Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given Hamas an ultimatum:Release all hostagesstill in Gaza by noon Saturday, or the Jewish state will unleash a ferocious new phase of the war.
The new demand Tuesday to return all 31 hostages being held in the Palestinian territory, along with the bodies of 36 others, matches President Trump’s call a day earlier for Hamas to free every hostage or he would “let hell break loose” on the terror group.
Netanyahu warned that “intense fighting” would begin immediately in Gaza if Hamas does not comply, and that Israel was already amassing forces on the border of the Palestinian territory.
Israeli soldiers stand on a tank on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, amid a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, February 11, 2025.REUTERS
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” the premier said in a statement.
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It all comes after Hamas ordered a halt on the hostage exchanges Monday after it claimed that Israel has violated the cease-fire agreement — which experts say is a naked attempt to get more concessions out of the Jewish state.
Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023, attack, are released by Hamas.REUTERS
Netanyahu’s statement came after a cabinet meeting in which Israeli officials discussed Hamas’ allegations and the terror group’s refusal to release the nine remaining hostages who are part of the first phase of the cease-fire deal.
While Netanyahu had originally called on Hamas to just release the next three batches of hostages by Saturday, as per the original cease-fire deal, the premier then asked for all nine living hostages of the first phase to be freed.
Hours later, Israeli officials said Netanyahu upped his demands to match with Trump’s ultimatum, the Times of Israel reports.
An Israeli official told TOI that Netanyahu was purposefully avoiding the phrase “all the hostages” in public statements so as to allow Israel to have some leverage in the negotiations.
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that they are currently bolstering its forces in the Southern Command, which oversees the Gaza border.
“The reinforcements of troops and mobilization of reservists are being carried out in preparation for various scenarios,” an IDF statement said.
The Israeli deadline matched the one given by Trump, who warned that he would “let hell break out” if Hamas did not release the hostages.
“I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday,” Trump said. “And if they’re not returned — all of them, not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two – by Saturday at 12 o’clock. And after that, I would say, all hell is going to break out.”
People gather at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to watch live footage on a large screen of the release of three Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip on February 8, 2025.AFP via Getty Images
Trump reaffirmed the deadline during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Crown Prince Al Hussein on Tuesday.
The president has said that he would leave the final decision to Israel, giving the Jewish state the ability to overrule his demands.
Hamas scoffed at Trump’s ultimatum as the terror group claimed the cease-fire is the only way for the remaining hostages to be freed.
“Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the (Israeli) prisoners. The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Joe Truzman, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defending Democracy, said Hamas’ threats were a ploy to get the US and Israel “to make additional concessions to expedite the release of the hostages.”
“Hamas is capitalizing on the public outrage generated by the distressing images of emaciated hostages to amplify pressure on the Israeli government for further concessions,” Truzman said in a statement.
An Israeli army tank placed on a transport truck on February 11, 2025, inside southern Israel near the Gaza Strip border.Jim Hollander/UPI/Shutterstock
“Hamas is executing a strategy to assert dominance over the hostage negotiations and the situation in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the FDD and former White House National Security Council staffer, warned that the goal of the cease-fire disruption would be to see the fighting restart, which he said would benefit both Hamas and their backers in Tehran.
Goldberg told The Post that Trump doesn’t have to send troops to Gaza to threaten Hamas, as the president has plenty of alternative methods to punish the terror group should they fail to meet the deadline.
“Just on Hamas, [Trump could] go after their assets that we have not gone after in the region that might be held in Qatar or Turkey or other places in the Middle East; give authorization to go hunt down Hamas leaders wherever they live, whether it’s in Gaza or not in Gaza and support Israel in doing that,” he said.
“Just because Hamas leaders today enjoy safe harbor in Qatar doesn’t mean they would enjoy safe harbor and Qatar tomorrow,” Goldberg added.
SEDONA, Ariz.—Mike O’Sedona stood out as a dark silhouette in a snap-brim hat against the purple twilight sky, staring at the stunning conjunction of the crescent moon and Venus.
