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Lots of people call Bowe Bergdahl, who has been held by insurgents on the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier for nearly three years, a prisoner of war. Even his father, Bob, used the term for his son in a recent chat with Time’s Nate Rawlings. But he’s not a POW, and never has been, at least as far [...]
John Browne said Friday that he has refused to let his client participate in what’s known in the Army as a 706 Board or “sanity board.” His client is Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who stands charged by the U.S. Army with murdering 17 Afghan civilians outside Kandahar last month during a nighttime of fury. [...]
The trickle of mitigating circumstances trying to understand the motive of the Army soldier who allegedly slaughtered 16 Afghan civilians last Sunday has turned into an avalanche over the past 24 hours. According to a defense attorney retained by his family, and news reports of rumors, innuendo and perhaps some facts, Staff Sergeant X has [...]
Colleague Jim Frederick is asking some tough questions over at the Time Ideas blog: American and Afghan authorities are scrambling to ensure this tragedy does not derail the planned departure of NATO forces in 2014, and it is smart to keep looking forward, but we must also not flinch from looking back as well: every [...]
Reports from Afghanistan say five U.S. troops are likely to face punishment in connection with the Koran-burning at Bagram air base last week that triggered a spate of riots and the killing of six U.S. military personnel. Wrapping up the probe has been an urgent goal of the U.S. military since it happened. Along with [...]
Those of us of a certain sell-by date recall John Paul Vann’s searing tale of Vietnam in Neil Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie. The title resonates in light of recent screw-ups by the U.S. military, with the addition of one letter: a bright shining line:
The impact felt at the ground-level from our troops involved in same-sex marriages is gaining some high-level attention. On Friday of last week, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued this controversial letter to House Speaker John Boehner in response to the lawsuits filed this October in my home state of Massachusetts by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The letter serves [...]
This coming Wednesday is George Washington’s 280th birthday. So it’s only fitting that the Supreme Court will be asking on Feb. 22 if lying about military heroics violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. This is a tale that pits heroism on the battlefield against the inherent heroism of a law that defends the [...]
Last week the Pentagon inspector general confirmed that its investigators are looking into the November 2010 fatal crash of an F-22 fighter. Pilots have long grumbled that the super-jet’s oxygen-supply system doesn’t always work properly, and there was evidence that played a role in the Alaska crash that killed Captain Jeff Haney. But the Air [...]
The Pentagon inspector general is investigating the Air Force’s official probe into a fatal F-22 crash that concluded the pilot was to blame. “The assessment will focus on the adherence of the AIB [Accident Investigation Board] to the procedures set forth in Air Force Instruction (AFI) 51-503, ‘Aerospace Accident Investigations,’” Randolph Stone, the deputy IG [...]
