In the last half of 2009, U.S.-China rhetoric was thawing, dignitaries were visiting Washington and Beijing, and cooperation seemed on the rise. But when the U.S. sold $6.8 billion of military weaponry to Taiwan last month, as it had warned Beijing it would do, China responded by cutting off military-to-military exchanges, as it warned Washington would happen.

The incident threatens to wipe away several months’ worth of work to open doors. That’s important for at least one reason – on his second day on the job as new Pacific Command commander, talking to reporters in a Seoul, South Korea, hotel meeting room, Adm. Robert Willard said:

“I would contend that in the past decade or so China has exceeded most of our intelligence estimates of their military capability and capacity every year." 

This Thursday Rep. Walter Jones and a host of Marine Corps supporters will again push for legislation to change the Department of the Navy's formal name to the "Department of the Navy and Marine Corps," to better recognize their contributions as an operational force.

It's not a new battle; Jones, R-N.C., has introduced this measure each of the last nine years, only to see it fall short every year. Last year was the closest it has come to passage, with the measure working its way through the House but ultimately getting rejected by the Senate.

Of all the atrocities suspected of being committed daily in North Korea, the cruelty visited upon prisoners in the country's notorious gulag's is particularly difficult to imagine. But as Stars and Stripes reporters Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-rym found, many in South Korea don't spend too much time worrying about it -- even when North Korean defectors, some of them former prisoners themselves, try desperately to raise awareness about the torturous camps. Definitely worth a read.

Last week, following the announcement of the Pentagon's plan to eventually do away with "don't ask, don't tell," Sen. Carl Levin said he planned on holding a series of hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the issue to gather opinions.

The first of those will be next Thursday morning. Staff officials have not yet announced exactly who will be participating, but the panel will include outside experts and possibly veterans groups to offer their perspective.

Everything in DC has begun slowing down in advance of yet another major snowstorm this weekend (except over at IAVA, where they're still bringing in a small army of veterans this weekend for their now aptly named "Storm the Hill" event).

But outside the beltway there's still plenty of news. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's comments on Afghanistan -- "it's not deteriorating, but it's still serious" -- and new punishment for battlefield failings are on the front of most of the major papers this morning. Also, while the "no pregnancies" policy in Iraq may be gone, women there and at other overseas locations will now have better access to emergency contraception, thanks to a change in military practices.

The first U.S. soldiers should get new lighter body armor designed for Afghanistan on Friday, said Lt. Col. John K. Rickey.

Rickey is product manager for soldier protective equipment at Program Executive Office Soldier, the Army’s center for advanced soldier equipment, based at Fort Belvoir, Va.

While the new body armor weighs up to 15 pounds less than what soldiers wear now, Rickey said it has less soft armor, such as Kevlar, than current body armor. Soft armor protects against handguns and shrapnel.

Reporting aboard the USNS COMFORT - The pace on the Comfort has slowed to a more consistent, manageable level since the first days of the hospital ship's arrival when the elevator doors would open in casualty receiving and patients with horrific injuries would pour out endlessly. But there are still 370 patients aboard and more come in every day.  

The stories the doctors tell are both heart wrenching and uplifting. Hear a few of the more incredible ones I heard:

After nearly three weeks in Haiti and aboard the U.S. military ships docked offshore, Stars and Stripes reporter Megan McCloskey is making her way back to the States today. Megan has done an outstanding job chronicling the contributions of the U.S. military since the days immediately after the horrific earthquake killed 150,000 people and left many more injured, homeless and scared.