BattlelandNational Security
BattlelandNational Security
BattlelandNational Security
Military Hood Ornaments
What does it mean when the First Lady of the United States has to unveil a program to help military families when the U.S. is engaged in two-and-a-half wars, a pair of them for nearly a decade? It’s the outcome of lengthy conflicts – with no clear goal – and a warrior class grown apart from the nation it is pledged to defend. It …
BattlelandNational Security
Unmanned Friendly Fire
A pair of U.S. troops was killed in Afghanistan last week when Marines, under fire, called in a drone strike that hit friendly troops by mistake, NBC reports. “It’s believed that this is the first time that U.S. service members have been killed by a Predator in a friendly-fire incident,” correspondent Jim Miklaszewski says. A Hellfire …
BattlelandNational Security
"Exceptional."
As the father of two long-ago Cub Scouts who would enter the Pinewood Derby every year, we have certificates in our basement lauding them for best paint job or best aerodynamic design — in other words, praise to make up for the fact that their little wooden race cars didn’t win (don’t get me started on the mini-sailboats you had to blow …
BattlelandNational Security
Growing Cracks in the Middle Kingdom?
As unrest sweeps across North Africa and the Middle East, China seems intent on making sure that whatever “bug” those folks have caught doesn’t infect its citizens — even if it has to kill them to keep it from happening. Beijing’s “negative trend” on human rights continues, contends the State Department’s just-released Country Reports …
BattlelandNational Security
Libya: Mistaken Identity
My lone flight in an F-16 over the Gulf of Mexico left me unable to tell the difference between the sky above and the water below. So I can imagine the challenge NATO pilots are having trying to pick out Muammar Gaddafi’s tanks from those being manned by the rebels trying to topple him — especially when the tanks in question were …
BattlelandNational Security
Big Bucks For Bangs
This chart, from a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday, shows how much money we will be spending over the next quarter-century on the Pentagon’s biggest procurement program ever: the F-35 fighter. Check it out: an average of more than $10 billion a year, as far as the eye can see, when our existing F-15s, F-16s …
BattlelandTroops
"Pay The Guys With The Guns First"
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is a savvy guy. “A smart thing for government is always to pay the guys with the guns first,” he jokingly told U.S. soldiers Thursday in Baghdad. But it’s not really funny: he warned 175 U.S. troops — on behalf of more than 1 million of their comrades — that their mid-April paycheck might be only 50 …
BattlelandNational Security
The Pentagon Role in the Budget Debate: Inputs v. Outputs
Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to cut the federal budget is garnering a lot of attention because it makes tough choices. Except when it comes to defense spending, that is. Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Budget Committee embraces the twin tom-toms used by those who think it’s perfectly fine for the U.S. to …
BattlelandNational Security
Depressing Calculation…
I don’t know which is worse: that Borders Books is going out of business a block away from the Time bureau in D.C., or that it feels compelled to post signs declaring 50 percent off of its remaining stock — complete with a chart showing how much dozens of prices are…when they are cut in half. The fact that this is the closest …
BattlelandNational Security
Car Wars II
It was only a week ago that we reported on the intentional injuring of three allied troops in Afghanistan by an Afghan who drove his car into them as they walked along the road. Today comes news from Afghanistan that an allied convoy accidentally hit Afghans walking along the road, killing one and hurting two others:
So why does the …
BattlelandCongress
U.S. Contractor's Lousy-Lavs-In-Iraq Lawsuit Dismissed
Part of the complication of having a growing number of contractors in a war zone is that contractors can sue more easily than soldiers. Exhibit A is a case decided this week, brought by a Kellogg, Brown and Root employee. Police adviser Richard Aiello sued the company for $2 million after he allegedly slipped and was “seriously …
BattlelandNational Security
D.C.'s National-Security Political Musical Chairs
The Washington buzz machine is in overdrive, whispering that U.S. Army Gen. Dave Petraeus will be leaving Afghanistan later this year to take the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency. The current CIA boss, Leon Panetta, is rumored to be moving to the Pentagon to take over for Robert Gates (as Joe Klein suggested might happen three …