Notwithstanding the beefing up of U.S. forces there, the United States in the person of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has signaled an openness towards accepting the sort of deal for the Afghans that the Pakistanis have now acquiesced to in the Swat Valley.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Mr. DONALD RUMSFELD (Secretary of Defense, United States): Those reports have been flying around since about four months I assumed my post in 2001.

NPR: Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Self-Defense

The United States Senate is poised to confirm as the next Secretary of Defense a man who, back during Angleton's days, would have been considered a security threat.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Determined disinterest in our own destruction

In July 2011, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the United States was "within reach of strategically defeating al Qaeda, " and that he believed of all al Qaeda affiliates, AQAP posed the greatest threat to the U.S. homeland.

CNN: Obama ramps up covert war in Yemen

Tomorrow, the United States Senate will decide whether Chuck Hagel should be the next Secretary of Defense.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | In 2009 paper, Hagel called for multinational force in Judea and Samaria

Defense Secretary William Perry said the United States would be part of a powerful force that "would bring a large hammer down" on anyone who attacked it.

CNN: Hearings continue on U.S. role in Bosnia

The former defense secretary strongly believed that the United States should remove virtually all of its combat brigades by the first quarter of 2008.

NPR: Compromise Required With the Iraq Study Group