Author: Michael

“American Sniper” opens looking down the barrel of a military sniper rifle. The view moves in close to reveal the bearded face of Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper) behind the scope. He watches U.S. Marines below him searching houses before spotting an Iraqi mother and a young boy.
“She’s got an RKG Russian grenade, she’s handing it to the kid,” he says. And with that the audience enters the sniper’s world of split-second decisions.

Read More

Military working dogs hold a special place in the hearts of the troops who work with them. In a practical sense, they’re treated with the same honor and respect as any other troop.
They have a ceremony when they receive awards and are buried with military honors. They hold a rank, and as tradition dictates, one higher than their handler. It’s a tongue-in-cheek custom to ensure the handler treats them properly while giving the working dog some leeway to be a dog if they ever disobey an order.
They have very specific skills tailored to each mission.

Read More

In the opening weeks of his presidency, President Donald Trump has set an intense pace in his use of unmanned aerial vehicles — commonly referred to as drone strikes — to wield deadly force, according to a new article from Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Trump has launched 30 drone strikes over the first 41 days in his administration, including a reported 25 strikes in Yemen on March 2, which the Washington Post called “far more attacks in a single night than the United States has conducted in recent history.

Read More

(Screenshot from trailer/HBO).
“The Pacific,” the 2010 award-winning HBO series, followed the men of the 1st Marine Division during the brutal Pacific Campaign of World War II.
Produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman, the 10-episode series focuses on the Marines as they fight from Guadalcanal to Peleliu and Okinawa. Their war is one of brutal and unforgiving jungle combat against a determined enemy. When they finally return from the war, they must reconcile what they did to survive in combat with the black-and-white notions of right and wrong that exist at home.

Read More

Seven civilians were killed in an ambush in Uganda, endangering a ceasefire that has halted two decades of civil war. The Ugandan Military has pinned the blame on the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.
Army spokesman for northern Uganda Chris Magezi told Reuters that the rebels attacked three trucks on their way to southern Sudan on Monday night, about 4km (2.485 miles) from the border.
“We recovered the bodies this morning,” he said. “They were stripped naked then beaten to death. The rebels also burned the trucks and looted their merchandise.

Read More

Monday saw the Columbian Army seize over 25t of cocaine from a number of speedboats in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the western Colombian province of Choco.
“Not all the drug has been counted at this time, but it is clearly more than 25t,” said spokesman Angel Molina, making this
the largest haul in Columbia’s history.
According to official estimates, over 853t of cocaine has been seized by the Columbian authorities in the last decade. This cocaine would have a street value of over$20bn.

Read More

Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of general staff, has said that Prince harry will be deployed to Iraq with his unit, although the decision is under constant review.
Following the death of 12 British soldiers in April, it was suspected that the Prince would not see service with his men of the Blues and Royals
General Sir Richard, following a February announcement that the Prince would serve in Iraq, said: “I, as chief of the general staff, will take the decision and have taken the decision as to whether he should or should not deploy.

Read More

Iraq Army Officials announced that the army would aim to recruit and train a further 20,000 soldiers during 2007. 25 battalions and two division headquarters would be created with the help of the US military.
“Our goal is to reduce the dependence and increase the self-reliance,” US Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, said. “That’s why we’re here.”
It is hoped that the expansion will allow troops to fight the Sunni insurgency. The additional troops will also allow unit rotation for rest, re-equipping and retraining.

Read More

Defense ministers from China and Gabon met on Wednesday and presented a united front, stressing the importance of close military ties.
In a meeting with the visiting Gabonese Minister of State and Defence Ali Bongo, Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan said the two armed forces have always maintained friendly cooperation.
Over the past few years, there have been frequent high-level visits and exchanges between the two armed forces, said Cao, who is also vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission and a state councilor.

Read More

The Russian Defence Ministry has revealed that suicides accounted for over half of all deaths in Russia’s armed forces so far in 2007.
According to the ministry’s official website, a total of 110 servicemen have been killed in crimes, accidents and suicides.
The deaths were mainly due to suicides (65), accidents (24), murder through negligence (seven) and hazing (five).

Read More