This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Last night, veteran foreign correspondent and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Shadid of the New York Times died of an apparent asthma attack while on assignment inside Syria. The genuine outpouring of grief on social media has been a testament to how much of an inspiration and a model for journalism and reporting he has been to so many, myself included. This is a great loss. Read his work for the NYT here. Rolling Stone got its hands on a draft copy of LTC Daniel Davis’s report, “Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort.” Civilian contractor deaths outnumbered US military deaths in Afghanistan this year. The risks to them highlight the minimal attention paid to them in casualty counts and the actions of private contracting companies toward their employees. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan released its assessment report on civilians in the Afghan conflict for 2011. NPR interviewed former Army Sgt Kayla Williams about the status of women in the military and she had very wise things to say. On a similar note, I have a deconstruction of Rick Santorum’s position on women in the military up over at The Risky Shift. The Joint IED Defense Organization released a Counter-IED Strategic Plan, which essentially paints a grim and expensive picture of the future of the fight against these weapons. An NPR discussion on Syria asks if it’s time for military intervention. Obama’s 2013 budget request calls for defense cuts, which Lieberman called a risk to national security. Defense Sec’y Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dempsey testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday and were grilled over the budget (particularly base closures and nuclear cuts). Chairman of HASC, Buck McKeon, called the Obama defense cuts a “strategy founded on hope.” The Tunisian defense minister looks to foster a military relationship with the US, calling for US support after a Wednesday meeting of a joint Tunisian-American military commission. Bahrain and Libya both marked the anniversaries of the births of their protest movements and revolutions (February 14th and February 17th, respectively). The Pakistani military has rejected Human Rights Watch’s criticisms of a judicial commission set up to investigate the death of journalist Saleem Shahzad, calling HRW’s statements ‘derogatory, biased and contradictory.” Photo: Rangers from 1st Bn, 75th Ranger Regiment in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan await extraction by a CH-47. US Army Pfc. Pedro Almodovar. Via the US Army Flickr.

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

Photo: Rangers from 1st Bn, 75th Ranger Regiment in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan await extraction by a CH-47. US Army Pfc. Pedro Almodovar. Via the US Army Flickr.

56 notes

Show

  1. seymourbuhts reblogged this from vinegarwilliams and added:
    Or last week or the week prior… I’m so behind on Tumblr. Hopefully I’ll be ordering a new laptop at the end of this...
  2. thisisadrienne reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  3. burritolandia reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  4. azicrow reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  5. faithbailey reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  6. thislovelymaelstrom reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  7. mod-nomad reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  8. randomactsofchaos reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  9. christiantheatheist reblogged this from listot
  10. ilivedowntown reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  11. thesevenofclubs reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  12. she-just reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  13. kennyjacobs reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  14. angryarmywife reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  15. deuteronomy210 reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  16. birchtreesandbabblingbrooks reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  17. machinegrrrl reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  18. mariannank reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  19. vinegarwilliams reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  20. adamfarrow reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  21. findingnali reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  22. panoplyofsong reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook
  23. listot reblogged this from thepoliticalnotebook

Blog comments powered by Disqus

']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(ga); })(); // ]]>