There is no well-defined border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and – all too often amid the fog of war and firefights – there is no well-defined difference between the Pakistani military and anti-American insurgents crowded along that rugged frontier. That’s apparently why a U.S. air attack early Saturday killed at least 25 …
Pentagon
Thanksgiving: Something to Keep in Mind
Even though our troops are pretty well paid, a big family or a jobless spouse can spell trouble when it comes to putting food on the table. As the Washington Post notes this Thanksgiving morning on its front page:
Hundreds of financially strained military families in the Washington area are lining up for turkeys and free groceries
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“What Can The Rest of Us Do to Help Prevent Military Suicides?”
Families and communities — the rest of us, in other words — can play a role in helping to cut down on the epidemic of military suicides. Dr. Elspeth “Cam” Ritchie, a Battleland contributor and former top Army psychiatrist, and Dr. Margaret Harrell, a military personnel expert at the Center for a New American Security — who …
“It’s A Family Business…”
As Dave Barno said two weeks ago in Time:
“It’s a tough time to be in the family business,” says Dave Barno, a retired Army lieutenant general who commanded all allied troops in Afghanistan in 2003–05 and has two sons in the Army. “As my kids deploy around the world, they’re running into their playmates from when they
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Wednesday Night’s GOP National-Security Debate (Cliffs Notes Version)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQAhzU9Y4Xg]
Wednesday night’s CNN Republican debate with its eight contenders and sound-bite responses was akin to a World Wrestling Entertainment bout. Bottom line: President Obama is a failure and President Reagan was tops.
Yet you can glean a fair amount about the candidates via some of …
Vets: Homeless for Thanksgiving
I used to walk the halls of power, at the Capitol and the Pentagon, when I spoke on PTSD among Soldiers, as an active duty Army psychiatrist. Now, I take care of those in the public mental health system in the nation’s capital. Those halls are much murkier, even as we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Every day I take the Metro and walk …
Sequestration. So Far…
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s failure to come up with a dime – never mind $1.2 trillion – in deficit reduction over the coming decade has set the stage for both tragedy – if you’re a defense secretary given to supersonic flights of rhetoric – and farce, if you’re an American taxpayer.
That failure …
Warbirds: Dark or Light?
There is a rough correlation between the number of U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the number of turkeys sent there annually to help them celebrate Thanksgiving. Your Battleland math whiz has stuffed data provided by the Defense Logistics Agency’s troop support folks into his abacus to generate this chart and can …
Thanksgiving Thought: A Woman in Combat
This is one of those little stories that lights the bigger truth. A month ago today – October 22 — Army 1st Lieutenant Ashley White, 24, died in Afghanistan when her Joint Special Operations task force was hit by an IED. Two other soldiers also were killed in the blast. One, Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer B. Domeij, 29, of San Diego, …
“Is The Change the U.S. Brought to Iraq Likely to Last?”
U.S. forces will be out of Iraq by the end of next month, after a nearly nine-year stay. Just how permanent are the changes the U.S. military and diplomatic corps have tried to bring to a post-Saddam Hussein nation? John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and I discuss the likelihood of a lasting success in Iraq …
Friday Evening’s Furtive F-22 Fix
They say big agencies in Washington, ranging from the White House to the Pentagon, like to dump things they’d rather not have see the light of day late on a Friday. That way, they only appear as a blip in the thin Saturday morning papers, and by Sunday, we’re on to new news. That strikes me as way too cynical…until something like …
War (un)Planning
You can always tell the rookie Pentagon reporter. He, or she, is the one who whispers: “They told me they’re planning for war with Iran!” That’s when the vets around the building have to say: “They’ve been doing that for decades. Somewhere along these 17 miles of corridors, they have plans for everything.”
At least until last …
A Revealing Peek at the Chinese Military
Pretty balanced look at Beijing’s military in the latest Aviation Week, which notes:
Before viewing a static display of the Chengdu J-10 fighter, Brig. Gen. Yan Feng, commander of the 24th airborne, said that over the next decade he would like aircraft “with the capacity to do what the pilot wants.”
OK….something may have …