I agree that the media is, by and large, relatively ignorant about the military and national security. Certainly they struggle to use acronyms and jargon correctly, in a way that often causes us to...
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I agree that the media is, by and large, relatively ignorant about the military and national security. Certainly they struggle to use acronyms and jargon correctly, in a way that often causes us to...
I'm not sure if that assumption holds true. Only 24% of key districts in Afghanistan support or are sympathetic to the government. And most of those are not in the south and the east.
Increasing...
And further Googling yields this, from a USIP report on Afghanistan's Police:
Surely the folks pulling the strings cannot have forgotten about this initiative altogether. So what is different...
Some questions about this local police plan:
1) How are we going to prevent these "local police" from simply becoming the militia of whoever is the strongest powerbroker in whatever area they are...
God Willing: My Wild Ride With the New Iraqi Army by Eric Navarro is supposed to be excellent (if somewhat biased). The author, if I remember correctly, did two tours as an embedded trainer.
The...
Okay, I'm confused here. I recognize that the war was executed without much logical coherence, but I thought (based on English-language research only) that the goals were pretty clearly articulated...
Well, the fact-checking questions may not have verified that the quotes were correct but I still have yet to read an article where anyone who was present accuses Hastings of fabricating quotes or...
Let me just preface this with saying that I thought the Hastings article was pretty poor journalism and the way he described COIN doctrine betrayed a serious lack of exposure to the military. I can...
Slightly off-topic, but I have looked into DSS as a possible post-military career. However, I've heard from some folks that they are a very troubled agency these days (see various PMC scandals in...
Bingo--which is why Singer is disingenuous (or just ignorant) when he writes, at face value, that the head of the Iraqi air force wants F-16s. Of course he wants F-16s; and they will be about as...
There has been some discussion on SWC about the Air Force's move to field low-cost COIN/CAS aircraft for irregular warfare. Folks seem to be generally bullish about the idea, both here and elsewhere,...
Joushua Foust comes out swinging on this issue with an article titled Germany is ISAF's Weakest Link.
And the final kicker:
Beyond Foust's evident personal frustration and tendency...
Mike, I wish I knew how to stimulate more civilian interest. As far as images of the dead and wounded, my opinions run roughly similar to Ken's I think. I applauded Secretary Gates' decision to open...
The letter from Secretary Gates to the CEO of the AP, Thomas Curley, can be read here.
In my opinion, his final paragraph sums it up perfectly:
It's been posted here before, but for those who missed it the first go-around, this NY Times Magazine article is written in a similar vein to the Chivers piece everyone is commenting on. I thought it...
As a newly minted 2nd Lieutenant awaiting TBS at Quantico, I've been trying to get in as much reading as possible before hitting "The Big Suck." Given my professional path, I'm particularly...
I'm currently writing a paper for my Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics class on Chechnya and the confluence of political/military circumstances that led to the fragile peace we are seeing today. A few...
The NY Times website is running a 6-minute video op-ed composed of interviews with insurgents interspersed with polling data. The interviews are taken from a new documentary movie which purports to...
If you're still interested, the author of the article on AC-130s is the subject of an interview on the Aviation Week blog. Here are some quotes:
I hesitate to criticize someone who has "been...
I think this excerpt from a new Brookings Institution report by Peter Singer might highlight the point UrsaMaior is trying to make:
I think UrsaMaior is trying to get us to look at the...
I thought this was an interesting example of counterinsurgency theory in practice and a rare look into how the war in Afghanistan is being waged. I was surprised by how constrained the SF soldiers...
I thought this thread was worth resurrecting with this Defense Tech post about the Iraqi Air Force's new COIN aircraft.
I felt this article by Andrew Bacevich from this month's Atlantic Monthly would generate some interest given the debate surrounding LTC Yingling's article.
From the article:
There's also an...
Taken from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601734.html
Pictures can be found at this Tamil website http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=21668
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Stan, no worries as I am a USMC officer candidate heading down to PLC this summer.
Better late than never? The article reads as though the AF brass is suddenly paying attention to COIN because FM...