Unifying against Russia; Dozens of flag officers under investigation; 217,000 vets hired; Supersized at the Pentagon; Does Williams’ name get added to an infamous list?; And a bit more.

New this hour: A drone strike has reportedly taken out a Helmand militant and former Gitmo detainee Mullah Abdul Rauf. Reuters, here.

Meantime, there is a struggle to maintain a unified front against Russia over Ukraine. The WSJ’s Anton Troianovski, Julian Barnes and Carol Lee: “…Chancellor Angela Merkel has given Russian President Vladimir Putin until Wednesday to agree to a road map to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, according to Western officials. If in her assessment Russian intransigence has blocked a deal, they said, Germany will likely move to step up European sanctions against Russian companies, possibly including broader asset freezes.

Separately, the U.S. is considering supplying Ukraine with lethal aid. President Barack Obama has held off on a decision until he sees Ms. Merkel—who has publicly opposed weapons deliveries—on Monday morning.

“The confluence of events—which follows a recent surge of deadly fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels—has given that previously scheduled White House meeting potentially momentous import.

“…If the diplomacy fails, the U.S. and Europe will likely consider added sanctions or a combination of sanctions and arms transfers. Such a discussion would be sure to strain Western unity further, with much of Europe opposing weapons deliveries and countries such as Greece and Hungary skeptical of more sanctions.” Read the rest here.

The U.S. can’t win an arms race against Russia, so John Mearsheimer argues: “Don’t Arm Ukraine” in the NYT today, here.

The Russians are coming: The new-ish Commander of Army Forces Europe, Ben Hodges, on his view from the frontlines, Putin’s new way of war, and budget cuts, in the WSJ over the weekend by Sohrab Ahmari, quoting Hodges: “I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years—not that they’re going to start a war in five or six years, but I think they are anticipating that things are going to happen, and that they will be in a war of some sort, of some scale, with somebody within the next five or six years.” Read that bit here.

The Europeans are laughing as Lavrov talks Ukraine. By Bloomberg View’s Josh Rogin, here.

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The D Brief, Defense One's first-read national security newsletter. If you’d like to subscribe to The D Brief, reply to this email and let us know, subscribe here or send us a holler at glubold@defenseone.com. Please send us your tips, your tidbits, your scoops and stories, your think tank reports and best of all your candy, but send it to us early for maximum tease. And whatever you do, we hope you'll follow us @glubold and @natsecwatson.

New this morning, and only in The D Brief:  Remember the “100,000 Jobs Mission, the coalition of companies that have vowed to hire vets?” Later this morning, the group will announce that it has hired 217,000 U.S. military veterans and that it is about to up the pledge saying that it will hire another 100,000 veterans – for a total of 300,000. Maureen Casey, director of Military and Veterans Affairs for JPMorgan Chase, the founding member of the coalition of companies: “Four years ago, servicemembers struggled to find meaningful jobs because many employers did not fully understand how to apply veterans’ skills and experience to their businesses. Since then, the 100,000 Jobs Mission has connected more than 200,000 veterans to good jobs that put their skills to good use… But our work isn’t done yet…With nearly one million military members returning to civilian life over the next few years...”

Supersize me: Breaking developments if you’re a Pentagon foodie. The new and vastly improved “Market Basket” at the Pentagon opens this morning. For those folks who like the cafeteria-style café at the Pentagon, where you can buy all manner of hot food, salad, fruit and also order soups and sandwiches and some of the best sushi in NOVA, as well as buy cookies and coffee and et cetera et cetera, the Market Basket today has been supersized. It opens today across the way in what had been the Pentagon dining room in spaces that appear to be roughly three times the size of the old one.

No more dodging employees carrying pans of fresh Quinoa salad or General Tso’s chicken. We’d give you more detail but the Pentagon’s food service folks are a little slow on the uptake. Note that the space the old Market Basket occupied will soon become home to a restaurant called “Fresh” by celebrity chef Robert Irvine. Our own Marcus Weisgerber, our serious-minded global business reporter, helped break that story back in June in another life. Read that one here.

Twelve short, punchy tips for not screwing up your Pentagon assignment, via Army Maj. Jake Turner writing in Task and Purpose, here.

Set aside nine minutes today—then watch a brilliant hand-drawn animated film about war called “Confusion Through Sand.” Read a short bit from WaPo’s Thomas Gibbons-Neff about its history, or just watch the darn thing already, right here.

Carter Malkasian reviews “The Evil Hours,” a “biography” of PTSD by David Morris, in the WaPo. Malkasian, here.

