…the world goes crazy when North Korea says it is going to launch a missile into space, and there’s hardly a peep worldwide when Iran says the same thing? Especially strange given the fact that the two nations often share weapons technology, the fact that Iranian experts were on hand for last month’s failed NoKo launch, and the …
National Security
Money As a Weapon System Afghanistan (MAAWS-A)
Hard to believe – or maybe it isn’t – but that’s the title (complete with unpronounceable abbreviation) of a new, 268-page guidebook for U.S. commanders in Afghanistan. It tells them how to spend your hard-earned Commanders Emergency Response Program (CERP) dollars. Those are payments, usually in the thousands, but sometimes …
2012 Military Spouse of the Year
Women in Direct Ground Combat? Not Quite Yet
In a decided lack of fanfare, the Pentagon announced a new assignment policy for women, set to take effect on May 14. The so-called collocation rules have been set aside, a policy that had been in effect since 1993 when Title 10, …
U.S. Casualties Drop Sharply in Afghanistan
A new Congressional Research service report is out detailing a steep decline in U.S. casualties in Afghanistan so far this year. Granted, the year is less than half over, but even if the 2012 data points (110 KIA, 634 WIA through May 10) are boosted proportionately to reflect a full year’s toll, wounded and killed Americans would …
Former Foes, Now Allied
I love all of the current dialogue between the American Psychiatric Association and the military. For years, they were at loggerheads, principally about the policy of not allowing gays to openly serve in the armed forces. Military psychiatrists could wear their uniform at APA events, but were often singled out for criticism over the …
SOUTHCOM: Checking Out Its ‘Hood
You never know what you’ll stumble on perusing Pentagon contracts. On Monday, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., said it is planning to hire Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project to survey 25 nations in Latin America.
Why? Well, it seems U.S. Southern Command (guess it lacks folks in the …
Why It is Time to Clean the Pentagon’s Augean Stables
The military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC, to its friends and foes), is a political economy that places the interest of the domestic factions benefitting from huge defense budgets ahead of the interests of soldiers, …
The English Pilot
Here’s the well-preserved carcass of a World War II-era Curtiss P-40 warplane, discovered Thursday by a Polish oil worker deep in western Egypt’s Sahara Desert. Indications are that the lone Royal Air Force pilot tried to summon help with his radio once on the ground, and, when that failed, trekked to his death. But the airplane …
Budget Brain Freeze
Having been away for the past week, it’s nice to come back and see nothing on the looming defense-budget battle front has gotten any better, despite the iceberg of sequestration looming ahead of the USS Pentagon. In fact, it has gotten worse:
— House Armed Services Committee chairman Howard McKeon sent a letter to Defense …
Private Bradley Manning: Hero or Traitor?
Army Private Bradley Manning represents a Rorschach tests for many Americans. The Army arrested the 24-year-old two years ago after classified material he allegedly downloaded from a military intelligence network while serving in Iraq ended up being made public by WikiLeaks. His supporters laud him for exposing war-crime atrocities, …
Breakthroughs TK
“TK” is what we write in the draft of a Time story in place of facts we don’t yet have, like someone’s age or hometown. That’s kind of like the Pentagon latest list of 190 awards for high-tech gear to help the nation’s scientists develop the next big thing. The instrumentation will be used for, among other things:
Magnetic Resonance
…
What’s In a Name?
I want to add to the debate on the hot issue at the American Psychiatric Association this week. Retired Army general and vice chief of staff Peter Chiarelli made a strong case for re-naming post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Chiarelli advocates calling it post-traumatic stress injury. The Canadians use the term “operational …
