Audiences attending the Opportunity Nation Summit on the campus of Columbia University will hear from some of the leading experts in government, international affairs and the media. They will also get a testimony on public service by one of the Army’s pathbreaking leaders, Maj. Gen. Marcia Anderson.
Anderson, who completed ROTC at …
The spectacle now infecting the Pentagon would be humorous, if it weren’t so serious. The notion that the military can cut $450 billion out of its next-decade budget of something like $7 trillion – but not a penny more – suggests an (artillery) shell game’s afoot.
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction – the …
The problem of suicides continues to haunt Pentagon personnel officials. After 10 years of war, the suicide rate has climbed and remains stubbornly high despite numerous initiatives to bring it down. What’s behind the spike, and what — if anything — can be done to curb it? John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and …
Here’s a surprising story from Wednesday’s London Independent:
No Warships Left Defending Britain After Defence Cutbacks
Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord Alan West said: “I would hardly say it is a luxury…It’s a big problem…It’s a very unsatisfactory position to be in.”
As the congressional super-committee struggles in …
I read the names of every U.S. troop killed in action, and every once in awhile there’s a jolt that comes when I recognize one on the list. That’s the case among the four U.S. Army troops killed in that Taliban car bombing Saturday on one of Kabul’s main roads. Among those who perished were Staff Sgt. Christopher R. Newman of …
The U.S. military says it had no choice but to pull out of Iraq by year’s end because Baghdad would not give U.S. troops immunity from local prosecution. U.S. troops overseas almost always are covered by a so-called Status-of-Forces Agreement, which bars local prosecution in favor of giving jurisdiction to the U.S. military and its …
The public-health gurus of the American Public Health Association – all 13,000 of them – are meeting in Washington this week to figure out how we can all lead more healthy lives. It’s a noble pursuit, to be sure. Some of the studies and sessions investigate issues of interest to the nation’s troops. They may sound pretty …
The U.S. military likes to put a positive spin on even the grimmest news. In the summer of 2010, for example, both the Pentagon and the Army issued reports probing the rash of suicides in the ranks.
The Defense Department called its study
This story blipped on the radar screen Friday. Funny how stories that some folks would rather not see the light of day end up seeing the light of Saturday’s poorly-read papers. The Pentagon inspector general issued a report saying the Marines fumbled rape allegations made by Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach in 2007 against Corporal …
Two Air Force researchers are suggesting it’s not the soldiers who kill themselves who should shoulder all the blame for their deaths. We – all of us, U.S. society writ large – may also be responsible.
“There appear to be systemic factors that play an important role in the rise in military suicides,” says George …
It’s one of the biggest – and potentially, most consequential – decisions President Obama has made (not that he had much choice, according to some). He has announced that the 45,000 U.S. troops still Iraq will all be home for the holidays. Critics have said Iraq is too fragile for the U.S. to pull out – after eight bloody …
The U.S. military is fervently hoping this trend doesn’t continue: just because U.S. troops in Afghanistan allegedly physically abused a pair of Chinese-American troops before each took his own life doesn’t mean they were picked on because of their ethnicity. We’ve reported recently on the suspected suicides of Marine Harry …
Interesting piece by Elbridge Colby (a member of the Pentagon’s New START* negotiation and ratification team) and Paul Lettow (on the National Security Council staff from 2007 to 2009) at the Weekly Standard (again!) defending the nuclear triad of bombers, land-based missiles and sub-launched missiles:
If an opponent figures out how
…
