Blog Posts

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.

Peter W. Singer and August Cole want you to know their book, Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, is a work of fiction, not prediction.  Let’s hope they’re right.

"The American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State has begun preparing to open a major front in northeastern Syria."

"The American commander in Afghanistan responded publicly to the mounting criticism over the American airstrike that destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the city of Kunduz."

“Islamic State’s creed embodies evil in the name of a sacred cause. To defeat it, we must recover the values that can bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together.”

"... a tempting dream, but it represents the same wishful thinking that got us here in the first place. How did we get here? It’s worth recalling, briefly, a bit of history."

"House and Senate conferees finally agreed to move forward with an annual defense bill, with a lower than expected pay raise and significant changes to military pay and benefits."

"Only 5 percent of Russia's airstrikes in Syria have targeted IS extremists, Britain's defense chief said, as Moscow's four-day-old aerial bombing campaign continues despite Western concerns."

“Supporters of the Warthogs, especially Rep. McSally, R-Ariz., said there are no good replacements for now and phasing it out could risk U.S. security and lives on the battlefield.”

Shrinking defense budgets in the face of continuing, even growing, threats will require new ways of addressing the need to protect mutual interests.

"Rebel groups are gearing up for a longer, bloodier battle to oust Syrian President Assad because of Russian airstrikes that they say have been designed to drive them back."

"The 48-page report is critical in its observations of the day-to-day workings of Operation Inherent Resolve’s Iraqi train and assist program."

“I think the question now remains, is the Russian intervention primarily there to support Assad or primarily there to target IS.”

"The Islamic State‘s sophisticated propaganda portrays its occupied territory as a 'paradise.' But interviews suggest a far more grim reality."

“Defining the Gray Zone” is a U.S. Special Operations Command White Paper dated 9 September 2015. Continue on for a link and several comments / recommendations.

"The Navy’s operations, on which the sun never sets, are the nation’s nerve endings, connecting it with the turbulent world."

"Analysts and lawmakers differ as to whether Obama’s policies, in Syria and in other volatile areas of the world, are diluting the image of American power and credibility."

"The U.S. said it would continue to lead coalition airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, ignoring Russia's request for U.S. aircraft to avoid Syrian airspace."

Continue on.

"Slow progress in the effort to destroy the IS terror group is being mirrored by equally sluggish progress in the attempt to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq."

The case for more and the case for less.

"The Taliban’s capture of Kunduz does mark its first major capture of a major urban area, but it is only a symptom of a much broader crisis in the Transition process."

"U.S. ground forces remain engaged around the globe in smaller-scale training and advising missions, but need to be ready to execute a wide variety of contingencies."

"With just two moves, Russia may have upended the U.S. role in the Middle East."