“There’s the Dog Star, Sirius. There’s Rigel, and there’s Orion—along with the belt,” O’Sedona said as his finger moved among the stars and constellations.
On the eve of Jan. 31, he led a small group of curious visitors on a 90-minute crash course in astronomy while searching for satellites, drones, spacecraft, and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
The goal was to learn how to navigate the night sky and identify celestial and man-made objects while examining anomalies with a healthy dose of skepticism.
The tool they used consists of night vision goggles designed by O'Sedona that enhance ambient light by a factor of one thousand.
“There’s a spaceship about 850 miles [up],” he said, peering through his night vision scope. He recognized the object by its relative speed and path.
“That’s your weather satellite right there. I’m going to try to find a [communications] satellite in a minute,” he said.
What was once invisible to the naked eye can now be observed through a bright, glowing green field in the viewfinder.
And there was much to see that night under the celestial dome over Sedona Airport in central Arizona.
“Okay. See this guy right here? He pulsed. Let’s see if he pulses again,” O’Sedona said. “These guys—they are cruising. They’re spacecraft. Now, there’s an airplane.”
“This is going on 24/7, guys. Our [U.S.] Space Force stuff is pretty heavy.”
Since 2018, O’Sedona, owner of Arizona UFO Tours, has guided groups on nighttime adventures, aiming to spot elusive and difficult-to-explain “exotic” objects.
About four years ago, he remembered seeing a peculiar ball of red light moving at a low altitude near Thunder Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Sedona.
“It couldn’t have been a falling star because it was below the mountaintop—no trail, just a red ball,” he said.
It has been about 13 months since O’Sedona last saw an exotic object, and tonight, he and his three customers are hopeful.
Rampant Drone Sightings
When the conversation turned to the recent mass sightings of drones across the country, O'Sedona, a retired missile engineer from the Department of Defense, shared his opinion.
“The drones are not a theory,” he said.
He believes they are government aircraft used for intelligence gathering. They are searching for something—but what that something is remains a mystery.
“What the drones are doing is what I like to call ‘fishing,’” O'Sedona said.
In November, widespread reports of drone sightings began emerging from at least six states, including heavily populated areas in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
In response, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented temporary flight restrictions at key locations, such as Cape Canaveral in Florida, Libby Air Force Base in Arizona, and other military installations.
“Generally speaking, it is legal to fly a drone in most locations if you’re operating under 400 feet, but there are rules—including safety tests, keeping below 400 feet, keeping the drone in sight, avoiding all other aircraft, not causing a hazard to any people or property, and avoiding restricted airspace,” the FAA told The Epoch Times in an email.
By December, the FAA reported there were more than 1 million registered drones in the United States. Of these, 409,408 were registered for commercial use, while 385,892 were registered for recreational purposes.
The former Biden administration stated that the drones were not of foreign origin or harmful to the public.
President-elect Donald Trump previously promised to improve transparency regarding the drone sightings once he took office on Jan. 20.
During her first media briefing on Jan. 28, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the mysterious drones spotted along the East Coast were authorized FAA drones.
“After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons,” she said.
“Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones.
“In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”
There’s An App for That
Enigma Labs, a New York City-based company founded in 2020, has launched a new iPhone platform that allows users to track sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). An Android version of the app will be released soon.
Currently, the private startup has about 200,000 users who report sightings in real-time using the application.
The company utilizes advanced artificial intelligence and sensor fusion to accurately identify and confirm events, as stated on the company’s website.
“People are seeing objects every single day and reporting them to us. They’re sending us videos, and they’re sending us photographs,” Enigma Labs spokesperson Christine Kim told The Epoch Times.
Beginning in mid-November, Enigma Labs said mysterious unidentified aircraft were first reported across the tri-state region. Many sightings occurred near sensitive areas such as military bases, involving “swarms of objects, and prolonged hovering raised public and official concern.”
“The FAA implemented flight restrictions, local senators called for a state of emergency, and [Connecticut] authorities continue to investigate,” according to Enigma Labs.
