BattlelandNational Security
It’s always enlightening to dive into the military’s historical archives, because armies have been doing the same things for hundreds of years. While the troops in charge today might think they’re blazing a new trail, chances are good soldiers a generation or two earlier traveled the same path, now overgrown with the passage of …
BattlelandNational Security
What does it mean when two military installations are shot at two days apart? Most likely, not much. The FBI is exploring possible links. But folks are riled, and as we have seen recently, folks who are riled like strutting around with their side arms and, who knows, maybe even taking shots at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and …
BattlelandNational Security
As expected, the Obama Administration has gone to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to appeal a lower court’s ruling that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is unconstitutional and ordering the government to stop its enforcement. Federal District Court Judge Virginia Phillips made her ruling final Tuesday.
The Administration says:
The
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BattlelandNational Security
After President Obama, 535 members of Congress, and 1.4 million people in the military wrestled unsuccessfully with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for what seems like eons, who is this judge who single-handedly has wounded, perhaps mortally, the 17-year old policy that bars openly gay men and women from serving in uniform?
Virginia …
BattlelandNational Security
The Pentagon’s decision, announced this afternoon, that it is now permitting openly gay men and women to enlist is just the first bump in what could be a long road. The second bump could be — as the Pentagon is already warning — that their service is no longer needed.
That could happen in the days to come if a higher court rules …
BattlelandNational Security
Once-mighty Britain scales back her ambitious defence-spending plans today. It marks a turning point in its place in the world. It plans to announce it is scrapping and/or delaying warplanes and warships in a major way. This was all foretold in an amazingly prescient — and amazingly funny — “interview” on British TV three years ago. …
BattlelandNational Security
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a gathering Sunday that the nation must appreciate the sacrifices its troops are making in Afghanistan and Iraq. “These years of battle have steeled them for an uncertain future, because when our men and women come home, the battle doesn’t end,” Mullen said. “Quite frankly, …
BattlelandNational Security
Less than three months after 9/11, the Bush Administration was planning for war with Iraq. These talking points prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s meeting on November 27, 2001, with Army General Tommy Franks, the U.S. Central Command chief, make clear the justification for the coming war: “Focus on WMD.” Much of the …
BattlelandNational Security
The federal judge who ruled the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy unconstitutional last month — and then ordered the military to stop enforcing it last week — gets a third bite of the apple today when she is slated to rule on the Pentagon’s request to halt her injunction until an appeal can be heard. The betting inside the …
BattlelandNational Security
The U.S. military is on a tear about how green it’s getting — bio fuels for jets, solar panels to cut down on fuel needed for generators, all that kind of stuff. Heck, even we’ve written about it. Hate to spoil the party, but after nine years of war, the U.S. military is still burning gobs of garbage in more than 250 open pits in …
BattlelandNational Security
Pentagon spending has been shielded from cuts ever since 9/11. Amid a public numbed by economic woes and fed up with the war in Afghanistan and the non-war in Iraq, get ready for the first defense-spending showdown of the 21st Century. Such a battle royale requires arsenals, and each side is busy rolling out its weapons:
— If you …
BattlelandNational Security
There are lot of reasons to doubt it, but folks are bouncing his name around as someone who might replace Defense Secretary Bob Gates next year. Be fun to watch his confirmation hearing, much of which would been spent swatting away questions about his February 2003 speech to the United Nations charging Saddam Hussein with hiding weapons …
BattlelandNational Security
For the first time in 17 years, no one is going to be booted from the U.S. military for being gay, at least for now. At least while the Obama Administration’s appeal seeking relief from such action wends its way through the courts.
