TOKYO – Don’t leave the base, don’t take a drink and for God’s sake, don’t break the law.
That’s what commanders are telling U.S. troops in Japan after a series of arrests and embarrassing incidents have heightened …
If the U.S. Is Leaving Afghanistan…
…why is the U.S. Army planning to teach thousands of Afghan security-force members to speak and understand English?
Classes are going to be held across the country, and the job details fill 198 pages. Students will include …
“If suicide is indeed the worst enemy the armed forces have, then why should we criminalize it when it fails?”
— Senior Judge Walter T. Cox III of the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, speaking during Tuesday’s argument on whether a military member’s suicide attempt should be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Hey, Top Guns: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
Who cares if the Chinese just landed for the first time on an aircraft carrier. On Monday, an unmanned aircraft landed (ok, so it wasn’t actually flying) on the flight deck of the USS Harry S Truman at Maryland’s Patuxent …
The “Crown Jewels”
The defense-budget wonks over at the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments have apparently had it with costume and paste jewelry.
Todd Harrison and Mark Gunzinger huddled over the summer with fellow deep …
Good News from Kabul: A More Peaceful Ashura This Year
KABUL — Last year we were late, so we were there when the bomb went off in the Afghan capital.
Suddenly I was nearly thrown off my feet by crowds of men running away, from the Ashura Shia holy day rites, some screaming “Ya …
“We must find all of the notorious dissidents, who are hiding a knife behind their backs and waiting for the right timing to trigger a riot, and flatten all of them mercilessly.”
— North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a message to his security forces last Friday. And you thought all the good comic books had been published long ago.
War Is An Ugly Business
That becomes clear every once in awhile when reviewing what the military wants to buy.
Check out this recent Army solicitation:
PURCHASE FRESH FROZEN CADAVERS FOR COMBAT EXTREMITY SURGERY COURSE
Not quite sure if it’s the …
Good News, Bad News
The reports out of Logar province, the southern gateway to Kabul, were mixed Monday.
The Pentagon’s daily Afghan round-up led with good news:
Combined Force Arrests Taliban Bomb Expert
A combined Afghan and coalition
…
Lightnin’ Strikes and Pukin’ Dogs
Amid a Nov. 19 night-time thunderstorm, F-18s from Strike Fighter Squadron 143 (VFA-143), also known as the Pukin’ Dogs, rest on the deck of the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower between missions near Afghanistan and Iran.
Have No Fear, HAL
The Unintended Consequences of the Current PTSD Diagnosis
This is the last in my series of posts on the ethics of treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (the first simply outlined ethical issues for military mental-health personnel; then I wrote about the right time to send a …
Past Wars, Future Costs
Too often we tend to focus on the here-and-now costs of the wars we’re waging. Every once in awhile we need to be reminded that such costs don’t end when the wars do.
Interesting article in Site Selection: The Magazine of …