Thirty-four percent, to be precise. That’s how many veterans believe the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were worth fighting, according to a new and dispiriting – but not surprising – Pew Research Center poll. Americans prefer wars like the first Gulf War – 100 days of bombing, followed by 96 hours of ground combat, then a …
Veterans
A Blueprint for the Pentagon’s Grim Reaper
One of Washington’s most influential think tanks – its ranks filled with retired and ex-soldiers – has bad news for its Army brethren still in uniform: you guys are going to take it on the chin in the coming budget battles. You too, Marines. “Ground forces will play a less central role in the projection of U.S. military power …
“What’s This `Super Committee’ and Why Is the Pentagon So Scared Of It?”
There have been lots of rumbles rolling from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the White House about this so-called “Super Committee” of 12 lawmakers – officially the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction – designed to bring some fiscal order to the federal budget. It petrifies the Pentagon, and with good reason. John Nagl, of …
Best Military Obits of the Weekend
Journalists tend to disparage obituaries because many of them had to churn them out as young reporters. But few forms of writing are so rewarding. After all, unlike many stories, obits have a beginning, middle and an end. They trace the arc of the subject’s life, and try to put it into some kind of frame and perspective. It was a great …
Don’t Hold Your Breath, Iraqi Liberators
Over at Stars and Stripes, “Rumor Doctor” Jeff Schogol is wondering if the Baghdad government is ever going to get around to awarding U.S. troops medals for their role in ousting Saddam Hussein from power. After all, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia honored American troops with such decorations after they kicked Saddam out of Kuwait back in …
The General Who Lost Vietnam
Even now, the easiest way to get into an argument at a V.F.W. bar is to mention Vietnam. Seared into all who fought it — and many who merely lived through it — that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. Historian Lewis Sorley — author of 1999’s well-regarded A Better War: The Unexamined Victories …
The Labyrinth
William Swenson. It’s probably not a name many recognize, something that could change in the next few months.
Earlier this month, as the military prepped for Sergeant Dakota Meyer’s Medal of Honor ceremony, the Military Times published an article about the unrecognized valor of former Army Captain Swenson, who fought at the …
Follow the Money 2.0
It was less than a week ago that we noted General Dynamics had landed a Pentagon contract to help tend to the bruised brains of troops suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury. We took note of it because we’ve seen big defense contractors increasingly move into the medical field in recent years. The latest evidence surfaced Tuesday, …
Of Wives and War
Every war generates its own poignancies. Some are in that twilight zone of fearful waiting and longing, felt by those the soldier has left behind since before the Trojan War happened, or didn’t, more than 3,000 years ago.
Amalie Flynn married a Navy officer shortly after 9/11, and has experienced the separation only a military …
Ain’t Gonna Study War No More…
There’s a military-history professor down Texas way by the name of Joyce Goldberg who has given up teaching military history after nearly 30 years. Increasingly, she writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education, her classes have been filled with recent military veterans more interested in binding their own mental war wounds than …
Follow the Money
Back when I first started covering the military some dozen or so wars ago — in the late 1970s — General Dynamics was busy building the F-16 jet fighter and a plethora of other weapons. But it sold the F-16 line to Lockheed in 1993, and spun off its missile and space divisions, too. It seems to be moving into a different line of …
Back to School
Today seems to be military and veterans’ education commentary day. ROTC is back at Harvard, and both Bloomberg News and Holly Petraeus are railing on the for-profit colleges.
First the good news story: after a 40 years hiatus, ROTC is back at Harvard. The death of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has re-opened doors long closed to the military …
Chart of the Week
I thought it might have been Wednesday’s, where I plotted the amazing growth in U.S. air drops into Afghanistan over the past several years. Then this one stopped me cold. It’s in the Army’s just-released study into the nature and number of U.S. troops wounded in Afghanistan, conducted by the Army’s Dismounted Complex Blast Injury …