A special election in Massachusetts held to select the replacement for Ted Kennedy as US Senator has had great political impact in the US with the victory of Scott Brown, the Republican candidate. The Kennedys, first JFK and then Teddy (with retainers inserted when technically required), had controlled the seat for 57 years. No Republican had held a Massachusetts seat (each stat…

Answering a question from that professor of the airwaves Oprah Winfrey, President Obama gave himself a B+ as a grade for his first year in office. This proved, as a friend said, that he did indeed attend Columbia and Harvard, Ivy League universities renowned in America for their grade inflation and self-congratulatory style.
To be fair to President Obama, however, 2009 was not a te…

A recent report indicated that President Obama had finally made a security policy related decision—not on his Afghanistan strategy which is yet to be announced– but rather on whether or not his administration would seek to have the US sign the treaty banning the production and use of anti-personnel land mines, a treaty that 156 other nations have already signed. Fir…

The selection of Barack Obama as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize belittles the President. Everybody knows that with just a few months in office that he has not had time to accomplish anything significant. His speeches may be inspiring, but they are likely written by others and usually express broad, vague aspirations that are neither unusual nor likely to be fulfilled s…

Six months ago the US military was being praised by many security specialists as finally having gotten it – understanding that its future was counter-insurgency best practices which means nation building under fire from insurgents in the world’s toughest neighborhoods. Yes, it had taken a while, but the military’s top leadership had finally seen the light. Future war was fight…

I believe in making security a lighter, more fun topic. In this quest to bring stand up comedy to what is basically a sit down field, I offer the following new ideas in part gleaned from conversations with colleagues who surely will not mind my skipping the attributions.
Why not ask China what it would pay for us to provide for its defense? Right now thanks to the US-Japan Security Treat…

The United States maintains both functional and geographic joint military commands to provide for America’s security globally. These commands report directly to the president (the Commander in Chief) via the Secretary of Defense, have representation from all US armed services, and are commanded by four star officers once called Commanders in Chief (CINCs) but in recognitio…

The Obama administration seems to be having big second thoughts about Afghanistan. President Obama in his election campaign promised to make Afghanistan the central front in our unnamed war. (The war was initially called the Global War on Terror and then the Long War by the US government; both titles are now  officially forbidden by the new administration as being politically in…

There is talk about US forces leaving Iraq early, in 2010 rather than the scheduled date of 2011. Terrific. But before one gets too enthusiastic about that prospect, one should consider the Korean case. The war in Korea started in 1950 and is still technically on although shooting incidents are rare events. After the Truce Agreement in 1953, the US continued to maintain forces in So…

US Secretary of defense Robert Gates said recently that coalition forces have about a year to turn around the war in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is resurgent, or risk losing support in America. Just a few days later the US military command in Afghanistan announced that action reports will no longer mention enemy casualties in an effort to bolster local support in Afghanistan by…