Senate Approves New War Powers Limits On Iran For President Trump : NPR

hmmm

The US will end its moratorium on the production and deployment of landmines, in another reversal of Obama-era policies and a further breach with western allies.

…Rob Berschinski, who was in charge of US landmine policy in the Obama White House said that the weapons were not only a humanitarian threat but also militarily obsolete.

“The main point is that they’re not only massively harmful to civilians after war’s end, but they’re also of very negligible military utility,” Berschinski, now at Human Rights First, said on Twitter. “In fact, [defence department]-commissioned studies have shown that during the Gulf war they mainly served to limit US ground forces’ maneuver capability.”

Trump to reportedly allow use of landmines, reversing Obama-era policy | US news | The Guardian

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

34 U.S. service members diagnosed with brain injuries after Iran attack

hmm

[Trump] was asked about the clear discrepancy between his initial claim that no Americans had been harmed in Iran’s retaliatory strikes against a US base in Iraq and reports of 11 military personnel diagnosed with concussions and an unnamed number of others also being treated in the wake of the attack.

…11 soldiers initially injured were evacuated from the base in Iraq — eight to Germany and three more to Kuwait. In addition, the Pentagon announced Tuesday that an unspecified number of other troops had been injured in the attack and evacuated to Germany.

“As medical treatment and evaluations in theater continue, additional service members have been identified as having potential injuries,” said CENTCOM spokesman Bill Urban. “These service members — out of an abundance of caution — have been transported to Landstuhl, Germany, for further evaluations and necessary treatment on an outpatient basis. Given the nature of injuries already noted, it is possible additional injuries may be identified in the future.”

President Trump dismisses injuries of US military troops, proves (again) there is no bottom – CNNPolitics

sigh…

 

Letter suggesting US would withdraw troops from Iraq was a ‘mistake,’ top general says – CNNPolitics

oy…

He was the brainy son of two Notre Dame professors, but the armed forces held an allure.

…After graduation, he continued to work in party politics, campaigning in Arizona for John F. Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid. When Kerry lost, Buttigieg’s boss, future assistant defense secretary Doug Wilson, invited him to Washington.

“I think he was interested in coming back with me because he saw this as an opportunity to learn about foreign policy and international affairs.”

…He became increasingly active in Democratic politics and increasingly opposed to the national security policies of President George W. Bush.

…Buttigieg quickly fell in with Democrats who were supportive of military power even as they condemned the way it was wielded by the Bush White House. They called themselves the Truman National Security Project.

…Buttigieg finished his degree in economics at Oxford in 2007 and moved to the Chicago office of McKinsey & Co. For the next year, the consulting gig that would make him an expert in grocery pricing also gave him his first taste of a war zone. Buttigieg visited Iraq and Afghanistan as part of U.S. government-funded projects to stimulate private-sector development in countries still engulfed in violence.

…It was only after Barack Obama was elected, and just months before Buttigieg would launch his own political career, that he finally walked into the recruiting office.

Only then did he decide to join a conflict that six years earlier he had denounced from the stage of an antiwar rally.

…Buttigieg, Peter, 27-year-old Harvard grad. Polyglot Rhodes scholar. McKinsey management consultant. Nordic poetry fan.

…Because of his pedigree, Buttigieg glided straight into the Navy Reserve’s direct-commission officers program, bypassing the more time-consuming training route of other branches.

…Buttigieg was sworn in as an ensign in September 2009. A few months later, he announced he would challenge Indiana’s Republican state treasurer, Richard Mourdock, in the 2010 election. 

…Buttigieg made little of the fact that he was a Midwestern mayor, not even telling the roommate who shared his trailer. His liberal politics were also a mystery to his commander, a Mormon and staunch conservative.

…He [now] believed that the Afghan war was a necessary response to the 9/11 attacks but that it had gone on too long.

How Pete Buttigieg went from war protester to serving in Afghanistan – The Washington Post

hmmm