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Senior GOP senator puts hold on Dempsey nomination

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A senior Republican senator said Thursday he will block Army Gen. Martin Dempsey’s nomination for a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff due to his dissatisfaction with the officer’s responses to questions about the potential use of U.S. military power in Syria.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona pressed Dempsey during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee to provide his personal opinion on which approach in Syria carries greater risk for U.S. national security interests: continued limited action on the part of Washington, or more significant steps such as establishment of a no-fly zone and arming rebel forces with the weapons they need to stem the advance of President Bashir Assad’s forces.

Dempsey said that he has provided President Barack Obama with options for the use of military force in Syria. But he declined to detail those choices, saying that “it would be inappropriate for me to try to influence the decision with me rendering an opinion in public about what kind of force we should use.”

During a testy exchange with McCain, the general added that he would “let this committee know what my recommendations are at the appropriate time.”

Dempsey’s response, McCain said, contradicted his commitment to provide the committee with his personal views, even if those opinions differ from the administration in power.

McCain told reporters after leaving the hearing room that he planned to put a hold on the nomination, essentially blocking any further Senate action until he gets an adequate response from Dempsey.

“I want to see him answer the question,” McCain said. “Hello!”

The situation in Syria, where a civil war entering its third year has killed almost 93,000 people, figured prominently amid an increasing clamor among Assad’s opposition for active U.S. involvement.

Senators including Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee chairman, and McCain have been pressing Obama to take a more forceful approach to defeat Assad’s forces. While the administration has authorized lethal aid to rebel forces battling Assad’s troops, it isn’t trying to enforce a no-fly zone in which Syria’s combat aircraft would be barred from flying, or otherwise intervene militarily to halt the war.

“Senator, I am in favor of building a moderate opposition and supporting it,” Dempsey told McCain. “The question whether to support it with direct kinetic …read more

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McCain to hold up Dempsey for renewal as top military officer after clash over Syria

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Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he will place a hold on the renomination of the nation’s top military officer, after he and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey got into a heated exchange on the Hill over the administration’s handling of the Syrian civil war.

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US general: Taliban likely to be long-term threat

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The United States accepts that a diminished but resilient Taliban is likely to remain a military threat in some parts of Afghanistan long after U.S. troops complete their combat mission next year, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

In an Associated Press interview at this air field north of Kabul, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is cautiously optimistic that the Afghan army will hold its own against the insurgency as Western troops pull back and Afghans assume the lead combat role. He said that by May or June, the Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country.

Asked whether some parts of the country will remain contested by the Taliban, he replied, “Yes, of course there will be.”

“And if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, I suspect there would (still) be contested areas because the history of Afghanistan suggests that there will always be contested areas,” he said.

He and other U.S. commanders have said that ultimately the Afghans must reach some sort of political accommodation with the insurgents, and that a reconciliation process needs to be led by Afghans, not Americans. Thus the No. 1 priority for the U.S. military in its final months of combat in Afghanistan is to do all that is possible to boost the strength and confidence of Afghan forces.

Shortly after Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the Taliban demonstrated its ability to strike.

It claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed five Americans — three soldiers and two civilians, including Anne Smedinghoff, a foreign service officer and the first American diplomat killed overseas since the terrorist attack Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya.

A NATO airstrike Saturday, which came after a joint U.S.-Afghan forced encountered heavy fire from militants during an operation against a Taliban leader, killed 11 Afghan civilians, including 10 children, Afghan officials said.

There are now about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. That number is to drop to about 32,000 by February 2014, and the combat mission is to end in December 2014. Whether some number — perhaps 9,000 or 10,000 — remain into 2015 as military trainers and counterinsurgents is yet to be decided.

Dempsey spent two days talking to senior Afghan …read more

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Seasoned combat leader takes over Africa Command

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One of the American military’s most seasoned combat leaders took charge Friday of U.S. Africa Command, whose No. 1 mission is to work with allies to neutralize the continent’s widening web of Islamic extremist groups, including those affiliated with al-Qaida.

Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez took over for Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, who is retiring after 39 years in uniform, including two years as an enlisted 82nd Airborne paratrooper.

Rodriguez served two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, including as the No. 2 commander of coalition forces during the 2010 U.S. troop surge. He is a member of a high-achiever West Point class of 1976 that includes the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno.

Ham and Rodriguez made the switch at a ceremony presided over by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, at a hotel near Africa Command‘s Stuttgart headquarters.

Dempsey called Rodriguez well-suited to lead Africa Command, calling him “smart and decisive.”

Notable for his absence was Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. He sent two letters — one read for him at a retirement ceremony for Ham and another at the formal change-of-command ceremony. Dempsey said Hagel had been “held” in Washington on other business.

Since its creation in 2007, Africa Command has grown from a relative backwater to arguably one of the most important commands in the U.S. military establishment. That is largely due to rising concern about Islamic extremists in the region, including a group known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which gained strength following the March 2012 coup d’etat in Mali.

Other extremist groups of particular concern to the U.S. are Boko Haram in Nigeria, and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Africa Command‘s area of responsibility covers the entire African continent minus Egypt.

As the Africa Command chief, Ham managed the U.S. portion of a 2011 coalition campaign to establish a no-fly zone over Libya in support of rebels whose uprising led to the violent overthrow of long-time strongman Moammar Ghadafi. A low point for Ham was the terrorist attack on U.S. government compounds in the Libyan city of Benghazi last September that killed our Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

A U.S. government official said Thursday that extremist and …read more

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Head of US Africa command warns of Islamic threat

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The chief of the U.S. Africa Command warned on Friday that threats from Islamic extremists in Africa are increasing and if unchecked could pose a greater danger to American interests and allies.

Army Gen. Carter Ham faced some wary members of the House Armed Services Committee, who questioned a robust U.S. military involvement in Africa after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ham said the threats in Africa do not match al-Qaida or the Taliban in Afghanistan, “but the trend is not good.”

“I think we have an opportunity now to work preventive effort in concert with African forces and with allies and friends globally to suppress the threat, to reverse the trend, which is increasingly worrisome to me,” Ham told the committee. “And that does not necessitate a large commitment of U.S. forces. And I do not believe that a large commitment of U.S. forces is either necessary nor appropriate under the current circumstance.”

Ham cited the growing collaboration between the Nigerian-based radical sect Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which bases its operations in Mali. The general said AQIM is the wealthiest affiliate of al-Qaida, due in part to ransom from kidnappings and the drug trade, and the group has been financing Boko Haram.

The two groups also have shared training and fighters.

Boko Haram has targeted Nigeria‘s weak central government with guerrilla attacks. Pressed on whether it had any intent on striking in the United States, Ham said some elements of the group are looking to attack beyond Africa to Europe and the United States.

“I think that’s why it’s important for us in partnership with Nigeria and others … to help them counter this before their capability matches their intent,” Ham said.

The challenge facing the U.S. military is determining which groups have legitimate ties to a terrorist organization such as al-Qaida and which are organizations dissatisfied with their government.

Ham also complained about “significant shortfalls in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” as he tries to carry out his mission.

Ham’s testimony came as the United States has increased training efforts in several African nations amid widespread insurgent violence across North Africa.

AQIM-linked terrorists are believed to have played a …read more
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Afghan troop cuts invite comparison to Iraq

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As the U.S. looks to reduce American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan after 2014, Congress members are making comparisons to Iraq and predicting a sharp decline in troops will quickly lead to increased violence and instability.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, lawmakers pressed the Army general expected to become the top U.S. commander in the Middle East for his assessment of the reduced force.

Army Gen. Lloyd Austin — who oversaw the final U.S. drawdown in Iraq — agreed that plans to sharply decrease the number of Afghan security forces after 2014 could open the door to more Taliban violence. And he said that keeping a larger Afghan force would give the Afghanistan government time to mature and reassure allies of America’s commitment to the region.

Under the agreement reached at the NATO summit in Chicago last year, allies would fund an Afghan force of 230,000 after 2014, down from the planned peak of 352,000. It would cost the allies about $4.1 billion annually.

