Vice President Dick Cheney on Dec. 20 administered the oath of office for the new head of Veterans Affairs, James Peake, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War and former Army Surgeon General. President Bush stood at his side during the ceremony. Peake, who graduated from West Point in 1966 and retired from the Army in 2004 as a lieutenant general, is a thoracic surgeon.
A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber flew from Europe across the Middle East to the Persian Gulf on July 25 in a 32-hour flight, as conflicts continued to roil the area with U.S. troops coming under attack in Iraq and Syria on July 25 and July 26, U.S. officials told…