BattlelandBattleland
It’s creepy pontificating about somebody’s possible assassination, but you’ve got to wonder how Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai sleeps at night. Sadly, you also have to wonder what kind of chaos might follow if he got killed.
The mayor of Kandahar is dead. News reports say he died after a suicide bomber hid an explosive in his …
BattlelandTerrorism
We are wrapping up Battleland today on account of the war is over. Al-Qaeda is basically dead. As a result, the United States is pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq tomorrow, bringing home all those drones, stopping warrantless wiretapping, closing the prison at Guantanamo, etc. etc. etc.
Except none of that is true, except the part …
BattlelandCyber
The Pentagon has announced a new Cyber Strategy Website. Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said about the site, “The centrality of information technology to our military operations and our society virtually guarantees that future adversaries will target our dependence on it.”
Bets on how long it’ll be till this puppy …
BattlelandMilitary Training
I’ve written more than most about the cost in blood and treasure of the seemingly endless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. We’ve also heard a lot about the well-founded concern about the endless grind creating a “hollow Army,” drained of talent like the post-Vietnam era.
These are all valid concerns, of course. But there …
BattlelandBattleland
Last week I wrote a post about an inspector general report that suggested Afghan VIPs were flying out of Kabul with U.S. aid money stuffed in their suitcases at the rate of about $10 million bucks a day. What was perhaps more disturbing about that July 27 report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction was the …
BattlelandBattleland
Afghan government VIPs stuff your tax dollars into suitcases and fly the money out of the Kabul airport to parts unknown, possibly at the rate of about $10 million bucks a day. That’s one of the startling conclusions in the latest report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction released on Wednesday.
It says …
BattlelandBattleland
Some of the Defense Department’s short casualty announcements cause me to stop and think more than others, though they are all equally tragic, of course. I try to read them all, and they don’t seem to be getting less painful with time.
But even in those brief announcements — the age, rank, unit, and a general description of the cause …
BattlelandCIA
The most dangerous place in Washington is between (insert name of politician here) and a camera. That’s the tired joke about politicians trying to keep themselves in the news.
The same could be said about Gen. David Petraeus. He is on the cover of Newsweek this week, in yet another profile that couldn’t be more glowing if Petraeus …
BattlelandNATO
Georgia Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson Friday brought the issue of mass graves in Sudan to the House floor.
[youtube=linkhttp://youtu.be/GPqce5McyjU].
BattlelandState Department
An internal UN report provides more evidence of mass graves in Sudan’s southern Kordofan as violence against civilians, mostly perpetrated by northern forces, spirals out of control.
TIME Thursday published satellite photos and information from eyewitnesses gathered by George Clooney’s Satellite Sentinel Project that shows …
BattlelandNational Security
George Clooney’s Satellite Sentinel Project set up to monitor the spiraling violence in Sudan has a stunning report out today with convincing evidence showing “a campaign of systematic mass killing of civilians in Kadugli, South Kordofan” in the south-central area of the country. TIME was the first to write about Clooney’s …
BattlelandLeon Panetta
For those who have not read it, the Times has a hilarious account of new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s first trip to Iraq in his new job. Apparently, the new secretary regularly employs “salty” language.
He has reportedly employed the following lexicon:
…
BattlelandPTSD
Army Capt. DJ Skelton lost his left eye and can’t use his left arm because of a rocket attack in Fallujah. He went on to advise Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on wounded warrior issues.
Skelton has some interesting thoughts about the new White House policy, announced last week, to begin to send condolence …
