BattlelandMilitary Spending
For years, the military services had an unnerving tendency to declare to their funders on Capitol Hill just what their old mean defense secretary wouldn’t let them have. It has always struck Battleland as a little too close to kids crying over what Santa failed to bring them. We noted three years ago that then-defense secretary Robert …
BattlelandProcurement
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BattlelandPiracy
Pirates are funny when they’re portrayed by a rum-soaked Johnny Depp. In real life, however, they pose a serious problem, with around 160 ships and 4,000 sailors affected by pirates in the last decade. Last year, three American tourists were killed by Somali pirates after an unsuccessful raid by Navy SEALS.
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BattlelandAfghanistan
Time’s John Wendle files from Kabul”
Night raid. The phrase bears with it images of both daring and terror — from a SEAL team taking down Osama bin Laden to a sinister midnight knock on the door in Soviet times. In
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BattlelandDon't Ask Don't Tell
The non-news that is the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” continues in a new Congressional Research Service report obtained by Battleland. The bar against openly gay men and women serving in the military has gone so smoothly, it seems like the good scholars at CRS have too look for controversy:
The repeal of the ban on
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BattlelandCongress
So the White House recently tweaks an Executive Order. Fourteen lawmakers respond by proposing a sense of the Congress resolution that warns President Obama he is not authorized
to confiscate personal or private property, to force conscription into the Armed Forces on the American people, to force civilians to engage in labor
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BattlelandChina
Is China a peaceful nation that only wants to turn out Apple iPads and iPhones? Or is the Middle Kingdom bent on attacking the U.S.? Beijing is the long, and strong, pole in the tent for the U.S. military – and they know it. China is the new Soviet Union, and perhaps it should be.
But is there a downside to view Beijing through such …
“We have agreed with Iran to launch a new round of talks in Istanbul on 14 April. We are very pleased that these talks, which will address the international community´s concerns on the Iranian nuclear programme, are going ahead after more than one year since we last met.”
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
The Los Angeles Times does a good job of refilling the prescription we first filled nearly four years ago:
The Times, over the weekend:
After two long-running wars with escalating levels of combat stress, more than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year were taking prescribed antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics
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BattlelandIran
Pair of disquieting stories in Easter Sunday’s papers, at home and abroad:
— The Pentagon’s official newspaper, Stars and Stripes, warns in a front-page analysis that Iraq is sliding backwards:
Iraq experts say that recent developments in Iraq and a growing Iranian influence are signs that America’s hopes are dimming for Iraq to
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