NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was in Iraq this week to help open the new NATO training mission center in Baghdad. The NATO chief said that Iraq is “primarily responsible for the security of its people, but the alliance is pledged to assist in the training and equipping of Iraq’s security forces.” The new center, he continued, will “dramatically expand our options.” A NATO news statement said the alliance training mission in Iraq this year would train “around 700 officers” and “several hundred” in facilities in Europe. Yahoo.
The Air Force ramped up operations and maintenance spending to keep its F-35A fighters flying over the past six years, but readiness continues to lag behind goals, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.