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Busy With Afghanistan, the U.S. Military Has No Time to Train for Big Wars
By David Wood - Politics DailyWe have learned through painful experience that the wars we fight are seldom the wars we planned. -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Feb. 1, 2010 Just after a cold, rainy dawn, a U.S. Army battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Charles B. Smith took up positions along a low Korean ridgeline with orders to stop the enemy tank columns racing toward them. The Americans were lightly armed draftees assigned to peacetime occupation duties in Japan. They'd never trained for major combat. But they wore the uniform of the most powerful nation on earth. They expected a short skirmish: When the ...
Scientist Urges Army to Study 'Smart Drugs' for Soldiers
By Sharon Weinberger - AOL NewsORLANDO, Fla. (Dec. 2) -- A prominent neuroscientist is urging the Army to study the effects of cognitive-enhancing pharmaceuticals -- so-called "smart drugs" -- on soldiers in the battlefield. The rapid expansion of smart-drug use among everyone from students to scientists has sparked controversy about the health effects of such neuro-pharmaceuticals, and considerable debate about whether the drugs provide people with an "unfair" advantage. But for soldiers fighting wars, the possible benefits -- and detrimental health effects -- of such drugs are simply not being studied, Paul Glimcher, a ...
Combat Stress Driving Up Army Crime, Drug Abuse, Suicides
By David Wood - Politics DailyThe U.S. Army, under the accumulating stress of nine years at war, is suffering an alarming spurt of drug abuse, crime and suicide that is going unchecked, according to an internal study that depicts an Army in crisis. A small but growing number of soldiers who perform credibly in combat turn to high-risk behavior, including drug abuse, drunken driving, motorcycle street-racing, petty crime and domestic violence, once they return home. As a result, more soldiers are dying by drug overdose, accident, murder and suicide than in combat. Suicide is now the third-leading cause of death for ...
Study: Quarter of US Military Applicants Are Too Fat to Fight
By Katie Drummond - AOL News(Oct. 15) -- There's no question that America's youth are squeezing into bigger jeans than they did a decade ago. But a new study on military recruits offers a startling reminder that today's young adults are increasingly too fat to fight. Researchers at Cornell crunched the numbers on military applicants and concluded that 25 percent are deemed unfit to serve because they're overweight or obese. Using estimates from a civilian study, the team also estimated that from 2007 to 2008, 5.7 million men and 16.5 million women within recruitment-age range (17 to 39) were ineligible for military ...
Obama Marks Formal End of US Combat in Iraq
By not in system - AOL NewsVINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (Aug. 28) -- President Barack Obama said Saturday the end of combat operations in Iraq doesn't just reaffirm the country's sovereignty, but also makes good on one of his principle campaign pledges. Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to highlight Tuesday's formal end to U.S. combat missions in Iraq - the realization of a promise he made as a candidate in the 2008 election. Remaining troops will assume a backup and training role, a shift Obama will underscore with a visit to Fort Bliss, Texas, and an Oval Office address to the nation on Aug. 31, the date he ...
Peacekeepers Fail to Stop Congo Rapes: Time for a UN Army?
By Paul Wachter - AOL News(Aug. 24) -- As Rwandan and Congolese rebels spent four days raping up to 200 women and baby boys within miles of a United Nations military camp, U.N. peacekeepers did ... nothing. "There was no immediate explanation as to why the attacks were not reported until today," AOL News reported on Monday. And yet, the news of the U.N. soldiers' non-response will surprise no one familiar with past U.N. peacekeeping efforts. The 1994 Rwandan genocide was arguably the organization's greatest failure, for which the U.N. finally admitted responsibility in 2000. But there have been others: For instance, ...
Odierno: US Combat Role in Iraq Unlikely to Resume
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON (Aug. 22) -- It would take "a complete failure" of the Iraqi security forces for the U.S. to resume combat operations there, the top American commander in Iraq said as the final U.S. fighting forces prepared to leave the country. With a major military milestone in sight, Gen. Ray Odierno said in interviews broadcast Sunday that any resumption of combat duties by American forces is unlikely. "We don't see that happening," Odierno said. The Iraqi security forces have been doing "so well for so long now that we really believe we're beyond that point." President Barack Obama plans a ...
Army Unveils New Recruit Training Regime: 'Crawl, Walk, Run'
By Katie Drummond - AOL News(Aug. 13) -- The military's new fitness regime isn't designed to coddle, but it does rely on a new philosophy, wherein troops need to learn how to crawl before they can run -- or crunch, push-up and punch. A revamped training plan -- the first new physical fitness program in three decades -- was introduced among Army recruits on July 1, after months of planning and test runs. But lest recruits think they're getting off easy, Army leaders are quick to note that the regime isn't being toned down to suit a generation of softer newcomers. "It's not soft. It's just different, and the physical ...
Women in Uniform: Eight Who Fell, and One Who Steps Forward
By Donna Trussell - Politics DailyIt started with a picture -- 2nd. Lt. Emily J.T. Perez. In her United States Military Academy photograph, she holds her feathered hat, grips her sword and smiles.Perez had a lot to smile about. She was the first minority female command sergeant in West Point history. And she was the first combat death from the class of 2005, also known as the class of 9/11. In 2006, a roadside bomb south of Baghdad killed her. ...
War in Afghanistan: The Case for More Boots on the Ground
By David Wood - Politics DailyBAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- Soaring across the velvet black sky on a night mission over Afghanistan, F-15E fighter pilot Steve Kwast peered through his high-resolution, infrared targeting pod. He had spotted insurgents running across open ground toward a line of trees. As he swooped down for a closer look, Kwast watched one of the men slip behind a tree – and as his fighter roared past, he could see the man's hands on the tree as he inched around to stay behind it. "All I could see were his fingertips – I could see him moving around the tree as I flew by,'' Kwast, a brigadier ...
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