Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years.

Former Chairman of the U_S_ Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen says maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is “not just a U_S_ interest, but also a global one."

Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the Biden administrations choice to be secretary of defense, speaks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. In the past, they’ve opposed naming recently retired military officers to a post typically occupied by civilians, yet they don't want to defy their party's incoming president nor be seen as blocking history. Before announcing that he'd settled on Austin, Biden was facing pressure from activists over a lack of diversity in some of the key posts of the Cabinet he was building. Now the Mattis period at the Pentagon is viewed by some as an argument against waiving the rule again. Thankfully, Biden is neither, so the circumstances don’t support a waiver.”___Weissert, Burns and Mascaro reported from Washington.

Khan accused the United States on Thursday of having "martyred" al-Qaida leader and the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden. (Press Information Department, via AP)ISLAMABAD Pakistan's prime minister said on Thursday that the United States martyred the al-Qaida leader and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, a term that reflected a subtle stab at Washington as it's mainly used for honorable figures slain in battle. The special operations force swooped into Pakistans military garrison town of Abbottabad in the middle of the night on May 2, 2011, killing bin Laden and several of his operatives. However, opposition lawmaker Khwaja Mohammed Asif slammed Khan for calling bin Laden a martyr, saying the al-Qaida chief had brought terrorism to Pakistan. He (bin Laden) ruined my country but he (Khan) is calling him a martyr, said Asif.