This Memorial Day weekend, I took time to reflect on my service. It’s an understatement to say times are difficult for America’s troops. Still, I can’t help but consider myself truly lucky to have the honor to serve in the United States military. I wouldn’t trade it for a thing.
I remember standing at the waters …
When charts like the one above surface inside the Pentagon, they’re generally some action officer’s guesstimate about how much her program’s top-line budget is going to grow in the out years (also known as the FYDP [pronounced fidd-IP], for future years defense program) Or, as we call it: the future.
But this chart is different. …
The military is supposed to be apolitical, and serving officers generally take that seriously. As Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it in an oft-quote 2008 article: “The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times and in all ways. It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no …
The top story in the Washington Post today alleges that a major factor in the White House debate about the size of upcoming troop withdrawals from Afghanistan will be the financial cost. In fact, the Post piece says it will be the “most influential number” in that discussion. Here is the basic thrust:
The U.S. military is on track to
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Once again, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned Tuesday against air attacks that kill innocent civilians. If they continue, “we will be forced to take unilateral action in this regard,” he said in Kabul three days after a NATO air strike killed nine civilians, most of them women and children, in southern Helmand Province.
This is …
Fascinating article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal on how the Pentagon has concluded it can defend against, or respond to, cyber attacks with bombs. Fascinating, and typical (Kinetic rules!). Only three problems with it: the Pentagon doesn’t make these kinds of decisions, finding the perpetrator can be next to impossible, and …
President Obama doubled down on the Army Monday, picking an Army general as chairman of the Joint Chiefs — after picking another one to run the CIA, and a third — a one-time low-level Army lawyer — to run the Pentagon. There may be lots of red, white and blue around the capital today, but it felt more like red, white and Army …
Powerful piece from Rajiv Srinivasan, an Army platoon leader in Afghanistan last year, on the passing of a comrade:
The hardest part about writing this piece was not the recollection of the sights and emotions of a friend’s passing but deciding what to call him. Perhaps it will mean more to you if you reread the roll call, inserting the
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Memorial Day is a strange holiday when so many Americans are disconnected from the wars now underway. Did you know that over the past week, more than a dozen U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan? It’s easy for me to keep track: I get Pentagon press releases every time a U.S. soldier is killed, sprinkled in among those …
Over at Global Spin, Tony Karon and I present a weekly offering of five films we reckon are not only worth watching, but illustrate something about current affairs. In honor of Memorial Day, this week’s edition is all about the U.S. at war.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3chv4eYU2MQ&feature=related]
The Thin Red …
Two Senate Democrats on Friday told TIME that a secret Justice Department opinion grants the FBI broad authority to seize information on innocent U.S. citizens, that it would shock Americans if it became public, and it that might violate the Constitution. “Innocent Americans are being swept up in this,” said Colorado’s Sen. Mark …
Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado failed Thursday in their effort to force the Obama administration to produce internal Justice Department interpretations of what the government is allowed to do under the Patriot Act. Congress reauthorized the law on Thursday but did not include an amendment sponsored by the …
Yesterday I sat in on a promotion ceremony and something struck me. The officer being promoted restated the Oath of Office in which he swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States”. The United States military is unique in the way we swear to protect the document that, in a very real way, defines freedom as …
