Originally planned until the end of this year, the „persistent presence“ mission of overlapping units on rotation is going to continue, Lieutenant-General Frederick Ben Hodges, Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe told reporters in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Russia and Saudi Arabia were the two most frequently targeted countries, followed by Mexico, Ireland, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Belgium, Austria and Pakistan, Symantec said.

Offenbar hatten die Schabab-Einheiten zunächst geplant, mit Bus und Geiseln über die Grenze nach Somalia zu fahren. Allerdings sei das Gefährt auf der nicht asphaltierten Straße stecken geblieben, hieß es.

Kenyan police said on Saturday that security forces pursued the attackers as they fled to Somalia after the ambush.

„Two successful operations were carried out against the perpetrators of these murderous executions across the border. Our retaliatory action left in its trail more than 100 fatalities,“ Ruto told a news conference in Nairobi.

(November 2012) Although the scale of the operation launched by
Kenya indicates that plans for such an offensive had been underway long before the actual invasion, questions have been raised over the overall preparedness and coordination of the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) for the operation, given the domestic vulnerabilities evident in the consequent counter
attacks launched by al-Shabaab militia on Kenyan civilians. Now
that the KDF and units of the Somalia National Army (SNA)have claimed victory over al-Shabaab, having liberated their
last stronghold, the port city of Kismayo, on 29 September
2012, many questions still linger on the forces’ plans following this success.

(16. Februar 2012) Elements in the army, led by senior Kenyan Somali officers and politicians, including Minister of State for Defense Yusuf Haji, had long desired to intervene. They were eager to test Kenya’s well-equipped but little-used army in war conditions, to advance the interests of their own Ogadeni sub-clans in Jubaland, to gain personally from the stabilization of trade in cattle and other commodities, to capture the port of Kismayu, and to establish a Kenya-dominated buffer zone south of the River Juba, driving al Shabaab into hostile terrain north of the river.

(15. November 2011) Kenyan troops have armed, trained, and organized proxy forces to fight al Shabaab on the border since at least 2009, albeit to no great effect.

(13. Dezember 2001) Die rot-grüne Bundesregierung will im Schnellverfahren über eine Beteiligung entscheiden, wenn die Vereinten Nationen in der Nacht zum Freitag das Mandat beschließen. Am Montagabend könnte dann der Bundestag in erster und am Dienstag in zweiter Lesung darüber entscheiden.

A bilateral security agreement was approved on Sunday by the Afghan parliament, allowing U.S. troops to remain in the country after the end of the year.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai declined to sign the agreement, though the U.S. had hoped that new president Ashraf Ghani would agree to keep U.S. forces there. Ghani signed the agreement within 24 hours of taking office and the parliament approved on Sunday.

Der Attentäter habe sich mit seinem Motorrad in die Luft gesprengt, teilte der Vize-Gouverneur der Provinz Paktika, Attaullah Fasli, mit.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday‘s attack, in which provincial spokesman Afghan said the bomber walked into the crowd of spectators and detonated his explosive vest.

(31. März 2005) Unfortunately, whereas the military was good at creating highly detailed simulators and realistic terrain (actual terrain, representing a particular area in Iraq, for instance, down to the actual streets and houses), it was really poor at generating creative stories, the essence of good games. This became even more critical as warfighting in the real world shifted from masses of tanks duking it out on huge empty fields to fights by small units of dismounted infantry in urban terrain, in circumstances that were complex, where friends and enemies could be uncertain not unlike the plot lines of Hollywood stories.

(8. Mai 2006) Letzte Woche fand im Geheimdienstausschuss des US-Repräsentantenhauses eine Anhörung zum Thema statt, wie Terroristen das Internet für „strategische Kommunikation“, also zur Propaganda, nutzen. Den Abgeordneten wurde auch ein Videotrailer gezeigt, den angeblich Islamisten zu dem Computerspiel Battlefield 2 gemacht und auf islamistischen Webseiten veröffentlich haben sollen.

Dass Grausamkeit eine gewisse Faszination ausübt ist nichts Neues auch nicht, dass man junge Menschen leicht für den Islam begeistern kann. Doch niemand kommt grausam und unmenschlich zur Welt. Diese jungen Menschen werden zu Monstern gemacht. Es dürfte interessant sein, zu erfahren was sie denken und wie sie zu ihrer neuen Lebenseinstellung und solchen Zielen kamen.

(17. Mai 2010) Dave A. Grossman ist Ex-Lieutenant Colonel der US Army, und lehrt als Professor für Psychologie an der Militär-Akademie in West Point und der State University von Arkansas. (…)

Der folgende Text basiert auf einer Stellungnahme Grossmans vor dem Handels- und Wissenschafts-Komitee des US-Senats im Mai 1999 im Rahmen der Anhörung: „Verkauf von Gewalt an Kinder“:

(3. Oktober 2003) “We know that most of our soldiers know how to use a game pad,” said Michael Macedonia, chief scientist at the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation in Orlando, Fla. “Every kid figures out the controls pretty fast.”

For years, the U.S. armed forces have used big, sophisticated simulators with hydraulics, wall-sized video screens and realistic cockpits. But such gear costs millions of dollars — far too pricey even by military standards to be widely available.

And that’s why video games make sense.

In World of Tanks legen sich organisierte Gruppen in Clan-Gefechten miteinander an und bauen sich Clan-eigene Festungen auf, die den Mitgliedern verschiedene Boni gewähren.