Blog Posts

"Syrian President Assad returned home Wednesday after making a rare trip to Russia to meet with President Putin and discuss the 3-week old Russian military campaign."

"Generals and admirals are mistaken if they believe their only job in war is to execute the policymaker’s war aims."

"U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford flew into Iraq Tuesday to get an in-person assessment of the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants."

“The task goes far beyond what U.S. soldiers are trained to teach.”

“In capacity, capability, and readiness, the US military is currently performing a juggling act that could come crashing down in the event of a significant contingency.”

"As the administration rethinks its Syria strategy, it should start by redefining U.S. interests in the face of an increasingly fractured Syrian conflict."

"In this piece, our author contends with the conflicts and contradictions of the various means to ‘do more with less.’"

"Boko Haram promotes its own version of Islam which forbids Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society."

"Some analysts suggest that the U.S. decision to maintain current troop levels in Afghanistan is basically kicking the can down the road."

“The Obama administration claims leaving 5,500 US troops in Afghanistan is a sign that the US strategy is working. Is it?”

"We could profitably spend some time looking at the life and times of Thomas Edward Lawrence, otherwise known to posterity as “Lawrence of Arabia.” "

"Despite billions of dollars and years of training, Afghan security forces are far from ready to go it alone."

"The new number is almost certainly too low to be effective. Like all of the President’s previous manpower totals, it is not explained and exploits news media."

"An unnamed senior administration official said the president will maintain the current number of troops in the war-torn country at 9,800 through most of 2016."

“Two weeks of air and missile strikes in Syria have given the West a deeper appreciation of the transformation that Russia’s military has undergone under Putin.”

“A role, still, for big armies. Ground forces can do what drones and air strikes cannot. Study a direct challenge to policy makers.”

Though over 6,000 miles away and safely back in the U.S., I have been hearing cries from Kunduz. Suddenly, these voices have stopped.

The basis of this book is my initial introduction into combat in Vietnam as a 1st Lieutenant with the Vietnamese Ranger infantry.

"Fighting intensified around Ghazni on Monday, as Taliban militants threatened to seize a second provincial capital after briefly occupying Kunduz."

"Our allies will continue to lose confidence in our role as a global leader. Potential adversaries will see weakness."

Unification of Korea is the only acceptable outcome on the Korean Peninsula. It is the only condition that will solve three of the most intractable problems in Northeast Asia.

“If its role in fomenting conflict in eastern Ukraine is a guide, Russia has some new tricks in store for Syrian rebels and their allies.”

"The United States seemed to be caught flat-footed by the barrage of airstrikes that Moscow launched last week."

Some days Special Operations missions in international hotspots end in success and accolades, as when SEAL Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. These are the missions that tend to be memorialized by Hollywood scriptwriters and shape the image of Special Ops forces in the minds of Americans.

But some days end in tragedy and frustration.