President Obama has hit the "go" button to begin escalating the troop strength in Afghanistan by more than 30,000. Now for the rest of today and through tomorrow, you will hear from retired general officers and Republican politicians and right-wing pundits about how this was a Good Decision, and [...]
Major Robert Thorton at Fort Leavenworth provides his two cents on the recent media articles about retired general officers and flag officers providing mentoring advice to active duty officers.
As an active duty Army major, I have a different perspective on the use of senior mentors. I have seen [...]
Check out this dialogue between a person associated with the Army's Chemical Materials Agency and curious laypersons. It's pretty interesting and somewhat entertaining... the expert here is calling himself/herself "sniff," which is funny (considering the topic - sorry, we're all sick puppies).
mfriedm 16 points [...]
I really thought the day of the Neocon was over when most people admitted what a screw-up the Iraq war had been, from start to almost-finish. But here we have Fred and Kim Kagan gloating in the Washington Post about the inevitable "troop surge that [...]
Spencer Ackerman has found out what crap the made-for-television movie "The Plan" was, and he's not a happy man.
...what Plan did the Cylons have?
They were planning to destroy humanity. You know, the thing we learned in the very first episode of the fucking — [...]
In a very small AP article going around, it's been noted that the Obama administration has decided not to join the Ottawa Treaty on Land Mines, continuing the Bush administration's refusal to sign up (along with more than 35 other countries, including China, [...]
David Axe is starring on "Russia Today" and talking about Afghanistan. He looks better on video than Spencer Ackerman or Andrew Exum, but it frightens me that Russia is running a propaganda television show with US newspersons on YouTube.
Speaking of Andrew, he's taking some time off of daily [...]
Time-Lapse Favs from Chad Richard on Vimeo.
Thankful for sunrises.Thankful that I'm not President Obama.
[...]Rick "Ozzie" Nelson at CSIS gets it:
Some analysts said Obama was right to discuss an eventual Afghan military drawdown, especially in light of doubts among Democrats in Congress who could pre-empt him by voting to deny funds for the war effort.
But they stressed this should be seen [...]
Gen. Kevin "Chilly" Chilton, commander of USSTRATCOM, is still voicing his concern that the US government needs to retain its ability to make new nukes in the DOE national labs. And the best way to retain that expertise? Build new nukes, of course...
Of particular [...]
In which Andrew Bacevich schools David Frum on strategic defense policy issues. David Frum asks Dr. Bacevich how he would advise Obama (just around 11 minutes in):
What I would say is, Mr. President, you need to stop having meetings about Afghanistan. You need to start having meetings in which your national security [...]
Ray in the UK sends this short BBC article, which says that the UK government is going to delve into that nebulous mess about why it was so motivated to plunge into Iraq with its partner, the United States. Was the intelligence on WMD [...]
Honestly, on what planet are these people living?
UPDATE: And it's Palin's commentary on the military and national security issues - such as this one - that really steams me, considering that she has a kid in the military. But hey, not the first time she's used her kids as props. [...]
Gordon at Alternative Brain reads an on-line article about Bill Moyers and agrees:
The Nation talks about a show I watched last Friday evening of LBJ's taped phone conversations and Bill Moyers' commentary. Highly recommended as a history lesson. And a warning.
One point of the program, he explained, was [...]
Travis Sharp from Nukes and Hazard points out this report from the Institute for Policy Studies that criticizes the Obama administration of not shifting the US security policy away from "business as usual."
The Obama administration promised “a sweeping shift of priorities and [...]
Many of you may be aware that one of the main criticisms of the DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office is its inability to find radiological detectors that can unobtrusively monitor cargo and vehicles that might be concealing a large amount of shielded radioactive [...]
There was a rumor going around about a year or two ago that the DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) was going away, that people were tired of its constant inability to do much more than scatter thousands of radiological detectors around the [...]
Courtesy of Abu M, I find that Gen. Odienro has a British civilian political advisor by the name of Ms. Emma Sky. The NY Times says that she's a "woman to be reckoned with."
Ms. Sky sees herself as part aid worker, part political operator, part cultural translator.
“I’m [...]
Sen. Joe Lieberman (Idiot-CT) decided that he couldn't wait for the DOD to finish its investigation of the Fort Hood shooting, so he decided to have his own committee circus last Thursday. Because he couldn't get any official witnesses, he had to bring in some [...]
InsideDefense (subscription required) reports that, on last Thursday, SecDef Bob Gates announced plans to place a National Guard general officer in charge of US Northern Command. I'm not sure that this is a great idea.
Signaling the growing influence of citizen-soldiers in the military's [...]
I don't have any Lady Gaga songs on my iPod, but the visual image of Christopher Walken and Cartman singing with her is pretty damn funny. [...]
