Summary: Major Sjursen goes to the heart of our Long War, showing how our military remains haunted by the ghosts of Vietnam — and how today’s failures result from the tragically wrong lessons they learned from it. “The War That Never Ends (for the U.S. Military High Command) And It’s Not the War on Terror“ …
How the ghosts of Vietnam haunt the War on Terror Read More »
Summary: Sunday’s post discussed the price we pay for our wars in money and blood. Today Andrew Bachevich (Colonel, US Army, retired) explains how we have forgotten about these wars and the price paid — and why we have forgotten. “How We Learned Not To Care About America’s Wars.“ At TomDispatch, 5 October 2017. Introduction by …
Summary: Major Sjursen asks a question we almost never ask about our wars, lost in our self-absorption and self-righteousness, lacking empathy and awareness of how our actions appear to others. These are expensive vices. We pay for them with money and blood. The longer these mad wars continue, the odds that the final bill will …
Perhaps we are bad guys in the Middle East’s wars Read More »
Summary: Andrew Bacevich is one of our most acute political observers. In this essay he accurately describes one aspect of the rot affecting our politics. The solution he proposes reveal the deeper and more serious rot. There is a solution, if we have the will and wit to make it happen. “The Post-Cold-War Consensus …
Andrew Bacevich looks at America’s political rot and describes solutions Read More »
Summary: Special Operations Forces are the heroes in the second phase, the 16th year, of the War on Terror. But years of failure have raised doubts that their bravery and skill have been well applied to these wars, or if they are even relevant. “Counterinsurgency is Not a Substitute for Strategy” — “Insurgencies and Countering …
Puncturing the myth of our Special Operations Forces, pawns in an unwinnable war Read More »
