"During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military officials recognized that the blast wave from a roadside bomb could damage a person's brain without leaving any visible sign of injury. And in 2010, the Pentagon issued a memo outlining steps to improve care of troops exposed to these explosions."
"Since then, there's been growing evidence that blasts from weapons like the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle and the AT4 anti-tank weapon can also affect the brain."
"Sgt. John Wagley fires an AT4 anti-tank missile during a training session at Camp Fuji, in Japan. Studies find that some who fire these weapons repeatedly have short-term problems with memory and thinking. It's still not clear, scientists say, whether those temporary changes can lead to permanent deficits."
"If you're looking at a large anti-tank rocket that a soldier would carry on his or her shoulder, that's now a pretty large explosion — and it's happening right next to your head." Scharre says."
"When President Obama tells Americans to stop worrying, he’s accused of fecklessness. But he has a point: we have never been safer."
"Everybody's heard of the My Lai massacre — March 16, 1968, 50 years ago today — but not many know about the man who stopped it: Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot. When he arrived, American soldiers had already killed 504 Vietnamese civilians (that's the Vietnamese count; the U.S. Army said 347). They were going to kill more, but they didn't — because of what Thompson did."
"President Trump, apparently inspired by the Bastille Day parade he witnessed last summer during a trip to Paris, has ordered the Pentagon to look into staging something similar — but naturally bigger and better — for Washington, D.C., the White House confirmed Tuesday. A U.S. official has confirmed the request to NPR. On Tuesday evening, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders shared in a statement that "President Trump is incredibly supportive of America's great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe." She added, "He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation."
"This October, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that its estimate of the cost for the planned “modernization” the U.S. nuclear weapons complex over the next three decades has risen to $1,200,000,000,000.00. For those of you not familiar with such lofty figures, that’s $1.2 trillion. Furthermore, when adjusted for inflation, the cost of the program―designed to provide new weapons for nuclear warfare on land, in the sea, and in the air, plus upgraded or new facilities to produce them―grows to $1.7 trillion."
"That $1.7 trillion could provide an awful lot of healthcare, education, housing, parks, public transportation, roads, public radio, clean water, child nutrition, disability benefits, Social Security, and other public services to improve the lives of Americans. But, of course, it won’t. Instead, this enormous economic burden of paying for nuclear weapons will fall heavily upon (or perhaps destroy) whatever is left of such programs after the current Republican administration and Congress finish gutting them through budget cuts."
"Much the same incredibly costly nuclear “modernization” is happening today in the eight other nuclear-armed nations, where the welfare of their citizens is being sacrificed on the altar of national military “strength.”
"Part of the problem for Americans is the disconnect Panetta highlights between the military and the rest of society. In 1945, just before the end of World War II, there were 12 million active servicemembers. Now, there are just over a million or so."
"They're the best 1 percent this country produces," White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said Thursday in his defense of President Trump in the White House briefing room.
"It's actually less than 1 percent. That number in 1945 represented roughly 9 percent of the country's total population. Now, the number of active-duty servicemembers is only about 0.4 percent of the population."
"Most of you, as Americans, don't know them," Kelly continued. "Many of you don't know anyone that knows any one of them."
"Americans are far less engaged in the debate over worldwide American missions than they likely would be if they had a daughter or son or neighbor in the fight. That has to have an effect on American society and policymaking."
"On July 13, 1968, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, a Republican presidential candidate, reveals a four-stage peace plan that, he argues, could end the war in six months if North Vietnam assented to it. The proposal called for a mutual troop pullback and interposition of a neutral peacekeeping force, followed by the withdrawal of all North Vietnamese and most Allied units from South Vietnam; free elections under international supervision; and direct negotiations between North and South Vietnam on reunification."