The military has been seeking the causes of a spike in military suicides for the last several years so it can begin knocking it down. New evidence just coming to light makes clear that the frequency of military deployments may play a role. John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and I discuss this persistent challenge …
Troops
War Graffiti Coming Home
Combat is often seconds of terror surrounded by months of boredom. So troops play video games, visit the gym – and paint graffiti. OK. So it’s not what we think of when we think of graffiti. It’s more informational graphics, depicting unit insignias and other stuff that helps weld units together. The U.S. military is currently …
Family Lies
The nation is always expressing gratitude and thanks for all that military families do (did you know we’re in the middle of Military Family Appreciation Month?). In typical bureaucratic fashion, Congress ordered the Defense Department to certify that appreciation by creating a Family Readiness Council, designed to let the brass …
Hurt. Twice.
Only one in three military veterans wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq wars says he or she is getting the help they believe they need from the federal government. That’s the grim bottom line in a new report out Tuesday from the Pew Research Center:
Veterans badly hurt in the post-9/11 era also are more likely than other veterans,
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Navy Secret: First Women Readying for Sub Assignments
Last Friday marked the graduation from submariners’ school of the first women slated to board U.S. Navy submarines as official, full-time. members of their crews. They’ll start reporting to their subs as early as this week. Thank God we had the New London Day to tell us about it:
The women who are about to break through a
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Photo Op: F-15E (Lightning) Strike Eagle
Iraq: “Was That Lack of Immunity for U.S. Troops Simply an Excuse to Pull Out?”
The Obama Administration has said it had no choice but to pull out of Iraq by year’s end after the Iraqi parliament made it clear it would not grant U.S. troops immunity from Iraqi law for any alleged wrongdoing. Was that a reason — or an excuse — to come home? John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and I debate the …
What’s In Your Canteen, Soldier?
Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, the days spent by U.S. troops in hospitals for alcohol-related problems have skyrocketed, according to a new Pentagon study:
The results of this analysis demonstrate the increasing medical burden that excessive alcohol use is placing on the military health system; this is especially
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What Is Whereismypov.com?
It’s costly sending troops all over the world. Especially when a lot of them aren’t riding around in tanks or armored personnel carriers. In years past, the U.S. military has shipped about 75,000 cars to and from the U.S. every year for its troops’ personal use when they, and often their families, are deployed to non-war zones. …
Squawking SEAL
CNN chum Barbara Starr has the inside skinny on the new book purporting to detail the inside skinny of how the Osama bin Laden raid went down – as told by a former SEAL. Author Chuck Pfarrer claims to have spoken to some Navy SEALs who conducted the raid. It seems his story has more holes in it than the post-raid bin Laden.
Impact of U.S. Troop Drawdown in Afghanistan Already Being Felt
Bill Ardolino over at Small Wars Journal reports the impact the already-underway U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan is having in the violent eastern part of the country. He doesn’t like what he sees:
…in truth, the Obama administration’s accelerated drawdown of US forces has undercut a needed infusion of forces from RC South to
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The Pathbreaker: A Conversation with Major General Marcia Anderson
Audiences attending the Opportunity Nation Summit on the campus of Columbia University will hear from some of the leading experts in government, international affairs and the media. They will also get a testimony on public service by one of the Army’s pathbreaking leaders, Maj. Gen. Marcia Anderson.
Anderson, who completed ROTC at …
What’s Going On? The Joint Chiefs Should Be Partying Like It’s 2007…
The spectacle now infecting the Pentagon would be humorous, if it weren’t so serious. The notion that the military can cut $450 billion out of its next-decade budget of something like $7 trillion – but not a penny more – suggests an (artillery) shell game’s afoot.
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction – the …