President Obama doubled down on the Army Monday, picking an Army general as chairman of the Joint Chiefs — after picking another one to run the CIA, and a third — a one-time low-level Army lawyer — to run the Pentagon. There may be lots of red, white and blue around the capital today, but it felt more like red, white and Army …
Memorial Day, in Real Time
Powerful piece from Rajiv Srinivasan, an Army platoon leader in Afghanistan last year, on the passing of a comrade:
The hardest part about writing this piece was not the recollection of the sights and emotions of a friend’s passing but deciding what to call him. Perhaps it will mean more to you if you reread the roll call, inserting the
…
Memorial Day, 2011
Memorial Day is a strange holiday when so many Americans are disconnected from the wars now underway. Did you know that over the past week, more than a dozen U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan? It’s easy for me to keep track: I get Pentagon press releases every time a U.S. soldier is killed, sprinkled in among those …
War Movies in Honor of Memorial Day
Over at Global Spin, Tony Karon and I present a weekly offering of five films we reckon are not only worth watching, but illustrate something about current affairs. In honor of Memorial Day, this week’s edition is all about the U.S. at war.
The Thin Red Line
It’s fitting that in the week that Terrence Malick — the …
Democrats Describe Secret Justice Department Spying Opinion
Two Senate Democrats on Friday told TIME that a secret Justice Department opinion grants the FBI broad authority to seize information on innocent U.S. citizens, that it would shock Americans if it became public, and it that might violate the Constitution. “Innocent Americans are being swept up in this,” said Colorado’s Sen. Mark …
Senator Suggests Government is Snooping on “Law-Abiding Americans”
Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado failed Thursday in their effort to force the Obama administration to produce internal Justice Department interpretations of what the government is allowed to do under the Patriot Act. Congress reauthorized the law on Thursday but did not include an amendment sponsored by the …
A Weekend of Remembrance
Yesterday I sat in on a promotion ceremony and something struck me. The officer being promoted restated the Oath of Office in which he swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States”. The United States military is unique in the way we swear to protect the document that, in a very real way, defines freedom as …
Losing a Leg, But Gaining Wings
A freshly-minted Air Force pilot has completed his training with only one leg. First Lt. Ryan McGuire is the first-ever in Air Force history to do so. “I hope this shows people to never give up on their dream,” he says. “You have to keep your goals in mind and have faith in yourself.” McGuire lost his lower right leg in a boating …
U.S. Wars Used to be Fought By Privates — Now, Increasingly, They’re Fought by Privateers
Privateers, strictly speaking, are private individuals who have been granted the power by a government to attack enemy ships in the government’s name. Privateering was a key part of naval warfare from the 16th to 19th centuries. But a pair of Congressional Research Service reports, released Friday by the invaluable Steven Aftergood of …
Patriot Act Debate Raises Question: How Much is the FBI Snooping?
“Americans would be alarmed if they knew how this law is being carried out.” That was Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden on the Senate floor yesterday pushing — unsuccessfully — for Congress to scale back some domestic snooping provisions in the Patriot Act.
Wyden suggested that the government was abusing Section 215 of the law, which …
Oh No! China Has Our Super-Secret Osama-Getting Helicopter!
That’s bad news. We always knew we couldn’t trust our Pakistani allies to keep valuable technology like the heavily-modified MH-60 Black Hawks, used to ferry Navy SEALs to Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani lair, from the reverse-engineering whizzes of the Middle Kingdom. You may recall reports that the commandos had to abandon one of the …
U.S. to Search Bin Laden Home Again, Slower
The Washington Post is reporting that Pakistan will allow a CIA team access to Osama bin Laden’s former compound in Abbottabad for a thorough search. The team of commandos that raided the bin Laden’s home was in and out in about 40 minutes, snatching computer parts, thumb drives, and paper records. This longer search would allow the …
Ratko Mladic’s Indictment Contains Horrifying Details of Massacre
Serbian police have arrested former Bosnian general Ratko Mladic, the accused war criminal allegedly responsible for the execution of at least 7,000 Muslim prisoners over a six-day period in 1995. News reports say he was living under an assumed name in Vojvodina, the Serbian province north of Belgrade.
The White House released a …
