Defense Department

1,600 Museums Offer Free Tickets To Military Families

AP | BRETT ZONGKER | Posted 05.23.2012

Read More: American Civil War Center, Video, Blue Star Museums Initiative, Military, New Mexico Museum of Space History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Blue Star Families, Joining Forces Initiative, National Endowment for the Arts, Military Families, Defense Department, Impact News

WASHINGTON -- More than 1,600 museums across the country will offer free admission to active-duty military personnel and their families this summer in...

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The VA Tells the Truth About Guns. The NRA Can't Handle It.

Dennis A. Henigan | Posted 05.16.2012

Read More: Gun Violence, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Rifle Association, Military, Armed Forces, Veterans Administration, Suicide, Gun Control, Nra, Guns, Defense Department, Veterans, Politics News

The VA has done nothing more than give sound advice based on the best medical and public health knowledge about the risks of guns. For doing so, it now faces the wrath of the gun lobby.

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Why Are Female Soldiers Still Barred From The Front Lines?

Forbes Woman | Posted 05.11.2012

Read More: Gender Equality, Gender Gap, Job Equality, Army, Equality in the Army, Women in the Military, Women Fighting in the Military, Defense Department, Women News

The Defense Department recently announced new policies that will open more than 14,000 military job opportunities to women. Which seems like a great s...

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Governors To Congress: Don't Cut 'The A-Team'

HuffingtonPost.com | John Celock | Posted 04.27.2012

Read More: National Guard, Video, Christine Gregoire, Council-of-Governors, Air National Guard, Terry Branstad, State and Local Government, National Governors Association, Air Force, Leon Panetta, Defense Department, Dave Heineman, Jack Markell, Politics News

The nations' governors are asking Congress to restore funding for the Air National Guard, saying that talks with the U.S. Department of Defense have f...

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Reports Cast Doubt On One Of Obama's Key Defense Programs

AP | DESMOND BUTLER | Posted 04.21.2012

Read More: u.s. Missile Interceptors, Video, European Missile Defense, Missile Defense, Missile Defense Shield, Defense Department, World News

WASHINGTON — Major delays, cost overruns and critical technological problems are plaguing a missile defense system designed to protect the Unite...

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In Afghan War, An Officer Becomes A Whistle-Blower

New York Times | Posted 02.05.2012

Read More: Military, Daniel L Davis, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghan War, Defense Department, Afghanistan War, World News

WASHINGTON -- On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight...

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Australia Reviews Purchasing Troubled Warplanes

AP | Posted 03.31.2012

Read More: F-35, Planes, Video, Australia War Planes, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters Australia, Australia, Ap, Defense Department, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, World News

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia is reviewing its timetable for buying 12 of the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighters between 2015 and 2017 after...

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Military Rape Policies Announced By Defense Department Don't Fix Problem, Groups Charge

HuffingtonPost.com | Laura Bassett | Posted 12.29.2011

Read More: Video, Department of Defense, Military Abortion, Service Women's Action Network, Military Rape Victims, Military Women, Military Rape Statistics, Military Sexual Assaults, Leon Panetta, Defense Department, Military Rape, Protect Our Defenders, Politics News

In light of statistics that show staggering rates of sexual assault in the U.S. military, the Department of Defense announced on Tuesday two new polic...

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Blacks Outpace Other Female Recruits In U.S. Military

The New York Times | JAMES DAO | Posted 12.23.2011

Read More: Rand Corporation, Beth J. Asch, Military Enlistment, US Marines, US Army, Military Recruiting, Defense Department, US Navy, US Air Force, Black Voices News

Black women are enlisting in the military at far higher rates than are white or Hispanic women, and they now represent nearly a third of all the women...

