My secret life as a gay soldierWith the US now this close to scrapping its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, an anonymous Lt Col. on deployment in Afghanistan explains what life is like in the camouflage closet.
US Armed Forces
The US has 4802 more nukes than it needs
The US military needs 311 nuclear weapons to defend itself, calculate Air Force strategists Gary Schaub and James Forsyth. It currently has 5113. No wonder the rest of the world feels so threatened.
Understanding the enemy in Afghanistan
A new generation of US commanders in Afghanistan have stopped trying to kill their way to victory, and are now forming strategic alliances with local warlords. Meet a local leader who hates the US — and may just be its best hope.
How America built its robot army
An excellent investigation by Reuters into how drone fighter planes became the Obama administration’s weapon of choice in AfPak. The US military is now launching several targeted strikes a week in Pakistan, four times as many as under Bush.
revealed US military running private spy ring in AfPak
The NYT reveals the US is still is running a potentially illegal “rogue operation” of private spies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, employing former CIA agents and Special-Ops soldiers to gather information.
America’s scary new toy
The US has designed a new weapon called Prompt Global Strike, capable of striking anywhere on earth in under an hour with pinpoint accuracy and the power of a nuclear warhead.
WikiLeaks, drone strikes and Gunatanamo: the laws of armed conflict
Law professor Gary Solis has just published a definitive textbook on the laws of war in the age of terrorism. He sheds some light on the big issues facing the military at the moment: Did the WikiLeaks soldiers break the law? Should robots be allowed to kill?
US soldier: I was in the WikiLeaks video; this is what I saw…
Wired interviews US soldier Ethan McCord, who was shown rescuing a child from the firefighting in the WikiLeaks “Collateral Murder” footage. He explains how the whole grizzly scene played out on the ground in Baghdad.
A letter of apology from the WikiLeaks soldiers
Two soldiers from the unit shown killing 12 civilians in Baghdad in footage released online recently by WikiLeaks pen an open apology to all those hurt and affected.
Wikileaks’ next bombshell: US military kills 86 civilians
The next big release from Wikileaks will apparently be footage of a US airstrike in Afghanistan last year that killed up to 147 civilians.
How Pakistan double-crossed the US in Afghanistan
According to US intelligence officials, Pakistan’s intelligence agency has been secretly releasing captured senior Afghani Taliban members right under the American military’s nose.
revealed US Iraq War soldier: “We were told to just shoot people”
US soldiers who have served in Iraq tell truthout they were encouraged to shoot first and question later, with instructions that: “The difference between an insurgent and an Iraqi civilian is whether they are dead or alive.”
Inside the cockpit of the Wikileaks airstrike
If it seemed like the soldiers in the Wikileaks video of the US military shooting at Iraqis were playing a video game, it’s because, in their minds, they were, explains a former army psychologist; that’s exactly how they’re trained to kill.
US Army “video game” killings tape goes viral
Internet outrage is growing after website Wikileaks exposed a ‘decrypted’ video from a US Apache helicopter that appears to show US forces in Iraq killing at least 11 unarmed civilians in 2007, reports Harley Dennett.
leaked 
VIDEO: US military slays citizens and journos in Iraq
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video which it says shows the “indiscriminate slaying” of civilians and Reuters journalists in Iraq in 2007, on a comprehensive website called Collateral Murder, including a timeline and transcript.
How journalists are letting NATO get away with murder
NATO and US forces are committing and covering-up atrocities in Afghanistan, but the embedded journalists there are so dependent on them for access and security, nothing is being reported, reveals war reporter Jeremy Starkey in a blistering attack.
Iraqi police: a $6-billion black hole
The US has invested $6 billion into training Iraq’s police force — yet most are barely trained, can’t operate on their own, and the organisation is rife with corruption.
Is the US at war with Pakistan?
Three American soldiers have been killed in Pakistan, where the US has been launching missile attacks, drone strikes and raids since last year. Can we start using the “w” word yet? asks Noah Shachtman.
The Pentagon’s $56b “Black Budget”
Don your tin-foil hats: the US Defence Dept has released its new $708 billion budget — with $56 billion earmarked simply for “classified programs”, the organisation’s largest “black budget” ever. So where is it all going?
Blackwater is still working for the US
The Pentagon and CIA are still employing controversial military contractor Blackwater in Afghanistan (albeit under a new name), despite allegations of involvement in murder, gun-running, child prostitution and more, ABC News reveals.
Torturing detainees: a how-to guide
A former Air Force officer runs through the US military’s Army Field Manual and its guidelines on interrogating prisoners: sleep deprivation, isolation and stress positions are all A-OK.
“Jesus guns”: how did the US military not know?
The US military denies it had any knowledge that its rifles were being inscribed with Bible verses. According to TPM, they must have been the only gun owners in the country that didn’t know.
US military weapons are being inscribed with secret biblical codes
A company producing weapons for the US military has been inscribing every one with coded references to Bible passages about Jesus, ABC News has uncovered. Because Jesus was all about war and killing.
revealed Guard blows the whistle on Guantanamo “suicides”
In an explosive Harper’s expose, a US Army staff sergeant who was on duty the night three Guantanamo detainees allegedly committed suicide says the deaths weren’t suicides at all, and the military is guilty of a wide-spread cover-up.
The nine fronts of the Afghanistan War
The idea of Obama’s “new” 30,000 troop “surge” in Afghanistan distorts the reality of what is really happening on the frontlines: the US military has been in an almost constant state of surge since the war began, says Tom Engelhardt.
