US Military

Italy's biggest defense contractor has agreed to buy DRS Technologies Inc. for $5.3 billion and grab a share of America's defense market, the Wall Street Journal reports. Finmeccanica will purchase the defense-electronics firm for $81 per share, a 32% premium on share price, pending approval by Washington. The deal is expected to close by year's end. More »

Need more proof that the Pentagon coached ostensibly impartial military analysts about what to say on TV? In Salon, Glenn Greenwald reveals emails from one top defense staffer who suggested developing a core group of insiders who are “most reliably friendly” and that “we can count on to carry our water.” A Rumseld aide agreed, adding, "We're already doing a lot of this." The allegations first surfaced in a New York Times investigative piece. More »

The Pentagon will stop sending fallen troops to a crematorium that also handles pets, McClatchy reports. A Delaware Air Force base had been sending the bodies of troops killed in battle to a crematorium that had two separate facilities, one for humans, another for pets. The move was prompted by complaints from a soldier who accompanied the body of a friend and noticed the pet facility. More »

A US Marine was convicted of "wrongful sexual misconduct" with a 19-year-old Japanese woman, but was acquitted of the more serious charge of rape, reports CNN. The Marine, 20, is one of four accused of attacking the woman in Hiroshima. The case was heard by an American military court amid mounting anger over the US military presence in Japan after Japanese authorities decided not to press charges. More »

The US has sent more than 43,000 troops deemed medically unfit for combat to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, USA Today reports. Since 2003 soldiers deemed non-deployable by medical officers have shipped anyway, according to Pentagon documents, with unit commanders overruling doctors. “It is a consequence of the consistent churning of our troops,” says one veterans advocate. Among National Guard and reserve troops, 5%-7% were deemed unfit. More »

The US Marines have been battling the Taliban in the world's largest opium-growing region—and they're taking care not to damage the crop, the AP reports. Troops in Afghanistan are aware that the Taliban makes millions from the poppy harvest, but they also realize that destroying the locals' only source of income is likely to drive them into the arms of the militants. More »

The so-called new GI bill, which would update the famed original to fund education for veterans, should be an obvious ‘Yea’ vote for any legislator, but, the New York Times ' Bob Herbert points out, John McCain and President Bush are fighting it. The bipartisan bill is “an investment” in the lives of veterans, and Herbert is flabbergasted the former POW is against it. More »

Early mistakes in Iraq—and the extent of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's involvement in them—are the subject of a Time excerpt from a book by the former commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. Sanchez details an effort by Rumsfeld to get him to agree, on paper, that Rumsfeld had been out of the loop on the premature drawdown of strategic command forces that led to disarray—a claim Sanchez vehemently denies. More »

The Pentagon may send 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan to make up for a NATO shortfall, administration officials say.The move would bring US troop levels there to 40,000 and require relocating American forces from Iraq, the New York Times reports. While NATO countries have promised to send about 2,000 additional troops, so far only France, which has pledged 700, has begun preparing forces. More »

Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted yesterday that the US military made mistakes in taking care of soldiers back from Afghanistan and Iraq, reports Reuters. He said he regretted that veterans had received inadequate care for physical and mental problems, particularly those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Gates also acknowledged that not all returning soldiers have obtained suitable housing. More »

As US forces engaged in heavy fighting in the Mahdi Army's Sadr City today, bombings in Baghdad and Diyala province took the lives of as many as 45 Iraqis and one US soldier, the AP reports. The Diyala bombing, in Balad Ruz, was carried out by two suicide bombers—one of them a woman—during a wedding celebration. More »

Five years ago today, President Bush bounded out of a fighter jet onto a deck of an aircraft carrier and, under a huge "Mission Accomplished" banner, boasted to cheering troops that major combat operations in Iraq had ended. As the war drags on into its sixth year, congressional Democrats are using the anniversary to highlight the administration's "arrogant" mishandling of Iraq, Politico reports. More »

If linebacker Caleb Campbell hadn't been picked up by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round of the NFL draft Sunday, he'd  be suiting up for the battlefield, not the gridiron. Assuming he makes the team, Campbell, who graduates from the U.S. Military Academy  May 31, will be allowed to replace five years' service by working as a recruiter and a reserve while playing, the Detroit Free Press reports. More »

A second US aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf yesterday, which Robert Gates says Iran should see as a "reminder." The defense secretary denied that the deployment of another ship in the Gulf amounted to an escalation of American forces in the area, Reuters reports, but hoped to get Tehran's attention with the extra vessel's presence. More »

Once used with pride, the Marines moniker "Devil Dog" now has a nasty bite to it, the Marine Corps Times reports. Young Marines recoil at the term that troops earned by fighting off Germans in a bloody World War I battle. They say it reminds them of angry COs: "It's a preface to getting your ass chewed," one Marine major said. More »

Thousands attended emotional memorial services over the weekend for an Ohio Army reservist whose remains made the journey home 4 years after he was captured in Iraq. Ten thousand filed past Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin's casket, and 3,000 attended a ceremony at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati yesterday, before a private ceremony in which he was buried next to five others killed in Iraq. More »

The US military has charged a Marine with rape of a child, adultery, and kidnapping after an assault on a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa, CNN reports. Japanese officials had released the Marine earlier this year after the girl, apparently not wanting to be in the public eye, dropped the allegations. But US officials investigated for violations of the military justice code. The incident has infuriated residents of Okinawa. More »

The US military has discovered several caches of newly made Iranian weapons inside Iraq, reports the Wall Street Journal . The collection of mortars, rockets, and explosives had time stamps indicating that they were manufactured within the last 60 days, leading Washington officials to conclude that Tehran is still funneling armaments to Shiite extremist groups within Iraq. More »

A Democratic senator is calling for the resignation of the Veterans Administration mental health chief, accusing him of deliberately hiding the truth about suicide attempts among US veterans, the Dallas Morning News reports. A secret agency email put the number of suicide attempts at 12,000 a year—not the 790 the VA officially reported, according to court documents released in a lawsuit by two veterans groups. More »

Gen. David Petraeus was tapped today to be the next commander of US Central Command, in charge of military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. If confirmed, Petraeus would replace Adm. William Fallon, who stepped down over disagreements with President Bush over Iran policy, the AP reports. "I don't know anybody in the US military better qualified to lead that effort," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. More »