The Pentagon tends to cite small arms fire, insurgent attacks, and IEDs as the causes of death when U.S. military personnel are killed in Afghanistan. But, once again, the specter of so-called “green-on-blue” – Afghans …
Pentagon
Training the Afghan Military
A just-released Army report offers insights into the challenges associated with weaning the Afghan military off its dependence on U.S. and allied support. The ability for Afghanistan to defend itself after U.S. combat forces pull …
Armed With Hope
A senior U.S. defense official met Wednesday with defense reporters in Washington to discuss the way ahead in Afghanistan. He insisted he’s a “glass half-full” kind of guy, and blasted the press for its continued reporting …
“Rent-Seeking”
Rent-seeking is a phrase increasingly in vogue by folks without real jobs. Wikipedia defines it as “an attempt to obtain economic rent by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by creating new wealth.” Synonym: the U.S. defense industry and its allies, c. 2012.
Thomas …
Military Extremists: Nothing to Bragg About
Like many others, the question of military service and the mass shooting by Wade Page at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin got me curious.
So I simply Googled “military extremism Ft Bragg.”
A fascinating mélange of …
“Sequestration is this crazy-named, nutty process that was put in place in order to force Congress to do the right thing. They put a gun to their head in order to do the right thing. And then when they fail to do the right thing, they're ready to pull the trigger.”
Firing for Effect 2.0
Back in January, Battleland reported on 157 Air Force majors the service was booting out after 15 years in uniform. There had been a policy of letting such airmen make their 20 years to be eligible for a pension, but budget cutting had made that impossible in their case, the Air Force said.
Such bad-tasting medicine is increasingly …
Military Psychiatrists at War: True Life and Death Decisions
“Afghan Good Enough”
U.S. troops working with the Afghan military have long known that the American way of war – lot of manuals on how to do things, the money to make it happen, and the mindset to get it done – isn’t practical in Afghanistan. So …
Greener Grass Dept.
Battleland has dealt with both Andy Krepinevich and Ann Sauer while covering national-security issues in Washington for more than 30 years. On Thursday, it learned that Sauer had collected, or will collect, some $1 million as a parting gift from her decade of work at Lockheed before returning to an armed-services committee job with …
Sequestration Countdown: Five Months to Go
It’s almost funny the way that Congress poured gasoline into its chambers last year, with each party convinced the other side would never light the match. Yet that is what is drawing closer every day.
Ash Carter, the …
Battlefield BS’ing Just Got Tougher
The Pentagon has launched a website designed to keep track of U.S. military veterans who have earned the nation’s highest awards for valor. This has been a thorny issue since the Supreme Court ruled in June that anyone can lie about winning a Medal of Honor or other military decoration. It is going to be tougher to do now that the …
