The Congressional Budget Office suggests combining the Pentagon’s separate grocery stores (commissaries) and department stores (exchanges) into one entity, instead of having four separate retail chains. Sounds like a no-brainer, especially given the domestic competition many of these outfits now face from places like Walmart. …
Military Exercises
Those SEAL commandos — their nickname represents their prowess on SEa, Air and Land — are a tough bunch. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus was out at their training school in Coronado, Calif., recently. He says he was amazed by the strength of even those just beginning the rigorous regimen to become a member of the Navy’s special-ops …
Obama national security team changeup begins
With President Obama expected to tap Gen. David Petraeus to head the CIA and likely move agency director Leon Panetta over to be the new Defense Secretary, expect a crowd of military experts, former intelligence officials and retired generals to prattle on with the supposed inside story about what it all means.
You might hear that …
Gaddafi’s Daughter…
Fascinating interview with the Libyan leader’s 36-year-old daughter, Aisha, in Wednesday’s New York Times. This is one special lady: not only is Muammar Gaddafi the grandfather of her three kids, but she also served as a member of Saddam Hussein’s legal team.
“The opposition in Iraq told the West that when you come to Iraq they will
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Libya: Alice in Wonderland, Meet George Orwell
Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared Tuesday that because Muammar Gaddafi’s residential compound serves as a command-and-control node for his military forces, it is a legitimate target for U.S. and NATO aircraft to attack. But the person who actually does the commanding and controlling? Not so much. “We are not targeting him …
CBO Defense Option #3
The Congressional Budget Office offers up another option that won’t affect troops or hardware — force retirees to pay more for their post-military health care. Half the military’s officers and 15 percent of its enlisted force retire from the service, allowing them access to this bargain. The family fee since the system was revamped …
China: Behold the Flying Shark
The Chinese have released new photographs of their J-15 Flying Shark jet fighter, supposedly designed to fly off Beijing’s yet-to-sail aircraft carrier. This is part of a long-standing great-power game of fan-dancing a new capability, in hopes it will instill fear (and perhaps bankruptcy) in potential foes, while helping to keep …
Great Minds &c.
James Dubik makes the same point Tuesday in a New York Times op-ed that I made this morning about the wisdom, or lack thereof, of targeting Gaddafi. He even used the same word: charade. Of course, as a retired Army lieutenant general, he’s leery of airpower’s power:
So far, we have chosen an instrument — airstrikes — that is
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With friends like the Pakistani intelligence service…
The United States’ relationship with Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, is complicated because the ISI is considered a counter-terrorism ally (for the most part) who also at some level coordinates with and supports radical elements useful against Pakistan’s rival, India.
Sometimes these relationships become painfully obvious. …
Misery on the Home Front…
From an Army wife’s blog comes the downside of a decade of war. And no, contrary to her lede (as we spell it in the ink-stained wretch trade) she hasn’t killed herself. Not yet anyway.
“On Civilian Guilt”
That’s the headline over this piece by a young woman working for the Department of Veterans Affairs here in D.C., where Lauren Bailey writes:
Part of my guilt is my own inaction at a watershed moment in our nation’s history. Everyone remembers where they were on September 11. It’s disappointing that I can vividly remember only a
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Libya: More On Targeting Muammar
Folks in the Administration say they can’t target Muammar Gaddafi — per this earlier post — because the U.N. resolution doesn’t permit it. But that kind of makes you wonder why the Brit defence boss, Liam Fox, speaks so freely about Gaddafi being a Hellfire helipad. The U.S. has sometimes viewed UN resolutions as rubber bands, able …
NATO’s Nuclear Weapons: Here to Stay
A warm first greeting to Battleland readers. Here in London, where I am based, I’ve written for TIME on several occasions about a strange arrangement that means that Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands are de facto nuclear weapons states. The U.S. stores 200 B-61 thermonuclear gravity bombs in those five European …