Small Wars Journal

Blog Posts

SWJ Blog is a multi-author blog publishing news and commentary on the various goings on across the broad community of practice.  We gladly accept guest posts from serious voices in the community.

by Defense News | Thu, 05/16/2019 - 1:28am | 0 comments
"The Pentagon paid contractor TransDigm $1,443 for a for a three-inch ring called a 'non-vehicular clutch disk' which is used in the C-135 transport aircraft, though it cost the company just $32 to produce, giving it 4,436 percent in excess profit, according to a House Oversight and Government Reform memo released Wednesday."
by The Washington Post | Thu, 05/16/2019 - 1:11am | 0 comments
"The Trump administration has been on high alert in response to what military and intelligence officials have deemed specific and credible threats from Iran against U.S. personnel in the Middle East."
by The New York Times | Thu, 05/16/2019 - 1:06am | 0 comments
"Iraqi officials, wary of another war on their land, say they have warned armed groups tied to Iran to refrain from taking any action that could provoke American retaliation."
by Reuters | Wed, 05/15/2019 - 2:27pm | 0 comments
"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s surprise visit to Baghdad this month came after U.S. intelligence showed Iran-backed Shi’ite militias positioning rockets near bases housing U.S. forces, according to two Iraqi security sources."
by Military Times | Wed, 05/15/2019 - 1:41pm | 0 comments
"U.S. allies involved in operations in the Middle East appear uninterested in the increasingly bellicose rhetoric from the White House and Pentagon regarding Iran."
by The Washington Post | Wed, 05/15/2019 - 12:36pm | 0 comments
"The White House will not sign an international call to combat online extremism brokered between French and New Zealand officials and top social media companies, amid U.S. concerns that it clashes with constitutional protections for free speech."
by The New York Times | Wed, 05/15/2019 - 11:51am | 0 comments
The State Department ordered a partial evacuation of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, responding to what the Trump administration said was a threat linked to Iran, one that has led to an accelerated movement of American ships and bombers into the Persian Gulf.
by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | Wed, 05/15/2019 - 1:29am | 0 comments
"The Nigerian case highlights the challenges of local-level stabilization efforts while working with a host government that lacks political commitment, capacity, and coordination."
by Military Times | Wed, 05/15/2019 - 12:13am | 0 comments
"Collateral damage of indirect fire missions conducted against enemy targets in heavily populated urban centers has long been a criticism levied against U.S. forces."
by Army Times | Wed, 05/15/2019 - 12:10am | 0 comments
"Experts interviewed by Military Times said that in a long, drawn-out conflict the United States and NATO allies would likely win over Russia if there was a major land grab on the eastern European border. But the fear is that Russian forces could move quickly and grab pieces of territory, similar to what happened in Crimea and now in Ukraine."
by Institute for the Study of War | Tue, 05/14/2019 - 12:11pm | 0 comments
"ISIS has a unique and dangerous opportunity to exploit conditions in detention facilities and internally displaced persons’ camps across Northern Syria."
by The British Broadcasting Corporation | Tue, 05/14/2019 - 12:01pm | 0 comments
"US investigators believe Iran or groups it supports used explosives to damage four ships off the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, media reports say."
by Military Times | Tue, 05/14/2019 - 9:23am | 0 comments
"The Pentagon recently presented a military plan to the president’s top national security aides that calls for up to 120,000 troops deploying to the Middle East and a potential crippling cyber-attack on Iran’s infrastructure should Iran speed up its nuclear program or attack U.S. forces."
by Associated Press | Tue, 05/14/2019 - 12:46am | 0 comments
"A year and a half after the Islamic State group was declared defeated in Iraq, the militants still evoke fear in the lands of their former so-called caliphate across northern Iraq. The fighters, hiding in caves and mountains, emerge at night to carry out kidnappings, killings and roadside ambushes, aimed at intimidating locals, silencing informants and restoring the extortion rackets that financed ISIS’s rise to power six years ago."
by The New York Times | Tue, 05/14/2019 - 12:22am | 0 comments
"At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said."
by Voice of America | Tue, 05/14/2019 - 12:13am | 0 comments
"The U.N. warned Monday that Cameroon has become one of the fastest-growing displacement crises in Africa, and that the security and humanitarian situations are deteriorating and risk spiraling out of control."
by The New York Times | Mon, 05/13/2019 - 8:02pm | 0 comments
"Dressed in camouflage and sipping tea, the Syrian commander who emerged as America’s closest ally in the battle that defeated Islamic State looked to an unsettling future."
by Associated Press | Mon, 05/13/2019 - 12:17pm | 0 comments
"Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited a border city in Texas on Saturday and said he intends to accelerate planning to secure the border and bolster the administration’s ability to accomplish that without the Pentagon’s continuous help."
by Reuters | Mon, 05/13/2019 - 12:05pm | 0 comments
"Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman and editor-in-chief of the insurgent group’s daily news bulletin, starts every day by collecting reports of overnight fighting with U.S. and Afghan forces."
by The New York Times | Sun, 05/12/2019 - 11:11pm | 0 comments
NYT Editorial - "The American people are being kept more in the dark about the dismal state of the United States’ longest-running war, now in its 18th year."
by The Wall Street Journal | Sun, 05/12/2019 - 3:47pm | 0 comments
"The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt successfully lobbied President Trump to reverse U.S. policy in Libya and support a rogue general leading an offensive on a government in Tripoli backed by the United Nations, according to a senior U.S. administration official and two Saudi officials."
by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | Sun, 05/12/2019 - 3:28pm | 0 comments
"The Pakistani prime minister has condemned a deadly assault by insurgents in a luxury hotel in southwestern Pakistan, saying the attack was part of an effort to "sabotage" the country's economic development."
by Voice of America | Sun, 05/12/2019 - 2:00pm | 0 comments
"U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces officials admit they vastly underestimated both the size of the IS force and the fighters' civilian family members hunkered down for a last stand in Baghuz. Many may have also joined Iraqi and Syrian IS fighters who chose to shift away from the pressure as the SDF closed in on their shrinking territorial holdings."
by Voice of America | Sun, 05/12/2019 - 6:17am | 0 comments
"Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido told his supporters Saturday at a rally in Caracas that he had instructed his ambassador to the U.S. to contact the U.S. military to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to step down from his post."
by The Wall Street Journal | Sun, 05/12/2019 - 4:52am | 0 comments
"Houthi rebels in Yemen began to withdraw fighters from the country’s most strategic port city, a move that, if completed, would mark a significant step toward salvaging a peace deal that hasn’t been implemented since it was brokered by the U.N. in December."