Ghosts of Balkans Haunt Ukraine
By James Kitfield Rare is the diplomatic crisis that is bungled by all sides. You have to go back all the way back to the initial breakup of Yugoslavia and the Balkans crisis of the…
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Is Era of American Militarism Ending?
By James Kitfield When President Barack Obama spoke from the White House last September to rally a war-weary nation behind limited strikes against Syria, the vast power he wielded as commander-in-chief seemed more curse than blessing.…
Can Another ‘Anbar Miracle’ Save Iraq?
By James Kitfield To defeat al-Qaeda’s most dangerous offspring and stave off another civil war, Iraq’s government hopes to repeat the “Anbar Miracle.” Also known as the “Sunni Awakening,” that rebellion of the Sunni tribes against…
Biden was Right About Dividing Iraq
By James Kitfield In his new book Duty: Memoir of a Secretary at War, Robert Gates memorably impugns Joe Biden’s judgment as “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four…
Bob Gates’ Memoir, A Realist at War
By James Kitfield With his Sphinx-like demeanor and penchant for playing his cards close to his chest, there was always something of Chauncey Gardner in former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ public persona. Like the…
Notable Quotables: Secretary of State John Kerry
“This is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis. That is exactly what the President and the world decided some time ago when we left Iraq. So we are not, obviously, contemplating returning. We’re not…
The Network: Exclusive Interview with Defence Intelligence Chief Mike Flynn
By James Kitfield Next year the United States will withdraw its last combat troops from Afghanistan, ending more than a decade of conflict in that country. The threat from the core al Qaeda group that…
The Armory: Reagan’s Last Laugh on U.S. Missile Defense
By James Kitfield For the wizards of Armageddon who devised the nuclear doctrine of “mutually assured destruction,” Ronald Reagan was a heretic. Armies of MAD scientists, engineers, and weapons jockeys on both sides of the…
The Sentinels: How Decade of Cutting Corners Is Causing “Moral Injury” to US Military
By James Kitfield It has not been a good year for America’s armed forces. More than thirty instructors are under investigation for systematic sexual abuse of cadets at Lackland Air Force Base, the number of…
Capitol Defense: Washington’s Political Paralysis is Endangering Soldiers’ Lives
By James Kitfield The best place to understand how Washington’s political paralysis is endangering soldiers’ lives is Army leaderships’ collective unease is down a lonely road that exits Barstow, California, and bores thirty miles in…