U.S. officials shouldn’t be fooled by Nigeria’s sudden preoccupation with safety after delaying its presidential elections by more than a month, writes the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Sarah Chayes in Defense One: “For the ruling party, say many, the Boko Haram insurgency is proving a godsend…the martyred Nigerian north is presumed to favor the opposition, now running the closest national race in the country’s 16 years as a democracy… But what influence [the U.S.] has should be used to reduce the impunity with which that country’s political elite has been abusing its people… Now, with the outcome in doubt even with the reduced turnout, the violence is a pretext for putting the whole process in jeopardy.” More here.

Niger’s army repelled another attack in three days from Boko Haram just as Parliament there votes on joining a regional offensive. Reuters: “…Several people were killed in fierce early morning fighting when Boko Haram gunmen attempted to advance toward the town but were pushed back by the army, military sources said. Residents reported hearing heavy weapons fire. More here.

Does defense firm Harris’ purchase of Exelis on Friday signal a coming wave of mergers for firms just below the Lockheed, Gruman, Raytheon tier? Defense One’s global business reporter Marcus Weisgerber weighs in: “Larger defense firms have scooped up smaller defense companies over the past five years, particularly those with a cyber and drone technology expertise. But until recently there has been little movement in the middle tier...” Read the rest here.

Northrop just revealed it has been secretly building a new jet in a Mojave Desert aircraft hangar. Weisgerber again: “Northrop executives believe the new clean sheet design, or purpose-built aircraft, will better suit the Air Force’s parameters for the new jet trainer, called T-X... The Air Force has not yet set all the parameters for the new trainer, but has been slowly trickling wants for the jet.” More here.

Wowza: There are some three dozen flag officers under investigation in connection to the Fat Leonard corruption case. Defense News’ Chris Cavas takes a look at the wide-ranging impact that the Glenn Defense Marine Asia case, which have been known to be keeping some careers in limbo: “…The lengthy investigations causing so many careers to be placed on hold for so long are taking their toll on the Navy's leadership… The situation is affecting Navy commands ashore and afloat, across the globe.” More here.

It’s getting real: The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to act on Ash Carter’s nomination to be SecDef by tomorrow. And, as we and others have been reporting, the full Senate is expected to take up his confirmation by recess in mid-February. That means expect “Defense Secretary Ash Carter” to be real within the next week or so.

Carter will soon become central to a number of debates – on arming Ukraine, countering ISIS and the Pentagon budget. But also, cyber. The WSJ’s Damian Paletta and Dion Nissenbaum on the deepening debate over how to respond to cyberattacks: “…But the divide within the government on how to respond to future attacks is spilling into public view. Ashton Carter, the White House’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Defense, told a Senate panel considering his confirmation last week that the U.S. and companies need to improve their defenses, but they should also consider some sort of response to future cyberattacks.” More here.

Defense One’s politics reporter Molly O’Toole says the battle over war powers and the Islamic State strategy is expected to heat up this week. Congress expects the White House to send over a new authorization for the use of military force against the Islamic State this week and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is already planning to hold a hearing to kick off the inevitably contentious debate in a short time as well. “Sen. Corker expects the president will send text of an authorization as soon as next week,” an aide for Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told Defense One Friday. “At that point, the committee will hold rigorous hearings in which the administration can provide greater clarity on the U.S. strategy regarding ISIS, particularly in Syria.” As House Speaker John Boehner told reporters: “This is not going to be an easy lift.” Read the story later this morning on Defense One.

The Red Cross recovered more than twice as many dead combatants off of Afghan battlefields last year compared to 2013, the ICRC says this morning, here.

Afghan police in Kunduz have reportedly been selling ammo and sharing intel on upcoming operations with the Taliban, NYTs Joseph Goldstein reports from Kabul, here.

And over across the border, six Afghan army cadets began an 18-month joint training program with Pakistan in Abbottabad. Los Angeles Times' Ali Latifi, here.

Yemen's Houthis try to appease their Saudi neighbors and American officials by naming four former ministers to a national security committee. But it's too soon to tell if the men accepted the post or even if Houthis can turn their "coup" into any sort of functioning government. NYTs' Rod Nordland Shuaib Almosawa from Sana, here.

The Jordanians offered a rare glimpse into their airstrike campaign in a special briefing in Amman. The WaPo’s Taylor Luck and William Booth: “…A principal focus of the three days of strikes has been Islamic State personnel, Jordanian military officials said, asserting that the kingdom’s fighter jets had destroyed 19 locations harboring Islamic State commanders and fighters. It was unclear whether the Jordanian statement of 56 airstrikes referred to missions flown or specific targets hit.” More here.

Arab officials are bemoaning the lack of an anti-ISIS strategy. From the Daily Star in Lebanon: “…U.S.-led airstrikes and arms deliveries from Western countries to Kurdish fighters have helped contain ISIS expansion into Kurdish territory in northern Iraq. But on the ground, ISIS uses heavy weapons captured from a weakened Iraqi army, leaving local fighters painfully exposed.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki at the Munich Security Conference: “I don’t see that there is a clear strategy how to deal with ISIS… How to face it, how to contain it, control it, defeat it and eliminate it. I don’t see it ... Unless the airstrikes is a strategy. That’s not a strategy.” More here.

