$4 Trillion
— The latest estimate, here, of the cost to the U.S. of waging the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, from Harvard researcher Linda Bilmes. The eventual cost could reach $6 trillion, she estimates, or nearly $20,000 per American.
Supreme Court Says a Dog’s Sniff Can Be a Fourth Amendment Intrusion
If you’ve ever worried about whether the U.S. Constitution protects you from a dog’s nose, there’s no need to fret: even a canine cop needs a warrant to sniff your front porch.
BattlelandNavy
War Is…Tell. Show and Tell, to be Precise.
Getting the story out is important, whether you’re a reporter…or a sailor. That’s the bottom line of a Navy inquiry seeking help getting the Navy story out no matter where it takes place.
It seems the Navy has lots of …
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BattlelandKorea
Korean Skies Buzzed by B-2s
A pair of the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 stealth bombers made the least-stealthy flight in their history Thursday, flying 13,000 miles round-trip from their Missouri base to fly over South Korea and drop inert bombs on a target range …
Is the U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance Real?
U.S. manufacturing is back. That’s been the conventional economic wisdom for months now. But at least one economic seer is throwing a bit of cold water on the idea.
BattlelandWar Story
The Mean, Green, Marine Machine
Missile defenses, up-armored Humvees, body armor – sometimes defense can get costly and complicated.
Then there’s the recollection of Indiana Army National Guard Major Bradley Compton, who spent much of 2003 and 2004 in …
How Gay Marriage Won
The gay and lesbian community has gone from Stonewall to the altar in two generations
Doc, the IED-Detecting Dog
Doc, an improvised explosive device detection dog, trains for future IED hunts at Camp Leatherneck, March 19.
BattlelandNavy
Bowing Out…
It has been more than two months since the Navy’s mine-countermeasures ship USS Guardian ran aground on a reef off the Philippine coast. Bad weather has led to repeated delays in trying to take the vessel apart and remove her …
BattlelandProcurement
Marine F-35 Jump-Jet PR: Caveataxpayer Emptor
The Marines issued a flashy press release last week: “first operational F-35B conducts initial Vertical Landing.” It was an amateurish, somewhat slimy piece of hype.
In one important way, the press release contradicted …
BattlelandKorea
Women in Combat? Old Hat, in North Korea
North Korea has spent the past week fulminating against recent U.S.-South Korean military exercises, including a B-52 flight Monday. But at the same time, the Korean Central News Agency was foaming at the keyboard over the …
Syrian Rebels Beginning to Fight Among Themselves
TAL ABYAD, Syria – The day started like a regular Sunday for Mohammad al-Daher, better known as Abu Azzam, the commander of the rebel Farouq Brigades in the vast swathe of eastern Syria called the Jazira, a region that …