In March, like everyone else operating in the mil-writer space, I decided it was my duty to God and to country to pen a piece on the maddening and tragic Kandahar massacre. So I did, and thanks to the fine people at …
BattlelandVeterans
BattlelandVeterans
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Countdown to Sequestration: Nine Months to Go
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
Afghan Massacre: The Link to Lariam Remains Open
If – and it’s a big if — Staff Sergeant Robert Bales became psychotic after taking mefloquine, it wouldn’t be the first time. In fact, there have been confirmed cases of psychosis and aggression in Afghanistan directly …
BattlelandAuthor Q&A
Afghanistan: A Bleak Report from the Front
Marine General John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was here in Washington two weeks ago saying the U.S. and the Afghan government are making progress in their decade-long battle with the Taliban. “We remain on track to ensure that Afghanistan will no longer be a safe haven for al-Qaida and will no longer be terrorized by …
BattlelandAir Force
F-22 Update: More Bad Air, More Big Bucks
At noon Thursday, Air Force officials said their F-22 fighters are ready for war despite pilots’ repeated breathing problems that may have played a role in a fatal crash and continue despite a seven-month probe into the vexing …
“We don't think the generals are giving us their true advice. We don't think the generals believe their budget is really the right budget.”
BattlelandWeapons
Subcontracting Out War
There have been times since 9/11 when there have been as many contractors working for the U.S. military in the war zones as U.S. troops. It’s one way to keep the troop count down.
The Air Force is seeking contractors to “launch” MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones all around the world, according to a “pre-proposal …
BattlelandMilitary Families
War On the Homefront
Here’s the winner of the Ladies’ Home Journal’s first-ever essay contest:
Sunrise is poised on the horizon, but in this small room, darkness still holds sway. Beyond my home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on a pine-dotted, red-dirt range, soldiers are already training with the artillery. I’m on the verge of falling back to sleep
…
“When measured from their first full estimates, which have been put in place over a number of years, the growth in total acquisition cost for these [major defense acquisition] programs is $447 billion, or 40 percent.”
BattlelandAfghanistan
Afghan Massacre: Report from the Villages
Reporter Yalda Hakim of Australia’s SBS network has the first report from the villages where Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales allegedly killed 17 Afghan civilians on March 11. It includes interviews with some of the survivors, including an eight-year old girl. Kind of brings into focus the banality of evil that Hannah Arendt wrote …
BattlelandAfghanistan
Alleged
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Rhetorical Retreat
We’re cutting close to $500 billion out of the next decade’s defense spending. Then there’s another $500 billion to come if sequestration occurs next January because Congress can’t come up with $1.2 trillion in cuts or tax hikes, or some combo of both, over the coming decade.
That prospect of $1 trillion coming out of the …
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
Resiliency, Inc.
“Resilience” has become the new buzzword inside the Pentagon. It’s shorthand for our Army’s too small to fight the wars we’ve been fighting. The fourth annual Warrior Resilience Conference (or, as the Pentagon calls it, Warrior Resilience Conference IV) begins Thursday.
Instead of raising an Army big enough to send …
