Blog Posts

"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."

Continue on for information on TRADOC’s Mad Scientist Conference.

"The United States will provide much more support to U.N. peacekeeping efforts, President Barack Obama said today at the United Nations in New York."

"A dedicated manhunt by the CIA, the National Security Agency and the military's Joint Special Operations Command has been methodically finding and killing senior militants."

“Obama officials acknowledge that 1,000 foreign fighters a month are still traveling to Iraq and Syria—and more than 50 percent of U.S. recruits are under the age of 25.”

“On misreading On War… Its three elements are not the people, the army and the government, but hate, chance and reason.”

"The Iraqi military said in a statement that the new agreement was necessary because thousands of volunteers who have joined the Islamic State have come from Russia."

"Some analysts aren't buying Russia’s explanation and cite a variety of reasons why they believe Russia is in Syria for the long haul."

Comprehensive coverage 24/7.

"A senior State Department official said Saturday that the U.S. was concerned about the Islamic State group’s efforts to try to establish a stronghold in Afghanistan."

"Suicide bombings, improvised explosive devices and combatants with little regard for the rules of war are making the work of UN peacekeepers look like counterterrorism operations."

“The outgoing Joint Chiefs chairman bids farewell to an alliance beset by crises.”

Continue on for one perspective on sleep numbers.

"A State Department official says there has been a 'sharp decline' in the volume of Islamic State messages on social media in the last few months."

"Saudi Arabia, of course, is a world champion of human-rights abuse. Freedom, in all of its manifestations, is absent from the country."

Links to two articles and the leaked CMC Memo.

Congressional Research Service Insight Brief via the U.S. Naval Institute.

"A sophisticated farm-to-arm supply chain is fueling America’s surging heroin appetite, causing heroin to surpass cocaine and meth to become the nation’s No. 1 drug threat."

Continue on for a link to this excellent Best Defense essay. A  must read - and we don't say say that very often.

"Hooker is the leader of a group of analysts accusing commanders of changing intelligence reports to paint an overly optimistic portrait of the American bombing campaign against the IS."

"Colombia's president and FARC rebels reached a major breakthrough late Wednesday in the effort to end more than 50 years of bloodshed."