- Wall Street Journal – Many troops have lost a close friend in combat. Travis Williams lost them all. Marine Lance Cpl. Williams is the sole survivor of his 12-man squad. His comrades were wiped out by a roadside bomb in Iraq, leaving him physically unharmed but with psychological wounds that remain unhealed seven years [...]

- Wall Street Journal – Unconventional wars are our most pressing national security concern. They’re also the most ancient form of war in the world. Max Boot on the lessons of insurgency we seem unable to learn.

- The Atlantic – In the camouflage industry, deception is an artful science. Got an army you need to hide? With more than a million soldiers in a dozen countries wearing his camouflage patterns, Guy Cramer is now hoping to change how the Pentagon dresses. Inside the evolving science of concealment.

- New York Times Magazine – The case against American soldiers accused of murdering Afghan civilians turns on the idea of a rogue unit. But what if the killings are a symptom of a deeper problem?

- Esquire – It is perhaps the most potent question to echo from the cold war: Who lost Vietnam? Well, there were certainly many factors, but an important new book forces us to consider this: For the first time in human history, a poorly trained peasant army humbled a great power with the gun its [...]

- Foreign Policy – C.J. Chivers talks with Foreign Policy about the Kalashnikov, the world’s real weapon of mass destruction.

Washington Post – Military reckons with the mental wounds of war Senior commanders have reached a turning point. After nine years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are beginning to recognize age-old legacies of the battlefield – once known as shellshock or battle fatigue – as combat wounds, not signs of weakness.

US Naval Institute Proceedings – Getting Inside their Heads Mounting psychological and behavioral problems are a growing concern for the military as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq enter their ninth year.

New Yorker – A decorated marineís war within. Another look at post traumatic stress disorder.more…

Newsweek – Five years on, the war is transforming the American officer corps.more…

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.more…

New Yorker – Nobel laureate Gunter Grass reflects on how he spent World War II – with the Waffen SS.more…

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.more…

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?more…

Wired – Heat-resistant. Cold-proof. Tireless. Tomorrowís soldiers are just like todayís – only better. Inside the Pentagonís human enhancement project.more…

New York Times Magazine – One boyís tortuous entanglement in an African civil war.more…

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.more…

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.more…

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.more…

Wired – Shell-shocked troops are coming back from Iraq with snakes in their heads. A new virtual reality treatment offers hope for vets.more…