving under cover of darkness, president obama signed an agreement promising support after the war ends in 2014. >> we have a clear path to fulfill our mission in afghanistan. >> reporter: the agreement does not say how many troops will stay. >> 20,000 troops spread all over the country as advisers without much combat capability would be too much at risk. >> reporter: critics argue w...

Manner that puts serious combat capability off the coast in the event that we have to evacuate u.s. citizens and embassy personnel from damascus. heather: is this a show of support for israel? >> i think, yeah, actually it is. they are our real ally in the neighborhood, the only democracy in the middle east and you've got turmoil all the way around, just sweep around from what is going on in syria, the mess in lebanon, egypt, so much for the arab spring. you just take a look at it, it's an extremely volatile area, and having a serious show of u.s. resolve in that area, i think is very importan...

i'll get a live update from tripoli. in china, vice president joe biden says the u.s. will never default on its debt. i'll have more on what he's saying about the u.s. economy just ahead. and for many members. u.s. military, returning home is just not complete. well, until they get a hero's welcome from man's best friend. their dog. a very special welcome to all the servicemen and women who are watching us right now on the armed forces network. let's get right to it. we begin with libya where moammar gadhafi's government and rebels are offering very different takes on hats goi ...