Essay Competition: Win T.X. Hammes recommended reading list How: Write and submit a short essay on the book that most changed or helped your career path.Essay competition
A model for modern insurgency Following years of promising gains since 2001, Afghanistan is in a tailspin. Not long ago, a sophisticated Taliban assault on a Kandahar prison freed 1,200 inmates, including 350 Taliban...BY MALOU INNOCENT
Incredible performance TO AIR FORCE acquisition assistant secretary Sue Payton. As the service’s chief weapons buyer, Payton should be held accountable for the debacle of the KC-X tanker competition. The...
Revised war powers TO JAMES BAKER AND WARREN CHRISTOPHER, co-chairs of the National War Powers Commission report, for a practical, fair and balanced proposal that deserves high-priority consideration by the...
Soundbite dispute TO THOSE who rushed to condemn Wes Clark’s remark about Sen. John McCain’s qualifications to be president. What Clark told “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer was...
From our online discussion boards ”MEL1776” COMMENTS ON MAJ. DAVID F. BIGELOW’S “MANAGING MANPOWER” ARTICLE, JUNE AFJ (http://www.armedforces journal.com/2008/06/3486514)
The long recovery On Dec. 19, 2006, Minnesota Army National Guardsman J.R. Salzman was leading a convoy to Tallil Air Base in southern Baghdad when an explosively formed penetrator tore through his truck. The...BY CHRISTOPHER GRIFFIN
Expensive bait The Defense Department faces daunting responsibilities to meet military personnel requirements, just as it did in past periods of extended military operations, and it finds itself in a...BY BRENDA FARRELL
The nonpartisan military In an interview with National Public Radio this spring, Gen. David Petraeus was asked about the prospect of a new president taking office next year who was committed to an expedited...BY CAPT. CHARLES G. KELS
Read different Since the early 1990s, the defense industry has been talking about the revolutionary technological changes taking place across society. It has worked hard to ensure we know what those...BY T.X. HAMMES
Heart of darkness War is the norm of human history, not the exception. Contrary to the Clausewitzian dictum that war is an instrument of policy, much of the world does not regard war as a political act...
Clausewitz’s bad advice Why do nations go to war? Why do their people agree to fight and risk their lives? There are several possible motivations, but we in the West have been conditioned to believe that the...BY PHILLIP S. MEILINGER
War’s irrational motivators The fundamental dictum guiding our diplomats and analysts has been that states and human collectives act in their own rational self-interest. This is utterly wrong, leading us to convoluted...BY RALPH PETERS
Playing for keeps Computers have permeated everyday life, making even the smallest task quicker and more efficient. The problem is that the efficiencies created by computers are costing us our resilience to...BY MARK HERMAN
Flashpoint: As the terror turns The good news is that nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida appears to be battered. The bad news is that like a prize fighter, it is bloodied, but not bowed — leaving it...BY PETER BROOKES
In this issue Southern Command commander Adm. James Stavridis, in his address to the Joint Warfighting conference in June, offered this appeal to service men and women and defense industry people:...Karen Walker
