(Via militaryreporters.org)After serving two years as president of Military Reporters & Editors Association, USA Today reporter Kelly Kennedy stepped down as president. Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe was elected by the board of directors as the organization’s new president.During Kelly’s two years as president, she led MRE to conduct two very successful annual conferences which included speakers such as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, journalist and author Bob Woodward and journalist Michael Hastings. Kennedy will remain on the board of directors.
Bender will serve as president and board member until elections are conducted in 2013. He is the national security reporter for the Boston Globe. In 15 years on the Pentagon beat he has covered military operations in the Middle East, Asia, South America, and the Balkans. His articles have also appeared in Jane’s Defence Weekly, The New Republic, National Journal, and The Los Angeles Times. Since joining the Globe in 2003, Bender has also written about weapons manufacturers, homeland security, and government secrecy.
By Alexandra Schwappach
Medill News Service for Military Times
It’s been less than 50 days since Army Gen. Martin Dempsey took the position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but he’s been swift to move forward despite “overwhelming” issues.
“I’m not the first person who’s ever had to deal with issues like this,” he said Nov. 18 at the Military Reporters and Editors Conference in Arlington, Va. “So I like to remind myself that there were 17 others that tried to figure this out before me.”
Dempsey said he is not intimidated by the current restraints looming over the defense budget. Budget discussions are important, he said, but to understand what the nation really needs, national leaders need to move past those discussions.
Some worry that America’s economic problems will complicate its efforts to remain globally engaged.
“I don’t buy that,” Dempsey said. “I’m of the mind, first, that we should decide we will remain engaged, and then just find a way to do it in a new fiscal environment. We can figure it out.”
Even with the anticipated withdrawal of American troops from Iraq at the end of this year, Dempsey said it would be a mistake for the U.S. to scale back on global engagement — and it would send the wrong message.
“There is a huge appetite for partnering with the United States. We are the international partner of choice,” he said. “The world in which we live demands greater engagement, not less engagement.”
