A must-read except from a press conference by our Secretary of Defense: I don’t want to comment in detail on the situation in Afghanistan because it is a complex one. I think the Ambassador said there were 43 wars there. It’s a very complicated situation involving political, economic, and military factors. I don’t think we can …
The SecDef gives the definitive analysis of the war, a must-read Read More »
The various media bombard us with information, putting us in the position of a child with a thousand teachers. Which lessons deserve our attention? Which have the most benefit for us in the next month? The next year? While the eulogies of Robert McNamara and Walter Chroncike were interesting, I recommend instead the following brief history …
A history lesson recommended for the top of your reading pile Read More »
Here is a fine slide presentation, filled with graphs and numbers of all kinds. Just like those the late SecDef McNamara watched, and by which he steered the Vietnam War. “The Air War in Afghanistan: The Broader Issue“, Anthony H. Cordesman, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 20 May 2009 While this data is useful, …
Summary: This is part 2 in a series looking at the Iraq War. Advice from past to the present. Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. — Advice from Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith in a letter to President Kennedy, dated 2 March 1962, printed in Galbraith’s Ambassador’s …
