BattlelandMilitary Personnel
BattlelandMilitary Personnel
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Axis of Excess
There are two ways to delay the dilemma highlighted in this chart from Republican members of the Senate Budget Committee: cut the debt or increase defense spending. Either seems unlikely to happen, in any significant way, any time soon — absent world war or economic cataclysm. The country lacks the will to change the status quo. …
BattlelandMilitary
“Disruptive Thinkers”
The military embraces the status quo. That may increasingly become an unaffordable luxury, which means new ways of thinking about defense are needed. Marine Lieutenant Benjamin Kohlmann, an F-18 flight instructor in San Diego, thinks it’s time to shake things up:
…the one thing a vertically integrated organization like the military
…
BattlelandMilitary Women
21st Century Fragging: Sexual Assault
Navy Times reports this week that “Navy leaders are calling for educational standdowns in April to communicate the service’s policy of zero tolerance for sexual assault while encouraging sailors to work harder to prevent attacks.” It’s part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, an effort to raise awareness of the issue and what can be …
BattlelandPeople
Honoring Courage and Cool-Headedness
BattlelandMilitary Personnel
Non-Citizens Make Better U.S. Soldiers*
Well, there’s a kick in the teeth to all you red-blooded Americans wearing your country’s uniform: It turns out non-Americans donning U.S. military garb have more stick-to-itiveness than you, as well as having vital skills the U.S. military needs that you don’t have, to boot.
Non-citizens are “a potential source of …
BattlelandAfghanistan
“Can We Win?”
The Council on Foreign Relations asked a squad of national-security heavyweights that question. You can read their hemming and hawing here, but Andrew Exum of the Center for a New American Security takes the cake for clarity:
I may lose my think-tanking license for writing this, but my honest answer to the question is that I simply do not know.
BattlelandAfghanistan
“Black-on-Black”
We’ve had months of depressing news about so-called “green-on-blue” killings in Afghanistan – where Afghan troops kill their purported allies, American and otherwise. Such perfidy has accounted for about a quarter of the …
“Ten years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. government does not have a single definition for `homeland security.'”
BattlelandMilitary Spending
The Defense Budget Non-Debate
Last week, as he issued his political budget, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan tried to pull the “Generals are not telling us the honest truth” rabbit out of the hat. The Wisconsin Republican was suggesting that either the military leadership was lying — in saying they could live with $487 billion less over the next 10 …
BattlelandVeterans
Veterans Looking for More Than Just Government Jobs
“So you’re not planning on going back into government?” The question came from an executive at a prominent consulting firm, but I (Michael) had heard it often before. At networking events in industries ranging from …
BattlelandAfghanistan
Good News Is Hard to Find
It’s getting tougher to find good news from Afghanistan these days. “Good news has a hard time making it to the headlines these days, but the fact is there is good news,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday about the …
BattlelandMarines
Very Social Darwinism
The first Marines have just pivoted toward the Pacific – as President Obama pledged the U.S. military would do – with their initial six-month deployment to Darwin, Australia. That’s a scant 3,700 miles from Beijing. It’s a …