The United States has already lost — its war for the Middle East, that is. Having taken my own crack at combat soldiering in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that couldn’t be clearer to me. Unfortunately, it’s evidently still not clear in Washington. Bush’s neo-imperial triumphalism failed. Obama’s quiet shift to drones, Special Forces, and clandestine…
Last week on Capitol Hill, several top U.S. military leaders from across the armed services presented a sobering case to Congress: U.S. military readiness is the lowest it has been in decades, leaving it unprepared to defend America’s interests at home and abroad. In testimony before the Senate and House Armed Services committees, the vice…
It is now official beyond question. The senior ranks of the U.S. military and foreign-policy leadership have now fully succumbed to the belief that all problems in the Middle East and South Asia must include, at their core, the application of lethal military power. No other alternative is considered. Worse, the military solutions they advocate…
The U.S. Defense Department is considering proposing that the U.S. send conventional ground combat forces into northern Syria for the first time to hasten the fight against ISIS, according to CNN. “It’s possible that you may see conventional forces hit the ground in Syria for some period of time,” one defense official told CNN. However,…
Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told lawmakers on February 9 that thousands more American or NATO troops are needed to break the «stalemate» between Afghan forces and the Taliban insurgent group while the Islamic State also remains active in the nation. According to him, outside powers, including Russia and Iran, complicated…
Members of Congress have a hard time agreeing on virtually anything, and they’re already butting heads with the new president. But one issue should unite them: a new initiative to shrink the Pentagon’s massive overhead. President Trump and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have pledged to cut waste. And key leaders in Congress have renewed…
