Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: Military

Fighting Myths

There are a few myths that are repeated but never questioned.  Ann Marlow dispels one such myth in her Wall Street Journal article The Truth About Who Fights for Us, 9/27/11. Excerpts: Indeed, the Heritage report showed that “low-income families

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More than Mere Tactics

At an industry meeting last week at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO, the first speaker on Monday, May 2,  was General Stanley McChrystal.  Given the killing of Bin Laden the day before he changed his topic from one of

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What if the Mission Failed?

President Obama made a presidential decision, both to remain focused on the pursuit of Bin Laden and on the crucial decision to bend the rules to send Special Forces in on the ground and kill him.  He deserves credit for

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Fighting Change

When I learned, for example, that the Pentagon had been spending $225 million every year to maintain our forces in Iceland, I sent a memo to Powell recommending that we make a change.  I pointed out that our aircraft originally

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Rumsfeld’s View

I have admired Rumsfeld. He seemed intelligently clear in his press briefings and was able to use humor appropriately.  Yet many in the military were scathingly critical of him and pushed for his resignation.  He was deemed to squelch criticism

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Perspective on Casualties

405,399364,51113,2839,5567,099 405,399- U.S. military fatalities in WWII 364,511 – Military fatalities in the Civil War 13,283- U.S. military fatalities in the Mexican War 9,556- Total U.S. military deaths during the PEACETIME of 1980-83 7,099 total U.S. military deaths during the

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The More Disproportionate the Better

Israel is often criticized for disproportionate response to their terrorist foes. Yet any successful military solution is disproportionate. It is the only humane way to fight a war. A war is not a field game designed to be fair and

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The Shortest Distance a Bullet Need Travel

from Looking for TroubleAdventures in a Broken Worldby Ralph Peters “Intelligence officers worry too much about dead facts and too little about their antagonist’s delusions. What men believe about themselves is often more important than their reality- and certainly more

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Special Ops Panty Hose

When some of our special ops soldiers met up with the Northern Allaince in Afghanistan they had to quickly adapt to horseback to cover their operational territory. Saddles sores became so severe it became a disability. They requested hundreds of

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America’s Secret Weapon

Ralph Peters, a critic of the Rumsfeld fiasco period, is high on Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his selection of soldiers’ soldiers to run the war. The article, Gates’s Grand Slam. General Robert Patraeus will take over US Central Command.

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Rules of Engagement – Marcus Luttrell’s Story

Marcus Luttrell of Seal Team 10 was with 3 other Seals on Operation Redwing in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan searching for Ben Sharmak, a high level Al Qaeda operative in a Taliban stronghold . Navy Seals are the toughest

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Two Ironies of Modern War

Number 1. The greater the military’s ability to isolate combatants, the longer the war will last. Israel and the United States have developed incredible precision to take out enemy combatants while sparing civilian lives. This is the result of the

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