It’s dangerous to live by the unexamined assumption. Exhibit A: the oft-heard claim that U.S. sea and air forces sporting precision-guided arms will make short work of military facilities on South China Sea islets. “So what?” says one Pentagon official of Beijing’s island-building project. “If China wants to build vulnerable airstrips on these rocks, let…
Category: Military History
7 Times the U.S. almost stumbled into War with Russia
With all of the shenanigans going on in Syria with Russia lately, I thought it prudent to review America’s history with this long time cold (and sometimes hot) enemy.-SF In light of current events in places like the Ukraine and Syria, the risk of America and Russia fighting a proxy war or even a real war…
U.S. vs. Russia: What a War would look like between the World’s most fearsome Militaries
VLADIMIR PUTIN’S BRAZEN MOVES IN SYRIA AND UKRAINE RAISE NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT AMERICA’S CONTINGENCY PLANS By Andrew Tilghman and Oriana Pawlyk, Staff writers Early on the morning of Sept. 30, a Russian three-star general approached the American embassy in Baghdad, walked past a wall of well-armed Marines, to deliver face-to-face a diplomatic demarche to the…
Corbett vs. The Caliphate: What a Long Dead Naval Strategist Tells us about Combatting the Islamic State
Julian Corbett (1854-1922) has long been hidden in the shadow of Clausewitz and by the baneful glare of modern think tanks. Renowned as a naval thinker, Corbett was far more—and ever adept at pointing out how absolute theories collapse when faced with reality. Of particular pertinence to the current befuddlement of U.S. policy toward…
A Grunt’s Thoughts on the Loss of Kunduz
By Ryan Blum Best Defense guest columnist As I’m scrolling through my Facebook feed during my Monday morning commute I almost overlook a post from my old Company Commander: “Taliban Fighters Overrun Kunduz City as Afghan Forces Retreat” My mouth drops. Back in March of 2010 my unit took responsibility for Kunduz Province in northern…
Unsung Heroes: The Corpsman who Saved 5 Marines at Nasiriyah
Navy corpsman Luis Fonseca ran through hell to treat five wounded Marines, carrying one to safety himself. On March 23, 2003, in Nasiriyah, Iraq, Luis Fonseca, a seaman apprentice, was a Navy corpsman on his first deployment, assigned to the Marine Corps’ 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion. Fonseca’s unit was tasked with capturing and holding the…
HOW THE OSS SHAPED THE CIA AND AMERICAN SPECIAL OPS
Six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Office of Strategic Services to collect and analyze intelligence and conduct special operations. Its formal existence lasted just three years. But more than 70 years on, the U.S. organizations charged with these missions today remain indelibly influenced by the OSS…
The Battle of Salamis: Themistocles and the Birth of Strategy
The dichotomy of strategy and tactics in war did not solidify as a concept until the publication of Carl von Clausewitz’ On War in 1832. Since then the relationship between the two has been hotly debated, along with the subsequent interjection of the operational level of war. What is not debated are the concepts themselves….
UNSUNG HEROES: The Heroic Last Stand Of Two Marines In Ramadi
Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter bravely sacrificed themselves to stop a suicide bomber, saving the lives of 150 comrades. On April 22, 2008, in Ramadi, Iraq, two Marine infantrymen stood their ground and opened fire on a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives as it barreled toward their post and the 150…
Bad-Ass of the Week: Douglas Bader
Tuesday September 15th was the 75th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day – the high point in an epic five-month campaign that ripped apart the skies above England during the early stages of World War II. With Hitler noscope teabagging all of Europe in 1939 and 1940 and celebrating like he’d just blindsided a QB…