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Sunday Roundup

Arianna Huffington | Posted 02.16.2012

Read More: Iraq War Casualities, Iraq War End, Iraq War Costs, Leon Panetta, Defense Department, Iraq Soliders Killed, Obama-Iraq-War-End, Politics News

This week, the Pentagon marked the official end to the war in Iraq with a brief ceremony in a secure part of the Baghdad airport -- helicopters hovering protectively overhead. Although Defense Secretary Leon Panetta later declared that the cost paid by America was "worth it," a look at the price tag offers a more sobering assessment: 4,487 U.S. military personnel killed, over 2,000 U.S. government contractors killed, over 40,000 American troops wounded, over 100,000 Iraqis killed, at least 2 million Iraqis displaced from their homes, and a final tab that could ultimately reach $4 trillion doled out by U.S. taxpayers (a far cry from the $50 billion to $80 billion the Defense Department originally predicted it would cost). And beyond the cost in lives and treasure are the less quantifiable costs we'll be paying for years to come, including the strengthening of Iran and the weakening of America's moral standing in the world.

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Leon Panetta Sued Over Ape In Noose At Federal Agency

AP | By SUZANNE GAMBOA | Posted 12.15.2011

Read More: National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Discrimination, Mathew Estevez, Leon Panetta, Mirlin Toomer, District of Columbia, Defense Department, Black Voices News

WASHINGTON -- A black former Defense Department worker has filed a discrimination lawsuit alleging her complaints about workplace harassment prompted ...

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Boeing Workers Union Approves 4-Year Contract Extension

AP | By GENE JOHNSON | Posted 12.08.2011

Read More: Boeing, Video, Machinists, Unionized Boeing Machinists, Obama Administration, Boeing 737, Unions, National Labor Relations Board, Defense Department, Airbus, Labor Union, South Carolina Politics, Business News

SEATTLE -- Applause and cheers rang out after Unionized Boeing Machinists voted overwhelmingly to approve a four-year contract extension – a dea...

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An Odd Thanksgiving Proposal: Let's Go Back to Torturing Detainees

Daphne Eviatar | Posted 01.23.2012

Read More: Bush Administration, 2012 Presidential Election, Cia, Army Field Manual, Thanksgiving, David Petraeus, Sen.Kelly Ayotte, Enhanced Interrogations, Waterboarding, Defense Department, Torture, Politics News

A disturbing trend among some Republicans lately, as we saw in last night's debate, is to treat any terror-related crime as something completely new and different, which needn't comply with even our most basic sense of decency, let alone U.S. law.

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Little-Known Committee Pushing Corporate Change For The Military

Mother Jones | Adam Weinstein | Posted 11.21.2011

Read More: Collective Bargaining, Department of Defense, Military, Military Collective Bargaining, Defense Business Board, Pentagon Cuts, Military Pension, Military Spending, Pensions, Defense Cuts, Pentagon Spending, Defense Department, Politics News

With time fast running out for the so-called deficit supercommittee, the mammoth amount of government money spent on the military has become a prime t...

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Pentagon Struggles For A Coherent Global Strategy

HuffingtonPost.com | David Wood | Posted 11.18.2011

Read More: Pentagon, Department of Defense, National Security, Pentagon Budget Cuts, Afghanistan, Europe Debt Crisis, Foreign Affairs, President Obama, Iraq, Defense Department, World News

\WASHINGTON -- Two Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan this week while President Obama was in Asia to proclaim a new U.S. strategic focus o...

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Pentagon Sounds Dire Warning On Cuts

AOL Defense | Carlo Munoz | Posted 01.11.2012

Read More: Pentagon, Deficit, Military, Super Committee, Department of Defense, Panetta, Pentagon Cuts, Deficit Super Committee, Super Committee Defense Cuts, Defense Spending, Defense Cuts, Leon Panetta, Defense Department, Politics News

Pentagon: It's official: the Pentagon will get roughly halfway to the Obama administration's goal of cutting up to $500 billion in defense spending ov...

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Republican Hypocrisy On Government Job Creation Exposed

AP | By DONNA CASSATA | Posted 01.04.2012

WASHINGTON -- The same Republicans who insist that federal spending doesn't create jobs and should be cut in the face of staggering deficits are leadi...

