July 21, 2013

Blowing Past the Publishing Gatekeepers

Toward the end of a full career as an Army officer I was asked to assist in a test-run of a new course at the US Army's Command and General Staff College. We were going to take senior officers on a new version of the 'staff ride' an established metho...

July 31, 2007

Methods That Work in Iraq

The United States is now employing our former enemies to fight Al-Qaeda. This new approach, especially noticeable in the provinces of Anbar and Diyala, is paying off. We shouldn't be surprised. History has ample precedent.A number of former enemies -...

January 31, 2007

War and Presidential Popularity

Whatever one might think of President Bush's much touted popularity numbers - or perhaps one should say unpopularity numbers - in the polls, the historical convergence of conflict and Presidential approval ratings is almost universally dismal.Our con...

January 10, 2007

The Right Stuff

I had a note from an old friend the other night. He's got a new job and has to move on for a while.  We've known each other for years and, due to job requirements, only recently have we been able to get together on a regular basis - usually an i...

August 16, 2006

Doing the Math

One would think that the revelations by Great Britain's MI5 of the plot by Islamic terrorists to destroy themselves and as many as 10 commercial airliners enroute to the United States might stimulate a deeper, more critical look at recent development...

August 4, 2006

The Myth of the Suicide Bomber

Americans as a rule have a remarkably short span of collective memory. Thus when terrorists seize aircraft to plunge themselves into skyscrapers in New York we are doubly aghast.  What must be the motivation behind such desperate acts?  Si...

July 22, 2006

Party of God, Proxy of Terror

One of the primary players in the current round of fighting in Lebanon, indeed the instigator of this phase of conflict, is the organization called Hezbollah or 'Party of God.'  Although few would be able to attribute anything Godlike to this or...

June 21, 2006

Awakening a Sleeping Giant

If in the case of Iraq there has been any lessening of resolve among the American electorate, and to read the newspapers and listen to a great many television pundits one might certainly think there has, the events of the past 48 hours should put the...

December 17, 2005

Silent Night

An old friend asked me to join him for lunch the other day. Although we'd stayed in touch over the years we had not had the opportunity to sit down together for years so this was something not to be missed.  Because of my friend's tight sch...

December 5, 2005

Iraq: Lessons of the Malayan Communist Insurgency

With his Annapolis speech last Wednesday President Bush limned a much more practical and realistic approach to the conflict in Iraq than has thus far emerged from his administration. Mirroring in large part American efforts in Afghanistan, the s...

November 9, 2005

Friendly Fire

'I have made arrangements for the correspondents of our papers to take the field, and I have suggested that they wear a white uniform to indicate the purity of their character.' —Union General Irvin McDowell, prior to the first Battle of Bull ...