In an effort to dissect the Pentagon’s war strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has requested two secret studies, which, unnamed Pentagon sources tell the Boston Globe, “have found serious deficiencies across the board.” DOD also asked 50 top US counterinsurgency experts to offer their views, bringing them in to a “closed-door meeting” last week. We wonder how all this jibes with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s view that there are no errors just “tactical adjustments.” And, have study participants reviewed Anthony Cordesman’s analysis paper detailing a “litany of errors?”
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…