September 13, 2009

Can we find clarity in the Afghan strategy debate?

President Obama has consistently declared Afghanistan "the good war" that is "a war of necessity" which is "fundamental to the defense of our people," although recently Obama also stated that "victory" was not ...

February 4, 2007

Pessimism in Iraq and the Myth of Vietnam

The myth that fighting insurgencies is futile may underlie much pessimism about the current war in Iraq. Professor Donald Stoker's article, "Insurgencies Rarely Win - And Iraq Won't Be Any Different (Maybe)," did thinking Americans a great ...

January 2, 2007

Rewriting the Rules of War

A curious thing happened in American thinking about warfare in 1961 - the rules needed to be rewritten, or so thought "the best and brightest" civilian strategists that President Kennedy brought with him into the White House.  In his b...

December 26, 2006

Dealing with the Iraq Insurgency Militarily

"The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish by that test the kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into, somethin...