Austin’s presence at the hearing, which was convened to consider his nomination to head U.S. Central Command, gave senators the chance to grill him on how many troops he had recommended to remain in Iraq after combat forces were removed. Senators said he recommended between 15,000 and 18,000.

The Obama administration was considering leaving as few as 3,500 after the end of combat operations, but ultimately all were withdrawn because the U.S. could not reach an agreement with the Iraq government on legal protections for American troops.

Austin acknowledged that he had recommended a higher number than the 3,500, but declined to say publicly what it was. He agreed that ongoing violence in Iraq is troubling and that the situation there may not be getting better. He said that if the U.S. military had been able to continue to advise and assist the Iraqi security forces, it would have helped them improve.

Austin declined, however, to give his assessment of the Obama administration’s decision to pull 34,000 U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by next year. He said he has not been part of the deliberations but would look into it if he gets the job.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said she’s worried that the U.S. will not leave a large enough force in Afghanistan after 2014 to protect the U.S. troops that are there.

…read more
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At least 7 troops killed in Colombia fighting

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Colombian authorities say at least seven soldiers have been killed and five others have been wounded in fighting with rebels.

Army Gen. Emiro Barrios say the gunbattle erupted on Wednesday in the southern state of Caqueta when rebels tried to seize the town of Milan and were repelled by dozens of troops.

It was the deadliest clash between Colombian troops and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia so far this year. On Jan. 29, four soldiers were killed in fighting with rebels elsewhere in the country.

The violence came while the Colombian government and FARC rebels are pursuing peace talks in Cuba.

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Venezuela Indians to release soldiers held captive

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A representative of Venezuela‘s Pemon Indians said Sunday that a group of men in a remote village plan to release several dozen soldiers they have been holding captive.

Alexis Romero said he had spoken with Pemon men in the village of Uriman, where members of the community decided they would release the soldiers after they reached an agreement with government representatives and military officers.

Romero said that people in the village, angered by what they perceive as abuses and mistreatment, had taken hostage a group of about 40 soldiers in protest last week.

Government and military officials have not commented on the incident, which has been widely reported in the Venezuelan news media. The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“This situation began due to abuses by soldiers,” Romero said in a telephone interview from Santa Elena de Uairen, a town located near Venezuela‘s border with Brazil. Romero said some people were upset about soldiers routinely stopping Pemon Indians to search them for gold, often detaining them for several hours.

An estimated 30,000 Pemon inhabit Venezuela‘s vast Gran Sabana region in the eastern state of Bolivar, which is covered by rolling grasslands and dotted with plateaus. Some indigenous people rely on small-scale gold mining to make a living.

President Hugo Chavez‘s government, meanwhile, has been trying for years to crack down on illegal mining that tears up the forests and pollutes rivers.

Romero said that on Saturday members of the Pemon community met with government officials including Army Gen. Cliver Alcala Cordones and Indigenous Peoples Minister Aloha Nunez.

Romero said that as part of their agreement, government authorities pledged to investigate alleged abuses by soldiers and round up and deport undocumented foreigners, including Brazilians and Colombians, who are involved in illegal mining.

Romero also said the government officials had agreed to permit mining by the Indians.

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Christopher Toothaker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ctoothaker

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Panetta defends military response in Libya attack

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that the speed of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last September kept U.S. armed forces from responding in time to save the four Americans who were killed.

Testifying for likely the last time on Capitol Hill before he steps down, Panetta defended the U.S. military’s response on a chaotic Sept. 11 day as the Obama administration tried to assess the threat from protests in Tunisia, Egypt, the Libyan capital of Tripoli and other countries.

He insisted that there were no specific signs of an imminent attack on the diplomatic mission that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. But soon after the initial attack, Panetta dispatched various military teams to Benghazi, including Marines from Spain and a special operations force that was training in Central Europe.

He pushed back against questions about why more firepower, such as gunships or fixed-wing fighter jets weren’t sent. He said they were not in the vicinity and would have required at least nine to 12 hours to deploy.

