The largest municipal-bankruptcy proceeding in U.S. history will take months to resolve, and the only short-term guarantee is more pain
Beat the Heat: Seeking Refuge from Sweltering Temperatures
Americans across the northeast and midwest are trying to keep their cool after several consecutive 90-degree days
BattlelandAsia-Pacific
China Finds a Gap in Japan’s Maritime Chokepoints
TOKYO – A flotilla of Chinese warships transited an important ocean strait off Japan’s northernmost island for the first time this week, passing within clear sight of observers onshore.
The PLA Navy vessels had just …
BattlelandMilitary History
Riding Atomic Fire Beneath the Waves
Retired vice admiral Eugene Wilkinson, the first commanding officer of the world’s first nuclear submarine, died last Thursday at age 94.
Amid the chilliest days of the Cold War, it’s hard to imagine the patriotic jolt …
About That Counter-Insurgency Contract
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
A Transparent Defense Secretary
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, after a rocky confirmation hearing in January, has been getting increasingly good grades from both politicians and troops. Part of it may be his sergeantly demeanor, but part of it also is his …
“We have begun our evaluation of locations in the continental United States to determine a site suitable for possible future deployment of homeland-defense interceptors.”
— Vice Admiral James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee Wednesday.
BattlelandTerrorism
“The Government Has Killed a 16-Year-Old American Boy…
…shouldn’t it at least have to explain why?”
That’s the question asked by the teen-ager’s grandfather — Nasser al-Awlaki, father of U.S. drone-killed terror-preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, and grandfather of Abdulrahman …
Under Cover of Darkness
A Marine trains for night-time fighting at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province, July 10.
BattlelandMilitary Spending
George Orwell, Call Your Office!
The military sometimes has a way with words that brings a smile to even the most skeptical taxpayer.
Check out this language from a Wednesday contract announcement by U.S. Special Operations command. It’s a $13 million deal …
Too Many Secrets? On Sneakers, and the NSA
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is the most famous fictional work about omnipresent government surveillance and its myriad risks. Yet, an often-overlooked movie from 1992 provides even more prescient insights into …
BattlelandSexual Assault in the Ranks
Gillibrand Gaining?
The battle to remove the military’s chain of command from investigating sexual assaults has intensified as a pair of Tea Party senators has allied with 33 of their more liberal colleagues in the effort.
Sens. Ted Cruz, …
“We now have a brand new state-of-the-art building that cost the taxpayers $34 million to build. The worst part is that all indications are we're going to tear it down. We can't even give it away to the Afghanistan government for free because they don't want a building that they will have to spend a million to re-wire because it was built to U.S. electrical code.”
— Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., speaking Tuesday on the never-needed U.S. military headquarters building in Helmand province disclosed last week, here.