Subject: POLITICO's Morning Defense: Navy SEAL killed in Iraq — Carter meets with defense ministers — Trump becomes presumptive GOP nominee
From: Morning Defense <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 06:31:56 -0600

By Jeremy Herb | 05/04/2016 08:30 AM EDT

With Louis Nelson, Connor O'Brien and Ellen Mitchell

ABOUT LAST NIGHT - CRUZ IS OUT, AND TRUMP IS POISED TO BE GOP NOMINEE: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ended his presidential campaign Tuesday night after a crushing defeat in Indiana, paving the way for Donald Trump to be the GOP presidential nominee - a terrifying notion for many Republicans in the national security community. Glenn Thrush's five takeaways are here, and all of POLITICO's election coverage is here. 

- THE CONUNDRUM FOR DEFENSE HAWKS: Many GOP defense hawks have been openly critical of Trump during the primary-and-caucus season, and now they'll be forced to decide whether to support their party's nominee or turn elsewhere. That's the case both for the neo-cons who served in the George W. Bush administration as well as senators like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has said repeatedly - and with increasing frustration in recent weeks - that he'd support whomever becomes the Republican nominee. Our colleague Eli Stokols writes about Republicans who are considering Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump, including McCain's former top aide and speechwriter Mark Salter, who tweeted his support
 for Clinton on Tuesday.

NAVY SEAL KILLED IN IRAQ REFLECTS INTENSIFYING WAR: The Navy SEAL killed in Iraq on Tuesday was the third U.S. service member killed there since the start of the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State, reflecting the growing U.S. role in the war as troop levels now top 4,000, The Associated Press reports: "The combat death of a U.S. Navy SEAL who was advising Kurdish forces in Iraq coincides with a gradually deepening American role in fighting a resilient Islamic State, even as the Iraqis struggle to muster the military and political strength to defeat the militants.

"Over the course of the nearly two-year-old campaign, the Pentagon has slowly expanded the American military role. The strategy, criticized by some as incremental and inadequate, aims to ensure that the Iraqis do the ground combat, supported by U.S. airpower, special operations advisers and others. As the Iraqis have gained competence and confidence and prepared an assault in hopes of retaking Mosul, the Pentagon has announced plans to put more U.S. troops in Iraq and place them closer to the front lines."

- TROOPS EDGING CLOSER TO FRONTLINES, The Washington Post's Loveday Morris reports from Makhmour, Iraq, on the evolving U.S. role: "At the base of a rocky ridge rising from the surrounding farmland, the barrels of American artillery poke out from under camouflage covers, their sights trained on Islamic State-held positions. Less than 10 miles from the front lines in the push toward the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the U.S. outpost, known as Firebase Bell, is manned by about 200 Marines.

"'Having them here has raised the morale of our fighters,' said Lt. Col. Helan Mahmood, the head of a commando regiment in the Iraqi army, as his truck bumped along the dirt track that divides his base from the American encampment, ringed by razor wire and berms. ... The new firebase is part of a creeping U.S. buildup in Iraq since troops first returned to the country with a contingent of 275 advisers, described at the time by the Pentagon as a temporary measure to help get 'eyes on the ground.'"

- SEAL IDENTIFIED AS CHARLES KEATING IV, via The Arizona Republic: "Navy SEAL Charlie Keating, an acclaimed Arcadia High School distance runner and grandson of the famous savings-and-loan financier with the same name, died in northern Iraq on Tuesday after Islamic State militants penetrated Kurdish defensive lines and launched an attack with small arms and car bombs. Bradley Boland, Keating's uncle, confirmed to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com that his nephew had been killed. Charlie Keating, known as 'C-4' because he had the same name as three generations before him, also is the cousin of Olympic swimming champion Gary Hall Jr."

HAPPY WEDNESDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email-masked], and follow on Twitter @jeremyherb, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

HAPPENING TODAY - CARTER HUDDLES WITH DEFENSE MINISTERS, our man in Germany, Connor O'Brien, sends this dispatch: On the last day of his visit to Germany, Defense Secretary Carter is meeting with defense ministers from the top contributing nations in the campaign against the Islamic State. The gathering, which follows similar meetings Carter had with the entire counter-ISIL coalition in February and the Gulf Cooperation Council in April, includes a discussion of additional military, economic and political capabilities needed in the fight against ISIL, particularly ahead of the attempt to retake the northern city of Mosul. 

Kicking off the meeting, Carter told his counterparts: "We must continue to look for opportunities to do more as we work with our partners in Iraq and Syria. ... I want to brief you on the key actions the United States is taking in both Iraq and Syria to help implement the 'next plays' of the coalition's military campaign." Carter added that the fight was "far from over," noting the death of the Navy SEAL Tuesday brought that "into stark relief." Straying from his prepared remarks, Carter concluded: "We must do this. It's important for civilization that we do this. ...With your help it'll go faster."