“This was, pure and simple, a problem of distance and time,” Panetta said.

Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee with Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Dempsey reminded the committee that it was “9-11 everywhere” when the consulate was attacked and that U.S. armed forces were prepared to respond to a wide variety of threats around the world.

U.S. posts and facilities in many countries throughout Africa and southwest Asia were operating under heightened protection levels, he said.

“We positioned our forces in a way that was informed by and consistent with available threat estimates,” Dempsey said.

Panetta is retiring after a Washington career that has stretched over four decades, with years as a California congressman, budget chief, White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and CIA director who oversaw the hunt and killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

The Defense Department is bidding farewell to Panetta, who has served as defense secretary since June 2011, in a ceremony on Friday. The committee gave Panetta a round of applause as Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., praised the Pentagon chief’s integrity. President Barack Obama has nominated former …read more
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US eyes drone base in Africa with al-Qaida in mind

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Plans to base unarmed American surveillance drones in the African nation of Niger highlight the Obama administration’s growing concern about extremist influences in the volatile region. They also raise tough questions about how to contain al-Qaida and other militant groups without committing U.S. ground forces in yet another war.

In the short run, a drone base would enable the U.S. to give France more intelligence on the militants its troops are fighting in neighboring Mali. Over time it could extend the reach not only of American intelligence gathering but also U.S. special operations missions to strengthen Niger’s own security forces.

The U.S. and Niger in recent days signed a “status of forces agreement” spelling out legal protections and obligations of U.S. forces that might operate in Niger in the future.

Pentagon spokesman George Little acknowledged the agreement, but declined Tuesday to discuss U.S. plans for a military presence in Niger.

“They expressed a willingness to engage more closely with us, and we are happy to engage with them,” Little said, adding that the legal agreement was months in the making and is unrelated to the recent fighting in Mali.

The U.S. has found some of its efforts to fight extremists hobbled by some African governments, whose own security forces are ill-equipped to launch a U.S.-style hunt for the militants, yet are reluctant to accept U.S. help because of fears the Americans will overstay their welcome and trample their sovereignty.

At France‘s request, the U.S. has flown 17 Air Force transport flights to move French troops and their equipment to Mali in recent days, Little said. U.S. aircraft also are conducting aerial refueling French fighter jets based in Mali, he said, and those operations will continue.

Other U.S. officials said the Pentagon is planning a new drone base in northwestern Africa — most likely in Niger — but the plans are not yet complete. It would provide more extended U.S. aerial surveillance of militants in the region without risking the loss of air crews. The main U.S. drone base in Africa is in Djibouti in East Africa.

Niger has accepted the idea of hosting unarmed U.S. drones as well as conventional and special operations troops to advise and assist Niger’s military on border security, but it has not endorsed armed U.S. Predator strikes or the launching of U.S. special operations raids from their territory, according to a senior U.S. military official briefed on the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.

Africa is increasingly a focus of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, even as al-Qaida remains a threat in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. The recent terrorist attack on a natural gas complex in southeastern Algeria, in which at least 37 hostages and 29 militants were killed, illustrated the threat posed by extremists who have asserted power propelled by long-simmering ethnic tensions in Mali and the revolution in Libya.

A number of al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist groups operate in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahara, including a group known as Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, which originated in Algeria and is active in northern Mali. Earlier this month French forces intervened to stop the extremists’ move toward Mali‘s capital, and Washington has grown more involved by providing a variety of military support to French troops.

At issue for the Obama administration is the degree to which these groups threaten U.S. security interests.

“AQIM poses a threat in the region, and I can’t rule out the possibility that AQIM poses a threat to U.S. interests,” Little said. “This is a group that has shown its ability to demonstrate brutality and to conduct attacks. And it is very important that we work with our partners in the region and our allies to thwart them.”

Army Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said last week that the worry is not just the intentions of AQIM but the ability of like-minded groups to leverage their capabilities by working together.

