War Machine

The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance.

Venezuela is planning to conclude several contracts with Russia next month on the purchase of military equipment worth at least $2 billion, a leading Russian business daily said on Monday.

The first high school dedicated to preparing students for the front lines in the Nation's homeland security has gone from theory to planning in Wilmington. The Project Manager for the Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security, New Castle Attorney Thomas Little, signed a contract with Innovative Schools, a professional firm which will coordinate the mechanics of preparing the school for its eventual opening.

The largest military training exercise in Alaska, Northern Edge 2008, begins May 5 with about 5,000 U.S. active duty, national guard, and Reserve component Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines.

Intelligence failures, security lapses and the lack of civilian oversight brought to light by a recent Colombian military incursion into his country have prompted Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to overhaul the command of his armed forces. Correa's shake-up comes in a nation where the military enjoys a high measure of autonomy, wields considerable economic and political power and has played a hand in the overthrow of three presidents since 1997.

More than half of all terrorist deaths during 2007 occurred in Iraq and the world suffered an overall increase in terrorist deaths, partly due to rises in violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as Iraq, the US state department said today. In its annual counterterrorism report, the US state department said the number of people killed or injured in terrorist attacks jumped to 67,000 in 2007, up from 59,000 the year before. About 60% of those occurred in Iraq.

An increasing amount of U.S. intelligence work -- including training related to aggressive interrogation methods -- is being parceled out to defense firms making Arizona's Fort Huachuca a major contracting hub.

Summary: Despite some eerie parallels between the position of the United States today and that of the British Empire a century ago, there are key differences. Britain's decline was driven by bad economics. The United States, in contrast, has the strength and dynamism to continue shaping the world -- but only if it can overcome its political dysfunction and reorient U.S. policy for a world defined by the rise of other powers.

It was 20 times more painful, more debilitating, than any electrical shock she had ever experienced. Yet, a few minutes later, Arkansas National Guard state Command Sgt. Maj. Deborah Collins was walking and talking as normally as if she had never had a shocking encounter with one of the newest weapons available to the National Guard.

An AFOSR-funded research team from the University of Southern California (USC) is creating superbots, self-reconfigurable robots that can change their logical or physical configurations and alter their locomotion and manipulation.