Having escaped Iraq after eight years, now mired in the nation’s 12th year in Afghanistan, Americans are probably ready for a book looking at the kind of missions the U.S. military has taken on post-9/11. They’re not pure …
National Security
Playing Checkers in Kabul
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Afghanistan is like a giant checkerboard, and U.S. and NATO troops are the checkers, limited to the black squares.
After more than a decade of war combined with a hearts-and-minds …
“I intended to do this last year, but weather prevented me from being able to land.”
“For all of our tactical valor, and the hedgehog nature of how our incredibly tough, brave and committed small units go about the missions we give them [in Afghanistan], once again our strategic compass is unmoored -- in part, maybe largely because we rotate 2-star and 3-star HQ constantly, leaving no enduring frame of reference for what we are doing.”
Recalibrating the Defense Budget
Pollster Scott Rasmussen says the planets may be coming into alignment for deeper cuts in defense spending than are already being discussed. Writing in the latest issue of Reason, a libertarian magazine, he argues that it’s …
Wars? What Wars?
Wednesday night was supposed to be “foreign policy night” at the Republican convention in Tampa, and it was: the speeches were conventional.
Neither GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney nor his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan …
What Good Are Acts of War If You Don’t Get Credit For Them?
Big-thought-thinker Martin Libicki has long focused his attention on cyber warfare. But now the Rand Corp. senior scientist is studying what he calls non-obvious warfare, of which cyberwar is only one part:
Innovations, both
…
Bin Laden Raid SEAL Author Faces “Double Jeopardy”
If Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper can defy British royalty by publishing pictures of a naked Prince Harry, why should we be surprised when a Navy SEAL bares all in an upcoming book on the raid last year that killed Osama bin …
Winning Cyber Battles Without Fighting
In military operations, good leaders never make a move without the best available intelligence and a strong sense of situational awareness. To do otherwise is tantamount to flying blind, something a good pilot or business leader …
A Chart Is Worth 1,000 Words
Todd Harrison, the defense-budget whiz over at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, has a new report out on how the prospect of sequestration might affect the Pentagon. Lots of interesting data.
But it was a …
A Smarter Way to Trim the Pentagon Budget
As the U.S. economy struggles to recover from the Great Recession, most American families have had to make tough decisions about their current needs and future spending.
Similarly, one year ago, Congress passed the Budget …
Mitt-Picking
Jim Kitfield, the intrepid military correspondent at National Journal for many years, turns his eyes on Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, for a keen but nuanced look at his national-security chops. The …
An Iraq Vet Commanding In Afghanistan?
A new general’s name emerges in the Afghanistan context. Julian Barnes of the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.) that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has forwarded Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford’s name to the White …
