BattlelandRussia
Remember in high school how there’d always be these exchange students from exotic locales from around the world who’d attend classes with you for a year? How it was supposed to nurture international understanding and good will? …
BattlelandPolitics
Somehow it seemed fitting – for the final member of the first pair of major-party tickets in nearly a century lacking anyone with military experience – for Mitt Romney to introduce his vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan, …
BattlelandWar Story
Army Major Stephen Bussell served as a personnel officer at Iraq‘s Camp Speicher north of Baghdad in 2004 and 2005. Once again, his recollection serves to remind us that the guys and gals running patrols “outside the wire” in …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Two hundred years ago, the U.S. military was fighting the Creek Indians and their allies, who responded by slaughtering some 250 white and mixed-blood Native Americans at Fort Mims, Alabama. Such a heritage may come in handy, now that the U.S. military has awarded the Creeks, doing business as the Muscogee Nation Business Enterprise of …
BattlelandAfghanistan
The Pentagon tends to cite small arms fire, insurgent attacks, and IEDs as the causes of death when U.S. military personnel are killed in Afghanistan. But, once again, the specter of so-called “green-on-blue” – Afghans …
BattlelandVeterans
Veterans routinely complain about how much paperwork they have to generate to apply for VA benefits. They may have a point: the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general reported Thursday that paper had piled so high at …
BattlelandAfghanistan
A just-released Army report offers insights into the challenges associated with weaning the Afghan military off its dependence on U.S. and allied support. The ability for Afghanistan to defend itself after U.S. combat forces pull …
BattlelandAfghanistan
A senior U.S. defense official met Wednesday with defense reporters in Washington to discuss the way ahead in Afghanistan. He insisted he’s a “glass half-full” kind of guy, and blasted the press for its continued reporting …
BattlelandR&D
The Army has finally got its football-field-sized Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) airborne over the Jersey coast. The huge unmanned spy platform is designed to give the U.S. military “more than 21 days of unblinking stare,” contractor Northrop Grumman says.
Not all of its numbers are so stupendous: it boasts a …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Rent-seeking is a phrase increasingly in vogue by folks without real jobs. Wikipedia defines it as “an attempt to obtain economic rent by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by creating new wealth.” Synonym: the U.S. defense industry and its allies, c. 2012.
Thomas …
BattlelandNavy
The military’s suicide woes are profound enough without a sailor adding to them. Yet that’s just what Petty Office 2nd Class Paul Bricker did. He helped a superior, Chief Petty Office Gerard Curran, kill himself. Their goal: …
BattlelandTroops
Hey, Battleland didn’t write that headline – it’s atop an article written by Rajiv Srinivasan over at Time Ideas:
If there’s one thing I hope America remembers about our military, it’s that we are indeed a cross-section of the country. If bigotry and insensitivity exists in our ranks, it’s because it originated in our society
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BattlelandAir Force
The Air Force wants to toss a Halloween party for some 200 folks in Kuwait – to “help bring a bit of Americana and a fun event to our men and women stationed far from home” — and is looking for someone to foot the bill. Don’t fret if you can’t find a Saddam Hussein mask – there’s bound to be fake Mahmoud Ahmadinejad …
