The internet is a wonderful thing. We should all thank Al Gore for inventing it. This morning I found a RAND corporation report that taught me at least two really interesting things. First, according to the report, 75% of the U.S. troops deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait have been soldiers. The Army makes up half of America’s …
The Justice Department’s Obsession with New York Times’ Risen
President Obama’s Justice Department really has it out for the New York Times’ James Risen.
The Justice Department May 23 subpoenaed Risen – a second time – to testify about his alleged involvement in disclosing an apparently botched 11-year-old CIA program designed to disrupt Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The department wants …
The Nuclear Hitch
Christopher Hitchens isn’t an arms-control expert (thank God), but he is a damn fine writer, master polemicist and certifiable Big Thinker. He’s come up with his own nuclear non-proliferation regime over on Slate. Bottom line:
The possession of illegally acquired nuclear weapons remains a huge threat and burden to neighboring states
…
Soldiers Get Your $57 Bucks Ready for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3″
On Nov. 8 Activision will release the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” The company calls the video game series “the best-selling first-person action series of all-time.”
I’m not a video game enthusiast. I do, however, interview a lot of soldiers. They all play Call of Duty. They are fanatic about it. View the trailer and …
NATO Steps Up Not Targeting Gaddafi
“It is certainly not the policy of the coalition, of this administration, to decapitate, if you will, or to effect regime change in Libya by force.” That was White House spokesman Jay Carney early in the war against Libya.
Early Tuesday night coalition aircraft struck 15 targets inside Tripoli. Most of the ordnance was aimed at …
Flaws Exposed in Guantanamo Article that Won Magazine Award
It would be an understatement to say that many members of the press were surprised when the National Magazine Award for Reporting this year went to a piece Scott Horton did about deaths at the Guantanamo prison for Harper’s Magazine. That award is arguably the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer (traditionally a newspaper …
Increased Assassinations in Iraq Suggest Possible Slide Back to Civil War
The latest bombings and shootings in Baghdad on Sunday left at least 17 Iraqis dead. Two U.S. soldiers also died in this spasm of violence, the first soldiers to be killed in combat in Iraq this month. Assassinations are now on the rise in Iraq, according to new data.
News clips seem to suggest a recent uptick in sectarian violence in …
Spouse Training at Walter Reed Wraps Up
Here’s our final dispatch from Gayla Romanowsky, who has been filing to Battleland from the new Significant Others Support Group at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Her husband, Dave, served in Iraq, where he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Gayla attended the sessions, funded by the non-profit Walter Reed Society, to …
Big Risks Lurk in Obama’s Marriage of the CIA and Pentagon
The Wall Street Journal today has a detailed piece on the planning of the raid to kill or capture Osama bin Laden.
Perhaps more importantly, the article uses the planning process as a vehicle to explore the increasingly close relationship between the CIA and the Pentagon’s secretive Joint Special Operations Command, a …
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: A Gay Officer Witnesses Its End
What a fascinating time to be a gay man in the U.S. military. This time last year, I was sure the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy was here to stay for the next 2 to 3 years. I never thought by now I’d be in a unit where almost everyone has received post-repeal training. While not entirely satisfied with the training …
Pirate Map!
Alas, there’s no X to mark the spot where the treasure is buried. This is the fascinating report — The Economics of Piracy — we cited a couple of weeks ago that noted Somali pirates can make up to $79K annually plying their trade. Finally got a copy of it, here, from the author, Peter Middlebrook of Geopolicity in the UAE.
He …
Sudan Spark Might Ignite Civil War
It’s long been predicted that if Sudan were to degenerate into another bloody civil war it would begin with the hotly contested, oil-rich town of Abeyi, which straddles the border between norther and southern Sudan. Southern Sudan voted for independence from the North early this year, a split that is supposed to take place next month. …
The F-22 Rapture
Sure…we know it’s officially known as the F-22 Raptor. But Harold Camping’s prediction that the Rapture is coming Saturday at 6 p.m. — no matter where you are — has lots of folks in a tizzy. Some of them, no doubt, are looking for clues to the future online by typing “Rapture” into Google and other search engines. If the end of …
