The DoD’s heavy reliance on military contractors in places like Afghanistan is one reason why there are an estimated 44,000 troops deployed worldwide who are listed in an amorphous “unknown” category. 1.3 million active duty military personnel serve throughout the world, but this figure does not include military contractors, National Guard, or Reserve forces. In a press briefing unveiling the …

A newly-discovered treatment may enable injured brains to heal themselves after incidents in Afghanistan or elsewhere. High-resolution Relational Resonance-based Electroencephalic Mirroring (HIRREM) is essentially an acoustic mirror that gives the brain a chance to examine itself, according to Wake Forest Medical School’s Dr. Charles H. Tegeler. Dr. Tegeler and his team studied 18 symptomatic veterans who each received about a …

Most people regard the end of the Spanish-American War as the beginning of imperialism in the United States. The turn of the 20th century also provided Americans with the first glimpse of an anti-insurgency campaign, like the 21st century campaigns in Iraq and elsewhere. Rebels in the newly-acquired Philippine Islands, which had been opposed to Spain, simply turned their guns …

The Department of Defense wants Amazon to be its exclusive cloud provider and wants to pay the online retailer $5 billion to fulfill this role. This contract would have tremendous implications for military contractors in Qatar and elsewhere. After some considerable hand-wringing, the DoD finally concluded that it simply lacks the infrastructure to move to the cloud on its own, …

Anvil, a fictional private military contractor, plays an important role in the Netflix series The Punisher, but this company bears little resemblance to the ones that operate in Iraq and elsewhere. A warning to fans: This first section contains potential spoilers. Billy Russo, onetime Marine colleague of antihero Frank Castle, operates Anvil, a company that essentially hires ex-soldiers and sends …

To better understand and treat combat-related Traumatic Brain Injuries in places like Afghanistan, the U.S. Army announced that it would partner with a technology company to take a new look at these wounds. Zeriscope, a South Carolina-based company, received an exclusive contract to study heart rate variability, among other things. Researchers believe that HRV has a direct effect on attentiveness …

The human rights organization filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the federal government for information about the large garbage disposal pits that the military used in Afghanistan and elsewhere. To date, more than 100,000 veterans of the South Asian campaigns have complained of various respiratory illnesses, and according to AIUSA Security Director Daphne Eviatar, these individuals and their …

For many people, the excitement of traveling to a place like Japan, the opportunity to be immersed in a different culture, the substantial financial benefits, and some of the other perks are too good to pass up, so it seems like a great idea to take their skills overseas, and that typically is a good idea. Before you board the …

Is it true that private military contractors make a whole lot more money in places like Iraq and Afghanistan than regular army soldiers? Anyone who has ever worked as an independent contractor as opposed to an employee knows that the answer is both “yes” and “no.” Reliable and detailed statistics are hard to find, mostly because many private military contractors …

Nestled amongst a sea of beach resorts and scuba clubs, the United States Navy’s Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center in the Bahamas is about as far from Iraq or Afghanistan as one can get, but injured contractors in both locations are entitled to the same benefits. In the late 1940s and 1950s, as early Cold War tensions mounted, the …

Adding onto recent research which indicates that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a physical condition and not a “disorder,” scientists at Stellenbosch University have isolated a gut bacteria linked to development of the disease. On the surface, obscure gastrointestinal microbes seem to have little if anything to do with a brain injury, but researchers are convinced that gut microbiome is …

If the United States is serious about ending its longest war ever, it will use more contractors in Afghanistan, veteran journalist John Stossel opined. Prior to an interview with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, Mr. Stossel was impressed by Mr. Prince’s success in virtually ending Somali piracy. In 2010 the pirates captured more than a thousand hostages, but none in 2014 …