The U.S. military is the world’s pre-eminent military force — by far — and most of that is because of its people and the way they train and led. But they’re none to shabby on the hardware side of the house, either. I just cobbled together a menu of the weapons systems used in recent U.S. military actions for Time.com and it has …
Pakistan
Kissinger on the sad strategic reality of US engagement in Afghanistan
Henry Kissinger had a sobering op-ed in the Washington Post Tuesday that laid out the reality of the US position in Afghanistan.
First, the fundamental conundrum of “nation building” in a fake state:
But nation-building ran up against the irony that the Afghan nation comes into being primarily in opposition to occupying forces.
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Documents Like This…
…make you wonder just what the heck it is we are doing in Afghanistan. It’s a new, 33-page Army contract solicitation seeking Facebook and Twitter experts who can sell the U.S. message to the locals. Makes one wonder why we are investing our blood and treasure in a fight that has to be sold to the people whose lives we are supposedly …
Can’t Buy Me Peace
The Senate Democrats on the foreign relations committee have just issued as report saying that the $18.8 billion — so far — U.S. effort to rebuild Afghanistan has had limited success and may not survive a U.S. troop pullout. U.S. development money — now some $10 million a day — is sucking Afghan workers into jobs with contractors …
Afghani-plan
So the size of the U.S. troop pullout President Obama is slated to announce later this month now varies by an order of magnitude: those who want to preserve the gains earned over the past year are suggesting about 3,000 — of the 100,000 U.S. troops now there — would be about the right number to order home starting in July. But — …
Our Good Friends in Pakistan are Implicated in the Murder of a Journalist
“We believe that Pakistanis pursue the same goals and share the same hopes,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a press conference last week after a high-level meeting with the head of Pakistan’s intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Suja Pasha, and other top Pakistani leaders. She noted success hunting down terrorists, thanks to …
AfPak: Simply Swapping Sanctuaries
The U.S. military has long complained that Taliban and al Qaeda forces have sanctuary inside Pakistan along the Afghan border, and can launch attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and then scoot safely back into Pakistan. So it seems only fair to note, as Long Wars Journal does Wednesday, that al Qaeda and Taliban forces have begun …
Memorial Day, 2011
Memorial Day is a strange holiday when so many Americans are disconnected from the wars now underway. Did you know that over the past week, more than a dozen U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan? It’s easy for me to keep track: I get Pentagon press releases every time a U.S. soldier is killed, sprinkled in among those …
The Good bin Laden-Busting SEALs of Approval
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-_JvYhXn1s&feature=player_embedded#at=60]
OK — admit it. It’s been awhile since the nation had such a sense of accomplishment. But the Navy SEALs — admired not only for their bravery, but for their willingness to do so invisibly — have touched a lot of folks around the country. What lawmaker …
John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee – and Secretary of State-in-Waiting
John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, has long had a hankering to serve as the nation’s top diplomat. Over the past weekend, he was on a whirlwind tour of the AfPak theater, where his words garnered headlines usually accorded the secretary of state:
Afghanistan May Be Open To New Path, Kerry Says, according to Sunday’s New York …
Why Wasn’t bin Laden Where We Thought He Was?
If our dealings with Pakistan are hampered by the same flawed assumptions we used in our hunt for Osama bin Laden, the road ahead for Washington and Islamabad is likely to be rocky. Over at Small Wars Journal, Will Chalmers, a research assistant at the Centre for Security, Armed Forces and Society at the Royal Military College of …
The Outing of the SEALs Has SecDef Ticked Off
Remember when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got that question about “hillbilly armor” in 2004 from a soldier in Kuwait complaining about lousy protection for troops in the war in Iraq? And Rumsfeld’s timeless response: “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have.”
It turns out the question, from a member of …
Bin Laden’s Secret Communications Plan: Use a Thumb Drive
The Associated Press has details on how Osama bin Laden managed to email his terrorist colleagues and avoid detection by the United States. The AP piece has a relatively breathless buildup, suggesting bin Laden had an ingenious secret plan:
WASHINGTON – Despite having no Internet access in his hideout, Osama bin Laden was a prolific
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