“The true definition of assisted living is being a general officer in the U.S. military.”
— Army General Carter Ham, speaking at his German headquarters Friday as he steps down as chief of U.S. Africa Command after 39 years in uniform.
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Just In Case: U.S. Has Plans for Americans to Flee South Korea
Courageous Channel isn’t some new offering from your cable TV provider.
It’s the name of the regular Noncombatant Evacuation Operation exercise done by the U.S. military in South Korea to practice getting thousands of U.S. …
“I'm sorry. I wish it was otherwise. But that's a fact of life. And the longer we defer these things, the worse it's going to be for all of us.”
— Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday, speaking about looming budget cuts. But he just as easily could have been talking about North Korea.
Trying to Plumb the North Korean Mindset
The titting-for-tatting between North Korea and the U.S. continued Wednesday as the Pentagon announced it is dispatching a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system to Guam to shoot down …
Korean Poker: Five-Card Dud?
It seems paradoxical to say it, given Pyongyang’s almost daily exercises in escalation, but the North Korean leadership almost certainly does not want to go to war.
Not that it would flinch at a massive loss of life if it …
Current Top Pentagon Official Urged Bombing North Korea…When He Was on the Sidelines
In one of those strange twists of fate TV writers love, Ashton Carter, the current deputy secretary of defense, advocated bombing North Korea seven years ago when he was safely in his bunker at Harvard University.
Along with …
Hagel’s Flawed Defense-Spending Premise
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel sketched out his plans for building a leaner Pentagon on Wednesday — and made some cogent observations on what needs to be done to square U.S. defense plans with U.S. fiscal reality — but he based …
Brinksmanship Blockade: North Korea Bars South Koreans from Kaesong
The other shoe dropped in North Korea Wednesday, as the government of Kim Jong Un refused to let nearly 500 South Korean workers cross the DMZ to work in the Kaesong industrial park.
The joint operation between North and South …
Sequestration? What Sequestration?
Three contract inquiries Wednesday make you wonder just how eager the U.S. government is to save money:
— The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, is seeking a gardening contractor who “shall, on Monday through Saturday …
Marijuana Next
Why I’m for legalizing marijuana.
Hey Guys: The Cammies Are Supposed to Hide You…
Let’s face it: we like looking at photographs of the North Korean military because, well…they make the U.S. military look really good.
So here is a batch of photos put together by Time’s ace photo staff for your …
“Designed for stealth operations, the high-contrast markers are bound to attract attention.”
— From an advertisement, here, for a watch until recently “restricted to America’s most elite fighting forces.” But now “you can put one on your wrist for three covert payments of only $99!” There is, as they say, one born every minute.
Hagel Taking Pay Cut
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel – following a path blazed by his deputy, Ash Carter – will kick back up to 14 days’ pay to the U.S. Treasury to replicate the pecuniary pain sequestration will inflict on fellow Pentagon …