- TALKING TOUGH ON RUSSIA: The defense secretary had strong words for Russia in a speech at the change of command ceremony for the U.S. European Command on Tuesday. He hit Moscow for undermining the sovereignty of neighboring Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia and said Russia's "nuclear saber rattling" calls into question its "respect for norms against the use of nuclear weapons." 

The defense secretary touted beefed up military investments in the European theater, including a proposed quadrupling of the European Reassurance Initiative to $3.4 billion. His comments were also a nod to the shift in the posture of EUCOM overseen by the outgoing commander, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who handed off the combatant command to Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti. Noted Breedlove: "My career started here in a Cold War trying to keep the peace. I think my career is now ending here trying to prevent a Cold War and continue to keep the peace."

ALSO TODAY - VA SECRETARY TALKS HEALTH CARE: Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald speaks this morning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he'll discuss the VA's progress and challenges when it comes to veterans' health care. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, also speaks this morning at CSIS in a forum on the future of war and implications for the Army. And at the Pentagon, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, Col. Steve Warren, briefs reporters via satellite from Baghdad.

SYRIA JOSTLING - KERRY WARNS ASSAD TO START TRANSITION BY AUG. 1 ... OR ELSE? More here from the AP: "Secretary of State John Kerry warned Syria's government and its backers in Moscow and Tehran on Tuesday that they face an August deadline for starting a political transition to move President Bashar Assad out, or they risk the consequences of a new U.S. approach toward ending the 5-year-old civil war. But given the various, unfulfilled U.S. threats throughout the Arab country's conflict - from declaring Assad's days 'numbered' five years ago to promising military action if chemical weapons were used - it was unclear what effect Kerry's ultimatum might have."

TOP TALKER - NEW DOUBTS ABOUT IDENTITY OF THE MARINE IN THE ICONIC IWO JIMA PHOTO, via The New York Times: "The identity of an American service man in one of the most iconic photographs of World War II, the raising of the American flag over Iwo Jima, has been called into question by his son, who wrote a best-selling book that memorialized his father's role. James Bradley, the author of 'Flags of Our Fathers,' said in an interview Tuesday that he no longer believed that his father, John Bradley, a Navy corpsman, was one of the six American service members who have been long identified in the photograph.

"Mr. Bradley described his doubts about his father's role after the Marine Corps revealed last week that it had opened an inquiry into whether some of the six men long thought to be in the image had been misidentified. He said that his father, had participated in raising a flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, but had not participated in a second flag-raising the same day, which became the famous photograph. His father, he said, probably thought that the first flag-raising was the one that was captured in the photograph."

INDUSTRY INTEL I - DIFFERENCES OVER MISSILE DEFENSE, FINE PRINT SNAG U.S.-ISRAEL DEAL, reports Reuters: "Negotiations meant to enshrine U.S. defense aid for Israel over the next decade have snagged on disputes about the size, scope and fine print of a new multibillion-dollar package, officials say. Five months into the talks, several U.S. and Israeli officials disclosed details about the disputes to Reuters on condition of anonymity."

INDUSTRY INTEL II - AIR FORCE PREPS 'TIGER TEAM' DEFENSE TO COMBAT BID PROTESTS, via our colleague Ellen Mitchell: "The Air Force is deploying a 'tiger team' of litigators to fight against bid protests, which have grown in number in recent years thanks to fewer opportunities for contractors, according to the service's top legal official. Gordon Tanner, general counsel for the Department of the Air Force, said Tuesday his office is implementing the independent, in-house team of experts to combat issues that could arise in the event a company protests a major Air Force acquisition decision."

VIDEO OF THE DAY - A CHINESE MILITARY RECRUITING RAP VIDEO: Military Times' Jeff Schogol writes on the PLA's slick new video: "U.S. military recruiters take note: It's time to up your game. The Chinese People's Liberation Army has released a new recruiting video geared toward young people that beats anything the U.S. military has to offer. The PLA video moves at the pace of a 'Fast and Furious' movie and shows off all the Chinese military's equipment in a pageantry of death machines."

SPEED READ

- The deputy commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard warns Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the U.S. and its allies if they "threaten" the Islamic Republic: AP

- The U.N. Security Council condemns attacks on hospitals and health-care workers: The Wall Street Journal

- The Syrian city of Aleppo was dragged deeper into violence Tuesday as 20 people were killed and a maternity hospital was struck by rocket fire: AP

- Air raids strike a rebel-held area east of Damascus after an agreement for halting the fighting there had ended: Reuters

- POLITICO Pro Q&A: Sen. Thom Tillis: POLITICO Pro

- Afghanistan's bountiful poppy harvest provides profits for the Taliban: NYT

- North Korea's Workers' Party prepares for its seventh congress, the first meeting of the ruling party since 1980: The Washington Post

- Engineers and researchers are working to extend the range of the military's top artillery weapon, the howitzer, to 40 miles: Stars and Stripes

-Trump says military leaders won't be allowed to speak to the media on television if he's elected president: Military Times

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