Check out that big, fat zero for the month just ended: August 2011.
It’s the first month since the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 that there hasn’t been a single U.S. death in Iraq.
Just glance at the monthly tolls for 2006 and 2007 to see when two or three U.S. troops were KIA every day.
Sweet.
The latest in the alleged role the U.S. played in enhanced interrogation — or torture, if you prefer — from a former ace TIME correspondent:
By Adam Zagorin
Last June the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to consider a case brought by former U.S. war-on-terror prisoners seeking damages from a Boeing subsidiary that had allegedly …
That trio remains constant allies of the U.S. military whenever it goes into harm’s way. That’s because private contractors are hired to cook, clean and house the thousands of troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places the U.S. military needs to be on short notice. So it’s scant surprise that the Commission on Wartime Contracting …
One of my favorite movies of all time, Kill Bill (vol 2) has a scene where one of the main characters is facing the demise of her nemesis. One of her comrades approaches her with the following question:
“They say the number one killer of old people is retirement. People got ‘em a job to do, they tend to live a little longer so …
The 9-11 Commission got the band back together Wednesday nearly ten years after the attacks to assess progress on implementing their 2004 recommendations intended to make us all safe from al-Qaeda and like-minded creeps. The assessment: We are safe-er. “We are not as secure yet as we can or we should be,” Chairman Thomas Kean, the former …
Nice to know Air Force Lieut. Colonel Leif Eckholm is keeping busy in his job inside the inner sanctum of American military power: the strategic plans and policy directorate for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Perhaps that’s why he has just written
Invading Iran: Lessons from Iraq
…those who forget the past and all…
Here’s …
There’s been no reduction in NATO’s bombing of targets inside Libya since rebels forces stormed in and took over most of Tripoli August 21, sending Muammar Gaddafi into hiding. What’s left to attack?
NATO is glad you asked. “From an air component perspective, NATO is still very much involved in monitoring the situation and …
There’s going to be plenty of Petraeus pageantry and partying all around Pentagon property Wednesday. That’s because Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is hosting a no-holds barred retirement ceremony for Army General David Petraeus after 37 years in uniform. “I’ve been privileged to command organizations that …
Fascinating peek into the electronic lives of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by TIME’s John Wendle:
The men who started out in 2001 as Generation Kill have transformed into Generation iPod. As technology has become miniaturized and more portable, U.S. soldiers have increasingly taken laptops, terabytes of movies and video-game systems
…
Here’s an eye-opener: the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Afghanistan in August — 61 so far, according to the independent iCasualties.org — is more than the total who died in the first three years of the war: 59.
In fact, the deaths of 30 U.S. troops — including 17 Navy SEALs — shot down in their CH-47 Chinook …
Do you find this unsettling?
A python that killed a 2-year-old Florida girl in 2009 will now be used in training at Eglin Air Force Base. The 8-foot, 6-inch python, named Gypsy, has lived at the Camp Rudder snake house since shortly after the incident. The albino Burmese python now will be used in swamp training at ranger camp…
It seems
…
The last time something so dangerous came from the sea was when Jaws hit screens across America in the summer of 1975. This time, the looming menace from the littorals are Navy advocates who see no problem slashing the Army in the coming budget battles and using some of the savings to keep a sleek and powerful 300-ship U.S. Navy …
Nice NYT analytic piece (already cited by Mark Thompson) by Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers regarding the downstream legacy of the US involvement in Libya to date. Starts off by saying the Obama White House seeks no doctrine definition because it fears being pulled into inappropriate situations, but, of course, that’s what a …
