Skip to main content

Newsletter

Sent Wednesdays

The Bunker

A cheat sheet for what you need to know about the Department of Defense, how we’re waging our wars, and how the Pentagon spends our taxpayer dollars. The Bunker is both pro-troop and pro-taxpayer. 

Written by

The Bunker logo, done in military stencil, in front of the Pentagon building

The Bunker: Defining Deterrence Down

This week in The Bunker (back after yet another week away, just like Congress!): President Trump keeps dulling deterrence; Pentagon slaps down $1 trillion-plus price tag for Golden Dome; Trump’s battleship goes nuclear; and more. And please don’t forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice this coming Monday, May 25, Memorial Day.

The Bunker: Bottomless line…

This week in The Bunker: Incredibly, a ravenous Pentagon can’t be sated with a $1.5 trillion annual budget; apparently, when it comes to the Iran war, no one really knows what time it is; massively, a big budget boost for robot-wars; and more. Heads-up: The Bunker will be away next week — see you back here May 20.

The Bunker: Golden blunders

This week in The Bunker: President Trump’s Tom Swiftian battleship dream hits rough seas; his impenetrable missile shield of dreams runs into reality; and more.

The Bunker: Trump’s Waterloo?

This week in The Bunker: The U.S. finds itself trying to claw its way out of Iranian quicksand; the challenges of re-opening the Strait of Hormuz to free trade; why unfettered reporting from the Pentagon matters; and more.

The Bunker: Too much and never enough

This week in The Bunker: the White House says the Pentagon needs a 42% budget boost next year; SECDEF Hegseth takes time from the war in Iran to fight his Army; Trump wants to flip NATO’s mission upside down; mis-naming wars; and more.

The Bunker: Waging war across three domains

This week in The Bunker: The U.S. weighs the need to send ground troops into Iran as the air campaign fails to get Tehran to capitulate; meanwhile, back at the Pentagon, SECDEF Pete Hegseth steps up his carpet-bombing of the press; and more.

The Bunker: The F.O.G. of war

This week in The Bunker: Trump’s ever-evolving war aims make it difficult for the U.S. public to understand his ever-shifting logic for taking the nation to war against Iran; where have all the minesweepers gone?; a $1.5 trillion U.S. military budget buys only “the most essential things”; and more.

The Bunker: Three strikes in Iran

This week in The Bunker: The destruction of a girls’ elementary school in Iran is just the latest in the U.S. military’s too-long list of accurately hitting aim points that never should have been targets; the U.S. stumbles in the Strait of Hormuz, again; saving money by scrapping parachutes; and more.

The Bunker: The Iran war’s early lessons

This week in The Bunker: Every war is instructive in its own way, and the U.S. war on Iran is already offering up “lessons learned” for future conflicts; and more.

The Bunker: Military Disservice

This week in The Bunker: The U.S. military’s ethos for service gets wrapped around the axle over Iran, killing American civilians, and charting the proper course when it comes to enlisting artificial intelligence for war; and more.

The Bunker: Going it Alone

This week in The Bunker: Trump’s threatening war on Iran despite U.S. public opposition, a Congress that’s out to lunch, and allies who are all but absent; such unilateralism is making such allies less likely to support the U.S. or buy its weapons; and more. 

The Bunker: Hype at the speed of light

This week in The Bunker: Lasers have occupied prime real estate in the Pentagon brain as a wonder weapon that’s cheap and effective, even as decades of experience reveal neither is true; and more.

Oversight in your inbox

Weekly newsletter and updates

Hand holding a phone displaying POGO's Weekly Spotlight email on screen

Get the latest

Join our fight for a more effective and accountable government. Sign up for our Weekly Spotlight newsletter and occasional updates on POGO's work.

See our privacy policy

Oversight in your inbox

Join our fight for a more effective and accountable government. Sign up for our Weekly Spotlight newsletter and occasional updates on POGO's work.

See our privacy policy