Kabul, Afghanistan — Roughly two weeks ago…I am home now, my peers are not. With some exceptions.
It is cold here today, and it is snowing. The tarmac is covered with a light layer of slick snow. We walk out towards the …
Military
“Sightseer Pay” Cut
Imminent Danger Pay has been a good deal for troops. They receive a tax-free $225 for every month – or part of every month – they are in war zones like Afghanistan or Iraq. Troops from headquarters outside such zones have been known to fly in for change of command ceremonies – which normally happen on the first of the month – …
Blowback
U.S. drone strikes may keep U.S. troops out of harm’s way. But they can generate their own deadly blowback.
Here’s what Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported last fall:
Here’s the blowback from that apparently successful strike, over at Long War Journal (not for the faint-hearted). Think of it as egamad laretalloc – reverse …
Panetta Believes “Strong Likelihood” Israel Will Strike Iran Soon
The mind games that telegraph any military strike are simmering along and on the verge of a full boil. David Ignatius, columnist for the Washington Post, is reporting that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a …
Look Out, 4-Star General Coming Through…the Revolving Door
On Friday last week, Raytheon, a major defense contractor, announced it scored a four-star general! Marine Corps Gen. (Ret.) James E. Cartwright, the recently departed vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined the …
Afghanistan’s Training Wheels
If all U.S. combat troops are going to leave Afghanistan by January 1, 2015, it makes sense that they back away from Afghanistan’s front lines before New Year’s Eve, 2014. Think of it as the dimmer on your dining room light – slowly turn it down instead of plunging from full light to darkness.
Stop The Presses: Pakistan Supports the Taliban
Think Long War Journal has just about the right reaction to this non-news.
The Man Who Believed Himself
TOKYO – Wars can attract some odd, fringe characters, but I never met anyone stranger or more out on the fringe than Jonathan Keith Idema, who died recently in Mexico of complications from AIDS.
A career con artist and military wannabe, Idema showed up early during the war in Afghanistan. He posed variously as a government …
Air Force Meets `The Graduate’: “Plastics.”
Bombs hurt too much. That’s why the Air Force has just dropped a 500-pounder from a B-1 with a carbon fiber body – what you and I think of as plastic – instead of a metal case. It’s designed to destroy its target while minimizing the risk of collateral damage. The Pentagon ordered the bomb for urgent use in Central Command’s …
Death By a Thousand Threats
It’s like snowballs and snowflakes: if you take enough flakes and press them together, you might end up with a snowball. At least that’s what Battleland thought as it checked out the opening statement of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee Tuesday:
Whoosh! “What Was That?” Chinese, To Go
Military aviation guru Bill Sweetman has the latest on China’s stealthy J-20 fighter – you know, the one that kicked up a stink a year ago when it flew while then-defense secretary Robert Gates was visiting the Middle Kingdom – and finds some surprises in the latest issue of Defense Technology International:
“While it was …
Women in Combat: Dying to Kill
Female suicide bombers are better than their male counterparts, at least in some ways, according to an Army assessment:
Although women make up roughly 15% of the suicide bombers within groups which utilize females, they were
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What Makes Insurgents Tick?
It’s not – surprise! – what you think:
…We see insurgency as a form of collective, goal-focused activity that comes about when nefarious people exploit the weaknesses of a political system…And since insurgency is
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