Turns out, Iran’s susceptibility to earthquakes has generated some of the world’s toughest concrete. That helps buildings survive temblors. But it also could blunt the impact of any bunker-busting bombs Israel or the U.S. might …
BattlelandIran
BattlelandIran
11.2
“Iran's leaders should know that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
BattlelandAfghanistan
Koran Burning: Pre-Judgment Day
Reports from Afghanistan say five U.S. troops are likely to face punishment in connection with the Koran-burning at Bagram air base last week that triggered a spate of riots and the killing of six U.S. military personnel. …
“That's probably the biggest misperception and lack of understanding of the expense of doing things down here. It's unlike any place else in the world mainly because we don't have the opportunity to capitalize on the local economy.”
BattlelandWeapons
Surprise! Pentagon Watchdog Checking Out F-35 Program
The Department of Defense Inspector General’s March newsletter contains this nugget:
Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) Quality Assurance Assessment. The objective of this assessment is to assess the quality management system for the Joint Strike Fighter procured by DoD from Lockheed Martin Corporation. The assessments will be performed
…
BattlelandAuthor Q&A
Life Inside a Baghdad ER
The war in Iraq is over. But the memories and recollections will be with us for decades to come. It’s nice, for a change, to focus on those who dedicated their time in country to saving, rather than taking, lives.
Dr. Todd Baker has just published Baghdad ER: Fifteen Minutes, about his tour as chief of the emergency section of …
BattlelandAfghanistan
“Green on Blue”
Pentagon officials won’t concede it, but privately defense officials say the spate of “green-on-blue” killings by Afghans of their purported U.S. allies over the past two weeks could lead to major changes in U.S. strategy. If …
BattlelandWeapons
5. Revolutionary…Or Routine?
BattlelandNuclear Weapons
“Warning! The Nation Is Under Missile Attack!”
Always best when those kinds of disconcerting messages turn out to be false alarms. The ace FOIAers over at the National Security Archive at the George Washington University have just released a two-page once-SECRET memo that then-defense secretary Harold Brown sent to President Carter in 1980 over such a couple of false alarms that …
BattlelandMilitary Training
The Downside of “Cultural Sensitivity”
When will we say enough is enough? As I watch the atrocities mount in Syria, and our President apologize to the citizens of Afghanistan for an honest error, it highlighted not only the differences in culture between Middle …
BattlelandSpecial Operations
SEALs Seek Ship
The Navy’s Military Sealift Command is sniffing around the nation’s shipping industry to see if there’s someone who might be able to help the service’s SEALs get around.
Lots of this is secret, of course, but the Pentagon …
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
Mesopotamia’s Mental Medevacs Mounted In War’s Final Years
Here’s a pair of fascinating Pentagon charts. The one on the left is for U.S. male troops medically evacuated from the Iraq war over the past eight years; the one on the right tracks the same among female U.S. troops (more than 50,000 of both genders left this way). For about the first four years of the war, battlefield and other …
