BattlelandMilitary
It was Napoleon who said an army travels on its stomach, and Battleland doesn’t think the French were playing football back in those days. But the folks at the Defense Logistics Agency’s Troop Support shop know that there’s no better way to spend Super Bowl Sunday – even if it’s going to be Monday at kickoff time in Afghanistan …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
BattlelandMilitary Spending
The Word Police over at the Congressional Research Service – a namby-pamby bunch of straight-shooters who apparently have no use for political rhetoric – are calling Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on his claim that the U.S. military is headed for a “hollow force” if proposed budget cuts occur:
BattlelandPeople
Funny four-star generals are rare. Dave Petraeus got in a pickle several years ago when he picked on the Air Force, but now that he’s out of uniform and running the CIA, he zinged a safer target in remarks to the Reserve …
BattlelandMilitary Benefits
File under: Doesn’t make a lick of sense. Thanks to a change stemming from the 2007 defense authorization law, retired generals and admirals can, under the right circumstances, make more in retirement than they can while actually working for the military. USA Today’s Tom Vanden Brook has the scoop:
The highest pension, $272,892, is
…
BattlelandMilitary Spending
It’s kind of funny to watch the Republicans on Capitol Hill come up with repeated schemes to protect defense spending from next year’s budget cuts ($500 billion over a decade, mandated by the sequestration law) without raising taxes. The House Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Howard McKeon of California, has detailed one, …
BattlelandProcurement
The F-35 Lightning II fighter program has struggled recently: then-defense secretary Robert Gates put the Marine version on “probation” for two years, before new defense chief Leon Panetta let it off a year early – apparently something to do with good flying behavior. Such positive news has led to this video, complete with the …
BattlelandMilitary Benefits
Imminent Danger Pay has been a good deal for troops. They receive a tax-free $225 for every month – or part of every month – they are in war zones like Afghanistan or Iraq. Troops from headquarters outside such zones have been known to fly in for change of command ceremonies – which normally happen on the first of the month – …
BattlelandTaliban
U.S. drone strikes may keep U.S. troops out of harm’s way. But they can generate their own deadly blowback.
Here’s what Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported last fall:
Here’s the blowback from that apparently successful strike, over at Long War Journal (not for the faint-hearted). Think of it as egamad laretalloc – reverse …
BattlelandPakistan
Over on Time’s Global Spin blog, Aryn Baker speaks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar:
TIME: Many are saying that America has already lost the war in Afghanistan.
HRK: I wouldn’t want to comment on that
…
BattlelandIran
The mind games that telegraph any military strike are simmering along and on the verge of a full boil. David Ignatius, columnist for the Washington Post, is reporting that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a …
“December 17, 2011, marked the first time in 20 years that the Air Force had not flown a sortie over Iraq.”
BattlelandMilitary
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s statement Wednesday that the U.S. plans to hand off all combat missions in Afghanistan sometime in 2013 has triggered howls from hawks who maintain it’s a step down a slippery slope headed to …
