The U.S. is out of Iraq. President Obama made that point in last week's State of the Union address. But there are still eyes on Iraq particularly those places where there are still U.S. personnel — such as the U.S. Embassy In Baghdad. Those eyes are in the form of predator drones, watching over Baghdad according to Eric Schmitt terrorism correspondent for our partner The New York Times.

During a visit to Australian on Wednesday, President Obama announced that 2,500 U.S. troops will be sent to the country to boost security in the Pacific region. The move is seen as a strategy to counter China's increased influence. He spoke strongly on China's rising responsibilities and the U.S. perspective on its growing strength. China responded by saying that it "may not be quite appropriate" to expand U.S. military in the region.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is considering drastic cuts in military spending, including slashing retirement benefits and a round of base closings. Panetta has been ordered to cut more than $450 billion of the Pentagon budget over the next decade and has been under intense political pressure to make the cuts. The yearly defense budget has doubled since the 9/11 attacks. Panetta said it is possible to reshape the military in order to reduce the budget while still defending national interests.

Federal authorities are still on alert after news of a "specific, credible" terrorist threat for New York City and the District of Columbia broke on Thursday night, as the tenth anniversary of September 11 approached. The memorial service at Ground Zero still went on as promised Sunday, with thousands of people coming to the site to pay tribute to those who died and those who survived in the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, on Saturday the Taliban took credit for a suicide bomb attack on NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan, injuring at least 80 people.

Tasked with fixing the nation’s economic problems, the bipartisan "super committee" of twelve Congressional members may be leading some politically sacred cows to slaughter. In the halls of Congress, there is now discussion of making cuts in defense, intelligence and military spending, including pensions for retirees with 20 years of military service. Is Congress really ready to change the course of our military spending, or, is this just another bargaining tactic?

McAfee, a leading cyber security company, issued a report on Wednesday that indirectly points to China as the source of a broad ranging cyber attack on more than 72 organizations throughout the world — including the United Nations, the Olympic movement and the U.S. government. As cyber attacks become a growing threat to the country, the National Security Agency has made a push to employ the best and brightest to combat these attacks. Often, the most qualified people to play defense are often the ones that were once on the offensive — former hackers.

The United States is suspending as much as $800 million of military aid to Pakistan, in a bid to change the behavior of one of America’s most crucial — and controversial — partners. The move is an effort to admonish the country for expelling U.S. military trainers, and show disapproval for terrorist activities, such as the slaying in May of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, whose death has recently been linked to Pakistan's powerful spy agency. 

Tomorrow, the Obama administration will shuffle its top civilian military position when Leon Panetta, 73, replaces Robert Gates as the secretary of defense. For a nation stretched thin by three ongoing military engagements, the new Secretary of Defense is going to have little time for on-the-job training. Instead, he can hope to learn from the example left behind by his out-going colleague.

 

President Obama is expected to announce this week new appointments for top posts in his national security team. Leon Panetta, the current director of central intelligence, will be named as defense secretary. General David Petraeus, who is currently the top commander in Afghanistan, is expected to be named as director of the CIA. These announcements come as Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans on stepping down from his post this summer. We talk with Mark Landler, reporter for our partner The New York Times, to help preview Obama's new national security team.

"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know…"

That’s former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, talking about what we know and don’t know, with regard to weapons of mass destruction. But when it comes to the secretary himself, what do we know?

Monday evening residents near Lost Angeles, California saw something strange shoot into the sky, leaving a squiggly, smoky tail in its path. Some wondered if it was a missile launch, but after local military didn't take responsibility for the mystery incident, questions remain. Experts have mused that it might have been merely a jet, seen departing from a strange angle, while others wondered if it was a ballistic launched from a submarine. What do you think? Take a look at the CBS News video and tell us your theory. 

The Russian military has launched a new defense program to inflate the size of its military: pretend weapons. The military has stationed inflatable weapons, including tanks to entire radar stations. Our partners at the BBC share the story.

Today the Senate holds a procedural vote on whether a sweeping defense appropriations bill — which allocates money for conflicts overseas as well as program cuts at home — makes it to the floor. As any Lady Gaga fan likely knows, this morning, the legislation's most visible component is a proposed repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Gaga has been calling for a repeal of the policy on her Twitter account and elsewhere, and traveled to Maine yesterday to speak at a rally organized by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Why Maine? Maine's Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (as well as Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown) could play an important role in allowing the bill to move forward.

In an article in Foreign Affairs, Deputy Secretary William J. Lynn III has acknowledged for the first time that there had a been major electronic attack on Defense Department computers in 2008. As the U.S. government organizations use new digital frontiers to both store and gather intelligence, a new frontier in stealing that intelligence opens up as well. How does the U.S. government protect it's information in the cyber age?

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited the Afghan capital on Monday. Gen. McChrystal said the U.S. has all but routed the Taliban from their former stronghold of Marjah and that the military will now turn its attention to Kandahar — a key city that dwarfs Marjah in size.

Iran's nuclear chief says the country will begin enriching uranium to twenty percent strength — up from 3.5 percent, and build ten new nuclear facilities over the next year. While the construction of that many facilities in one year is probably not achievable, and while it takes ninety percent enrichment to make a nuclear bomb, the reaction from the United States and France was swift and harsh: The two nations called for even more sanctions on Iran. We ask how great the threat of a nuclear Iran really is.

President Obama's State of the Union Address didn't have much to say on foreign policy or the war effort, but John Hockenberry got to ask Gen. David Petraeus about it when he sat down the head of U.S. Central Command this week. In part two of our wide ranging interview, Gen. Patreaus lays out the strategies and challenges in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

At a conference in London today, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to address ways of reintegrating some Taliban members back into the Afghan political process. It's something we put to Gen.  David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It seemed like an essential move after the September 11 attacks: having dozens of fighter jets on alert at all times in case it happened again. But eight years later, military commanders are now questioning such an expensive policy. New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt tells us about the biggest reassessment of the terrorist air threat since the attacks.

Read Eric Schmitt's exclusive story in today's New York Times

 

To assess the state of the war in Afghanistan, The Takeaway talks with Stephen Biddle, a counterinsurgency expert and senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was tasked by General Stanley McChrystal to visit Afghanistan (along with about a dozen other independent analysts) to assess the current state of the war. He spent a month there, and returned last week.