“The persistent incursions and lack of clear communication drove a wave of public speculation, including fears of foreign drones or loose nuclear material.”
From Nov. 20 to Jan. 27, Enigma Labs received and approved a total of 520 reports in the Northeast and 480 reports in the tri-state area. The Enigma app sent out 12,000 notifications, which helped drive more skywatchers to focus on the hotspots.
Enigma Labs categorized the surge in sightings based on their characteristics, behavior, and group incursions.
The ground-reported data revealed that 16 percent of the objects were described as “exceptionally large.”
Additionally, 63 percent of approved reports noted unusual light patterns, while 14 percent described common shapes, including triangles.
“Forty percent of reports actually mentioned drones and drone-like behavior, and many reported the objects moving in strange patterns,” Enigma Labs wrote.
“Fifty-four percent of reports described the object as ‘hovering’ or staying airborne for extended periods of time beyond the capability of a hobbyist drone.”
Twenty-five percent of reports described objects moving in “swarms” of five or more; 13 percent of Enigma app users reported more than 10 objects.
Also of interest, Engima Labs said 364 reports were within 25 miles of military sites, such as Picatinny Arsenal and the Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey.
“Though there is no consistent pattern, several witnesses reported objects on the coast, several mentioned objects coming from the ocean and flying inland,” Enigma Labs said.
In Arizona, users of the Enigma app have reported hundreds of sightings: Tucson recorded 884 sightings, followed by Yuma with 155, Flagstaff with 137, Kingman with 130, and Prescott with 107.
Kim estimates that Enigma Labs has received a total of 32,000 reported sightings through the app, and these sightings continue despite a decrease in media coverage. In December, she said, around 2,500 sightings were reported via the app.
Sightings Continue
“We ask a lot of structured data questions because we believe that to study UAPs scientifically, we need the right data,” Kim said.
“What’s surprising is January was actually one of our highest months, excluding December, where we’re now approaching 2,000 sightings. January is on track to being one of our highest submissions in two months.
“We’re largely neutral on the origins. There are a lot of theories out there on what they could be.”
Adding credibility to reported sightings, Kim said many users of the Enigma app are scientists, veterans, and professional skywatchers, so they are always “looking up.”
“We really prize those submissions. They really have expertise,” she said.
Kim said that approximately 60 percent of reported sightings deserve further investigation.
“It’s definitely worthy of investigation. I think there’s a lot of frustration,” Kim said. “What are these drones? Are people doing anything about it? How can we find patterns?”
Kim said not all of them are unusual. “There are a lot of objects in the air—satellites and planets that people think are UAPs.”
Regardless of the origins of drones or UAPs, Congress has demonstrated increasing interest in these sightings and has held hearings on the topic.
Federal officials and lawmakers have also instructed the military and intelligence agencies to provide updates.
In 2022, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, launched the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Study Team, which includes a panel of 16 experts tasked with exploring the nature and root source of UAPs.
‘Red Rock’ Community
Each year, around 3 million people visit Sedona, a city with a population of 9,819. It is well-known for its unexplained aerial sightings, alleged energy vortexes attributed to the high magnetic properties of its iron-rich rock, and various sites of New Age spiritual interest.
“What we have is a dark sky community that allows these goggles to see things you couldn’t see in most places,” O’Sedona said.
Public broadcaster PBS is closing its office of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), The Hill confirmed Tuesday.
“In order to best ensure we are in compliance with the President’s executive order around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion we have closed our DEI office,” the outlet said in a statement. “The staff members who served in that office are leaving PBS. “
President Trump has made efforts to strip DEI programs and initiatives from government departments and applied pressure on private companies to do the same.
“We will continue to adhere to our mission and values,” the outlet added. “PBS will continue to reflect all of America and remain a welcoming place for everyone.”
A federal judge Tuesday clarified that a ruling preventingElon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems does not extend to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Though U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas agreed to slightly loosen the restrictions, which were ordered by a separate judge, she did not accept the Justice Department’s bid to dissolve them entirely.