From John McCain’s introduction at Munich on the U.S. and its strategy and flagged by the “Notable and Quotable” editors of the WSJ today: “…The values, customs, laws, and institutions that make up our idea of international order are neither self-enforcing nor self-sustaining.”

The threats we face today do not justify America’s bloated 17-agency, $1 trillion intelligence community, says Mike German of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program in Defense One: “Unfortunately, the excessive secrecy shrouding intelligence activities means Americans have little public information from which to evaluate whether the intelligence enterprise is worth the investment...” More here.

Iraqi Prime Minister al-Abadi laid out in Munich the steps that must be taken before the mission to retake Mosul from ISIS can begin. Stripes’ John Vandiver in Munich: “…Al-Abadi said there are four key conditions that must be met: Iraqi security forces must be ready and that requires delivery of more heavy arms, munitions and training; increased coordination between Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga forces; support from the people of Mosul, a Sunni-dominant city long suspicious of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad; and air and reconnaissance support from the U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria for months in support of Iraqi and Kurdish forces.” More here.

The Brian Williams situation is deeply concerning. What made it worse was reading Maureen Dowd’s piece in the NYT over the weekend in which she began with something that was unknown to many until she wrote it, namely that Williams is known for having a problem that suggests his name could be added to this list: Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass and Jack Kelley. Dowd wrote, ICYMI: “This was a bomb that had been ticking for a while. NBC executives were warned a year ago that Brian Williams was constantly inflating his biography. They were flummoxed over why the leading network anchor felt that he needed Hemingwayesque, bullets-whizzing-by flourishes to puff himself up, sometimes to the point where it was a joke in the news division. But the caustic media big shots who once roamed the land were gone, and ‘there was no one around to pull his chain when he got too over-the-top,’ as one NBC News reporter put it.” Read it here.

Fox’s new Pentagon producer, Lucas Tomlinson, had this scoop Friday, the first to report about the Army awarding Purple Hearts to Fort Hood victims. Tomlinson, who replaced Justin Fishel for Fox at the Pentagon just weeks ago: “…Victims of the 2009 shooting and their families had been pressing the military to award the Purple Heart, and the benefits that come with it, for years. They got a boost when Congress passed recent funding legislation requiring the Defense Department to reconsider whether the victims qualify for the honor. The Army statement on Friday said the legislation expanded the eligibility criteria by broadening what can be considered an attack by a foreign terrorist organization.” More here.

Gang violence in El Salvador has sent more than 15,000 residents to the U.S. seeking safety, the U.N. says. Al-Jazeera, here.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, is about to stand up a 200-Marine task force for crisis response across Central America, Joseph Trevithick for War is Boring reports: “The Pentagon will likely formally call the unit the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Southern Command. But officials may more commonly refer to it simply as SPMAGTF-South.” More here.

Joe Dunford has a fix for the "post-deployment death spiral" that’s created a gap in his Marines’ badly needed enlisted leaders. Hope Hodge Seck for Marine Corps Times: “[Commandant Gen. Joe Dunford] is rolling out a squad leader development program that will encourage NCOs to remain in those positions by creating a dedicated MOS and career path that promises education and guaranteed assignments in exchange for a multiple-year commitment… [including] the possibility of attaching bonuses or other cash incentives to the program.” More here.

The former Marine who killed “American Sniper” Chris Kyle is expected to plead insanity in a Texas court on Wednesday. AP, here.

Another Marine—this one facing desertion charges for wandering off his base in Iraq in 2004—faces court martial charges at last today at Camp Lejeune. AP’s Jonathan Drew, who’s been following the story of Cpl. Wassef Hassoun, has more here.

Since lawmakers won’t sign off any more rounds of BRAC despite the Pentagon’s urging, the GAO “should commission a study that maps out the most glaring waste in the Defense Department’s installations,” NYTs Editorial Board writes, here.

The Green Beret who had his Distinguished Service Cross revoked invited the closer scrutiny of his service record when he interviewed for a job at the CIA, WaPo’s Dan Lamothe reports, here.

It’s still a mystery what happened to the NSA staffers who were caught spying on their exes—an act dubbed “LOVEINT”—despite an inquiry from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Chuck Grassley. Ars Technica, here.

After the 31 January story broke of the joint CIA-Mossad bombing of Hizbollah’s Imad Mughniyeh seven years ago, it’s time to admit intelligence leaks from former officials are making a mockery of the community, writes former CIAer Kevin Strouse at the intelligence and natsec blog OvertAction. That here.