War Is Boring

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN Venezuela Venezuelan authorities announced the disbandment of the Caracas Metropolitan Police (PMC) in a step aimed at curbing police crime and corruption on Wednesday. Police are responsible for some 20 percent of crime (yes) committed in Venezuela, according to the country’s own justice and interior minister. The PMC, in particular, is notorious [...]

by ANDREW BALCOMBE In this exercise, Dutch commandos had to silently approach an enemy camp, kill or capture any enemies encountered and secure the safety of a hostage. But a couple of obstacles stood in their way. First, the hostage was wounded and had to be carried out. The second was the enemy reinforcements arriving [...]

On March 25, U.S. Special Forces detained six men in a nighttime raid in Baraki Barak, Logar province, eastern Afghanistan. The next day, Afghan police released four of the men. Here’s what happened.

Matt Bors is the subject of a feature on The Economist’s science and technology blog.

For such a short journey, it sure did cover a lot of ground.

Military Police attached to Charlie Company, 2-30 Infantry, in Baraki Barak, Logar province, Afghanistan, patrol the downtown bazaar alongside Afghan National Police on March 27.

by ANDREW BALCOMBE Last year I was unexpectedly allowed along on a riverine assault exercise by a combat unit of the Dutch Korps Commando Troepen special forces. They had spent a week running through different scenarios they might be called in for at any time. I captured a couple of the scenarios on film and photo. [...]

With the first American troops slated to withdraw in July, the Afghanistan surge is nearly over. But even as the overall U.S. force in Afghanistan contracts, portions of a handful of particularly important districts — the rough equivalent of U.S. counties — could actually get more troops and more development cash.

by PETER VINE Libya The situation has completely changed since last weekend, with air strikes by American, British and French planes and Anglo-American cruise missiles. Muammar Gaddafi’s armoured forces have been significantly weakened, prompting the Libyan rebels to push along the coast to retake the towns of Ajdabiya, Brega, Bin Jawad and Ras Lanuf, and [...]

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN Four international business executives arrested in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on suspicion of gold smuggling have been released, according to reports over the weekend. The executives were said to have paid $3 million in fines. Three of the detained executives worked for Houston energy firm CAMAC, including Mickey Lawal, brother of Kase Lawal, [...]

Just a bit of Afghanistan eye candy: a video of a routine circuit flight by one of the many private contractors supporting passenger and cargo operations in Logar province — in this case flying old Sikorsky S-61s.