US Navy – The USS Constellation and USS Kitty Hawk battlegroups leave the Gulf and sail for home.

• Associated Press: Second U.S. Aircraft Carrier Leaves Gulf

US Marines – Marines begin exercising in the Phillipines.

• The China Post: U.S. troops arrive for war games in the Philippines

Background – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – How UAVs have been used in Iraq.

• New York Times: In the Skies Over Iraq, Silent Observers Become Futuristic Weapons

Background – Yemen and Eritrea – Robert Kaplan travels to Yemen and Eritrea, and finds that the war on terrorism is forcing U.S. involvement with the one country’s tribal turbulence and the other’s obsessive fear of chaos.

• The Atlantic: A Tale of Two Colonies