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 …
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
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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 …
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 …
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 …
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”
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
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Veteran #11-03021-133
The Army veteran of combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq wasn’t named in a recent Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general’s investigation. So we’ll just refer to him by the IG report’s number. Plainly, he had a family who cared about him, and VA personnel who sometimes did their best – and sometimes …
Afghan Civilian Massacre: Base Allegations
Charges of improper diagnosis related to PTSD at Madigan Army Medical Center, at Joint Base Lewis-McCord have been in the headlines. The alleged shooter in the Afghan massacre was from the Washington state post, as was the …
Triple AAA: (Alleged) Afghanistan Apache Accident
This video is ricocheting around the Internet. Early indications are that it is an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship from Forward Operating Base Sharana in eastern Afghanistan. No one was reported hurt. Just one more thing the Army is going to have to explain.
“There is no known design issue that cannot be overcome by effective engineering.”