Vargas kept intact restrictions that block political appointees and special government employees, like Musk and DOGE personnel, only exempting Bessent and other senior department leaders whose roles require Senate confirmation.
“More fundamentally, there are no allegations in the Complaint suggesting that access to Treasury payment systems by such senior Treasury officials poses a threat of disclosure of sensitive and confidential information, or that their access would result in systems that would be more vulnerable to hacking, the harms that animated the grant of the February 8 TRO,” Vargas wrote.
As they stepped up their attacks on the courts, the Justice Department moved to scrub the original ruling, warning its sweeping terms amounted to an intrusion on the executive branch that would go as far as to keep out even Bessent from the systems, which are used to dole out trillions annually.
“The government is aware of no example of a court ever trying to micromanage an agency in this way, or sever the political supervision of the Executive Branch in such a manner. This Court should not be the first,” the Justice Department wrote in court filings.
The lawsuit is one of many challenging Musk’s efforts to downsize and even eliminate parts of the federal bureaucracy. Democrats and career public servants have warned the administration is acting without legal authority and endangering sensitive private information of citizens.
Lawsuits have also been filed challenging DOGE’s access at the Labor Department, Education Department, Office of Personnel Management and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
But it is the Treasury Department access that has attracted the most scrutiny.
Saturday’s ruling was issued by an Obama-appointed judge, who was on emergency duty when the Democratic-led states filed their lawsuit hours earlier, before the government could respond. Monday’s order dissolving that ruling was issued by Vargas, an appointee of former President Biden who will permanently oversee the case.
The states largely cautioned Vargas against disturbing the existing ruling, noting she can consider the arguments more fully at a Friday hearing scheduled in the case. They only agreed to loosen the restrictions so that certain federal contractors and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City employees who have helped maintain the systems can maintain access.
Vargas’s adjustments also allow those individuals to access the system again.
The developments leave untouched an agreement the Justice Department reached with a group of government employee unions who separately sued over the Treasury Department access.
Under that agreement, only two DOGE-affiliated personnel can access the systems.
One of those people, Marko Elez, resigned after racist social media posts surfaced. Musk has said he will bring back Elez, but the government as of Sunday implied in court filings that he had not been rehired.
President Trump’s flood-the-zone strategy in the first month of his new presidency is catching the typically sluggish judiciary flat-footed.
More than 50 lawsuits challenging major administration actions have been filed at breakneck speed, leading to whirlwind showdowns in courtrooms across the country that have created challenges for both sides in the legal debate.
Justice Department lawyers have walked back statements hastily made in court. Challengers have scrambled to gather all the plaintiffs. And judges have tried to toe the line between acting fast and acting right.
“It’s hard for me to keep up. I don’t know whether you have been able to keep up,” U.S. District Judge John Bates said at a Monday hearing about online health data scrubbed by the Trump administration.
Trump has signed dozens of executive actions in the weeks since returning to the White House, issuing directives upending policy across the board from immigration to gender to federal employee protections.
As legal challenges pour in, plaintiffs have sought swift relief. Judges have frequently set weekend deadlines and scheduled emergency hearings within hours of initial requests to temporarily block the actions.
“I know it didn’t make your weekends relaxed. It didn’t make mine relaxed either,” Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, joked at Monday’s hearing.
“And I suppose you can ultimately point the finger to whoever you want — toward those who brought the lawsuit or those who were responsible for the conduct,” he continued.
The hastily scheduled proceedings at times have left lawyers unprepared, with multiple hearings being pushed into recess so government attorneys could touch base with the relevant agency personnel.
During a hearing last week in Washington, D.C., Justice Department lawyers struggled to reach an agreement with FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases and sought to keep their names from being publicly released.
The FBI agents’ lawyers insisted any order must block all government entities — not just the Justice Department — from publishing the information but were met with resistance from the department.
“What is the hesitation?” pressed U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a former President Biden appointee.
“The government is a vast entity,” Justice Department lawyer Jeremy Simon explained, suggesting such an affirmation would require a go-ahead from every agency in the government. “I’ve had this case for less than 24 hours.”
