Last month, outgoing defense secretary Leon Panetta declared men and women would have the same chance to fight in combat for the first time in our nation’s history. But from the day they meet a recruiter, until the day they are …
The Fuller Brush-Off, Man
There was a dire story on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times datelined Arlington, Va. – the Pentagon’s ‘hood:
“Virginia’s Feast on U.S. Funds Nears an End”
…the headline said. Reporter Trip Gabriel reported from …
Patrolling the Perimeter
A U.S. Army platoon leader checks on his sergeant pulling security Feb. 26 at a remote checkpoint near Takhteh Pol.
Air Warrior, R.I.P.
The Army aviator who helped kill the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter – a $40 billion program to build 650 scout choppers that was put out of its misery in 2004 after the Pentagon spent $8 billion for zero operational aircraft — has …
War Lit
Our best writers on war were nobodies before they got a break.
This is doubly true of veterans, from Hemingway and Joseph Heller to Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers, author of 2012’s celebrated The Yellow Birds, whose …
Decision-Making, Lite
How much outside advice – from the Pentagon and other places – does a President need before making national-security decisions? Plainly he doesn’t need any, short of going to war (and even that is now in question, as we’ll …
Female Marines Train For Combat
A recent change in the rules means young women soon will be eligible to go into harm’s way with the U.S. military’s most elite fighting force.
The “Defense Reduction (Dys)Function”
Well, here it is. The guts of the Pentagon’s share of sequestration, as detailed in a letter late Friday to congressional leaders from Jeffrey Zients, the deputy director for management of the White House’s Office of Management …
Manning Scores ‘Touchdown’ With U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
With the sad and all-too predictable guilty plea Thursday from PFC Bradley Manning for turning over reams of classified data to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks — and the resulting flood of media attention — it came as a …
The Tragedy of General John Allen
Danny Klaidman of the now all-digital Newsweek says that’s what it is. The Marine four-star general, after getting good marks for his stewardship in Afghanistan, finds himself wounded by an I-Email-D just as he is slated to …
Common Sense from the Top, Sequester or Not
A memo recently went out to the military’s technology and contracting community, encouraging them to “request requirements relief” in situations where the cost of satisfying a requirement exceeds the benefit. This guidance …
F-35: Good Cop, Bad Cop
Air Force Lieut. General Christopher Bogdan, the F-35 program manager, certainly raised eyebrows the other day with his comments in Australia about the $400 billion program he is running:
“What I see [F-35 builder] Lockheed …
The High Ground (Except for Those Damn Mountains)
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Robert Wolfe provides rooftop security during a meeting in Farah City, Feb. 25.