Shannon M. Smith, College of Saint Benedict & Saint John's University
Some 5,000 National Guardsmen will stay in Washington to protect the Capitol into March, according to the Pentagon. The Guard is seen as a reliable peacekeeping force – but it wasn’t always that way.
Lisa Hajjar, University of California, Santa Barbara
The release of a new movie calls public attention to the US government’s treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and what the detainees’ future might be.
The US Armed Forces run 14 programs in over 150 countries, providing education and training for roughly 70,000 foreign military personnel each year. What, if anything, are they learning?
A leaked database shows at least 10% of the far-right Oath Keepers militia is active police or military – people professionally trained in using weapons and conducting sophisticated operations.
Ostensibly protesting an election they may have thought was stolen, their actions fed a larger set of goals that American militants are seizing upon to take more extreme action.
About 2.9 million eligible American voters live abroad, including members of the military and embassy staffers. Just 5% of them cast their ballots in 2018.
The Sept. 11 bombings killed almost 3,000 Americans. But if you exclude that unique event for the last two decades of terrorist activity, a different picture of US vulnerability appears.
The US military can exempt from service those who are religiously or morally opposed to violence. But conscientious objector status won’t help soldiers who disagree with specific lawful orders.
There is a long line of military heroes who had the moral courage not to follow immoral orders. In the days ahead, some may have to consider what exactly their oath to the Constitution requires.
Army physicians are turning to drugs approved for other conditions or newly developed treatments such as the antiviral Remdesivir to treat infected personnel.
There is plenty the military could do to help protect public health, such as by helping with supply logistics and providing workers to do important tasks – including health care professionals.
A commission looking at the future of service is set to makesits recommendations. It is hoping to make a year of service ‘a norm’ for all Americans. What does it mean to serve?