NATO

Whither NATO, Indeed

This just in from RIA Novosti, the Moscow-based, state-owned news agency:

Russian warships will be equipped with NATO navigation and communications systems to improve coordination in anti-piracy missions around the world, Chief of the Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov said on Wednesday…“We decided to install standard NATO

The Man Who Believed Himself

TOKYO – Wars can attract some odd, fringe characters, but I never met anyone stranger or more out on the fringe than Jonathan Keith Idema, who died recently in Mexico of complications from AIDS.

A career con artist and military wannabe, Idema showed up early during the war in Afghanistan. He posed variously as a government …

“Fog of (NATO) War”

Last week, the Pentagon blamed both the U.S. military and Pakistan for the Nov. 26 Afghan-Pakistan frontier snafu that killed 24 Pakistani troops. On Monday, U.S. Central Command released a written report that added NATO to the …

Right Where We’ve Always Wanted Us

Philip Stephens of the Financial Times recently pens a rather pessimistic piece on what Libya said about “Britain’s pretensions of influence.” Noting that the “campaign has stretched the armed forces to their limit,” he calls it a “last hurrah.” Now, the underlying tone of the piece is his criticism of PM David Cameron’s desire to …

Why Do Bombs Keep Falling on Libya?

There’s been no reduction in NATO’s bombing of targets inside Libya since rebels forces stormed in and took over most of Tripoli August 21, sending Muammar Gaddafi into hiding. What’s left to attack?

NATO is glad you asked. “From an air component perspective, NATO is still very much involved in monitoring the situation and …

A Less-American Way of War?

We have written about how the war against Libya was waged differently than such multilateral campaigns of the past. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen even told Battleland that the “balance shift[ed] a bit” in the Libyan campaign. “We have been used to the fact that the U.S. should be in the very front line, and absolutely be …

Globalization at the Barrel of a Gun

That phrase, with its powerful imagery, was often tossed at me following the publication of my 2004 book, The Pentagon’s New Map. In it, I argued that globalization’s expansion was, and would continue to be, the primary cause of unrest and conflict in the world, as connectivity – in all its forms – extended itself into the …

Libya’s Non-Practical Endgame

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 …

How Gaddafi Lost His Grip on Libya

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 …

Libya Falling: A Less-Costly (American-led) Way of Waging War

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 …

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