Blog Posts

"America’s elite special operations forces are getting new marching orders as the Pentagon moves away from its post-9/11 focus on radical terrorist groups and trains its eye on big-power rivals such as China and Russia."

"It is happening in Syria now. Iraqi forces faced it in Mosul. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran all boast complex facilities laced with reinforced command and control and the ability to deploy thousands of troops, tanks, missiles and even launch planes from underground runways."

"The possible emergence of a new era of tunnel warfare will challenge the Air Force to think of new ways to find, and defeat, a hidden enemy."

"What’s on the wish list for underground operations? Retired Army Maj. John Spencer, who served as an officer and enlisted soldier in the infantry, is now chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the Modern War Institute at West Point. He commanded troops in Baghdad during the Iraq War. Military Times asked Spencer what he would want, beyond standard kit, for an underground fight. He said most gear already in the tool bag centers around the important breaching and communicating tasks."

"The succession of setbacks left the opposition here scrambling Tuesday to sustain what has become the single biggest challenge to 20 years of socialist rule and manage inflated expectations of a rapid ouster of Madur"

"The nuclear-armed neighbors have a long history of animosity. The main, ongoing source of conflict is Kashmir, a Himalayan border region whose status has been contested ever since India gained independence and Pakistan was created in the partition of British India."

"The Taliban continue to threaten Afghanistan’s provincial capitals, particularly Ghazni and Farah cities, both of which came under siege during the 2018 fighting season, according to the Department of Defense Inspector General."

"The House voted to block the White House from redirecting federal funds toward building a border wall, and the Senate inched closer to doing the same, raising the specter of President Trump exercising his veto power for the first time."

"The U.S. military blocked Internet access to an infamous Russian entity seeking to sow discord among Americans during the 2018 midterms, several U.S. officials said, a warning that the Kremlin’s operations against the United States are not cost-free."

"The Taliban and Washington's peace envoy are close to reaching an agreement on U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Islamic insurgents said Tuesday amid a new round of talks with the United States."

"India says it has carried out pre dawn air strikes in Pakistan on a camp of the Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, which claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb that killed 40 paramilitary troops in Indian Kashmir nearly two weeks ago."

"The United States and its European allies have fixated on one of the most meaningless and truly stupid strategic debates in modern history: the extent to which given NATO countries spend 2% of their GDP on defense by 2024."

"India has launched what it called a “preemptive” air strike against Pakistan-based militants following a suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir earlier this month."

"India says it launched air strikes against Kashmiri militants in Pakistani territory in a major escalation of tensions between the two countries."

"The question for past, present, and even future administrations is how should a great nation confront an adversary like Islamic State that is committed to fighting forever war? The answer requires a more advanced understanding of Islamic State as a strategic adversary than we generally possess."

"U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with one of the Afghan Taliban's co-founders in Qatar, in what was said to be the highest-level engagement between the two sides as part of Afghanistan's peace process."

"Hundreds of women and children boarded trucks and evacuated the final piece of land still held by Islamic State Monday, prolonging the more than week-long exodus and delaying the U.S.-led coalition's final assault on the last shred of the terror group's self-declared caliphate."

"Brig. Gen. James Glynn, commander of Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, expects a surge of post-Sept. 11 babies this summer, when a fresh crop of high-school graduates boards the bus to boot camp."

"Vast swaths of Venezuela are controlled not by President Nicolás Maduro’s government but by a baffling proliferation of armed nonstate actors that include powerful prison gangs, Colombian guerrillas from the ELN or from splinter groups of the disbanded FARC, various ideologically infused 'colectivos' — in effect, paramilitary groups subscribing to a vaguely Marxist ideology and allied with the government. These groups make a handsome living from any number of illegal activities: trafficking cocaine, illegal gold mining, extortion, human trafficking, smuggling — you name it."

"An internal Pentagon report recently obtained by Bloomberg News detailed the need for a larger, more competent workforce — among other suggestions — as concerns of cyberattacks percolate throughout the U.S. military. The internal report from the Pentagon’s combat testing office warned while the military has made progress in defending against in-house attacks designed to test cyber systems, the improvements were not outpacing the growing capabilities of potential adversaries."

"Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter Friday to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting information on the alleged transfer of American weapons to al-Qaida and Iran-aligned fighters."

"Though unknown by us or the public during our visit, the ongoing discoveries of these terror tunnels offer valuable glimpses into this looming war."

"Over the past nearly 20 years of fighting in ­low-intensity conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. troops have been afforded some of the comforts of home at larger military installations... That also means the days of Green Beans Coffee and Burger King on your next combat deployment will likely be a thing of the past."

"A new round of peace talks between Taliban and U.S. negotiators is to begin in Doha this week and will include the militant group’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, according to Taliban and diplomatic sources in Qatar."

"The continued presence of thousands of civilians, including families of Islamic State fighters, is slowing a push by U.S.-backed forces to oust the extremist group from the last patch of territory it holds in Syria."