TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures from the front lines and home.
BattlelandClose-up
BattlelandClose-up
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
Afghan Massacre: The Coming Sanity Board
What’s next in the case ofArmy Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, formally charged Friday with murdering 17 Afghan civilians? I will not try to answer that question regarding the courtroom proceedings. But what I can discuss is the normal military procedure for assessing competency to stand trial, and criminal responsibility at the time of …
$75,000,000,000
“Where in the world can the same person be the prime minister, the chief of staff of the armed forces, the minister of defense, the minister of interior, the chief of intelligence and the head of the national security council?”
BattlelandAir Force
Desert Aircraft Carrier
BattlelandCongress
Oversight Oversight
The House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces held an oversight hearing on air combat programs Tuesday. The first panel focused on the F-35 fighter—at $380 billion, the Defense …
BattlelandTroops
The Nanny Navy (cont.)
We wrote the other day about the new Navy effort to get sailors and Marines to imbibe alcohol more responsibly with a new effort that will subject them to Breathalyzer tests as a normal part of showing up for work. We quoted some sailors who were not pleased with the change.
Wait ‘til you hear from the Marines.
This is not a blow
…
BattlelandAir Force
Airpower Nearing the Edge
“March Madness” isn’t just something experienced during the NCAA tournament. In March of last year, Air Force leaders dubbed the unprecedented global demand for air power with the same name. American air power is on the edge. As my co-author Doug Birkey of the Air Force Association describes it, America’s air-power capabilities are …
BattlelandArmy
No Wonder Army Pay Is Fouled Up
Soldiers are forever complaining about how their paychecks are wrong. Here’s a chart from a new Government Accountability Office report that shows just how many places the Army payroll process can get screwed up.
If you’re really a sucker for paycheck punishment, you can click on the chart to enlarge it. Or if you’re an Army …
BattlelandAfghanistan
Who’s Going to Foot This Bill?
William Pfaff has written a stunning critique of Obama’s policy in Afghanistan — and what its implications are for what is left of the American republic. Note particularly the estimates for sustaining the American-created …
BattlelandIraq
Top 10 Lessons of the Iraq War
Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt has a new piece on the Foreign Policy website on the key lessons of the Iraq war. The first:
“The United States lost.”
Kind of strange the article’s posted the same week that Harvard welcomes back Army ROTC to campus. This should confirm your view of the Ivy League school as the font of all …
“Here’s Looking at You, Taliban”
BattlelandTroops
Dear John Letter 2.0
David Wood has done some of the finest reporting on the wounds of war, both seen and unseen. His latest lays bare the serious genital wounding of hundreds of U.S. troops that’s rarely acknowledged:
“Who’s going to want to be with me now?” wondered Marine Staff Sgt. Glen Silva, 39, after an IED blast shattered his leg, ripped open his
…