I can remember the first time I came to Washington some 35 years ago and walked around the White House, protected from the outside world by a freshly-black-painted, wrought-iron fence. I recall doing that not so long ago. I did it again Tuesday afternoon, at least on the Pennsylvania Avenue side. But down by the South Lawn I was …
Cousin Itt Joins Special Forces
This pair of special-forces snipers from the Dominican army readies for an event at last week’s Fuerzas Comando 2011 near San Salvador at Shangallo Range in Ilopango, El Salvador. Fuerzas Comando, established in 2004, is an annual U.S. Southern Command-sponsored, special-operations skills competition and leader seminar among the …
What Obama Predicted about His Surge in Afghanistan
President Obama traveled to West Point 18 months ago to redefine the American strategy in Afghanistan and explain why he would dispatch an additional 30,000 troops there, to a total of 100,000. “These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of …
Can a California Salvage Diver Recover bin Laden’s Body?
Talk is cheap. That’s why Bill Warren won’t elaborate on his conspiracy theory regarding bin Laden’s death. Instead, he’s taking action. The Fallbrook, Calif. salvage diver is planning a mission to retrieve bin Laden’s body from the bottom of the Arabian Sea.
Having been in the business of salvage diving for more than 30 …
MTV Goes to War…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF7x0ZIFeVc&feature=player_embedded]
You know something is seriously wrong when the contractor’s website for the most expensive weapon in the history of the world features a rock band singing its praises.
For those whose tastes are more classical in nature, you’re invited to sign a “statement …
Libya: Bombs Away! (A Little Too Far Away…)
More bad news from Libya, from Time’s Global Spin colleague Tony Karon:
The reason there’s a well-worn military euphemism – “collateral damage” – to describe incidents like Sunday morning’s air strike in which NATO admits it may have inadvertently killed Libyan civilians in a residential area of Tripoli is that they’re an inevitable
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Libyan Rebels’ Frustrations Mount
Steve Sotloff with the latest grim reportfrom the rebel stronghold of Misrata, Libya:
“Where is NATO?” the rebel asks, with no small amount of frustration. It is just after midnight, Friday, June 17, and he is holed up in Dafniyah, a hamlet west of the revolutionary enclave of Misratah on the coast of western Libya. Like all the
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The Looming Taliban Two-Step
The White House has announced that President Obama on June 22 is going to reveal the way forward in Afghanistan — which, boiled down, means how many of the 100,000 U.S. troops now there will be coming home in short order. Then, some 24 hours later, the Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for General …
Future grand strategists speak: Why US withdrawal from Afghanistan would stabilize Pakistan
In my continuing role as Head Judge for the online strategy community Wikistrat‘s month-long International Grand Strategy Competition featuring roughly 30 teams from top-flight universities and think tanks around the world, I get to peruse all manner of provocative thought from some of tomorrow’s best and brightest thinkers. And …
Comparing my Time Battleland post on the new US cyber strategy with my World Politics Review column on the same subject
Reader Brad Hancock jumps at the chance to compare my recent Battleland post on the new US cyber strategy with my just-published World Politics Review column.
Mr. Hancock comments at my Globlogization site that:
Compare this piece in WPR to the one Barnett wrote for Time on the same subject three weeks ago. Time readers were
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Take That Human Scum!
Well, it’s good to know the two Koreas are still hard at work on that reconciliation and reunification thing. This AP report from a couple weeks ago (OK, I’m a little behind in my reading…) sort of says it all about the most recent round in the never ending song of love between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic …
Report: Petraeus Willing to Pull 30,000 Troops from Afghanistan
The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, is apparently open to the idea of withdrawing of 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012.
Marc Ambinder is reporting that Petraeus has “formally” endorsed bringing out 5,000 troops now and another 5,000 next spring. But Congress is increasingly hostile to the …
PTSD and Veterans: Jobs Are What Is Needed
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been a controversial diagnosis since its inception. Originally called by many names (“compensation neurosis”), it was not officially given the name PTSD until well after the end of the Vietnam War. By then, many veterans with PTSD also were bedeviled with substance abuse, joblessness, and …