An op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal says there is no surprise in the fact that King Abdullah’s first official visit outside the Middle East was to China. The new Saudi Arabia leader is simply fulfilling a long-sought Royal Saudi desire to lessen the country’s dependence on the US. According to National Defense University professor Richard L. Russell, the Saudis have been seething since 1991 when they had to ask the US for help to fend off Saddam Hussein.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
