“[The Taliban] didn't reach the tempo they had the year before. It was down about 9% overall in a year...their complex attacks are down about 36% compared to last year. Their offensive activities are down…between 13 and about 25% here as we went out of the summer into the fall.”
Into the Lion’s Den
The Conservative Political Action Conference is rolling into Washington on Thursday, and you can feel a change in the air on military matters.
Sure, Battleland’s own Mackenzie Eaglen will be on a panel arguing for more:
…but retired Army office Doug MacGregor will be a one-man band (hey, you gotta start somewhere) arguing …
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?
This dispatch comes from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot about an amphibious assault “launched” by Marines during this week’s Bold Alligator exercise along the North Carolina-Virginia coast:
Operating on information gathered
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“If military personnel costs continue growing at the same rate as the past decade while the overall budget remains flat, personnel costs will consume the entire defense budget by FY 2039.”
“Bye-Bye Baghdad”
The U.S. is planning to cut the 16,000 personnel it has assigned to its embassy in Baghdad by up to half, the New York Times reports Wednesday. Apparently, the diplomats feel they’re too threatened by the locals now that the U.S. military has pulled out. As some of Battleland’s uniformed friends will say: Typical.
The Nobel Betrayal Prize?
Apparently, three members of the Icelandic Parliament have nominated Army PFC Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. On February 1, 2012, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Margrét Tryggvadóttir, and Þór Saari, all members of the Icelandic Parliament, sent their nominating letter to the Nobel nominating committee.
This is, of course, …
A Personal War-Cost Calculator You Can Use at Home
Sure, there have always been those anti-war sites, trying to undermine support for the nation’s wars by showing us how much they cost; the dollars – which just topped $1.3 trillion, according to this calculation — flash by like a Times Square news ribbon.
Then there is this, more personal cost calculator just launched by the …
Why Okinawa Won’t Be Celebrating if 4,700 U.S. Marines Move to Guam
If you’re into planes, the hilltop park overlooking the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is not a bad place to be. You can watch cargo planes make wide circles over the green hills of Okinawa all day, swooping down to the …
The Navy’s Flying Fax Machine: Way Back to the Future
Grain-of-Salt Alert
We’re going to be hearing more in the coming weeks and months about how the Afghan army is increasingly ready to shoulder more of the burden of defending its nation from the Taliban. But there’s a Marine assessment from last fall now floating around, and it gives the ground truth a good scrub. Among the lowlights:
Afghans are
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The Pentagon’s Top Weapons Buyer Wrote This Headline: `Acquisition Malpractice’
Frank Kendall shined a spotlight Monday into the F-35 program – the biggest weapons buy in the history of the world — and didn’t like what he saw. The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said:
This will make a headline if I say it, but I’m going to say it anyway: putting the F-35 into production years before the first test flight was
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“Half of the people we’re deploying into Afghanistan and Iraq were contractors…the boots on the ground include 50%, basically, contractor boots as well as uniform boots…it’s a different way of doing war…It is essentially part of the force structure.”
More Stars on Female Shoulders
Lieut. General Janet Wolfenbarger is slated to become the Air Force’s first female four-star general, the Pentagon said Monday. Assuming Senate confirmation, she will become commander of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. AFMC spends $40 billion annually developing weapons and other gear …