Welcome to our lean, mean writing machine. Today is Battleland’s debut. It’ll be fattening up shortly (it better!) as my Time colleagues and outside commentators begin posting. And you begin commenting. I’ve been covering the military for more than 30 years here in D.C. — ever since Harold Brown was serving as defense secretary in the Carter Administration. I find tales of troops and their families — and their leaders — endlessly fascinating. They’re working — fighting — in our names. We should pay closer attention to what they do, how they do it, and what their civilian overseers are up to. Our goal: to serve as a clearing-house on military and national-security issues of the day, with news, observations and musings from folks who have spent years watching, and marching in, the national-security parade.
We’ve invited folks from across the political spectrum with expertise in this area to comment; there is nothing more boring than a blog that’s always banging the same gong. It’s hard to imagine a better time to launch such an endeavor: the nation has been waging war for close to a decade…we’re spending $1 trillion a year on defense, when you include veterans, homeland security, and related budgets…there is a disquieting fissure developing between the defenders and the defended…the nation needs to examine anew its role in the world, 20 years after the end of the Cold War, and see if we can get it right for the next 20. So that is our charter, writ large, here at Battleland: helping lead that conversation.
