Newsweek – Five years on, the war is transforming the American officer corps.
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New York Times Magazine – Americaís junior officers are fighting the war on the ground in Iraq, and the experience is making a number of them lose faith in their superiors.
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New Yorker – Nobel laureate Gunter Grass reflects on how he spent World War II – with the Waffen SS.
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New York Times Magazine – Many female soldiers have lived through the terrible violence of the war in Iraq. Others have experienced sexual assault – or worse, a combination of the two. They have found themselves struggling to cope with their lives.
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Vanity Fair – As a former C.I.A. agent, the author Robert Baer knows how mercenaries work: in the shadows. But how did a notorious former British officer, Tim Spicer, come to coordinate the second-largest army in Iraq – the tens of thousands of private security contractors?
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Wired – Heat-resistant. Cold-proof. Tireless. Tomorrowís soldiers are just like todayís – only better. Inside the Pentagonís human enhancement project.
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New York Times Magazine – One boyís tortuous entanglement in an African civil war.
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Washington Post – An interesting look at what happens to wounded Soldiers and Marines who get their care at Walter Reed.

Washington Post – The Hotel Aftermath.
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Washington Post – The AK-47 has become the world’s most prolific and effective combat weapon, a device so cheap and simple that it can be bought in many countries for less than the cost of a live chicken.
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Daily Telegraph – Are battlefield conditions worse for the modern soldier, or are today’s veterans not as tough as their predecessors? To mark Remembrance Day, The Daily Telegraph has assembled a unique panel of veterans with experience of all the major conflicts over the past 65 years.

Daily Telegraph – The veterans.
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Wired – Shell-shocked troops are coming back from Iraq with snakes in their heads. A new virtual reality treatment offers hope for vets.
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New York Times – When Chuck Norris joined the National Guard, he wasn’t expecting to end up in one of the worst corners of the Sunni Triangle. Now he’s home in Pennsylvania, with his fellow guardsmen and memories he just can’t shake.
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Economist – After brutal blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American army has become more intelligentóand hopes to be more effective.

Any article that quotes General David Petraeus, Colonel H.R. McMaster, and Major John Nagl – three of the Army’s intellectuals – must be interesting???
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New York Times – A look at combat stress in soldiers in Iraq.
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IEEE Spectrum – Science-fiction fans have long become accustomed to the idea of steely commandos clad in robotic exoskeletons taking on huge, vicious, extraterrestrial beasts, shadowy evil cyborgs, or even each other. Supersoldiers encased in sleek, self-powered armor figure memorably in such works as Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel Starship Troopers, Joe W. Haldeman’s 1975 The Forever War, and many other books and movies???Today, in Japan and the United States, engineers are finally putting some practical exoskeletons through their paces outside of laboratories.
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Wired – Another look at how the videogame Full Spectrum Warrior is being used to treat combat stress.
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Daily Telegraph – Historian Max Hastings on how the rules of conduct in war have changed since World War II???

For more background on this essay read: Daily Telegraph – Army risks losing its reputation, warns general.
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New York Times Magazine – There are dozens of private security companies operating in Iraq, and Triple Canopy is one of the largest. How was it formed, who are its men – and what is the line between “security” and warfare?
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Frontline – Outsourcing, military style???Over 120,000 private contractors are preparing the food, refueling the planes, and protecting the pipelines and generals in Iraq. But what are the dangers in bringing in the private sector to prosecute the war?

Read the transcript of the show here.
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Daily Telegraph – A superb recollection of what exactly infantry combat on the Western Front in World War II was really like. Sixty years ago W F Deedes led his British infantry company across Europe. Last month, aged 92, he retraced his steps, reviving memories and recalling old friends. This is his story, told for the first time. Lord Deedes later went on to become the Editor of the Daily Telegraph from 1974-1986 and continues to write for it.

Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
and Part 5.
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The Economist – Russian conscription is one of Europe’s worst human-rights scandals. But the system is too lucrative for the top brass to scrap it.

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Washington Post – Ann Scott Tyson on patrol with an Iowa National Guard unit in Ramadi.
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Daily Telegraph – John Keegan on the difficulty of applying the rule of law in guerilla warfare.
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Washington Post – Many soldiers support qualified women joining infantry, but Congress is moving in other direction. A look at how US women serving in the Army in Iraq are in combat every day???
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American History – Major Richard “Dick” Winters of “Band of Brothers” fame speaks candidly about the men and actions of Easy Company and reflects on D-Day and the lessons he learned about leadership.

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