Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, who is traveling in Pakistan, says the Pakistanis will return the tail section of the secret stealth helicopter that Navy SEAL Team Six left in Osama bin Laden’s yard.
BattlelandNational Security
BattlelandNational Security
BattlelandTroops
They Do Happen: A PTSD Success Story
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IONNS8IeJL8&feature=player_embedded#at=271]
BattlelandSpecial Operations
Why Wasn’t bin Laden Where We Thought He Was?
If our dealings with Pakistan are hampered by the same flawed assumptions we used in our hunt for Osama bin Laden, the road ahead for Washington and Islamabad is likely to be rocky. Over at Small Wars Journal, Will Chalmers, a research assistant at the Centre for Security, Armed Forces and Society at the Royal Military College of …
BattlelandTerrorism
Special Group Quietly Assists in Terrorist Interrogations Under Obama
The Obama administration has quietly deployed a small group of specialized intelligence officials to assist in the interrogation of terror suspects captured at home and abroad. The so-called High Value Interrogation Group, housed at the FBI and reporting to the National Security Council, has been repeatedly dispatched to assist in the …
BattlelandPentagon
Libya: Time to Hit More Targets?
So last week, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was telling us that everything was going swimmingly in his alliance’s effort to force Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi from power. “We have succeeding in taking out a lot of his capacities, and now you see the opposition is gaining ground,” Rasmussen said Thursday. “We are …
BattlelandPolitics
The Looming Battle (Of The Bands) Between the U.S. and Chinese Armies
During U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ visit to China in January, Beijing heralded his arrival with the first public flight of its J-20 stealth fighter. Tonight, in honor of the arrival of General Chen Bingde, chief of staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army, the U.S. will return the favor: with a joint concert featuring the …
BattlelandNational Security
Noose.com
Interesting story in Sunday’s New York Times on the Blackwater folks setting up a mercenary force in the United Arab Emirates. No wonder we are despised around the world. Here’s the guts of the matter:
The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers
…
BattlelandVeterans
Army Suicide Rate Likely to Remain High
Mark Benjamin commented on the spike in suicides among soldiers in April, noting that the number was equal to about half the deaths in Afghanistan during the same time period. The Army has been trying for several years to get ahead of the rising number of suicides. General Peter Chiarelli, the Vice Chief of Staff, is leading the effort, …
BattlelandNational Security
25 Army Suicides Last Month, 51 Total Deaths in Afghanistan
The Army on Friday reported a sharp spike in suicides during April among active-duty troops. The Army says the deaths of 16 active-duty soldiers during April are being investigated as possible suicides. That number was seven in March and eight in February.
The Army release did not include any possible explanation for the scary …
BattlelandNational Security
That’s Not the Only Way, Harry
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
— Harry S Truman, August 8, 1950
BattlelandBattleland
GOP Gets Itchy to Leave Afghanstan, Independents Scratching
Mark Thompson’s post earlier today is a good walk-up to the debate on getting out of Afghanistan now that Osama bin Laden is dead. New reports also show more Republicans seeking an exit, and independent voters want to declare victory and leave.
An article in Politico today explores how the urge to leave has spread in the GOP from …
BattlelandWeapons
“Latest Actual Costs”
I’ve been reading the publicly-released Pentagon Selected Acquisition Reports for decades. They’re the one place you can get a bottom-line price on various U.S. military weapons systems. But they’re generally two-page summaries, not the detailed reports that generate those summaries.
So hats off to Steven Aftergood’s Secrecy …
BattlelandNational Security
Journal Hammers World’s Tepid Reponse to Assad’s Brutality
Demonstrators in Syria today are carrying out their biggest protests of this week, which typically take place on Fridays and usually end with troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad ruthlessly gunning down protestors using live ammunition and tank rounds.
The Wall Street Journal nails the western response to Assad’s cruelty in …