Critics: Pentagon Still Not Adjusting to Insurgency
According to the creators of the “4th Generation Warfare” concept, the Pentagon has not adjusted to the new security environment despite having a nearly twenty years’ warning. Critics: Pentagon in...
View ArticleIraq War Success Stories
I have come across several pieces recently talking about very successful counter-insurgency operations in Iraq by American special operators. Together, they provide some useful lessons learned (or, as...
View ArticleRetired Generals Call for Rumsfeld Resignation
Two big stories are out today in the major press about a growing and potentially worrisome trend: Public statements by recently-retired flag officers against their former bosses. Thomas Ricks gives the...
View ArticlePetraeus’ Princeton PhD Posse
WaPo fronts a Thomas Ricks piece about a “brain trust” of PhD-holding officers being assembled by LTG David Petraeus to figure out how to win the Iraq counterinsurgency. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new...
View ArticleServing Officer Blasts Generals’ Failures
The current Armed Forces Journal features a devastating critique of America’s generals by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling, deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Thomas Ricks runs down...
View ArticleH.R. McMaster Passed Over – Reverse Peter Principle?
The legendary Colonel H.R. McMaster has been passed over, for a second time, for promotion to flag rank. Matt Bennett, a VP at the liberal Third Way sees this is a “corollary to the Peter Principle:...
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Fixing the Service Academies
Op-For‘s John Noonan argues in today’s Weekly Standard that it’s time to rethink the curriculum at West Point and the other service academies. West Point and all of the service academies promote math...
View ArticleSurge Working, Still Losing
AP’s Robert Burns left his “base” in Washington for a two week tour of Iraq and pronounces the Surge a great success. The all-important political reconciliation, on the other hand …. The new U.S....
View ArticleDissent in the Army
Phil Carter has an interesting debate with his Slate colleague Fred Kaplan about how the assignment of LTC Paul Yingling (of “A Failure in Generalship” fame) to a non-standard artillery assignment...
View ArticleH.R. McMaster Leads New Crop of Generals
The third time is the charm for H.R. McMaster, who is the most recognizable name on the list of new one-star generals selected by a promotion board headed up by none other than David Petraeus. An Army...
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McMaster Gets Star, ARCIC Directorship
H.R. McMaster has been officially nominated by the president for brigadier general and is “currently enroute to serve as director, concepts development and experimentation, Army Capabilities...
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Military Bureaucracy
Two separate reviews of The Fourth Star, a new book by David Cloud and Greg Jaffee, touch on a theme that has fascinated me since I wrote a dissertation on the subject. NYT foreign correspondent Dexter...
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Trump Selects Lt. General H.R. McMaster To Be National Security Adviser
President Trump announced late yesterday that he has chosen Lt. General H.R. McMaster to be his new National Security Adviser: PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump appointed Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster as...
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