President Obama’s goal at the NATO summit this week is looking increasingly clear: wrap up U.S. troops’ combat role over the coming year, and get the allies to pay more money to enable the Afghan military to fill the …
BattlelandAfghanistan
BattlelandAfghanistan
BattlelandMissile Defense
House Pushes for East Coast Missile Shield
The House has approved a $643 billion defense-spending bill for 2013 that’s $3.7 billion more than the Obama Administration, and its Pentagon, is seeking. That’s just about the same amount the Congressional Budget Office …
BattlelandAuthor Q&A
Losing a Daughter in Combat
It’s tough for most Americans to learn much about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the U.S. military has waged since 9/11. So it’s all the more important to pay attention when combat chronicles – and their impact back home – surface.
Anna Simon covered the 2004 death in Iraq of Kimberly Hampton for South Carolina’s The …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
The Pentagon’s “Washington Monument Strategy”
Whenever federal bureaucrats running the nation’s parks get antsy that their purse is likely to shrink, they roll out something long known as the “Washington Monument strategy.” That’s the tried-and-true technique of warning the …
BattlelandClose-up
Battleland Diary, May 11-18
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures from the front lines and home.
BattlelandMilitary History
“Those Who Cannot Remember the Past…”
Hard to believe, but Battleland began covering this terrible story 25 years ago today:
28 KILLED ON U.S. FRIGATE USS STARK — DIDN’T USE DEFENSES — ‘DON’T KNOW WHY,’ NAVY OFFICIAL SAYS
WASHINGTON — The USS Stark, a
…
BattlelandTroops
Behind the Bowe Bergdahl Story…
…this week in Time magazine, Battleland’s own Nate Rawlings joins forces with Time AfPak correspondent Aryn Baker to write the compelling story on Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army sergeant who has been held by insurgents along the AfPak frontier for nearly three years. In this video, Nate talks about the Bergdahl case, and why he found it …
BattlelandChina
“Historic New Missions” That Aren’t New and Hardly Historic
Stop the presses! The Pentagon’s just-issued annual report on China says its military is expanding into “new historic missions” beyond its traditional role of self-defense. The press is already highlighting that alarming phrase.
Some are sure to see these as “new hysteric missions” and contend they require increased U.S. …
Hearts and Minds…and Head Scarf
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
“Positive Activity Jackpot”
Every little thing helps in the Pentagon’s and VA’s war on PTSD, depression and suicide. The latest: the Positive Activity Jackpot app for your Android smartphone (apparently folks with iPhones don’t need such help). It immerses mentally-ailing troops or vets in “pleasant event scheduling” by marrying behavioral therapy to …
BattlelandAfghanistan
Close Call: Do We Trade Terrorists for Troops?
A few months ago I wrote about the only American service member (at the time) to be missing in action (MIA) in Iraq. Since then, Staff Sergeant Ahmed Kousay Altaie’s remains have been found and repatriated to the United States, thereby closing a disturbing and emotionally charged chapter of the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, a …
$55 Million
BattlelandNational Security
Don’t Watch This Video!
…if you’re interested in a calm and reasoned assessment of the threats facing the U.S. by Foreign Affairs’ Micah Zenko. But if you prefer threat inflation, switch over to C-Span to watch the House debate the 2013 defense budget. Turn it up real loud.