As the fog of war in Afghanistan clouded the death of the 2,000th U.S. troop there in the 11-year war, things seem to be reaching a tipping point.
National Security
Revisiting the Correspondents Corridor
Last week’s item on the new OSD Public Affairs sign over what had long been known as the Correspondents Corridor at the Pentagon is premature, a senior Pentagon official says. “The hallway isn’t yet complete,” the senior official says, “and the name hasn’t been changed.”
The new sign is merely a “locational sign” and the hallway …
After-Action Report: It’d Be Stupid but Not Disastrous
Part Five of Five
There is an immense amount of concern over sequestration, not just inside D.C., but also among our allies. Fortunately, for them and for U.S. security, the rhetoric does not match the reality.
By looking …
Measuring Its Impact on the Korean Peninsula
Part Four of Five
One can easily see how South Korean leaders might be concerned when they hear American leaders say that sequestration would be “catastrophic” for the U.S. military and that “the gap between the U.S. …
A Case Study: East Asia
Part Three of Five
The U.S. may have global power and responsibilities, but in recent years, a strategic shift has occurred. China’s military has risen in conjunction with its driving economy, which has prompted a refocus on …
“We've begun a transition in Afghanistan, and America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014.”
Comparing Defense Budgets, Apples to Apples
Part Two of Five
In the opening article, we saw how a massive and growing debt (as well as a dose of bad politics) has set America on a path towards sequestration, or, at the very least ,the potential of serious levels of …
Sequestration and What It Would Do to U.S. Military Power
Part One of Five
In recent months, concerns over sequestration and its impact on the U.S. military have reached a fever pitch in Washington.
Sequestration “would destroy the military” and cause an “inability to defend …
Will the Surge’s Impact Last?
Now begins a two-year endgame.
Less than a week after a brazen attack inflicted the biggest loss of U.S. military aircraft since Vietnam, and as the Air Force begins deploying its deadly flying-cannon AC-130 gunships over …
The Securitization of Instability
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 …
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.”