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Panetta Changes Tone On 'Apocalyptic' Defense Cuts

AOL Defense | Winslow Wheeler | Posted 12.14.2011

Read More: Dod, Department of Defense, Panetta, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Military Spending, Budget, Defense Spending, Pentagon Budget, Defense Cuts, Defense Budget, Leon Panetta, Defense Department, Politics News

Until Tuesday Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had been describing Pentagon budget cuts beyond the $450 billion over 10 years he and President Obama ...

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A Conversation With Helen Benedict: Writing Fiction and Non-Fiction

Len Hollie | Posted 11.28.2011

Read More: Pentagon, Women's Rights, Women, Congress, Writers, Rape, America, Books, War, Fiction, George Bush, Prejudice, Sexual Assault, Abu Ghraib, Death, Iraq War, Racism, US Soldiers Iraq, Non-Fiction, Defense Department, Writing a Novel, New York News

Helen Benedict has written five novels and five books of non-fiction. I recently spoke with Benedict about the unique undertaking of writing both fiction and non-fiction from the same research material.

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Pentagon Can't Follow Its Own Money, Report Finds

HuffingtonPost.com | Dan Froomkin | Posted 11.23.2011

Read More: Inauditable DOD, Video, Defense Spending, Gao, Defense Budget, Defense Department, Government Accountability Office, Politics News

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has been predicting doom should his department be forced to make considerable budget cuts, but a GAO report released Fr...

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One-Third Of Military Suicides Told Of Plans To Die, Report Finds

Posted 11.22.2011

Read More: Military Suicides, Video, Military, Defense Department Report, Suicide, Military Suicides Report, Department of Defense Suicide Event Report, Suicide Prevention, Defense Department, Politics News

DENVER -- A third of military personnel who committed suicide last year had told at least one person they planned to take their own lives, a newly rel...

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Gays Discharged Under DADT Face Tough Odds To Rejoin Military

HuffingtonPost.com | Andrea Stone | Posted 11.21.2011

Read More: Stars & Stripes, DADT Discharges, Budget Cuts, Military Recruitment, Iraq War Drawdown, Dadt Reenlisting, Lt. Dan Choi, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, Dadt Repeal, Dadt, Dan Choi, Defense Spending, Dadt Reenlistment, Defense Department, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Tuesday's parties celebrating the end of "don't ask, don't tell" are giving way to a morning-after reality: gays who left the military b...

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High Stakes for an Administration Battle: A National Security Nightmare

Daphne Eviatar | Posted 11.16.2011

Read More: Muslims, Cia, Jeh Johnson, Gwot, National Security, Budget, Aqap, Harold Koh, Dennis Blair, Financial Crisis, Congress, Shabab, State Department, Defense Department, War on Terror, Al Qaeda, International Law, World News

As if we didn't have enough wars already, a battle is now reportedly taking place within the Obama administration over whether the U.S. government has the legal authority to kill low-level suspected terrorist supporters where the U.S. now has troops on the ground.

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Pentagon Chief: Cuts Would 'Terribly Weaken' The U.S.

AP | By ROBERT BURNS | Posted 10.17.2011

Read More: Pentagon, Leon Panetta Pentagon, Debt Ceiling, Pentagon Cuts, Military Spending, Hillary Clinton, Defense Spending Cuts, Leon Panetta, Leon Panetta Defense Secretary, Defense Department, Panetta Defense Spending Cuts, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Large new cuts in defense spending would "terribly weaken" U.S. national security, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday as he and...

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Gay Military Members Have Tough Time Returning To Service

AP | By JULIE WATSON | Posted 10.13.2011

Read More: Gays in the Military, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Military, Gay Rights, Army, Obama Administration, Navy, Air Force, Defense Department, Politics News

SAN DIEGO -- Former Air Force officer Michael Almy's five-year battle to get back into the military after being discharged for being gay is still far ...

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