The Atlantic August 30, 2013 Having backed himself into a corner by declaring a “red line” that has now been crossed, President Obama is by all appearances ramping up for military action in Syria. As best we can tell from the not inconsiderable leaks coming from Washington and elsewhere, the planned strikes would use aerial […]
Category: Military Affairs
RealClearDefense July 24, 2013 Senators John McCain and Carl Levin have demanded answers from General Martin Dempsey on Syria. Can they handle the truth? In open hearings before the Armed Services Committee last Thursday, McCain asked the Joint Chiefs chairman, “Do you believe the continued costs and risks of our inaction in Syria are now […]
Categories
Enough with the QDR Hype
RealClearDefense July 18, 2013 Writing at the newly-launched Defense One, CNAS vice president Shawn Brimley proclaims, “The next nine months will be the most important period for United States defense strategy since the end of the Cold War.” That’s highly unlikely. First, the bar is rather high. The nine months following the collapse of the Soviet […]
Defense One July 19, 2013 Sen. John McCain is blocking a second term for Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after a testy exchange in a hearing Thursday. His grounds? The refusal of Dempsey to “respond to legitimate questions” from the senior senator from Arizona. McCain’s question: ”Do you believe the continued […]
The National Interest May 8, 2013 This Holocaust Remembrance Day, it’s worth noting an inconsistency present in public statements about atrocity prevention. As scholars Gerald Caplan, Samuel Totten and Amanda Grzyb pointed out recently, while U.S. presidents solemnly declare that “never again” will the world stand by and allow genocide to happen, they continue to stand by […]
The National Interest April 5, 2013 Chuck Hagel recently delivered his first major public-policy address since becoming secretary of defense. While the bulk of his speech at the National Defense University focused on the need to overhaul our spending priorities radically, a nod to the military officers in the audience caught my attention: As you move onward […]
The Atlantic April 4, 2013 In his first major policy address as Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel called for a radical overhaul of our armed forces — “not just tweaking or chipping away at existing structures and practices.” While the goal is bold and laudable, history tells us that achieving it is unlikely. Hagel cited Dwight Eisenhower’s […]
The National Interest March 19, 2013 As we approach the tenth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq on March 20, it’s worth reflecting on the fact that it has been nearly seventy years since America’s last successful major war. On August 15, 1945, known as Victory Over Japan Day or V-J Day, the Japanese […]
The National Interest February 1, 2013 The Senate confirmation hearings over Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be the next secretary of defense were a classic case of garbage in, garbage out. Sadly, they were par for the course in the American national-security debate. The hearings literally broke Twitter in the early going, and the tweets with […]
New York Daily News December 6, 2012 As a theoretical matter, remotely piloted vehicles are simply a tool of warfare, morally indistinguishable from manned aircraft. The more efficiently the U.S. can target and kill its enemies, the better. And drones are cheaper to operate, carry far less risk for American military personnel and make it […]