Salon.com > Soldiers

French police seek soldier stabbing suspect

Sun, 26 May 2013 14:29:00 +0000

French anti-terrorism investigators were searching Sunday for a man who stabbed a soldier in the throat in the commercial district of La Defense outside Paris.

The 23-year-old soldier, Cedric Cordier, was in uniform patrolling the busy underground corridors where shops and crowded public transport lines converge beneath the famous Arch of La Defense.

Saturday's stabbing came days after a British soldier was hacked to death on a London street in broad daylight in a suspected terrorist attack that has raised fears of potential copycat strikes. However, there was no immediate confirmation of any link between the two attacks.

Cordier remained hospitalized Sunday but officials said his throat wound wasn't life-threatening.

The French soldier was on a group patrol as part of a national protection program when he was attacked from behind.

France's defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who visited Cordier at the hospital Saturday evening, said that he had been targeted because he was a soldier.

Conspiracy theorists clash over London attack

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Yesterday afternoon, Mother Jones writer Tim Murphy asked if Alex Jones' InfoWars has ever concluded that a terrorist attack was actually committed by terrorists and not the government as a part of a "false flag" operation. Of course, Jones has blamed everything from 9/11 to the Boston Marathon Bombing to the tornado that devastated Oklahoma this week on secret government agents, so I was doubtful and had never seen it happen before. "There are no real flags left in this world, just false ones," I responded.

It turns out I spoke a few hours too soon. This morning, Jones' top lieutenant, Paul Watson, posted a video thoroughly debunking Internet rumors that the brutal killing of a British solider Wednesday outside London was a government hoax.

When the war came for me

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

On March 20, 2003, I was stationed in Alaska, about as far away from the desert heat of Iraq as you could get. I was a staff sergeant in the Army, assigned to the public affairs office at Fort Richardson just north of Anchorage. I spent nearly every working hour under the bland gaze of fluorescent lights with thoughts of war — actual combat in the “real” Army — far, far from my mind. Maybe someday I’d earn a Purple Heart for carpal tunnel syndrome, but I knew I would never come close to the graze of a bullet.

From the distant land called Washington, D.C., we’d heard the rumble of war-mongering getting louder every day. And now, the inevitable was upon us. For weeks, George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein had engaged in a stare-down contest. Neither one had blinked and now their eyeballs were all dried out, thanks to their resolve, hubris and, in at least one case, outright insanity. Bush had given Iraq a 48-hour warning, clicking a political stopwatch to life.

As the hour neared, there was something approaching a party atmosphere in the U.S. Army Alaska headquarters building where I worked. Voices rose in pitch. Tight laughter punctuated conversations. Senior officers swaggered down the hallways. At last, at last, all their military training would be put to good use.

My husband just plays video games

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Dear Cary,

I am seeking your advice regarding how I can best help my husband to mature and take responsibility. I know that I can't change who he is (and I would never desire to do so, for he is incredibly kind, intelligent and sensitive), but I need, for the sake of our future, to help him grow up.

My husband is in his mid-30s and is in the process of being discharged from the military due to medical issues. He is dealing with the impact of this by becoming even more withdrawn and irresponsible than he was previously. I am at a loss because the military never suited him. Every evening of our seven-year marriage, when he was not deployed, I have been regaled with horrifying stories of the insensitivities and brutalities of his co-workers. Still, he had spent 15 years of his life there, and he was going to attempt to reach retirement before the combat-related medical issues arose. Therefore, I am aware that he is emotionally and mentally coping with a lot at the moment.

Explosion in Turkey kills 25

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:30:00 +0000

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — An explosion and blaze triggered by an accidentally dropped hand grenade has killed 25 soldiers during a stock check at a Turkish ammunition depot, the government said Thursday.

Four other soldiers were injured in the blast, which lit up the night sky late Wednesday with flames, and shattered windows in homes in the nearby town of Afyonkarahisar in western Turkey, terrifying residents.

Forestry and Water Minister Veysel Eroglu ruled out terrorism and sabotage, saying the blast occurred in a section where hand grenades were kept. The soldiers' remains were discovered early Thursday after a subsequent blaze was extinguished.

"One hand grenade was dropped during stock-taking and sorting, causing a large explosion," Eroglu said. "There was no external intervention. There certainly was no sabotage or anything like that."

Pentagon develops global base strategy

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:34:00 +0000

The first thing I saw last month when I walked into the belly of the dark grey C-17 Air Force cargo plane was a void -- something missing. A missing left arm, to be exact, severed at the shoulder, temporarily patched and held together. Thick, pale flesh, flecked with bright red at the edges. It looked like meat sliced open. The face and what remained of the rest of the man were obscured by blankets, an American flag quilt, and a jumble of tubes and tape, wires, drip bags, and medical monitors.

That man and two other critically wounded soldiers -- one with two stumps where legs had been, the other missing a leg below the thigh -- were intubated, unconscious, and lying on stretchers hooked to the walls of the plane that had just landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. A tattoo on the soldier’s remaining arm read, “DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR.”

I asked a member of the Air Force medical team about the casualties they see like these. Many, as with this flight, were coming from Afghanistan, he told me. “A lot from the Horn of Africa,” he added. “You don’t really hear about that in the media.”