Word: pentagons
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Anthropologists have traditionally had a pretty wonkish reputation, earnestly taking field notes while interviewing a tribal chief or lecturing in some college classroom about the intricacies of indigenous clan-systems. If the Pentagon has its way, though, more anthropologists will exchange their tweed for military fatigues and leave the halls of academe for the front lines. For the past two years, the U.S. military has embedded anthropologists and other social scientists with American troops in order to improve the Army's cultural IQ. But last week the American Anthropological Association (AAA) released a report coming out strongly against the program...
...have the e-mails been interpreted? To global-warming doubters, the CRU e-mails are the new Pentagon Papers, proof that the powers that be - in this case, international climate scientists - are engaged in outright fraud and were exposed only by a brave whistle-blower. (See pictures of a glacier melting in Peru...
...much the extra troops would cost is in dispute. Orszag pegs it at $1 million per soldier per year, which works out to an additional $30 billion a year for 30,000 more troops. The Pentagon says it's half that. But a new study by consulting firm Deloitte makes clear that fighting inside a landlocked country where the Taliban has shut down much of the meager road network has drastically inflated even routine costs. The average U.S. trooper in Afghanistan requires 22 gal. (83 L) of fuel a day--but the cost of buying a gallon of fuel...
...good part of the reason the troops were sent to Helmand instead of Kandahar, even though it violated the prevailing counterinsurgency strategy, was that the fortifications already had been built in Helmand; it seemed too late to turn the supertanker around. Obama kept sending plans back to the Pentagon, seeking a faster launch for his "extended surge." The military still isn't entirely sure that it'll be able to move 30,000 troops to Afghanistan by August. "We'll push in every way possible to get the forces on the ground ASAP," a senior military official told...
...than the 40,000 troops he requested in the midsize of the three options he presented to the President. Like a kid seeking a $10 weekly allowance who starts the bidding at $20, McChrystal's "lowest-risk" option was for some 80,000 reinforcements. But both he and the Pentagon knew that the U.S. military doesn't have enough troops for such an increase. McChrystal's smallest option - about 10,000 more troops - was scrapped because the U.S. military felt it was too risky. They've coalesced around the "Goldilocks option" of 40,000, minus what some Pentagon officials call...