Mike Lofgren came to Washington to work on Capitol Hill 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan was rebuilding America’s “hollow military” after its Vietnam hangover, and the Cold War was in its final throes – although we didn’t know it yet. He spent 28 years working for Congress, the last 16 as a senior analyst on the House and …
Military
Betting Against a Drone Arms Race
Bold predictions of a coming drones arms race are all the rage since the uptake in their deployment under the Obama Administration. Noel Sharkey, for example, argues in an August 3 op-ed for the Guardian that rapidly developing …
Female Generals: The Pentagon’s First Pair of Four-Star Women
Things certainly have changed since Janet Wolfenbarger walked up the long ramp at the Air Force Academy in 1976, under a sign declaring in two-foot high brushed aluminum letters: BRING …
“I know the American people are tired of paying the cost, in blood and treasure, of these wars that we get into that sometimes do not represent a direct national security threat to the United States.”
Afghan-Green-On-U.S.-Blue Attacks Spiking Again
The Pentagon tends to cite small arms fire, insurgent attacks, and IEDs as the causes of death when U.S. military personnel are killed in Afghanistan. But, once again, the specter of so-called “green-on-blue” – Afghans …
Armed With Hope
A senior U.S. defense official met Wednesday with defense reporters in Washington to discuss the way ahead in Afghanistan. He insisted he’s a “glass half-full” kind of guy, and blasted the press for its continued reporting …
Firing for Effect 2.0
Back in January, Battleland reported on 157 Air Force majors the service was booting out after 15 years in uniform. There had been a policy of letting such airmen make their 20 years to be eligible for a pension, but budget cutting had made that impossible in their case, the Air Force said.
Such bad-tasting medicine is increasingly …
Military Psychiatrists at War: True Life and Death Decisions
The Navy SEALS’ Dying Words
Monday, August 6 marks the first anniversary of the Afghan crash of a U.S. military CH-47 Chinook helicopter that killed 30 Americans, including 17 Navy SEALS. It was the worst single loss-of-life day for the U.S. in the war in …
Epic Battle Of The Pacific, Forgotten In Japan
TOKYO – When dignitaries and guests gather on the remote island of Guadalcanal this week to commemorate the epic battle where Japan’s relentless advance in World War II was finally halted, one group will be conspicuous by …
Grounded…for Now
“Afghan Good Enough”
U.S. troops working with the Afghan military have long known that the American way of war – lot of manuals on how to do things, the money to make it happen, and the mindset to get it done – isn’t practical in Afghanistan. So …
Greener Grass Dept.
Battleland has dealt with both Andy Krepinevich and Ann Sauer while covering national-security issues in Washington for more than 30 years. On Thursday, it learned that Sauer had collected, or will collect, some $1 million as a parting gift from her decade of work at Lockheed before returning to an armed-services committee job with …