Bottom Line Up Front: • Armed militants are suspected to have crossed into Tunisia from Libya on March 7, carrying out attacks on Tunisian security forces in the border town of Ben Gardane • The assault comes less than a week after five militants crossed the border from Libya and were killed in a shootout with Tunisian…
Category: Studies in Warfare
What the 2016 Presidential Candidates Get Wrong About the Future of War
They fail, they lack, they misunderstand, they pander, they don’t get, and they just don’t know national security – not according to our Future of War roster of experts. “The President shall be Commander in Chief…” This clause that leads Article Two, Section II of the U.S. Constitution is without a doubt the most important of…
World War Two History: Los Aliados – The Latin Americans Who Helped Defeat the Axis
“While their contributions to the final victory may seem miniscule when compared to those of other world powers, their participation is nonetheless noteworthy.” THE NATIONS OF LATIN AMERICA are not often counted among the foremost contributors to the Second World War. Countries like Chile and Uruguay largely stayed on the sidelines until the war’s final…
Russian Subs Are Reheating a Cold War Chokepoint
As the GIUK gap returns to importance, NATO must look to regenerate its anti-submarine force. The recent U.S. promise to fund upgrades to Iceland’s military airfield at Keflavik is no diplomatic bone thrown to a small ally. The improvements will allow the U.S. Navy’s new P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to keep an eye on…
Military Weapons from the Past: Americas First Rolling Armored “Shotgun”
A weird little Marine Corps tank blasted North Vietnamese troops Designed and built in a farm tractor factory and armed with six 106-millimeter recoilless rifles, the M-50A1 Ontos was rejected by the Army and only purchased in small numbers by the Marine Corps. Years later in Vietnam, the USMC trained infantry riflemen to drive these…
Espionage Non-Fiction Book Review: The Rice Paddy Navy
Osprey Publishing; November 2012; 316 pp. Before Navy SEALs stormed mansions in Pakistan, the notion of sailors waging war on land sounded ludicrous to many. So when Gen. George C. Marshall learned that Navy captain Milton Miles intended to train an army of Chinese guerillas to disrupt Japanese army operations in China and create a…
Stand with Israel: Hamas Boost Cooperation with ISIS in Sinai
The Gaza terror group’s armed wing is digging tunnels in broad daylight to smuggle in Islamic State jihadists for medical care The Egyptian soldiers stationed on the border of the Gaza Strip have encountered this sight more than once in the past few weeks: Hamas-owned bulldozers and tractors appear and begin excavations on the…
Military Weapons from the Past: The MAT-49
Although it does not mention it here, this weapon was used quite frequently by American MACVSOG and LRRP Units in Vietnam. John L. Plasters’ excellent book, Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG, talks about it. Plaster also wrote one of the best books IMO on Long Range Shooting and Sniping…
World War II History: Legacies, Short Audio Clips of the Second World War
Recently a close friend told me about this website Audioburst that features short audio clips of Veterans recounting memories of their experiences in World War Two. I urge you to visit this website and take some time listening to some of these stories. They are all very short, most of them under 2 or 3 minutes,…
Military History: The U.S. Navy’s “Douche” Boat Washed Away Viet-Cong Bunkers
In the early morning hours of June 10, 1969, U.S. Navy vessels sailed down a stretch of the Vam Co Dong River in South Vietnam. The force included a special weapon sailors called a “douche boat,” which could literally wash away Viet Cong fortifications. “My assigned mission was to search out and destroy … bunkers,…