It’s a tough week to be in the Army. The Afghan National Army, that is. As the NYT times reports this afternoon, an independently run ANA mission this week has failed. The operation began when the Afghan Army sent a battalion of about 300 men from the First Brigade, 201st Army Corps, into a village [...]

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan– So there’s this exchange between Adm. Mullen and dudes in Kandahar: Mullen, who appeared grim-faced at moments, noted that in the past month, the Taliban killed 45 civilians, while coalition forces killed five. But once again, the elders were unmoved. None of them would have been killed, the third elder said, [...]

“When word of a crisis breaks out in Washington, it’s no accident that the first question that comes to everyone’s lips is: ‘Where’s the nearest carrier?’” –Bill Clinton 80 years ago the idea of an aircraft carrier was a novelty, to be scoffed at by any real blue water sailor. But a decade later the [...]

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — You eat at enough DFACs and you’re going to see some awesomely bad Armed Forces Network commercials. One series that I actually like features MLB players, vets and managers telling the troops how much they appreciate them and want them to get home safe. (Josh Hamilton, Mike Scoscia, Dave Winfield, [...]

MEMORANDUM TO: Cadet 2nd Class K. Miller, USA FROM: Midshipman 2nd Class A. Weinstein, USN (Ret.) Subj: SEPARATION I’m an editor for Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco, specializing in military and defense affairs. But once upon a time I was Midshipman Adam Weinstein, USNA class of 2000…until, like you, I resigned from an Academy [...]

Let’s talk about your computer. The conventional wisdom is that you’ve got your mac people, people who are willing to spend on high end hardware that comes with the legendary Macintosh operating system. The story is you get a quality machine with a quality OS and all you have to be willing to do is [...]

For those of you familiar with Spencer’s extensive reporting on Guantanamo and the trial of Omar Khadr–and that should be all of you–today’s breaking news is that his trial has now begun, becoming the first revised military tribunal trial under the Obama Administration. There are many issues that will come up in this case, not [...]

Basic cause and effect. Reasonable, logical, predictable. But for some reason, politicians seem to believe they are exempt from fundamental laws. When you have a goal, a particular preferred outcome, it should not be hard to understand that you should take actions that actually contribute to that goal. To do otherwise is illogical at best, [...]

There are two important things to keep in mind when thinking about international economic sanctions. First, sanctions are a two-way street. That is, they not only reduce the economic activity of the sanctioned nation, but there is a corresponding reduction in economic activity by the sanctioning nations. If I sell widgets to country X, and [...]

Between drought-sparked wildfires in Russia, oil spills in the US and India, and the worst flooding in remembered history in Pakistan and surrounding areas, it’s been a tough summer for the environment. And arguably, Pakistan has the worst of it, with an estimated 15 million people affected by the floods. The Guardian today published a [...]