So the size of the U.S. troop pullout President Obama is slated to announce later this month now varies by an order of magnitude: those who want to preserve the gains earned over the past year are suggesting about 3,000 — of the 100,000 U.S. troops now there — would be about the right number to order home starting in July. But — …
Memorial Day in the Rearview Mirror: Soldiers as Heroes, and Victims
Elspeth Ritchie was on the front lines dealing with the military’s mental-health issues as an Army psychiatrist, including several senior positions following 9/11, for nearly a quarter century. She has studied and tended to troops’ minds on assignments around the world, including in Cuba, Iraq, Somalia, South Korea and Vietnam. She
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The Disappearing “Disorder”: Why PTSD is becoming PTS
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For years, the U.S. military has referred to the constellation of anxiety, depression and anger many combat troops suffer when they return home as PTSD — Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But in recent months, senior Pentagon officials seem to have gone on a search-and-destroy …
World Nuke Spending to Top $1 Trillion Per Decade
Having contributed to the two definitive studies of U.S. nuclear weapons spending (Brooking’s Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 and Carnegie Endowment’s Nuclear Security Spending: Assessing Costs, Examining Priorities) which found that the United States incurred a cost of nearly $6 …
Gay Jokes
I often get asked if gay jokes bother me in the work place. I can honestly say it’s rare for me to go more than a couple of days without hearing some sort of homophobic comment.
It’s no secret that you have to have thick skin to do this job. When it comes down to it, you can’t turn to your enemy and say “Stop shooting – …
Bradley Manning Revelations Raise Questions about the Army
An article and video from the Guardian explore whether alleged Wikileaker Pfc. Bradley Manning ever should have been deployed because of his fragile mental state. He was apparently such a mess he wet his pants. The piece also explores allegedly lax data security at Manning’s post overseas.
This doesn’t necessarily excuse Manning’s …
TM for PTSD
There are a host of new therapies being tried in the struggle against Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among U.S. troops back from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. The latest is transcendental meditation, or, as its advocates prefer, Transcendental Meditation™. Pioneered by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s, a peer-reviewed …
Power Shortage at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
“The future ain’t what it used to be” — Admiral Yogi Berra
Congress can’t deal with the Pentagon’s annual budget in a timely way, yet it wants the U.S. military to keep churning out regular reports detailing how many ships and airplanes it plans on buying for the next 30 years. The House Armed Services Committee’s investigative subcommittee looked into the topic this week. What was …
Stepping Out…
The Few, the Proud, the Broken
There’s an easy way to figure out which military service has the toughest basic training — all you have to do is count how many recruits break their legs. Using that standard, there’s no competition: the U.S. Marine Corps crushes its recruits’ lower-leg bones far more often than the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard or Navy.
The data …
Commission: Drugs Win War on Drugs
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has released a landmark report announcing that the War on Drugs is over. Drugs won. Or rather, the so-called war is a failure. The criminalization of addiction is cruel and stupid. Legalization and regulation of some drugs, particularly marijuana, would defang criminal enterprises the way a legal …
Oprah v. Gates: The Long Goodbye
Oprah Winfrey recently concluded her farewell tour as America’s most popular television talk show. Her exit from the show spanned two calendar years, with the farewell season beginning in September 2010.
After heading the Department of Defense for four and a half years, Robert Gates seems intent on following Oprah’s lead. For …