BattlelandNational Security
I don’t know which is worse: that Borders Books is going out of business a block away from the Time bureau in D.C., or that it feels compelled to post signs declaring 50 percent off of its remaining stock — complete with a chart showing how much dozens of prices are…when they are cut in half. The fact that this is the closest …
BattlelandNational Security
It was only a week ago that we reported on the intentional injuring of three allied troops in Afghanistan by an Afghan who drove his car into them as they walked along the road. Today comes news from Afghanistan that an allied convoy accidentally hit Afghans walking along the road, killing one and hurting two others:
So why does the …
BattlelandCongress
Part of the complication of having a growing number of contractors in a war zone is that contractors can sue more easily than soldiers. Exhibit A is a case decided this week, brought by a Kellogg, Brown and Root employee. Police adviser Richard Aiello sued the company for $2 million after he allegedly slipped and was “seriously …
BattlelandNational Security
The Washington buzz machine is in overdrive, whispering that U.S. Army Gen. Dave Petraeus will be leaving Afghanistan later this year to take the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency. The current CIA boss, Leon Panetta, is rumored to be moving to the Pentagon to take over for Robert Gates (as Joe Klein suggested might happen three …
BattlelandNational Security
We introduced you to Maj. Gen. Margaret “Maggie” Woodward two weeks ago as she became the first woman in U.S. history to command a U.S. military operation — the no-fly zone over Libya. A 1983 graduate of Arizona State University, Woodward, 51, has commanded and flown in Afghanistan and Iraq, and spent close to 4,000 hours flying, …
BattlelandNational Security
Elliott Abrams, the polarizing Reagan Administration State Department official, now hangs his hat at the centrist Council on Foreign Relations. But there’s no moderation in his zinging of Defense Secretary Robert Gates for some of his comments Thursday before Congress. Abrams especially didn’t like Gates’ eyebrow raising remark that …
BattlelandNational Security
You couldn’t blame Defense Secretary Robert Gates for feeling just a little bit like those Libyan rebels retreating under pressure from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces — but those attacking Gates Thursday were members of the U.S. Congress. One thing was clear after Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent most …
BattlelandNational Security
BattlelandNational Security
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=220hCk1Omw0&feature=player_embedded]
…that U.S. Army Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt, 31, of Minnesota was gay, his mother says. You should care that he was killed in Afghanistan on Feb. 27 by an improvised explosive device. And maybe watch this video of his proud parents.
BattlelandMilitary
Honor is a big deal in the military. Valor is even bigger. Recognition of such bravery is the high point of many soldiers’ careers. “A soldier will fight long and hard,” Napoleon aptly observed nearly two centuries ago, “for a bit of colored ribbon.”
But what if that bit of colored ribbon is fake? And the person wearing it a …
BattlelandNational Security
Admiral Jim Stavridis, one of America’s top military commanders (he’s running U.S. European Command — and NATO — now, and is a front-runner to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs by year’s end) offered a telling comment about Libya Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“I think a stalemate,” he said, “is not in anybody’s …
BattlelandNational Security
Just ask John Groth, a former Air Force reserve chaplain. It was his job to counsel the mortuary-affairs personnel who have tended to the more than 4,000 U.S. troops who have come home in flagged-draped coffins via Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base since 9/11:
It was his role to pray during the arrival of a flag-draped transfer case and
…
BattlelandNational Security
The Government Accountability Office issued a report Tuesday revealing that government procurement snafus added $70 billion to weapons costs over just the past two years. Fewer than half the Pentagon’s programs are meeting cost targets. And because the lousiest-run programs tend to be the most expensive, that means 72 cents out of …
