A remarkable photo essay by AP photojournalist David Guttenfelder on the lives of American troops in Afghanistan gives a small insight into the fear and horror of the work, says W H Chong.
US Armed Forces
Crikey Clarifier: The JSF project … the J is for ‘joke’
The JSF or Joint Strike Fighter is a massively hyped, much-delayed defence project by which a single type of jet will supposedly defend the US and its allies from baddies. Think of a super duper X-box with wings. It has got everything. Or has it? asks Ben Sandilands.
The economics of war: 1 soldier = 20 new schools in Afghanistan
Nicholas Kristof crunches the numbers on the war in Afghanistan: the cost of every additional soldier stationed in the country could pay for 20 new schools there. It’s not just value for money, it’s a better investment, too.
Friedman: We simply can’t win
America simply does not have the Afghan partners, NATO allies, domestic support or financial resources to win in Afghanistan, says Thomas Friedman. Who knows: if the rest of the world stops meddling, the country might actually manage to sort itself out on its own.
Bring the troops home
Obama faces an “either-or” situation in Afghanistan, says Eugene Robinson: he either commits the 40,000+ troops requested by the US commander, or pulls forces out entirely to pursue a counter-terrorism strategy. The latter is the right choice to make.
The Pentagon’s secret Afghan war games
The US military has been testing new strategies for combat in Afghanistan in secret war games, an inside source reveals, including the possibility of adding 44,000 more troops for a full-scale counterinsurgency, or 15,000 more to target Taliban commanders.
VIDEO: Remote control warfare: the destructive double-life of drone pilots
By day, these US Airforce pilots fly combat planes over Iraq and Afghanistan; at night, they return home to their kids in Las Vegas. They’re the remote control navigators of unmanned “drone” planes whose lives are in America while their heads are in a warzone.
revealed 
How the Pentagon used PSYOPS on the US public
New evidence uncovered by Raw Story exposes how the US military’s propaganda arm used “psychological operations” tactics on the US public to sell them on the Iraq War.
US military bans photos of war dead in Afghanistan
The US military has officially banned embedded journalists from taking photos or recording footage of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Is it press censorship, or just giving the deceased and their families the respect and privacy they deserve?
Shhh! Obama sneaks 13,000 extra troops into Afghanistan
The White House publicly announced that 21,000 more troops would be sent to Afghanistan this year — what they didn’t mention was that an additional 13,000 “support” troops were also being deployed. Sneaky semantics.
VIDEO: Obama vows to end “don’t ask, don’t tell”
Barack Obama delivered a passionate speech to America’s largest gay civil rights group on the weekend, pledging to end the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals. Watch the full speech here.
Is the Pentagon funding the Taliban?
A US military aid program in Afghanistan that ensures local businesses score all contracts on projects and procurement is filtering money directly into the Taliban’s hands, says Jean MacKenzie. The Pentagon knows, but its hands are tied.
Obama vs. McChrystal: who’s really running the Afghan war?
Obama may be America’s Commander-in-Chief, but the US military’s commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has been making waves by publicly discussing his opinions on the military’s strategy. Just what is the chain of command here?
Stars and Stripes: keeping an eagle eye on the Pentagon
US military newspaper Stars and Stripes may be partially funded by the Pentagon, but its not afraid to hold the government and military to account. Editor Howard Witt talks independent investigative journalism, and why he gave Ann Coulter and Ariana Huffington the boot.
Former senior RAAF officers slam Australia’s defence plan
Three retired senior RAAF officers have published a review of the culture of learned failure in the administration of defence in Australia and the US, claiming Australia’s defence force will become largely irrelevant within decades.
What happens when war gets photographed
A photo of a dying US marine in Afghanistan was plastered across newspapers this week. With support for the war dwindling, will it provoke the same outrage that the flag draped coffins of US marines killed in Iraq did?
Was the AP right to publish a soldier’s dying hours?
The AP has come under some heavy fire for publishing a photo of a deceased US soldier shortly after he was fatally wounded by a grenade in Afghanistan. The NYT’s Lens blog looks at the ethics and precedent of going public with such a private moment.
An embedded journo defends his record
Following revelations that the US military is vetting journalists’ past work for negative war coverage before allowing them to be embedded in Afghanistan, writer Nir Rosen — who was allowed to embed — has scored a copy of the intel prepared on him, and he isn’t happy.
Keggers in Kabul: security contractors party hard
A letter sent to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton alleges that the private security contractors guarding the US Embassy in Kabul are living in a “Lord of the Flies” environment, with parties involving drunken brawls, prostitutes, hazing and humiliation a regular event.
At Stars and Stripes independent, investigative journalism soldiers on
America’s daily military paper Stars and Stripes has been doing some nice investigative journalism recently on the issue of censorship and embedded journalists in Afghanistan.
US military screening embeded journalists
The US armed forces have employed a PR firm to “screen” journalists before they’re allowed to be embedded with military units in Afghanistan, analysing whether they have provided positive or negative coverage of the army in the past, according to Stars and Stripes.
Joint Strike Fighter: too big to fail and too big to succeed
The US Joint Strike Fighter Project is is years behind its original planned development dates, is over-weight and way over budget, says Ben Sandilands. The 1990s JSF specification has little relevance to the 2015-25 world and the aircraft’s design needs to be changed.
Let’s leave Iraq NOW
With civil violence down to a manageable level and US forces ceasing to be the dominant player in Iraq, is there actually any reason for them to stay another two years, costing taxpayers $12 billion a month? Let’s leave now, says Tim McGirk.
‘Coalition of the Willing’ now a coalition of one
With both Britain and Australia ending their military presence in Iraq, the US is now effectively on its own for the next two years until their planned withdrawal of troops in 2011.
leaked US Army Colonel: “declare victory and go home”
A leaked memo from a senior US military adviser in Iraq says “it’s time for the US to declare victory and go home”, arguing Iraqi forces are now capable on their own and that American forces have outstayed their welcome.
