On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Congress that the United States military will deploy a new, permanent “expeditionary force” to Iraq, escalating the fight there against ISIS.

On Thursday, President Obama signed into law a bill to restore funding to families of fallen troops during the shutdown. The passage of the bill comes one day after a Maryland-based nonprofit agreed to offer an advance grant to impacted families who need help covering travel and funeral costs.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is lifting the ban on women serving in combat roles, following the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and overturning the 1994 regulation that prevented women from serving in combat units. Our endless war machine is almost officially gender-neutral!

Here we are on a normal August day and the New York Times says that the Defense Department is offering seed money to begin the very long process of designing a space ship to another star. But should we?

Who says the Senate confirmation process is broken? Today the chamber confirmed Leon Panetta as the next secretary of defense by a vote of 100-0. He'll take over when Sec. Robert Gates leaves at the end of June.

Now that Barack Obama has released his long-form birth certificate, let's play What Other Evil News Is He Trying to Distract Us From? Maybe it's this: The AP reports that CIA Director and former Bill Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta will take over for Defense Secretary Robert Gates this summer, while Afghanistan commander Gen. David Petraeus will replace Panetta at the CIA. Does the Obama administration want us talking about this?

Defense Secretary Robert Gates kicked off his weeklong Asia trip by hanging out with Chinese military leaders.

The second day of Senate hearings regarding a "Don't Ask Don't Tell" repeal went better for shameless filibuster-leader John McCain. But that's only because he fully embarrassed himself yesterday. But are the individual service chiefs really against repeal?

A proposed repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" enjoys the support of a national majority. The Pentagon has thoroughly studied and endorsed it. It wouldn't bother soldiers. DADT has been ruled unconstitutional, anyway. But John McCain needs more.

The Pentagon has officially released its several hundred-page study on whether allowing gay soldiers say "I'm gay" aloud would destroy the American military. And its survey results show: Most soldiers do not think that this would destroy the American military.

This morning at 4:50, some unknown idiot(s) decided to shoot their guns at the United States Department of Defense headquarters. Pentagon police heard at least five shots, and two definitely hit the building. Somehow, the building didn't completely collapse.

The pervs at the SEC can relax, because now the attention is on the defense and national security communities, where downloading child pornography on government computers is what happens when government officials aren't fighting the war on terror, apparently.

Despite tough talk from the White House, BP continues to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars from US military fuel contracts, and at least one new contract has been signed since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.