Many of war’s most important combat elements — like time and momentum — don’t show up in order-of-battle calculations. That’s why the international dithering over launching a no-fly zone over Libya is now all but OBE — overcome by events — even as France and the Arab League call for one. The U.N. began discussing the topic in …
National Security
USS Ronald Reagan Dodges Japanese Fallout
More than 65 years ago, Japanese fled U.S. nuclear radiation in the wake of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Sunday, U.S. warships aiding Japan following Friday’s horrific earthquake fled radiation leaking from a damaged Japanese nuclear power plant.
Ships from the U.S. 7th Fleet have sailed away from the …
A Disconcerting Pair…
Plotting Attacks on Libya's Air-Defense Network
As the U.S. and NATO dawdle, responsibly, over the prospect of launching a no-fly zone over Libya, Pentagon planners are warily eying Muammar Gaddafi’s air defenses ringing Tripoli and other major coastal sites. They head into heavily-secured war rooms to look at hyper-close, highly-classified satellite …
Accountability: Missing In Action
The U.S. Army has concluded that nine of its officers failed to derail the alleged Islamic fundamental madness that led Maj. Nidal Hasan to kill 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009. They are likely to face administrative, but not criminal, punishment.
“Although no single event directly led to the tragedy at Fort Hood, …
Small Businesses, Star Wars-wise
Reading the daily list of Pentagon contracts is always interesting. Take today’s. The first item goes to our friends defending us against missile attack. Check this out: the Missile Defense Agency just awarded “five indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts for advisory and assistance services to five small businesses: COLSA …
Relatively Good News From Pakistan
Hard to believe, but our friends over at the Danger Room blog draw our attention to this interesting item: a Pakistani general who says the CIA’s Predator drone strikes raining down on his country for the past several years are doing some good. “It’s a reality that many of those being killed in these strikes are hardcore elements, a …
Basic, Preferred or Supreme No-Fly Zone?
On Wednesday we noted how in some Pentagon quarters, advocates of putting a no-fly zone over Libya see opponents of such a zone cravenly motivated by their desire to preserve budgets for Army and Marine ground-pounders. The next chapter in this epic involves price, and today there’s a report out on how much a no-fly zone would cost, …
Monumental Air Force Fragmentary Stupidity
It’s always heartbreaking when a young American in uniform dies in a combat zone. Violent accidental death is always tragic, and almost always preventable. But it’s criminal the way Jimmy Hansen died. The Pentagon issued a terse statement the day after it happened. “Senior Airman James A. Hansen, 25, of Athens, Mich., died Sept. 15 of …
No-Foot-dragging Zone
No-drama Obama’s dithering over — or is it carefully pondering? — the wisdom of imposing a no-fly zone atop Libya has dragged on so long that mischief is creeping into the arguments over its merit or lack thereof.
Objections to the U.S. establishing a no-fly zone over Libya are based on erroneous suppositions made by leaders in the
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Defense Jobs Behind Bars
Lawmakers are always pushing the Pentagon to buy weapons it doesn’t need to save jobs back home. Lawbreakers too, apparently. Neat piece here on how federal prison inmates are helping to build Patriot air-defense missiles — and other arms — starting at 23 cents an hour. The disconnect between 23 cents and the $700 billion we’re …
Target Price
Sure we know that building a missile-defense shield is expensive, buying all those interceptors to shoot down incoming missiles from Iran and North Korea aimed at our troops or our allies (Unofficial motto: “It’s just like an umbrella — if you take it with you, it won’t rain.”) But today’s contract awarded by the Pentagon is a real …
Libya? Your Move, Mr. President
In the newsmag biz, you don’t call something a trend until you have three examples. Well, here are three heavyweights who in the last day or so have called on the Obama Administration to get off the dime and do something — militarily — about Libya. It’s looming as a moment of truth for the White House.