The hearing dragged on for roughly six hours, as government lawyers made intermittent attempts to reach “decisionmakers” within their agency to finally strike a deal. An agreement wasn’t reached until the next day.
A similar dynamic played out when a group of unions sued over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) plans to gain access to Labor Department systems. After taking the bench for the first hearing, the judge encouraged the parties to see if they could find agreement.
The judge wasn’t called back for more than an hour. When he returned, government attorneys indicated the negotiations included conversations with Labor Department officials, but they did not end in a deal. The hearing then continued, and the judge ultimately sided with the government.
Even after hearings, the Justice Department has caught mistakes made in haste.
Government lawyers corrected representations made to judges discovered after having “the benefit of more time to investigate the facts over the weekend” in at least two lawsuits.
In a case involving the DOGE team’s access to critical Treasury Department payment systems, Justice Department lawyer Bradley Humphreys told a judge that the government had provided the wrong designation for a DOGE-adjacent employee.
Christopher Edelman, who represents the government in a challenge to its plan to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the Justice Department wrongly told the judge that just 500 employees had been placed on administrative leave, when it was actually more than 2,000 employees. He also said the government’s representation that only future contract obligations were paused was incorrect.
It’s not only the administration struggling to keep pace.
When Democratic state attorneys general organized last week to sue over DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems, they couldn’t agree in their announcements on who was part of the coalition.
One office claimed 12 states would sue. Another said the number was 14. When the suit was ultimately filed the next day, 19 states had signed on.
Judges, too, have run into trouble; they’ve repeatedly been asked to clarify emergency rulings that included vague, sweeping language.
In a separate case challenging DOGE’s Treasury access, a judge early Saturday imposed far-reaching restrictions before the government could respond, a move met with swift condemnation from Trump and his allies.
Both sides agreed the order should be modified so contractors who maintain the systems could resume access. A different judge on Tuesday retooled the earlier ruling accordingly but declined the Trump administration’s request to dissolve the restrictions entirely.
As plaintiffs press for swift relief, other judges have declined to rule so quickly — and chafed at suggestions otherwise.
“I’ll do what I can when I can,” Bates said at the DOGE-Labor hearing last week, which he also oversaw. “I’m not ruling on it sitting up here right now. You’ll have to wait and see when I get it out, and what it says. I will try to be as conscientious as I can, given the fact that it’s now a quarter of 6 on Friday afternoon.”
Gilead Sciences posted fourth-quarter results that exceeded Wall Street expectations and forecast 2025 earnings above analyst estimates on Tuesday, sending the biotech company's shares up 4%.
The quarterly results were driven by a 16% jump in HIV drug sales and lower acquisition-related costs.
For 2025, the company said it expects adjusted earnings of $7.70 to $8.10 per share on product sales of $28.2 billion to $28.6 billion. The low end of the company earnings range is above analysts' projections of $7.58 per share, according to LSEG data. They are estimating 2025 revenue of $28.42 billion.
Gilead shares rose to $100.07 in after-hours trading.
The California-based drugmaker's adjusted profit rose to $1.90 per share from $1.72 a year earlier, handily beating analysts' estimates of $1.70 per share.
Revenue for the quarter rose 6% to $7.57 billion, also exceeding Wall Street estimates of $7.14 billion.
The results show "another really exceptional quarter... reflecting the growing uptake of our therapies across HIV, cancer, and liver disease," Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day said in an interview.
He said Gilead expects to capitalize on its recent momentum with the expected launch this summer of lenacapavir for protecting against HIV infection.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide by mid-year whether to approve the drug as a twice-yearly injection for HIV prevention.
Gilead's "continued strong quarterly performance and margin expansion are likely to keep investors interested," Citi analyst Geoff Meacham said in a research note.
Gilead said its fourth-quarter HIV product sales rose to $5.45 billion from $4.69 billion a year earlier, due to higher demand, higher prices and favorable inventory dynamics. Biktarvy sales rose 21% to $3.8 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $3.48 billion.
