“On the locked MH [mental health] units, we found that back hallways were not continuously observable by staff and that ceiling tiles were removable, exposing potential anchor points for hanging.”
National Security
Dry British F-35 Humour
The Oxbridge lads at the Economist write an editorial this week on the world’s costliest weapons system ever: the Pentagon’s own F-35 fighter. And while it doesn’t quite rise to sublime Benny Hill quality, it’s pretty close to Monty Python.
Of Enemy Dead and Cameras
The guys over at the Long War Journal have an interesting take on the latest batch of photos showing U.S. troops posing with dead insurgents in Afghanistan:
…if you’re an editor who is going to vault these pictures to the top of the news cycle, don’t dwell overlong on the failings of a few US soldiers – gratuitously show it all, the
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“Beam Me Up, Scotty!”
We started this week noting the Pentagon’s perpetual quest to field a military-significant laser — laser weapons are only five years away (and always will be) — and end it with a new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments: Changing the Game: The Promise of Directed-Energy Weapons.
Warns the last sentence in …
“…more people have the ability to harm us or restrict our freedom to act today than at any point in our lives.”
A Risky Game Over Japan’s Disputed Islands
TOKYO – Whether it’s a genuine attempt to steer Japan’s foreign policy or a clever ploy to annoy political leaders in both Japan and China, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara’s plan to buy three disputed islands in the East …
A Lagging Indicator
Even as the pace of war, and the number of Americans waging it, is falling, their need for mental-health care is growing. On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it is boosting its mental-health workforce by …
To the Shores of Morocco…
A Contract Designed to Prevent…
…a repeat of the embarrassing B-2 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO’s 1999 war on Serbia. The Pentagon awarded this “experimental serious games” contract (for $9-million-plus, it had better be serious) Thursday (click on it to enlarge). Just in time, too. Wouldn’t want to blow the Chinese Embassy in Tehran …
Play Ball!
Along with the pain, there are some real bright spots in the ongoing saga of veterans returning home. One such is the Home Base program sponsored by the Boston Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital.
The program started about three years ago, and brings together the Red Sox Nation with the clinical expertise at Mass …
Depleted Uranium: Getting a 2nd Opinion
Remember the controversy over the Pentagon’s armor-killing depleted-uranium rounds that were widely used for the first time in 1991’s Gulf War? Many troops blamed them for the various ills that came to be known as Gulf War …
Defense Budgets: The “Drole de Guerre”
The next seven months is going to be fun for bloggers, journalists, and other remnants of the chattering class, but it won’t shed much truth. Wait until November for that. The latest rounds have been fired this week. The …