The game-changer in terms of effective NATO air support for the Libyan rebels was time. That’s because it took months for NATO to re-create a coalition-style precision air strike campaign similar to what the United States leads daily in places like Afghanistan.
Battleland has talked about the air war above Libya with U.S. …
It’s interesting to think back to the start of the global economic crisis, when there were a lot of assumptions voiced about how a rising quotient of international tension would inevitably morph into more conflicts and thus more traditionally focused defense spending – i.e., great powers hedging against one another versus, say, …
When an airplane stops flying fast enough to generate the lift it needs to stay aloft, pilots call it a stall. We tend to call it a crash. That’s what has happened to the Libyan rebels in the last 36 hours or so. Their triumphant ride into Tripoli has crashed onto the pockets of tenacious resistance still occupied by those loyal to …
The word attribution always crops up when experts debate the challenges of deterring a cyber attack. It simply means determining just who is responsible for nefarious acts online — where anonymity has long been a prized asset. Here, I discuss the challenge of finding such digital fingerprints with James Lewis, a cyberwar expert at …
Muammar Gaddafi is falling as Libya’s leader after 42 years because of sharpening NATO air strikes, allied intelligence shared with the rebels, the rebels’ own improved military tactics, and the simple passage of time. Additional allied assistance — consisting of training and equipping the rebel forces – also has helped speed up …
[youtube+http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tO_Sw3P5Bs]
Always fun to watch the Navy’s Blue Angels fly — especially when their exploits are as skillfully edited as in the above video. WARNING: Do not watch on a large-screen monitor right after eating.
So the U.S. was able to spearhead the imminent collapse of Muammar Gaddfi’s regime in Libya on the cheap. We launched full-fledged invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq against murderous tyrants, but elected not to do the same in Libya. Is this a new template for U.S. wars, or just an acknowledgement of a war-weary nation?
It’s a …
There was a pretty big movement of U.S. troops this weekend, and here’s betting you didn’t even hear about it. Some 200 wounded military personnel traveled five miles from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. That’s because, on September 15, after 102 years in operation, …
This week on Command Post, John Nagl of the Center for a New American Security and I discuss the potential horror — and the potential hype — of cyber war with James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Kristin Lord of CNAS. Key question: now that the Cold War has melted into history, is the …
Military pilots fly for decades without winning a Distinguished Flying Cross, reserved for “heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight.” So it’s something worth noting when Captain Aaron Palan lands one after only a week in Afghanistan while on his fourth combat sortie inside the “titanium bathtub” …
Buzz from articles like this have started to make people nervous about the possibility of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy coming back, even after it has been rescinded. I’ve heard talk like this from some members of Congress on Capitol Hill for a while, and have been both curious and concerned about the logistics of …
Is the White House assuming massive defense cuts next year–much bigger than the cuts already made? Even bigger than the additional reductions contained in the recently passed debt-ceiling legislation?
It sure seems so.
Rumor has it that the Administration’s accounting arm, the Office of Management and Budget, has issued fresh …
