BattlelandNational Security
Interesting story in this morning’s New York Times contrasting the current status of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange and his apparent enabler, U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning, and the government’s efforts to link them. Are they both equally innocent? Equally culpable? In Manning’s case, he’s still being held in a Marine brig at Quantico, …
BattlelandNational Security
Pentagon science advisers are recommending the U.S. military collect genetic information on its troops in hopes of building a more war-resistant force:
The U.S. military is a major consumer of medical services and has special medical needs compared to the general population. As the revolution in personal genomics proceeds, the military
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BattlelandNational Security
A pair of combat vets argue in this morning’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that it’s time for Congress to award Army General David Petraeus an extraordinary fifth star. Four stars are the highest standard rank in the U.S. military; nine five-stars were awarded during World War II to officers like Eisenhower, MacArthur, …
BattlelandNational Security
Saudis to release suspected Israeli spy vulture.
BattlelandNational Security
Prospective parents battling over the names of their unborn kids have nothing on the U.S. Navy, which is in the middle of a spat over the wisdom of naming a new ship for the late Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha. In fact, it has kicked off a bigger battle over just who, or what, should be honored with their names on the great gray …
BattlelandNational Security
The U.S. Army feels and bleeds just like the rest of us. While it may lack the swagger of the Marine Corps, it does more broadly reflect both the glory and the garbage of a country of more than 300 million.
Having covered it for more than 30 years, I could feel its mortification in 1995 after authorities fingered Timothy McVeigh as the …
BattlelandNational Security
Was I the only one to be surprised, while awaiting for President Obama to speak on Saturday’s horror in Tucson, to flip away from the cable news networks and see an NFL playoff game and college hoops games blaring from the Big 3 networks as if it were just another Saturday afternoon?
On one set of channels, lawmakers and pundits were …
BattlelandNational Security
Even before the military officially allows openly gay men and women to serve, there’s talk from the Army’s (outgoing) senior general that it’s time to revisit the ban on women serving in infantry units.
BattlelandNational Security
The Republicans on Capitol Hill are of two minds on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” now underway:
Sen. John McCain – a vocal opponent of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” – said on Thursday that he will “do everything he can” to make sure the policy change to allow gays to serve openly in the military is a success
BattlelandNational Security
The papers are filled this morning with cries over Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to cut $78 billion from the roughly $3 trillion the Pentagon plans to spend over the next five years. It’s a pre-emptive strike, designed to let the Pentagon call the cuts instead of the Congress, and it’s a good start.
But judging from some …
BattlelandNational Security
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv9Eq1vopbc]
For decades the Marine Corps were proud of their stinginess. When the Navy ordered souped-up versions of its F-18 fighter, the corps kept flying the older model. When the Army grounded its UH-1 Huey and AH-1 Cobra helicopters for flashier UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apaches, the corps …
BattlelandNational Security
The U.S. is sending 1,400 more Marines to Afghanistan to reinforce the 97,000 American troops already there, and bolster security gains made in the southern part of the nation in recent months. Pentagon officials, confirm a report in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, said the boost would be temporary and is intended to keep pressure on …
BattlelandNational Security
The Pentagon inspector general has just issued an unsettling report, especially if you have a loved one currently in harm’s way in the uniform of the U.S. military:
We are performing a series of Interceptor Body Armor audits in response to a congressional request. This audit covered six contracts valued at $434 million awarded to Point
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