The company has previously said its HIV revenue would be largely flat in 2025 due to changes in the federal government's Medicare health plan for people age 65 and over aimed at reducing out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries. Gilead on Tuesday said the reforms will reduce its 2025 revenue by about $1.1 billion, including $900 million in HIV sales.
Quarterly sales of COVID-19 drug Veklury fell 53% to $337 million, which was short of Wall Street expectations of $397 million.
Oncology sales rose 10% to $843 million and sales of liver disease drugs rose 4% to $719 million.
Gilead also raised its quarterly dividend by 2.6%.
In some ways the U.S. military is like an NFL team. We have an owner, the American people, represented by the U.S. Congress. We have General Managers, the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC), the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, and the Chief of Space Operations who man, train, and equip their Service for employment by a coach. The military has several coaches, the geographic Combatant Commanders (U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Southern Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Central Command, and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command). The Combatant Commanders develop game plans (campaign, contingency, and crisis plans) to support the National Security Strategy in their respective geographical areas of responsibility.
The Combatant Commanders have planning staffs. They invite their Service Components (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and National Guard) to planning meetings where each Service Component planner identifies their capabilities that can support the Combatant Commander’s plan. Based on the mission requirements for the plan, the Combatant Commander selects the capabilities from each Service required for mission success.
Prior to 2020, the Marine Corps were on the first team. The Marine Corps had three robust combined arms Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEFs). Each MEF was comprised of a Marine Division, a Marine Air Wing, and a Marine Logistics Group. The operational capabilities of the MEFs enabled Marine Service Component planners to offer operational support to the Combatant Commanders across the spectrum of conflict.
With the implementation of Force Design 2030 in March 2020 (now called Force Design), the Marine Corps’ General Manager (CMC), General Berger, divested (cut) 21% of the personnel in infantry battalions, 100% of the tanks, 67% of the cannon artillery batteries, 33% of the assault amphibious companies, more than 25% of Marine aviation (since the initial FD divestments, the Marines have/will bring back almost 100 of the 200 aircraft divested, the percentage loss in the active force is now only about 17 percent), and almost all assault breaching equipment in the active forces. This action when coupled with the Marine Corps’ abdication of its amphibious ship lift requirement neutered the Service Component planners’ ability to offer operational support across the spectrum of conflict and has relegated the Marine Corps to second team status. Simply put, the “United States Marines are no longer capable of responding to global crises and contingencies quickly and effectively, and in some cases, at all”.
These “divestments” were made to “invest” in reorganizing and restructuring the Marine Corps to focus primarily on one geographic theater (Indo-Pacific) and one enemy, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Today, one infantry and one artillery regiment, have been reorganized and redesignated as Marine Littoral Regiments (MLRs). The MLRs conduct Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations and employ Stand-In-Force (SIF) missile units on pacific island chains to engage/deter the PLAN. A second infantry regiment is scheduled to be redesignated in 2027. One must assume that this new team capability supports the Indo-Pacific Commander’s warfighting requirements.
But how about the support of the other geographic Combatant Commanders? Did the Corps’ GM, General Berger, consult with the other coaches to assess the impact of his actions and how it affects their plans and warfighting requirements? Was General Berger upfront with team’s owner, the American people, represented by the U.S Congress, on the impact of his actions to the Marine Corps Title X requirements (Title 10 USC 8063)?
In the NFL, when the General Manager fails to effectively “man” his team with the right talent (capabilities) for the coach to employ, he is fired. Once confirmed, the Secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, should consider bringing in a new General Manager (Marine Corps Commandant) who can begin the process of restoring the Marine Corps’ global response capability and restoring its ability to be the nation’s 911 force. This will move the Marine Corps from the bench with the second team, to the bench with the first team.
Stephen Baird is a retired Marine Colonel. He served as the G-5 for 1 Marine Expeditionary Force, the Chief of Staff for the 1st Marine Division followed by his last assignment as the Chief of Staff for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
