Blog Posts

"The absence of a feasible American strategy that looks beyond the narrow issue of ISIS undermines U.S. regional leadership, places remaining U.S. troops in Syria at unnecessary risk for undefined goals, and will likely only prolong the suffering of the Syrian people."

"As Russia and China are increasing their economic and political influence on Africa’s economic and political development the expense of United States interests, the general tapped to head African Command told senators Tuesday."

"Current and former Pentagon leaders are warning about the risks to future military operations posed by allies in Europe and Asia using Chinese technology in their 5G wireless telecommunications networks."

"With the radical group having lost the last of the land it controlled after nearly five years of warfare, authorities now face the challenge of reeducating the children of the militant fighters, most of them schooled from an early age in Islamic State’s barbaric ways."

"The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is putting new attention on potential security threats from China, a challenge for an alliance whose members have conflicting attitudes about Beijing."

"A humanitarian crisis is erupting in northeastern Syria as tens of thousands of people who fled intense fighting in last month’s decisive battle against the Islamic State are flooding into a desperately overcrowded tent camp atop a rocky hill here."

"The amorphous Boko Haram splinter group is taking inspiration where it can get it and bringing disaster to the Lake Chad Basin in the process."

"More than a week after declaring victory over Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate, U.S.-backed forces are still trying to clear the terror group’s last stronghold of its fighters. A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces tweeted Tuesday that clearing operations in the northeastern Syrian town of Baghuz included an ongoing hunt for IS members who have yet to give up the fight."

"As the group loses territory, other terrorists will likely try creating states of their own."

"The historic peace agreement between the government of Colombia and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaras de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP), the country’s largest armed rebel force—is facing its most serious test yet."

"Surveyors from the Army Corps of Engineers will spend the next week assessing sites near Yuma, Ariz., and El Paso, Texas, where construction of a border wall is projected to begin as early as next month, a defense official confirmed Friday."

"Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters Monday that he’s not trying to delay the release of a report on the October 2017 Niger ambush, which is expected to include decisions on reprimands and awards."

"The proposed FY2020 defense budget is scarcely without merit. Meeting the request would fund many badly needed increases in readiness and major new programs within each service. At the same time, it is also a major failure. The Defense Budget Overview of the FY2020 budget issued by the Office of the Secretary of Defense calls it a "strategy driven budget," but neither the Overview – nor the hundreds of pages of supporting justification provided by the OSD Comptroller and military services – focus on strategy, key threats, net assessments of U.S. and threat forces, and the budget’s impact on key commands and missions."

"The party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to have lost the mayoral race in its historical bastion, Istanbul, a stinging setback for a leader who has towered over Turkish politics for the past 16 years."

"Batnaya, once home to some 6,000 Chaldean Catholics, is a small but striking example of the enormous challenge facing the Iraqi government, United States and United Nations in rebuilding and repopulating areas devastated by the Islamic State occupation and the three-year war to rid Iraq of the militants. At the current rate, it could take a generation or more to reconstruct what the conflict has ruined."

"Russia has been steadily expanding its military influence across Africa, alarming Western officials with increasing arms sales, security agreements and training programs for unstable countries or autocratic leaders."

"What if Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were treated like traditional publishers, expected to vet every post, comment and image before they reached the public? Or like Boeing or Toyota, held responsible for the safety of their products and the harm they cause? Imagine what the internet would look like if tech executives could be jailed for failing to censor hate and violence."

"The Syrian city was liberated from the Islamic State more than a year and a half ago, but rebuilding is slow and hope is fading."

The conspiracy narrative wasn't borne out. Now Americans should dismiss the idea of a Russian "hybrid war."

"Iraq’s president said Friday he does not see any 'serious' opposition to the presence of American forces in Iraq, provided they continue to be there specifically to assist Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State group."

"A new documentary tells the story of the 10th Mountain Division soldiers who rescued the Rangers and Delta operators."

Most perceptions of special operations are formed by movies like "American Sniper," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Lone Survivor" or "Black Hawk Down." There is some truth to those movies, but the command is far more.

"After two Russian military planes landed near Caracas this month, the Trump administration issued stark warnings over President Nicolás Maduro’s ties to the Kremlin. But a vessel that arrived in the waters off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast a day earlier offered a more telling sign of a deepening relationship that is so alarming to Washington."

"Police are investigating six terror suspects who were allegedly planning an attack. The suspects, who were arrested and later released, are accused of being affiliated with the so-called "Islamic State" extremist group."

"A mortar attack on a school Saturday in the volatile southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan killed at least four school students and injured more than a dozen. The assault comes on the heels of the Taliban capturing a strategically important northeastern district in Afghanistan and inflicting fresh casualties on government forces elsewhere in the country."