TE Lawrence

Will we repeat our mistakes in the Middle East & lose, or play defense & win?

Summary:  The West’s post-9/11 wars in the Middle East have run down, but our involvement in Syria’s civil war and the attacks by radical Islamists in American — and the far larger Paris attacks — have begun a new phase in this clash of civilizations. Before we attack, repeating the mistakes of the past 15 …

Will we repeat our mistakes in the Middle East & lose, or play defense & win? Read More »

The US Army brings us back to the future, returning to WWI’s “cult of the offense”

Analogies are fudge, as TE Lawrence says.  Esp historical analogies, since every era is unique.  We use them anyway, mining the past for comparisons to help us better understand the present.  While analogies cannot be accurate (different times are incomparable), they can illustrate aspects of the present that we might otherwise overlook. This sketch looks at one …

The US Army brings us back to the future, returning to WWI’s “cult of the offense” Read More »

How America can survive and even prosper in the 21st Century – part II

Summary: This is one chapter a series about America’s grand strategy; see links at the end for the full series to date. Here is part one of a two-part sketch of how America can survive – even prosper – in an age where 4th generation warfare (4GW) is the dominant mode of war. This is …

How America can survive and even prosper in the 21st Century – part II Read More »

How America can survive and even prosper in the 21st Century – part I

Summary:  This is a chapter a series about America’s grand strategy; see links at the end for the full series to date. Here is part one of a two-part sketch of how America can survive – even prosper – in an age where 4th generation warfare (4GW) is the dominant mode of war. ———— This …

How America can survive and even prosper in the 21st Century – part I Read More »

Iraq, after the war

Summary: Part I explained why the war might end in 2009. This post describes what Iraq might look like after a “master settlement” negotiated between Iran and the US (with some involvement of the major Iraq factions). As I said a year ago the Iraq insurgency has ended, which opens a path to peace and an end …

Iraq, after the war Read More »

Scroll to Top