The Gallup Organization reports that a new USA Today/Gallup Poll asking Americans whether they felt the war in Iraq has made certain things better or worse off. While 48 percent believe the Iraqi people are better off, some 42 percent feel US citizens are worse off. That same percentage of Americans do believe, though, that the strength and preparedness of the US military has gotten better because of the war in Iraq.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.


