War

Ramifications of coup in Kiev. Nobody is talking about Venezuela. Sure, it's a socialist mess, but I bet the US is agitating down there too.

Map of the political and ethnic division of Ukraine.

Obama's new style of coups. Here's some insight into Venezuela:

"In Venezuela, opponents of the Bolivarian Revolution hoped to win in the polls in a way they had repeatedly failed to do while Chavez was alive. But Chavez’ successor, Nicolás Maduro, handed them yet another defeat, and the revolution continued. Despite monitors from around the world certifying the election as fair, the United States continued to defy every other country in the world by refusing to recognize Maduro’s victory and backing the opposition’s claims of fraud and their demands for further recounts.
The American legitimization of the protest in the streets provided cover to the opposition while it attempted to overturn the election results and amounted to cooperation with another Venezuelan coup attempt. When an opposition that for fourteen years had failed at the polls to change the government failed at the polls again, it created the appearance of a massive social movement in the streets to give credibility to calls to change that government through social pressure.
In the recent municipal elections, the Venezuelan opposition hoped the Chavez’ glow had worn of off Maduro. It hadn’t. Maduro and his allies won 76% of the mayoral races in a municipal election that saw an impressive 58.92% turnout.
Frustrated, and realizing that they simply cannot terminate Chavez’ revolution in the polls, the opposition once again took to the street. Right wing opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez – who was involved in the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez – called for his supporters to take to the streets. Leaving no doubt that the goal was, once again, coup, Lopez insisted that the violence would go on until they "got rid of Maduro."
And, once again, the U.S. backed, not the numbers in the polls, but the smaller numbers in the street. While the Mercosur governments of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela released a statement describing the opposition violence in the streets as "attempts to destabilize the democratic order," the U.S. helped them to destabilize the democratic order, and, once again, jumped in with the coup."

Figures.

Hagel's budget cuts criticized for targeting warfighters while increasing bureaucrats.

Cuts hit some bases, not others. I bet I know how they were chosen.

Career soldiers already being forced to retire.