Glad to see the debt crisis has been resolved in the past two weeks while I was away. It has been plain to anyone paying attention for the past couple of years that military spending – or “security” spending as the Orwellians in the White House are now calling it – has to come down, and by more than the $400 billion President …
Pentagon
Panetta: We Can Take the Cuts, But Not the Trigger
The nation’s military can swallow the basic budget cuts in the new debt deal, but not the more drastic slashing that would take place if the “trigger” sets in, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
The debt deal calls for about $350 billion in Pentagon cuts over the next 10 years. But if by Thanksgiving a special congressional …
A Military Teetering on the “Ragged Edge”
House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Chairman J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) held a hearing on the state of the military this week. The conclusion is stark: the U.S. military is at a breaking point. Today. Right now.
None of America’s armed forces can meet all of the global demands placed on them by commanders today. Were an …
Navy Grounds Cutting Call Signs
The Navy has punished a pair of officers who commanded an outfit that joked about assigning call signs like “Romo’s Bitch” and “Fagmeister” to their administrative officer during a 2009 call sign review board. It’s a sign of changing times in the Navy, which for decades has struggled with letting women into its inner sanctums, how …
General John Shalikashvili, 1936-2011
When Army General John Shalikashvili’s became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993, even his staff didn’t know how to say his name. “I’m saying it the way the other people on my staff are saying it: shah-lee-KASH-villy, with the emphasis on the KASH,” said Maj. Nino Fabiano, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs. “But let me …
Defense Cuts in the Name of Debt Reduction But Really for Food Stamps, Basic Research & Student Loans
The defense spending “debate” seems to be devolving into a race to the bottom. With trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see—and a collision with the debt ceiling scheduled in less than two weeks—panicky politicians are coalescing around a simple yet dangerous idea: doubling-down—perhaps even tripling-down—on …
Balloon Goes Up In Budget Battle
Sure, there have been skirmishes over defense spending in recent weeks, but now they’re shifting from small arms and irregular warfare to a combined arms campaign featuring the big guns and close-air support. As Nick Schwellenbach noted Thursday, a pair of do-gooder groups — Taxpayers for Common Sense and his own Project on …
The Shrinking Enemies List
General Ray Odierno appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday for his confirmation hearing to become the Army’s 38th top officer. In his prepared opening statement, after thanking his family for its support, he turned to the threats the country faces today:
We face a multitude of security challenges, such as
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$56 Billion to Rebuild Afghanistan (So Far): The Whole Kit & Kabul-Dole
Remember how you doled out allowances to your kids, trying to teach them the value of a quarter before moving on to a dollar? (OK — I was cheap.) Check out this chart from a Thursday report from the Government Accountability Office: direct payments to Afghanistan from Washington more than tripled between 2009 and 2010 with …
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” History in 60 Days
Charlie Moskos, the nation’s most pre-eminent military sociologist and the architect of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is dead. So is Les Aspin, who as a defensive defense secretary battling the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” official Pentagon policy in 1994. Friday, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will join those two men – …
Afghanistan: “Can Do!” or “Can We Do?”
Marine Lieut. General John Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee three weeks ago that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the future of Afghanistan as he readied to take over for Army General Dave Petraeus (the change of command happened Monday).
A new State Department inspector general’s report — Sensitive But …
Batten Down the Hatches!
The Washington Post chimes in Thursday morning with the news — well, not to Battleland readers, mind you — that the big ax in the sky is getting ready to fall on the Pentagon.
Fully-Loaded Magazine
TIME published its report on Osama bin Laden’s death three days after it happened. It has taken bin Laden’s allies nearly three months. The latest issue of Inspire, the English-language jihadist magazine allegedly published by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, hails his sacrifice:
While we lament the loss of a great leader, we also
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