“We’re starting to see the increasing collaboration, sharing of funding, sharing recruiting efforts, sharing of weapons and explosives and certainly a sharing of ideology that is expanding and connecting these various organizations,” Ham said at Howard University. “And I think that’s what poses at least the greatest immediate threat in the region.”

The administration has ruled out sending U.S. ground forces to Mali. Its view is that military involvement, while necessary, is not a solution to the region’s problems.

“We have said all along that there has to be more than a purely security solution to the problems in Mali, that the security track and the political track have to go hand-in-hand, that a key component of returning stability to Mali includes new elections and overturning the results of the coup firmly,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters on Monday. She was referring to the coup last spring that prompted the U.S. to withdraw military trainers and cut off other forms of direct military assistance.

Some of the Malian troops that had received U.S. training wound up siding with the rebels in the north, and others who remained loyal to the government proved incapable of standing their ground against the militants.

Adm. Bill McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told a Washington conference on Tuesday that the key to future U.S. training operations like that is to ensure that the effort is long-lasting.

“We had an episodic presence in Mali,” McRaven said, “and while I don’t know if a persistent presence would have changed our relationship with the Malian forces — whether they would have exponentially gotten better or not. “But in order to work with a host country, you really have to have that persistent presence.”

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AP Intelligence writer Kimberly Dozier and Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

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Military considers joining firefighting sooner

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The general in charge of the military response to civilian emergencies says officials are weighing whether to make it easier to call in military planes to help fight wildfires.

The head of the U.S. Northern Command, Army Gen. Charles Jacoby, said Wednesday the option of calling up C-130 cargo planes sooner is under consideration as military and civilian leaders get ready for this year’s wildfire season.

The Defense Department has eight C-130s that can be equipped to drop thousands of gallons of retardant on wildfires. Under current rules, they can’t be called up unless all the civilian and commercial firefighting aircraft are in use or unavailable.

Last year’s devastating wildfires across the West prompted some civilian leaders to question why the C-130s weren’t activated sooner.

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Sexual misconduct a major reason behind military commander firings

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Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, fired from his command in Afghanistan last May and now facing a court-martial on charges of sodomy, adultery and pornography and more, is just one in a long line of commanders whose careers were ended because of possible sexual misconduct.

Sex has proved to be the downfall of presidents, members of U.S. Congress and other notables. It’s also among the chief reasons that senior military officers are fired.

At least 30 percent of military commanders fired over the past eight years lost their jobs because of sexually related offenses, including harassment, adultery, and improper relationships, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.

The figures bear out growing concerns by Defense Department and military leaders over declining ethical values among U.S. forces, and they highlight the pervasiveness of a problem that came into sharp relief because of the resignation of one of the Army’s most esteemed generals, David Petraeus, and the investigation of a second general, John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

The statistics from all four military services show that adulterous affairs are more than a four-star foible. From sexual assault and harassment to pornography, drugs and drinking, ethical lapses are an escalating problem for the military’s leaders.

With all those offenses taken together, more than 4 in every 10 commanders at the rank of lieutenant colonel or above who were fired fell as a result of behavioral stumbles since 2005.

The recent series of highly publicized cases led to a review of ethics training across the military. It also prompted Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to conclude that while training is adequate, it may need to start earlier in service members’ careers and be reinforced more frequently.

Still, officials struggle to explain why the problem has grown and they acknowledge that solving it is difficult and will take time.

“I think we’re on the path. I think the last two defense secretaries have made this a very high priority and have very much held people accountable. But we’ve got a ways to go,” said Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense under President Barack Obama.

She said the military must enforce a “zero tolerance” policy and work to change the culture so service members are held accountable and made to understand that their careers will be over if they commit or tolerate such offenses.

“The policy is in place,” she said. “I don’t know that it’s as evenly and fully enforced as intended.”

For top officers, the numbers are startling.

Eighteen generals and admirals, from one star to four stars, were fired in recent years, and 10 of them lost their jobs because of sex-related offenses; two others were done in by alcohol-related problems.

