The suicide bombings in Jordan recently carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq seem to have blown back on the jihadis. According to Western press reports, almost all those killed were Muslims, including a Palestinian wedding party. Outrage among Jordanians has compelled...
Engagement: An Exit Strategy
One day late in the Vietnam war, a Senator called his defense staffer into his office. Like too many Senators (though neither of the two I worked for), the distinguished legislator depended entirely upon his staff but treated them like peons. Although the end of the...
Condi’s True Confessions
On Oct. 19, 2005, the American secretary of state, AKA the Tea Lady, did something extraordinary for the Bush administration. She told the truth. According to the Oct. 20 Washington Times, in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ms. Rice said "that it...
Important Distinctions
Georgie Ann Geyer, who may be America's most perceptive international affairs columnist, wrote in the Saturday, September 17 Washington Times about a recent Washington conference concerning the mess in the Middle East. That could, of course, have been a conference...
National Defense for a Republic
I spent last week in Pittsfield, Maine, at a symposium on modern war called by Colonel Mike Wyly, USMC retired. Col. Wyly was one of the heroes of the maneuver warfare movement in the Marine Corps in the 1970s and '80s, and when he suggests it's time for a new effort,...
Discouraging Lessons From Imperial Spain
In the 16th century, Europe was devastated by wars of religion, a fact that gives that unhappy time some relevance to our own. The foremost soldier and commander in 16th-century Europe was the duke of Alba. An excellent new biography of the duke by Henry Kamen offers...
Hunting for Cops
Until very recently, an article titled "Hunt for Cops" might have described a city's effort to recruit more police officers. Sadly, that was not the message of an article in the July 3, 2005, Cleveland Plain Dealer, my hometown newspaper. "Residents of...
The Sun Also Rises
For the first time since 1942, Japan has resumed the strategic offensive. Since the beginning of the year, Japan has claimed the island of Takeshima, now occupied by South Korea; seized control of an area in the South China Sea also claimed by Beijing; and, most...
The Other War We’re Losing
In view of the steady stream of bad news from Iraq – five dead Marines in Saturday’s paper, two more in Sunday’s, and four soldiers in Monday’s, along with the Ba'athist element of the resistance so "weakened" it is now striking targets...
Striking Back at the Empire
The recent votes in France and the Netherlands against the proposed constitution of the European Union are not merely political phenomena. They represent significant actions in the development of Fourth Generation war. Why? Because the root cause of Fourth Generation...