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Questions tagged [military]

Questions related to the military. This may include questions about the actions or inaction of the military, the armed forces themselves or government action related to the military.

3 votes
4 answers
5k views

When did modern Middle-Eastern terrorism start?

Terrorism, specifically coming from the Middle East, has been an epidemic. It has spread across the globe, to the US, France, UK, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Germany and even to parts of ...
Noah's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
453 views

Is the "War in Afganistan" a US military mission or a NATO Mission?

The NATO Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan encompass about 13,500 troops, of which about 8,400 are members of US military assigned to NATO. NATO describes the Resolute Support as a "training, ...
BobE's user avatar
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17 votes
4 answers
10k views

Why is the US president commander-in-chief?

Democratic governments are often set up in such a way that no single person holds too much power, even the president/prime minister/etc. In the US, you e.g. have the Congress. This means that if the ...
Jaood's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
835 views

Why do NOAA and the USPHS have uniformed services?

Most Americans (and likely many folks around the world) think of the US military as comprising the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. However, there are also the United States ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
531 views

What would a space marines unit of the US armed forces entail?

I heard after coincidentally asking a ex-marine that there is talk the United States congress of passing legislation to create a space combat unit. Even though the motivation is clear from protecting ...
DaneJoe's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
397 views

Did McCain change his opinion on transgender people in the military?

See this reddit thread for Trump supporters. The indication seems to be that McCain changed his stance on transgender troops in the military just to get back at Trump. Is this true? The first story on ...
Imean H's user avatar
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38 votes
2 answers
12k views

What medical costs burden the military enough to warrant banning all transgender people?

Reported in Donald Trump bans transgender people from serving in the military President Trump tweeted: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United ...
Bradley Wilson's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
354 views

What are the main restrictions that apply to European military personnel when engaging in politics?

I am interested in the restrictions that apply to military persons that are also activate in politics, within the European Union. Searching on this matter provides lots of results for US, but I could ...
Alexei's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
286 views

Why does USA not diminish its NATO related expenses in order to persuade other NATO members to contribute more?

At the NATO summit from 2017 (Brussels), Donald Trump emphasized that many NATO members are not contributing enough (source): Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they ...
Alexei's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
872 views

How did Turkey manage to create a springboard for its defense industry so fast?

As far as I recall, Turkey was mostly dependent on the USA and Israel for its defense needs until recently. Turkey sought Israeli assistance to modernize its large fleet of F-4 Phantoms and bought ...
user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is there a practical rationale for increasing US military spending?

Given that US military is larger than the next 6 largest armies combined, is this to prepare for the possibility of nations with the next 6 largest armies jointly declaring war on US? What are some ...
BigDataLouie's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
174 views

Who recorded “Mother of all Bombs" explosion from ground level? [closed]

The United States dropped "the mother of all bombs," the largest non-nuclear device it has ever unleashed in combat, on a network of caves and tunnels used by Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan on ...
Yoshimar Guerrero's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
309 views

Is the "Mother of all Bombs" recently dropped by U.S. the largest since Hiroshima and Nagasaki? [closed]

I read that the bomb dropped was the "largest conventional bomb" ever used in warfare, so therefore would that make it the largest bomb ever used in warfare all together outside of the two uses of ...
WClarke's user avatar
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-12 votes
1 answer
1k views

The quickest US President to drop a bomb or invade as stated [closed]

Two Correlated Questions Which US elected Presidents stated during their election campaign that they'd bomb, invade, or take a strong military action against a US foreign adversary and actually do it?...
Clap 'No Hands' Politics's user avatar
25 votes
5 answers
6k views

What incentives (or stated motives) did the US have to attack Syria?

What were the motives stated for for the US attacking Syria or incentives to do that? It doesn't seem like there was any immediate threat from Syria to the US. (After all, they neither have ICBM's ...
Registered User's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
2k views

When may the President of the United States order military action without congressional approval?

The USA has many times in the past taken military action with only the President's order to back it up legally. It was Jefferson that set the precedent of using the military to enforce foreign policy ...
user avatar
-1 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why did US armed forces retreat from the Philippines completely?

US used to have a large presence in the Philippines with strategic bombers (i.e. at Clark Air Base, which was evacuated after the 1991 Mt Pinatubo volcanic eruption and the US Air Force never went ...
Dylan Czenski's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
270 views

What is the history and purpose the of US and South Korean annual military exercises?

Is there actually a practical purpose in these exercises? Or is it a way to intimidate North Korea and remind them of the US's military powers? If not, couldn't they just hold these exercises ...
Uzi's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
1k views

Who legislates military law?

Where does United States military law come from? I'm vaguely aware that the military is governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). This power stems from the constitutional authority of ...
indigochild's user avatar
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19 votes
3 answers
5k views

Why does Trump want to increase military spending?

From what I understand, Trump is an isolationist / non-interventionist, at least more so than previous presidents. On the other hand, Trump wants to massively increase military spending: [Trump] ...
tim's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
9k views

What percentage of troops support President Trump according to latest polls?

The following Newsmax article says: A majority of America's military troops are backing Donald Trump – with career-minded forces favoring him by a 3-to-1 margin over Hillary Clinton, a Military.com ...
Sakib Arifin's user avatar
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10 votes
3 answers
2k views

How would Germany increase its military size beyond 370,000 personnel?

A followup question from this answer. Germany is currently bound by the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany from 1990. It, among other things, prevents Germany from having over 370,...
David says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
67 votes
11 answers
22k views

Why don't the other countries of Europe maintain as massive a military as Russia does?

The countries that are in my inquiry list are: SN Country Population GDP DefExp 0 Russia 143,439,832 1,267,750 66.4 bn 1 Germany 80,682,351 3,494,900 39.4 bn 2 UK 65,111,143 2,649,890 55.5 bn 3 ...
user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
724 views

Why did the USA finance Israeli Arrow Interceptor missile program?

Why the USA didn't just sell Patriot PAC-3 or THAAD to Israel? Why did the USA finance a different ABM/SAM program? Why didn't the USA adopt Arrow system?
user avatar
21 votes
1 answer
10k views

What were the military men doing behind Donald Trump when he began his speech?

Shortly after Trump was sworn in and began giving his speech there was a group of military men that lined up in formation behind him. They stood there for a short time before walking back. What were ...
David says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why did Obama commute Chelsea Manning's sentence?

I honestly don't understand, she leaked hundreds of thousands of US government documents to WikiLeaks when she was a Private in the U.S. military, and she's going to be released on 17 May 2017 after ...
user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

What are the key differences between the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 and the Stolen Valor Act of 2013?

I read that there were supreme court decisions overturning stolen valor convictions based on the first amendment after the 2005 act became law. Is there a significant difference in the 2013 act ...
Ryan Mortensen's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
306 views

Why does the USMC perform duties which are in the remit of the Army?

In every other country, marines are subordinate to the navy and are used mostly in operations which fall under the remit of the term - seaborne attacks and small scale land operations which needed a ...
Evil Washing Machine's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
541 views

Chain of command on Inauguration Day

Picture the scene: It's the morning of January 20, 2017. The inauguration ceremony is in full swing, with songs and speeches the warm up act before the main event - the swearing in of Donald J. Trump ...
Tim B's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
275 views

How big is Iran's military budget?

It seems that a very high percentage of the Iran's oil revenues will be spent on buying arms: Iran and China sign military cooperation agreement Russia, Iran plan $10bn arms supply to Tehran How ...
sezar's user avatar
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