Stevenson’s army, December 14

– NYT says Israel wants earlier delivery of refueling planes that could be used to attack Iran.

– WaPo says Israel attacked suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria.

– SecState Blinken announced an Indo_Pac strategy.  Here’s the text.

– Insider reports on potential conflicts of interest — in this case defense lawmakers.  And staff.

Good reads: ISW analysis of Russia’s Ukraine options. WOTR piece questioning “gifts” of weapons to allies.
Politico sums up the plan on debt and defense: DEBT AND DEFENSE, TOGETHER AGAIN — No, they aren’t on the same bill, but the Senate is taking action on both the debt limit and the compromise defense bill today. The chamber will vote this morning on a motion to proceed on the joint resolution to raise the debt ceiling and final passage is expected later in Tuesday’s session. After getting tangled in amendment drama, the National Defense Authorization Act will finally be on the move in the Senate with a cloture vote Tuesday and final passage on track for this week.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).