Rolling Stoned and former Army General Stan McChrystal is now leading the McChrystal Group, and has replaced defeating the Taliban with a new assignment: “McChrystal Group’s mission is to bring world-class leadership solutions to public and private organizations to help them solve problems, manage risk and be more effective,” …
The future of Fifth Generation Warfare: Follow the food!
Everybody thinks that the future is going to see fights over energy, when it’s far more likely to be primarily over food. Think about it: The 19th century is the century of chemistry and that gets us chemical weapons in World War I. The 20th century is the century of physics and that gets us nuclear weapons in World War II. But the …
Afghan Sitrep: A Grunt from the Front Sounds Off
(La Ciotat, France) — Inside Versailles on the Potomac, pressure is building on President Obama to reduce his promised withdrawal of combat troops in Afghanistan to a cosmetic level, and perhaps more to the point, to protect the defense budget from efforts to reduce the deficit. The two — i.e., perpetual war and the defense budget — …
Some Wars Never End
News from the Pentagon Tuesday afternoon:
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. Air Force Capt. Darrell J. Spinler of Browns
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Chinese Water Torture…
Spinning off Mark Benjamin’s Chinese posting: a couple of days after celebrating U.S. naval prowess in 1942’s Battle of Midway — widely seen as the turning point in World War II’s Pacific war between the U.S. and Japan — the guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon is continuing further east as tensions rise between China and its …
China Gives U.S. the Cyber-Combat Equivalent of the Bird
In case you missed it, China just gave us the finger.
Anybody reading the Wall Street Journal last week was probably struck by the news that the Pentagon now considers computer sabotage from another country an act of war, and that the United States might respond with military force.
I was really glad when Battleland’s Mark Thompson …
An Ex-GI Trains Libyan Rebels How To Fight
Fascinating piece by Steven Sotloff in Benghazi about a beefy and cigar-chomping former U.S. soldier training Libyan rebels how to fight:
The selling of military expertise by foreign privateers, or mercenaries, is known as the world’s second oldest profession. But [Jerry] Erwin insists motives are more altruistic and that he is not
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Lucy and the (Nuclear) Football
As the Pentagon’s nuclear arsenal continues to shrink, so does the rationale for maintaining the Cold War’s nuclear triad that still has nuclear weapons spread among subs, bombers and land-based missiles. But as its components age, advocates come up with neat schemes to preserve their slice of the triad. If bombers are doomed, the …
Vietnam’s Lessons…and Afghanistan
Colonel Gregory A. Daddis is the author of No Sure Victory: Measuring U.S. Army Effectiveness and Progress in the Vietnam War, published by Oxford University Press. Daddis teaches history at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. He has served in a variety of Army command and staff posts around the world and in …
Leadership not Lexicon Will Break the Stigma of PTSD.
My colleague Mark Thompson has mounted three posts mentioning Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder today. I’m not shooting for the superfecta, but I do want to comment on a point Mark made
As I noted in one of my earliest posts here on Battleland, I have struggled with mental health problems. My PTSD diagnosis came in 2002 while I was …
Five U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq, Part of a Disturbing Trend
There is a spreading rash of assassinations and bombings in Iraq from Baghdad up to Kirkuk. News clips say the so-called Sons of Iraq are drifting back into the ranks of al-Qaeda since they are no longer getting paychecks from the United States.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed late last month. Five died in this latest attack, a rocket …
Barking Up the Right Tree
With all the praise showered on Cairo, the still-hidden military working dog that helped the SEALs grab Osama bin Laden, it’s a great time to be a military mutt. No further evidence is needed than the fact that the Air Force has just opened a $1.6 million kennel for them featuring artificial turf, “green” construction techniques, a …
Great Moments in U.S. Military History
Sure, we are engaged in 2.5 wars. Sure, troops are dying overseas on a near-daily basis. Sure, budgets are tight and getting tighter. Sure, troops are coming home with PTSD — or PTS. Sure, military families are frazzled and stressed beyond all get-out. So why are the Army and Marines waging war over who gets to wear what kind of camouflage?