Decentralization: The Future of ISIS by Nicholas B. Pace With the United States increasingly involved in counter-terror operations across the world, terrorist organizations have had to become more flexible and adaptive to their environment. Centralized, top-down terrorist organizations with ambitions to target the United States and its interests are no longer feasible. The United…
Category: Military History
In 2015, Why Do We Still Fight?
Why fight wars at all? We lose lives and treasure even if we win. Those who survive are haunted by the violence and the price they paid; whether they were drafted or volunteered every one of them offered up their lives for an ideal. War is a bloody, terrible business. Military personnel are trained to…
Israel honors GI who told the Nazis, ‘We are all Jews’
US Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, who died in 1985, led over 1,000 POWs in refusing to deliver Jewish comrades to German captors The Nazi soldiers made their orders very clear: Jewish American prisoners of war were to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and sent to an uncertain fate. But Master Sgt….
8 Unbelievable Stories from the Second Battle of Fallujah
Veterans from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines share their incredible stories from the Second Battle of Fallujah. This time of year marks the anniversary of one of the most storied battles in recent Marine Corps history: the Second Battle of Fallujah. The city became the scene of brutal urban combat when American, Iraqi, and British forces…
Islam, Europe and the Tet Offensive, Take Two
Matthew Bracken is a former Navy SEAL with a BA in Russian Studies from the University of Virginia. In 1983 he led a Naval Special Warfare detachment to Beirut, Lebanon. Links to his short stories and essays can be found at EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com. More than a decade ago I wrote my first novel, Enemies Foreign and…
Espionage Files: OSS Living Legend Hugh Montgomery
I am currently writing a series of short stories about the OSS during WW2. Here are some of my inspirations. -SF WASHINGTON — Hugh Montgomery never wrote a memoir. That just wasn’t done among his generation of spies. But his exploits as a World War II combat veteran, CIA cold warrior and Washington power player…
Giving Thanks to the OSS
As today’s security depends increasingly on intelligence and special operators, Congress should act to honor those who paved their way. What do attorney James Donovan (portrayed by Tom Hanks in “Bridge of Spies”), the “French Chef” Julia Child, Virginia Hall (the only American civilian woman to receive the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II),…
1943: A Bloody Thanksgiving in the Pacific
As we celebrate Thanksgiving, take a moment to remember the many Americans who gave their last full measure 72 years ago in the attack on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Almost two years after Pearl Harbor, the assault by the 2nd Marine Division on a Japanese-held stronghold started on Nov. 20, 1943, five…
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore After 3 Days of Fighting in the Ia Drang Valley
I found this video clip on You Tube of Lt. Colonel Hal Moore, US Army, made famous by the movie We Were Soldiers. I find clips like this simply amazing…this man had been through 3 days of living hell on earth, close-combat with a determined enemy, and yet, his remarks are as calm and postured…
World War II History: Foiling the Nazi’s Nuclear Plans
Growing up, I remember watching all those famous World War Two movies with my dad like Kelly’s Heroes, Where Eagles Dare, Force 10 from Navarone, etc. But one that always stuck out was The Heroes of Telemark with Kirk Douglas. When I got a little older and started reading more about WW2, I found out…