I sincerely wanted to resist any comment on Sarah Palin and her book tour (sponsored in part by Faux News), but I just have to say, now I recognize that her fan base really does like the fact that she is just like them - completely devoid of [...]
Spencer Ackerman has done a yeoman's job digging into the details as to whether the 40-44,000 troop estimate by Gen. McChrystal is even realistic to consider, when one counts the number of troops still in Iraq and Gen. Odierno's glacially slow deployment out of that country, the number of [...]
Rob Farley points to a Small Wars Journal article by COL Gian Gentile, where he proposes a "better understanding of the Vietnam War." Gentile is concerned that the COINdanistas are using the Vietnam conflict as an excuse to say "if they let us [...]
So let's talk about this great government in Kabul that we're trying to prop up with the billions of dollars from the US treasury. First we can talk about the mansions in Kabul, where simple government officials making a few hundred dollars [...]
Now I am probably not telling you anything new in this title, but when I saw this op-ed by William Kristol in his Weekly Standard magazine (hat tip to Matt Y), I just suddenly got this pounding headache and resulting furious reaction.
In areas [...]
Australian government officials announced the discovery of a World War 2-era cache of mustard-filled 105-mm artillery shells last week. It's causing a bit of a stir, but then again, it's just mustard agent and they're not leaking. Still, a bit of historical interest here as to where they came [...]
Story in the Washington Post yesterday talks about a new anthrax drug, intended for treatment after exposure to the disease. Only problem is that the FDA is taking its own sweet time in approving the drug. But that hasn't stopped the DHHS from [...]
Courtesy of Kings of War, I find the original source of the movie "Breaker Morant" is this book, Scapegoats of the Empire. The full text is available at the link. The movie is actually quite faithful to the screenplay, which surprises me for [...]
Paul McLeary points out a little problem with the Afghan army - they never developed logistics and combat service support units for their combat brigades.
Most troublesome for the ability of the ANA to operate independently of NATO forces is the issue of logistics. [...]
If you have an American flag flying in the background of your video, people will be entranced and ignore the blatant hypocrisy of your message. Really!
[...]Peter at The Strategist has voiced some frustration at the discussions over fourth generation warfare - he doesn't think that there is any "there" there. So he's going to talk about it at his blog, try to figure things out. I [...]
It's hard to figure out where David Kilcullen stands in reference to Afghanistan these days. This DoD Buzz post references a UK Guardian article where Kilcullen (quoted as a "key advisor to NATO forces") tries to tell the US government not to take [...]
Veteran actor Edward Woodward has died aged 79, his agent has confirmed.
The Croydon-born star had been suffering from various illnesses, including pneumonia, and died in hospital, said Janet Glass.
Woodward is most famous for his roles in the cult 1973 horror film The Wicker Man, alongside [...]
Things you will never see in a conference about chemical-biological warfare - a brief titled, "Geostrategic Illusions and Strategic Realities: the Question of Strategic Deterrence in a Pre-Strategic Multipolar World Order" at a recent Naval Postgraduate School conference.
I don't know why this is, [...]
What's the difference between liberal hawks and conservative hawks? No, I don't know either. Both of them love to fear the "WMD threat" - no matter how improbable the event, no matter how clearly the talk is just empty rhetoric without real action. President Obama has continued the "state [...]
Bruce Schneier has a great post on security theater. This article doesn't say anything new (from his voiced perspective), but if you're not familiar with the term and his argument, this is a good place to start.
A movie-plot threat is an overly specific attack [...]
Readers of this blog are familiar with my irritation with the EMP crazies out there. The conservatives in this movement are really something else. George Smith notes that they've gone to recruiting Iranian ex-pats now.
"Let us say [a] freighter ship launches [an Iranian] nuclear-armed Shahab-3 missile off the coast [...]
Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks
Ladies and Gentlemen, the amazing Onion News Network. I've not heard great things about Modern Warfare 2, and the price tag of $60 for four or five hours of single-player shooting just isn't worth it to me. Which is [...]
Defense News reveals talks ongoing between the South Korean government and the US military on the issue of cleaning up North Korea's nuclear weapons program when the regime collapses. It seems odd, in a way, that our new mission there isn't to defend the South [...]
Talking Points Memo says that there are rumors about former SecState Condi Rice and former NSA Stephen Hadley joining forces to create a" strategic consulting" firm. May I suggest that this is probably an even bigger farce than former FEMA Director Michael Brown's decision [...]
The United Nations was bombarded earlier this week with packets of "white powder." Of course, the NYPD quickly sprang into action. There is some indication that the exposed people had to be decontaminated from the flour "power."
The envelopes delivered on Tuesday were opened [...]
I have great respect for Tony Cordesman as a military analyst. His four-volume "Lessons of Modern War" series are solid, informative sources for anyone interested in a serious study of the Arab-Israeli conflicts, Iran-Iraq war, Falklands conflict, or the first Gulf War. Each one [...]
