Obama’s Nuclear Policy, Something For The ‘Left & Right’ (Los Angeles Times)

President Obama and his senior aides introduced a new nuclear weapons policy Tuesday with the promise that America would no longer build new nuclear weapons.
“No new testing, no new warheads,” Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pledged in a Pentagon briefing.
Yet officials said later that the policy could allow [...]

JIHAD JANE: Suburban Philadelphia Woman Accused Of Terrorism (AP/Yahoo! News)

An indictment against a suburban Philadelphia woman accused of recruiting jihadist fighters online and moving to Europe to try to kill a Swedish artist is a rare case of an American woman aiding foreign terrorists, authorities say, and shows the evolution of the threat of terrorism.
Colleen R. LaRose agreed to murder the artist, marry a [...]

Gates And Obama Suggest Early ‘Troop Withdrawal’ From Afghanistan A Possibility (AP/Yahoo)

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Wednesday that some of the U.S. forces involved in the Afghanistan surge could leave the country before President Barack Obama’s announced July 2011 date to begin withdrawal.
Without giving specifics, Gates said, “It would have to be conditions-based.”
Gates made the remarks during a visit to a dust-blown training [...]

Timetable for U.S. Troop Withdrawal on Track, Obama Says, After Iraqis Vote (CSNnews.com)

The timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq remains on course, President Obama said Sunday as he hailed the country’s national election as a “milestone.”
“We will continue with the responsible removal of the United States forces from Iraq,” he said at the White House, confirming that “by the end of the next year, all U.S. [...]

THE POWER OF DEMOCRACY: Iraqis Flock To Polls, Despite Violence Leaving 25 Dead (Wall Street Journal)

Despite a spasm of violence early Sunday, Iraqis flocked to polling stations in what appeared to be large numbers, marking the country’s first parliamentary polls since 2005.
Polls were scheduled to close at 5 p.m. local time (9 a.m. Eastern time), but some voting stations accommodated crowds lined up after closing time. Iraq’s high electoral commission [...]

TERROR UPDATE: Al-Qaida Calls On US Muslims To Attack America (Associated Press)

CAIRO — Al-Qaida’s American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.
In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other [...]

SPRING BREAK ADVISE: Texas Police Warn Students ‘Stay Out of Mexico’ (CNN)

The Texas Department of Public Safety took the unprecedented step Thursday of telling college students not to visit Mexican border cities during spring break because they are just too dangerous.
Several universities issued similar warnings last year, but this was the first time the Texas law enforcement agency had issued the specific advisory against travel, said [...]

WAR UPDATE: U.S. Death Toll in Afghanistan Hits 1,000 (Yahoo! News & AFP)

KABUL (AFP) – A bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded near a busy bus terminal in Afghanistan, killing eight people Tuesday as the death toll of US troops in the Afghan war surpassed the grim milestone of 1,000.
The attack took place in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province where a massive US-led military offensive [...]

AFGHANISTAN WAR UPDATE: Prize on the Battlefields of Marja May Be Momentum (The New York Times)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Any historian, or any general, would tell you the same: Lose the initiative on the battlefield, and it’s awfully hard to get it back.
In the Korean War, for instance, the Americans lost the initiative in the beginning, took it back with a dramatic and daring operation, and then lost it again, finally [...]

Obama’s Nuclear Power Policy: A Study In Contradictions? (The Christian Science Monitor)

President Obama has followed up on his support for “a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants,” laid out Jan. 27 in his State of the Union speech, by proposing to triple public financing for nuclear power.
The Department of Energy recently proposed $36 billion in new federal loan guarantees on top of $18.5 billion [...]