BattlelandVeterans
I used to walk the halls of power, at the Capitol and the Pentagon, when I spoke on PTSD among Soldiers, as an active duty Army psychiatrist. Now, I take care of those in the public mental health system in the nation’s capital. Those halls are much murkier, even as we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Every day I take the Metro and walk …
BattlelandNational Security
Interesting budget-weenie item from the Weekly Standard website:
Across that whole decade, the CBO currently projects that the federal government will spend $45.77 trillion. The deficit [super] committee was charged with trimming deficit spending by just $1.2 trillion, which could have been achieved by cutting that $45.77 trillion
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BattlelandPresident Obama
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s failure to come up with a dime – never mind $1.2 trillion – in deficit reduction over the coming decade has set the stage for both tragedy – if you’re a defense secretary given to supersonic flights of rhetoric – and farce, if you’re an American taxpayer.
That failure …
BattlelandTroops
There is a rough correlation between the number of U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the number of turkeys sent there annually to help them celebrate Thanksgiving. Your Battleland math whiz has stuffed data provided by the Defense Logistics Agency’s troop support folks into his abacus to generate this chart and can …
BattlelandVeterans
This is one of those little stories that lights the bigger truth. A month ago today – October 22 — Army 1st Lieutenant Ashley White, 24, died in Afghanistan when her Joint Special Operations task force was hit by an IED. Two other soldiers also were killed in the blast. One, Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer B. Domeij, 29, of San Diego, …
BattlelandPentagon
U.S. forces will be out of Iraq by the end of next month, after a nearly nine-year stay. Just how permanent are the changes the U.S. military and diplomatic corps have tried to bring to a post-Saddam Hussein nation? John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and I discuss the likelihood of a lasting success in Iraq …
BattlelandWeapons
They say big agencies in Washington, ranging from the White House to the Pentagon, like to dump things they’d rather not have see the light of day late on a Friday. That way, they only appear as a blip in the thin Saturday morning papers, and by Sunday, we’re on to new news. That strikes me as way too cynical…until something like …
BattlelandPolitics
You can always tell the rookie Pentagon reporter. He, or she, is the one who whispers: “They told me they’re planning for war with Iran!” That’s when the vets around the building have to say: “They’ve been doing that for decades. Somewhere along these 17 miles of corridors, they have plans for everything.”
At least until last …
BattlelandPentagon
Pretty balanced look at Beijing’s military in the latest Aviation Week, which notes:
Before viewing a static display of the Chengdu J-10 fighter, Brig. Gen. Yan Feng, commander of the 24th airborne, said that over the next decade he would like aircraft “with the capacity to do what the pilot wants.”
OK….something may have …
BattlelandVeterans
I received a note from Rick Maze over at Military Times this morning commenting on an assertion I made here that things might be improving for veterans’ benefits claims over at the VA. Maze, who took the time to note he’s “only been covering military and veterans issues for three decades,” says that things are getting worse over at VA in …
BattlelandWeapons
Many mornings you can hear Boeing boasting over the Washington airwaves about how its ground-based missile system is protecting the United States. From what? There is no nation primed to attack the U.S. with I.C.B.M.s — or even close to it — in any military significant way. Yet we’re spending billions of dollars annually against …
BattlelandWeapons
BattlelandTerrorism
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RMp2BwK-4uk]
The Haqqani network in eastern Afghanistan is the biggest foe the U.S. and its allies face in that country. Manba al-Jihad, a media arm of the Taliban branch, just released a video of some of its forces in training (edited and posted to YouTube by the private …
