US military

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Navy Accuses Sailors of Abusing Detainees

Six guards in Iraq face charges

(Newser) - The US Navy will court-martial six sailors who are charged with abusing detainees at a US prison camp in Iraq, Reuters reports. The sailors are accused of beating prisoners and confining them in an unventilated room with pepper spray, a Navy statement says.

US Contractor Bills in Iraq to Hit $100B

Workers outnumber troops, account for 20% of war spending

(Newser) - By the end of the year, the US will have spent $100 billion on private defense contractors in Iraq, a congressional report finds, showing more private-sector reliance than any previous wartime. Some 20% of funds spent on the war have gone to contractors, whose numbers are now greater than the...

Gates Plans to Double Size of Afghan Army

(Newser) - Robert Gates is backing a plan to pump $20 billion into Afghanistan’s army and restructure the command of NATO and US forces, in an effort to revamp the struggling war effort there. With American troops tied up in Iraq, Gates intends to almost double the size of the Afghan...

Osama Driver Gets 66 Months
 Osama Driver Gets 66 Months 
Aug 7, 2008 3:32 PM CDT

Osama Driver Gets 66 Months

But Hamdan will be eligible for release in about 5 months

(Newser) - Salim Hamdan, the driver for Osama bin Laden convicted of providing material support for terrorism, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison today, Reuters reports. The military jury's sentence takes into effect time served at Guantanamo Bay, making him eligible for release in about 5 months. The...

500th US Death a Troubling Omen in Afghan War

'Other' war claims 500 lives, now deadlier than Iraq conflict

(Newser) - The 500th American died in Afghanistan last month and the grim milestone has helped bring the conflict back to the forefront of the nation's consciousness, the New York Times writes. Afghanistan has long been overshadowed by the Iraq war, but enemy action killed over three times as many Americans in...

Iraqi Troops: 'We're Not Ready to Go It Alone'

Officers decry lack of equipment; US pushes independence

(Newser) - Iraq’s army has taken strides toward independence—but it still needs the help of American forces, say Iraqi troops and officers interviewed by the New York Times. “We are too many years behind other countries. We need the coalition forces until 2015,” said one officer. But American...

US Sending Foreign Inmates Home From Iraq

Repatriation 'in the works' for some of 200 fighters still in detention

(Newser) - Seeking to cut the number of detainees it holds, the US military has begun releasing foreign fighters captured in Iraq to their home countries, USA Today reports. The past two months have seen the first such releases, with some 15 detainees heading to Saudi Arabia and five to Egypt. The...

Retirement Plan Hurting US Military: Study

'Inequitable, inefficient' system handcuffs brass, needs overhaul

(Newser) - The retirement plan for the US military is "inequitable, inflexible, [and] inefficient," says a study released today by the Pentagon. It recommends the current system be swapped for a combination of cash and deferred compensation that kicks in with as few as 10 years of service, the Military...

Sex Assaults Against Women in Military 'Epidemic'

Lawmaker discovers 41% of female vets at one hospital have been vicitms

(Newser) - A California congresswoman seeking better protection for military women said she was shocked to discover that 41% of women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the service, CNN reports. "We have an epidemic here," Jane Harman told a House panel yesterday. "Women in...

US Death Toll in Iraq Plummets
 US Death Toll in Iraq Plummets  
Jul 31, 2008 5:36 PM CDT

US Death Toll in Iraq Plummets

Iraqi deaths down 75% from this time last year

(Newser) - The monthly US toll in Iraq fell to its lowest point since the war began, with 10 American deaths recorded as July drew to a close today. Iraqis also are dying at dramatically lower numbers in the sixth year of the war. July saw the lowest civilian toll since December...

Army 'Warned on Wiring' Before Soldier's Electrocution

Sergeant filed work order after being shocked in the shower

(Newser) - A sergeant warned Army administrators about faulty wiring months before a soldier was electrocuted in a shower at the same quarters, CNN reports. "Pipes have voltage, get shocked in the shower," he wrote in a work order. A House committee probing the electrocution deaths in Iraq had previously...

Uncle Sam Short on Sergeants
Uncle Sam Short on Sergeants
Jul 30, 2008 2:26 PM CDT

Uncle Sam Short on Sergeants

Automatic promotions are turning battlefield into a classroom, soldiers say

(Newser) - The US Army, plagued by a shortage of non-commissioned officers, has lowered the bar for promotion so much that it has produced sergeants who are not ready to lead, Salon reports in an investigation of a military stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In some cases, soldiers...

US Army Admits Civilian Shootings in Iraq

3 who died in hail of gunfire were unarmed, innocent victims

(Newser) - American soldiers rained gunfire on a carload of innocent civilians in Baghdad, killing three, and the military falsely told news media that the victims were aggressors, the US military admitted last night. Top Iraqi officials had previously denounced the June 25 incident as murder, and used it to call for...

McCain Ad Slams Obama for Skipping Troop Meeting

But 'he had time to go to the gym,' snipes spot

(Newser) - A new John McCain ad goes on the offensive, attacking Barack Obama for canceling a meeting with wounded troops, Politico reports. The clip, which aired in Denver during Saturday Night Live last night, criticizes Obama over his track record with members of the military, sniping: “He made time to...

Military Blocks Iraq Casualty Photos

Journalists complain war is being sanitized

(Newser) - Over 4,000 US troops have died in Iraq but only a handful of photographs of dead Americans have reached the media, the New York Times reports. Military regulations do not forbid taking photographs of casualties, but access to death sites is often denied. Photographers who do publish grim images...

Maliki Pegs Obama as the Most Pliant: Krauthammer

Iraq PM thinks Dem can be manipulated, writes Krauthammer

(Newser) - Nouri al-Maliki's endorsement of Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawal from Iraq this week was "the earliest and most ostentatious absentee ballot of this presidential election," writes Charles Krauthammer. The Washington Post columnist thinks that the Iraqi PM gave Obama an electorial assist for a clear reason: between him...

Obama Declares Afghanistan 'Precarious and Urgent'

Candidate pledges more US troops

(Newser) - Calling the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent," Barack Obama today urged the Bush administration to make Afghanistan—rather than Iraq—"the central front in our battle against terrorism." In his first interview since arriving in the country yesterday, the Democratic candidate told Lara Logan on...

Obama Meets Afghan Leaders, Reiterates Support

Says he's interested in listening, not talking

(Newser) - Barack Obama met today with officials from one of Afghanistan’s most hard-fought regions, the AP reports, and re-iterated his commitment to intensifying US efforts there if elected president. Together with Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed, Obama visited Jalalabad Air Field in Nangarhar province. Nangarhar lies next to the Pakistani...

Americans Now Favor 'Don't Ask, Do Tell'

Acceptance of openly gay military enlistees surges to 75%

(Newser) - In the 15 years since the inception of the US military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay servicemen and women, public opinion on the issue has shifted dramatically. In 1993, 44% of Americans said openly gay people should be allowed to enlist; a Washington Post-ABC News poll now...

Shoddy Electrical Work Killing US Troops in Iraq

Hazard from substandard work worse than Pentagon has acknowledged

(Newser) - Shoddy electrical work by private contractors is making Iraq an even deadlier place for US troops, reports the New York Times. At least 13 troops have died from electrocution and many more have been injured. Others have perished in electrical fires. The problem is worse than the Pentagon has acknowledged,...

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