BattlelandIran
…the world goes crazy when North Korea says it is going to launch a missile into space, and there’s hardly a peep worldwide when Iran says the same thing? Especially strange given the fact that the two nations often share weapons technology, the fact that Iranian experts were on hand for last month’s failed NoKo launch, and the …
BattlelandAfghanistan
Hard to believe – or maybe it isn’t – but that’s the title (complete with unpronounceable abbreviation) of a new, 268-page guidebook for U.S. commanders in Afghanistan. It tells them how to spend your hard-earned Commanders Emergency Response Program (CERP) dollars. Those are payments, usually in the thousands, but sometimes …
BattlelandTroops
In a decided lack of fanfare, the Pentagon announced a new assignment policy for women, set to take effect on May 14. The so-called collocation rules have been set aside, a policy that had been in effect since 1993 when Title 10, …
BattlelandAfghanistan
A new Congressional Research service report is out detailing a steep decline in U.S. casualties in Afghanistan so far this year. Granted, the year is less than half over, but even if the 2012 data points (110 KIA, 634 WIA through May 10) are boosted proportionately to reflect a full year’s toll, wounded and killed Americans would …
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
I love all of the current dialogue between the American Psychiatric Association and the military. For years, they were at loggerheads, principally about the policy of not allowing gays to openly serve in the armed forces. Military psychiatrists could wear their uniform at APA events, but were often singled out for criticism over the …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
You never know what you’ll stumble on perusing Pentagon contracts. On Monday, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., said it is planning to hire Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project to survey 25 nations in Latin America.
Why? Well, it seems U.S. Southern Command (guess it lacks folks in the …
BattlelandProcurement
The military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC, to its friends and foes), is a political economy that places the interest of the domestic factions benefitting from huge defense budgets ahead of the interests of soldiers, …
BattlelandMilitary History
Here’s the well-preserved carcass of a World War II-era Curtiss P-40 warplane, discovered Thursday by a Polish oil worker deep in western Egypt’s Sahara Desert. Indications are that the lone Royal Air Force pilot tried to summon help with his radio once on the ground, and, when that failed, trekked to his death. But the airplane …
“Most ‘Green on Blue’ Attacks Individually Motivated”
BattlelandPiracy
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Having been away for the past week, it’s nice to come back and see nothing on the looming defense-budget battle front has gotten any better, despite the iceberg of sequestration looming ahead of the USS Pentagon. In fact, it has gotten worse:
— House Armed Services Committee chairman Howard McKeon sent a letter to Defense …
BattlelandDefense Contractors
Congressional hearings and recently-introduced legislation have put the spotlight on the issue of U.S. taxpayer-funded labor trafficking, and the abuse of third-country nationals overseas by U.S. military contractors. One of the leading associations of U.S. overseas contractors has devoted the latest issue of its journal to the topic …
