Politics

Pentagon Reportedly Planning for “Doomsday” Spending Scenario

Is the White House assuming massive defense cuts next year–much bigger than the cuts already made? Even bigger than the additional reductions contained in the recently passed debt-ceiling legislation?

It sure seems so.

Rumor has it that the Administration’s accounting arm, the Office of Management and Budget, has issued fresh …

The New Greatest Generation

Colleague Joe Klein has a great cover story this week on the flip side of veterans’ joblessness, PTSD and suicide: the exemplary examples being set in fields far removed from the battlefields by vets of our post-9/11 wars. As he notes, it’s currently behind the Time paywall, which means you won’t be able to read it online for awhile. …

The Whack-a-Mole Endgame Begins in Afghanistan

Cap Ferrat, France

President Obama’s surge and de-surge strategy in Afghanistan has landed the United States in a strategic cul-de-sac. As America withdraws troops from remote areas of Afghanistan like the Tangi, Korangar, and Pech Valleys, insurgents are flooding back in to wreak havoc, necessitating US retaliatory raids, …

“Why Can’t NATO Whup Libya?”

As NATO’s war against Libya nears its sixth-month anniversary, there’s one question that keeps churning over and over again in what passes for my mind: why can’t the most powerful military alliance in history topple a third-rate army? I discuss the topic with John Nagl of the Center for a New American Security, Paul Hughes, a …

The Pentagon Budget Battle’s Ratcheting Rhetoric

Glad to see the debt crisis has been resolved in the past two weeks while I was away. It has been plain to anyone paying attention for the past couple of years that military spending – or “security” spending as the Orwellians in the White House are now calling it – has to come down, and by more than the $400 billion President …

A Military Teetering on the “Ragged Edge”

House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Chairman J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) held a hearing on the state of the military this week. The conclusion is stark: the U.S. military is at a breaking point. Today. Right now.

None of America’s armed forces can meet all of the global demands placed on them by commanders today. Were an …

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” History in 60 Days

Charlie Moskos, the nation’s most pre-eminent military sociologist and the architect of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is dead. So is Les Aspin, who as a defensive defense secretary battling the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” official Pentagon policy in 1994. Friday, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will join those two men – …

Fully-Loaded Magazine

TIME published its report on Osama bin Laden’s death three days after it happened. It has taken bin Laden’s allies nearly three months. The latest issue of Inspire, the English-language jihadist magazine allegedly published by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, hails his sacrifice:

While we lament the loss of a great leader, we also

DEFCON 1: Incoming Numbers!

Washington is a Milky Way of numbers right now, all swirling around in a galaxy of confusion involving taxes, debt and interest rates.

Here are some other numbers that folks reading Battleland should know: $1 trillion out of $9 trillion, 48%, and 15 out of 22 nations surveyed:

The Defense Death Spiral

Why is the Pentagon Underfunded?

The courtiers in the Hall of Mirrors that is Versailles on the Potomac are lining up to give Leon Panetta advice on how to manage the Pentagon in the coming era of budget “constraints.” Most of this wisdom takes the form of platitudes of how important it is to have a strategy and to make the …

Ping-Pong? No, Just The Latest Ruling on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Late Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals bowed to the wishes of the Obama Justice Department and said the Pentagon could continue its all-but-gone enforcement of the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the U.S. military. This on-again, off-again life of the 17-year old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law has everyone pretty …

Don’t Ask…About “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…”

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…because it is getting really confusing, as I tried to detail Wednesday night on the PBS NewsHour, along with Aubrey Sarvis of the Servicemembers Legal Defense …

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