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The NBC broadcaster might have been joking, but social media wasn't. Comrade Al Michaels won't get credit for inventing the Washington Commanders new nickname, but he might have helped popularize it. During his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Michaels joked that the team may become known as something else entirely. And after the two-year process to come up with the new name, it could come across as something of a red scare to owner Dan Snyder. “People will get used to it,” Michaels said. “They'll start calling them the Commies and social media will have a blast with it.“...

SUMMERFIELD, MD—The Washington Football Team changed its name this week, finalizing a year-long transition from 'Redskins' to 'Commanders.' Along with the shiny new name, the team announced a brand new mascot: General George Custer. "We wanted a mascot that would represent the ultimate commander," said team owner Dan Snyder. "Someone the fans could rally behind as we make our last stand on defense." General Custer, who famously said, "There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry," will be on the sidelines every game to cheer on the Commanders with the crowd. Native American leaders have...

Rifts have emerged between U.S. military leaders and the Obama White House on Washington’s future role in Libya, with the generals questioning the White House’s argument that the recent success against Islamic State shows Libya can go it alone in the fight against terrorism, without direct U.S. assistance. Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the White House’s pick to lead U.S. Africa Command, called for increased American military action in Libya to ensure the Islamic State, or ISIS or ISIL, does not reconstitute itself in the country as pressure ramps up against its strongholds in Iraq and Syria. Gen. Waldhauser told...

The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies. A new directive’s theme: The U.S. Armed Forces must show “resilience” and beat back the threat based on “actionable science.” It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed. It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy — a wide array of “climate change boards, councils and working groups” to infuse climate change into “programs, plans and policies.” The Pentagon defines

The armed wing of Hamas announced Thursday that three of its senior commanders were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in a statement identified the leaders as Mohammed Abu Shamalah, Raed al-Atar and Mohammed Barhum. Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said eight people were killed in the strike. Witnesses said a four-storey family home was completely destroyed in a series of air strikes. The airstrike was carried out based on intelligence provided by the Shabak (Israel Security Agency), which led to the identification of two central Hamas figures.

An air strike in southern Somalia has killed two senior commanders of the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab, residents have told the BBC. The strike destroyed the vehicle the militants were travelling in between the towns of Jilib and Barawe, seen as a major base of al-Shabab, they said. The US launched a failed raid in Barawe earlier this month to capture an al-Shabab commander. Al-Shabab is the main al-Qaeda-linked group in East Africa. A Kenyan military source told the BBC their troops had raided Jilib, and that there might have been some casualties. However, correspondents say it is unlikely that...

Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is underway. Retired generals and current senior commanders that have spoken with TheBlaze say the administration is not only purging the military of commanders they don’t agree with, but is striking fear in the hearts of those still serving. The timing comes as the five branches of the U.S. armed forces are reducing staff due to budget cuts, and as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan next year....

MIAMI — NASA is questioning whether Apollo 13 commander James Lovell has the right to sell a 70-page checklist from the flight that includes his handwritten calculations that were crucial in guiding the damaged spacecraft back to Earth. The document was sold by Heritage Auctions in November for more than $388,000, some 15 times its initial list price. The checklist gained great fame as part of a key dramatic scene in the 1995 film "Apollo 13" in which actor Tom Hanks plays Lovell making the calculations. After the sale, NASA contacted Heritage

By the time the CH-47 transport helicopter descended to 150 feet above an unprotected landing zone in Afghanistan around 2 a.m. on Aug. 6, the element of surprise had been lost. Hours earlier, two other Chinooks had deposited 47 Army Rangers at another nearby landing site, undetected. The landing triggered a nighttime ground and aerial firefight that raged for several hours as a few Taliban “squirters,” as the military called them, tried to escape from the targeted compound and regrouped with other fighters. *snip* When the third chopper — carrying 38 passengers and crew, and one dog, in a reinforcement...

In promising a U.S. military pullout from Afghanistan will begin in July, President Barack Obama is permitting his commanders to decide critical details, including the number of troops to depart first and whether any of those will be combat forces, administration and military officials said Sunday. Providing that leeway is important to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. It allows him to pace this year's phase of the withdrawal in a way that preserves combat power through the end of the traditional fighting season in October or November.

Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would 'sleep on it' before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden's compound. Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals - who were not even told who they were preparing to capture - had practised the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound. The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal might be fired Wednesday because he made contemptuous remarks about senior US officials to Rolling Stone magazine. If he does lose his job, it will represent a rare – but not unprecedented – dismissal of a wartime military commander by civilian leaders. The most dramatic such replacement since World War II was probably President Truman’s sacking of Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur. At the time, MacArthur was commander of the United Nations forces defending South Korea in the Korean War. His daring amphibious assault at Inchon helped turn the tide of that conflict, but his public statements criticizing...

* 251 complaints of unacceptable behaviour * Rise in "irresponsible alcohol consumption" * Female trainees "sexually aggressive" NAVAL commanders have been warned of a rising tide of alcohol-fuelled sex abuse and "sexually aggressive females" at training bases. As the Navy reels from the HMAS Success allegations, the Herald Sun can reveal that 251 complaints of unacceptable behaviour were made to fleet commanders in the last financial year. They included 36 sexual offence allegations, 21 claims of sexual harassment, and 23 complaints of "inappropriate workplace relationships", according to documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

LONDON (AFP) – Hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill NATO forces in Afghanistan, two Taliban commanders told a British Sunday newspaper. The unnamed commanders told The Sunday Times that Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses in desert training camps in southeast Iran. They were taught how to carry out complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the roadside bombs which have been responsible for many of the deaths of British troops in Afghanistan. One of the commanders told the newspaper that the military's crackdown in Pakistan was forcing Taliban leaders to turn to...

KABUL, Dec. 29, 2009 – Afghan and international security forces captured some Taliban commanders and other suspected militants and seized weapons yesterday in Kandahar and Khowst, Afghanistan, military officials reported. The forces captured a Taliban commander believed to be responsible for homemade bomb attacks during a series of raids in Kandahar. They also detained three other suspects. Also in Kandahar, a combined force captured another Taliban commander and a small group of militants believed to be responsible for supplying weapons to insurgents. In Khowst, a combined force detained suspected militants while searching for a Haqqani terrorist network commander. No Afghan...

KABUL, Dec. 16, 2009 – Combined Afghan and international forces detained four Taliban commanders and other suspected militants in three operations in two Afghanistan provinces today, military officials reported. In Wardak province, a combined force searched a compound near the village of Bhardokheyl where intelligence sources reported militant activity. They detained two Taliban commanders involved with bombing activity and responsible for several attacks in the area. Another Taliban commander and a few other militants were detained in an operation in western Kandahar. This commander has led a sizable militant element and is responsible for a number of bombing attacks in...

TAJI — Iraqi Army (IA) Brigade and Battalion commanders recently met for the first-ever Tactical Commander’s Course (TLC) to share experiences and learn modern training systems. The course, which lasted 10 days and was conducted at the Counter-Insurgency Training Center here, was designed to provide the attendees with current updates on tactical, operational and logistical trends, provide a tactical operation and plans exercise, and provide an update on senior staff perspectives, trends and policies from Iraqi and Coalition senior leaders. This TLC is intended to be a combat multiplier that will contribute to the professionalism of the Iraqi Joint Forces...

Afghanistan: Top U.S. Commander Optimistic On Developments In Eastern Region Afghan National Army soldiers (file photo) (AFP) August 4, 2007 -- A top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan says the country's armed forces are increasingly able to hold their own against insurgents in one of the country’s more troubled areas. Speaking this week in a video-link news briefing from the Bagram airfield in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Joseph Votel, deputy commander of NATO's regional eastern command, praised the Afghan National Army's growing competence. He also praised its ability to cooperate not only with NATO forces, but also with local authorities and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2006 – The most important thing military leaders can offer their people is an up-front assessment of what they’re facing, as exemplified by the way the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s leaders informed the troops about their extension in Iraq, DoD’s top enlisted adviser told American Forces Press Service. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared his thoughts after returning from Alaska, home of the “Arctic Wolves.” The Defense Department announced July 27 that the brigade, which was in the midst of wrapping up...

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – Commanders will shift U.S. forces in Iraq to deal with insurgent threats, but this does not mean more American troops will go into the country, nor that the announced rotation will change. Multinational Force Iraq commander Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. will shift forces already in Iraq to Baghdad, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in an interview with New York Times reporter Michael Gordon. "There is a very serious effort to make sure that it is not just weighted with additional U.S. capability, but also additional Iraqi capability,"...