The figures show that 255 commanders were fired since 2005, and that 78 of them were felled by sex-related offenses. A breakdown: 32 in the Army, 25 in the Navy, 11 in the Marine Corps and 10 in the Air Force.

Alcohol and drug-related problems cost the jobs of 27 commanders — 11 in the Navy, eight in the Army, five in the Marine Corp(s and three in the Air Force.

“It’s troublesome,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Navy’s top spokesman. “Navy leadership is taking a look at why personal conduct seems to be a growing reason for why commanding officers are losing their commands. We’re trying to get to the root causes. We don’t really fully understand it.”

He and other military leaders agree that poor leadership, bad judgment, and ethical lapses, rather than operational failures, are growing factors in the firings. But Kirby said it’s not clear whether that has anything to do with the strains of the past 10 years at war or simply reflects deteriorating morals among the general population.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the ethics review in November. He said that “when lapses occur, they have the potential to erode public confidence in our leadership and in our system for the enforcement of our high ethical standards. Worse, they can be detrimental to the execution of our mission to defend the American people.”

Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, said there is more focus on this issue now than ever in the past, but that there really is no sufficient deterrent in place. She said a major problem is that military commanders are responsible for deciding what cases should move forward.

She said military lawyers, who are trained and have a greater appearance of impartiality, should make such an important legal decision.

The statistics gathered and analyzed by the AP represent a very conservative estimate of the problem. While the Army, Navy and Marine Corps provided details for all military commanders who were lieutenant colonels or commanders and above for 2005 until now, Air Force officials said they could only provide data for colonels and above from 2008 until today.

Also, the figures reflect only officers who were in command positions. The numbers don’t include what could be hundreds of officers fired from other jobs, such as administrative or other military posts. Military officials said they only collect data on officers in command who are fired.

The reasons for the firings are also murky. In some cases, no reason was listed; in other cases, it was vague — such as “ethics” or “leadership” or for fostering a bad command climate.

There also are varying degrees of publicity when such action is taken.

In Sinclair’s case, the charges and impending court martial have received extensive coverage. The five pages of allegations, which involve his conduct with five women who were not his wife, include one count of forcible sodomy, two counts of wrongful sexual conduct, six counts of inappropriate sexual relationships, and eight counts of violating regulations. He could receive life in prison if convicted.

But in many other cases, particularly of those below the rank of general, there is little public notice if the senior officer is in the Army or Air Force. The Navy, however, issues a public statement every time a commander is removed from a job.

The figures also highlight the Navy’s reputation for being quick to justice. Although it is the second smallest of the four military services, the Navy has relieved the most commanders, 99, over the past eight years. By comparison, it was 83 for the Army, 41 for the Marines and 32 for the Air Force.

Dismissing a commander from a job does not mean that officer is forced out of the military. In some of the more serious cases, officers may be discharged or forced to resign. But in many other cases, service members may go on to another job for some time.

Still, a dismissal often signals the end of an officer’s career, and with no chance for promotion, officers will often retire or leave the service.

The Army is the largest of the military services, reaching a peak of about 570,000 active duty soldiers at the height of the Iraq war. It is supposed to cut 80,000 troops by 2017. The Marine Corps is the smallest service, with about 202,000 at its peak during the wars and is set to slim down to about 182,000. The Navy has about 322,000 active duty forces and the Air Force has about 328,000.

The other reasons for dismissals by the services cover a broad range of offenses, from assault and drug and alcohol use to being a poor or abusive leader. There are also instances of fraud as well as a few cases where Navy officers commanding a ship have hit something, such as a buoy or another ship.

Four generals have lost their jobs in recent years as a result of public scandals. All were dismissed while Robert Gates was defense secretary:

–Gen. Michael Moseley, the Air Force Chief of Staff, was dismissed in 2008 for failing to address several nuclear-related mishaps by the service.

— Army Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and Army Maj. Gen. George Weightman were dismissed because of the poor outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007.

—Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal resigned after members of his staff made disparaging remarks about Obama’s national security team, including Vice President Joe Biden. A Pentagon investigation later cleared him of wrongdoing.

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