Senators say “stonewalling” and “stovepipes” blocked information sharing between and within law enforcement and …
National Security
Spyfall
Paula Broadwell stepped off the stage at the Aspen Security Forum on July 28, fresh from criticizing the news media for heedless disclosure of secrets.
Senate Intelligence Committee to Probe Petraeus Affair
Ask Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, if his panel is going to investigate former CIA Director David Petraeus’s affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, and he sounds downright regretful.
With War Ending, When Should We Look for a Peace Dividend?
The defense budget has become such a pampered darling of the American political system that the most stringent budget scenario that most Republicans and Democrats are currently contemplating — the so-called “Doomsday” …
Sky King
Retired Air Force lieutenant colonel Dan Hampton flew nearly 4,000 hours – including 726 in combat – in an F-16 during his 20 years in the Air Force. (Battleland has flown about, um, one, including none in combat. Final brave …
Rope-a-Dope Debate
The final debate Monday night between President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney saw both men stick close to their corners. Neither wanted to make an unforced error, neither did. There was scant that was new.
Exploding Budgets
The government is set to spend $640 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years.
If you didn’t know that, you are not alone. No one has put together a reliable estimate of these future budgets – …
Pitchfork in the Road
“The Threats We Face Have Grown Worse”
Eleven Years On
Sunday marks the beginning of the U.S. military‘s 12th year in Afghanistan.
It ain’t quite the Hundred Years’ War, but 12 years is 20% of this particular Battleland correspondent’s life.
Eleven years ago today – October …
“We are literally at an evolutionary low in violence. State-on-state conflict is far less likely than it has been in the past. The problem is that other kinds of conflict, other kinds of violence, are exponentially more likely as technology spreads, as the information age allows organizations and individuals -- middleweight nations, if you will -- to have capabilities that heretofore were the purview of major nation-states.”
“The results of an American or Israeli military strike on Iran could, in my view, prove catastrophic, haunting us for generations in that part of the world.”
“Strategic Ambiguity,” Indeed
You would think, given Taiwan’s role as the most likely flashpoint in relations between the U.S. and China, that the faux U.S. embassy in Taipei, and its Washington outpost, would be well-oiled operations. You’d presume there would be bright and clear lines of authority and command to ensure diplomatic kerfuffles don’t turn …
