For years, motor-vehicle accidents have killed more U.S. troops than any other non-combat cause. There have been safe-driving campaigns on military posts since troops and transportation first got together. “Many military members are young, single, male, and high-school educated,” the Pentagon’s Medical Surveillance Monthly Report …
Pentagon
“It is clear that sequestration would risk hollowing out our force and reducing its military options available to the nation. We would go from being unquestionably powerful everywhere, to being less visible globally, and presenting less of an overmatch to our adversaries. And that would translate into a different deterrent calculus and potentially therefore increase the likelihood of conflict.”
The Double-Edged Blades of Russian Helicopters
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s in for a strafing on Capitol Hill today. He’s appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee, but he’s likely to face tough questions on the Defense Department’s …
Golden Oldie: The Day the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Died
OK, so it lacks Don McLean’s songcraft, but it was a decade ago Wednesday that the U.S. walked away from 1972’s ABM treaty with the Soviets. Despite predictions from arms controllers that the sky would fall, not much has happened.
Sure, the Treasury is lighter by $100 billion or so, but we did that to ourselves by building a …
Think-Tanked: Old Wine in Dark Bottles
Two of Washington D.C.’s most prestigious and well-funded think tanks recently published reports advising Congress and the Defense Department on how — and how much — to cut from the Pentagon’s coffers after November’s …
“There is a chance that [killing sequestration and its $600 billion in Pentagon spending cuts] could happen, particularly during a lame-duck session, that we would once again kick the can down the road, modify the law that now is in place…I don't think it's the right way to go. But to say that [there’s]…no chance that Congress would kick the can down the road would be kind of inconsistent with a hell of a lot of evidence. Not only can we kick the can down the road, but I think we have special gym shoes…”
“I would like to highlight the remarkable difference between Afghanistan today vis Afghanistan under the Taliban rule. Today more than five times as many children are in school, roughly 85% of Afghans have basic health care within one hour of where they live, women represent 27% of the parliament, and 52% of the Afghan people believe their government is headed in the right direction.”
$4,752.73
Some Egyptians Leery of U.S. Military Money’s Impact on Their Election
CAIRO — Behind the uncertainty swirling around the planned run-off election for Egypt’s new president lies serious domestic anger among some parts of its population towards Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Widely …
Not A Silver Drone…
All this recent reporting on drones and robots might lead one to think the U.S. is nearing the sweet spot, where remote-control war clicks firmly from science fiction to reality. Not so fast, cautions Bill Roggio in an analysis …
The U.S. Military’s Abortion Policy: Neither Fair Nor Equitable
Over the past couple of months, the military has upped the ante in its fight to reduce sexual harassment and assault through education and prevention programs. This is all good, but it will take time to see whether or not these initiatives actually work.
In the short run, women are still being assaulted, and some of those assaults …
The War Machines
Ready or not, robot wars are coming.
That was made clear in the skies over Pakistan a week ago, when an unmanned drone killed al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader with a missile strike. And it’s happening on the ground in Afghanistan, …
Paying More for Vets Than Troops Starting in 2014
Thought-provoking chart from the Bipartisan Policy Center’s assessment of how sequestration, if it happens, is likely to affect the defense budget beginning Jan. 2. In fact, it warns, there’s trouble looming, regardless of the sequester:
Three main pathologies internal to the structure of the DoD budget are increasingly detracting
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