That’s how I like to describe it. Whether we like it or not – much less admit it, every time we show up somewhere in tumult, the Chinese are already there or soon to show up. They will be making the big investments (like that $3-4B on a copper mine in Afghanistan) and they will be winning the big extractive contracts (like with both …
To Avoid Defense Spending Cuts, Raise Taxes?
Fellow Battleland contributor Mackenzie Eaglen of the Heritage Foundation argued last week in a Defense Daily article that the “Super Congress” is likely to side with cutting defense deeply rather than increase government revenue through tax increases to pay for current levels of defense spending (the biggest part of the discretionary …
Military Retirement Pay: Changes are Coming
The chart makes it clear: military pay — including retirement and health benefits — is no longer small beer. While self-described mega-rich man Warren Buffett said Monday on the op-ed page of the New York Times that “the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan,” the truth is that the average soldier is paid, in cash and …
Coast Guard: Smallest Service, Biggest Opportunities for Women
National Public Radio (NPR) recently did a segment on the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and its new superintendent, Rear Admiral Sandra Stosz. The Coast Guard has been at the forefront of expanding opportunities for women since 1977 when it opened all of its jobs to women. It even decided to admit women to the Coast Guard Academy in 1975, …
A Ranger’s Life Between Combat Tours
In February, I traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington to write about the redeployment experience of the 2nd Battalion of the fabled 75th Ranger Regiment, just home from Afghanistan. Conventional Army units deploy for 12 months at a time before returning home for another year or so, but the Rangers’ rotations tend to last only 3–6
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Yardsticks for Weapons…And for War
After more than 30 years of watching the U.S. military pour money into weapons that can’t meet performance, schedule and cost targets, you sort of become inured to such chicanery. “It would be impossible to sit here and justify the current process, given that it has not delivered the capabilities we’ve required within the resources …
Afghanistan: Bad Vibes Near Bagram
A Taliban suicide assault team stormed the governor’s compound in Parwan province Sunday, killing at least 22 (not including the six attackers). It was a particularly brazen attack, happening only six miles from Bagram, the biggest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, in the center of the relatively peaceful province north of Kabul. …
The Luckiest, and Saddest, Soldier in Afghanistan
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was justifiably proud of his $45 billion push to speed up delivery of some 27,000 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The hulking troop-carriers have saved hundreds, if not thousands, of American lives. They roll as a rebuke to Don Rumsfeld’s …
Chinese Reportedly Get Peek at Secret SEAL Chopper
Pakistan has let the Chinese study — and take samples from — the stealthy MH-60 helicopter used by Navy SEALs in their raid that killed Osama bin Laden May 2, the London-based Financial Times reported Monday:
“The US now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed
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“Private: You Will Eat Those Expensive Vegetables!”
Army Suicide Rate Hits New High
Just when you’re thinking the Army may have turned the corner on its troops’ killing themselves, a new number has surfaced that dashes those hopes. On Friday, the Army said it suffered a record 32 suspected suicides in July, the most since it began releasing monthly data two years ago.
The Army is waging war on suicide just as …
The Pentagon’s Amazing Failure
You’d be hard-pressed to know Thursday’s $120 million test-firing of the Pentagon’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) was a bust from the press release issued in its wake by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The quest for better things is a human yearning, even if they’re destructive in their purpose. One …
The Maine Reason Cutting Defense Spending Is So Tough
There was a report out the other day suggesting one thing the Pentagon might have to cut, as it tightens its belt, is the $1.3 billion it provides the Defense Commissary Agency, which runs 252 grocery stores around the world. Sure, those kinds of places made sense when troops and their families were stationed in far-off corners of …
