[Note: link available here.] The CBS Evening News featured a spot from Sunday’s upcoming 60 Minutes last night that features “Operation Proper Exit.” The mission is intended to provide wounded soldiers the opportunity to meaningfully confront their wounds, both intellectually and emotionally. This segment highlights, for me, what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is to our…
On March 15, 2008, eminent historian (and Gustavus Adolphus College graduate) James McPherson, addressed the Pritzker Military Library on President Lincoln as a strategist. His analysis is interesting: “As Commander in Chief in time of war, the President performs or overseas three areas: Policy, National Strategy, and Military Strategy.” “Policy refers to war aims, the…
This is probably the worst image I’ve posted, likely due to the small market for the irrelevant weapon I’m writing about. While listening to a talk by Alan Millett on the period before the Korean War, he mentioned a phrase often used there: “Golden Axe.” It was to indicate a pretty, but absolutely useless weapon.…
Because the Pritzker Military Library has blessed me with so much content recently, I feel compelled to comment on some of it while it is still on my mind. On November 12, 2005, Doris Kearns Goodwin spoke to the Library about Abraham Lincoln and her hugely successful book, Team of Rivals. She commented on what…
I’ve recently been listening to some amazing lectures available from the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago…one can find the series of authors and historians discussing topical issues and their books on iTunes for free. An amazing resource, especially Doris Kearns Goodwin on Lincoln. Anyhow, I came across two interpretations that I was interested in and…
Tim Harford has written an excellent book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure – that in my humble opinion should be at the top of reading list for every member of the US military responsible for leading the organization at large. Harford’s basic premise is that the world’s problems/challenges are much too complex for…
In a recent Foreign Policy blog entry, Paul Miller lays out a response to former Utah Governor (and Ambassador to China) Jon Huntsman’s comment that the US has given its “all” to Afghanistan. Miller compares the efforts there with previous wars in terms of blood and treasure.
From Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations (and formerly of the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute) in a National Public Radio interview on “How Wars End: Part 5, Bosnia,” on the basic choice between stability and war ~ “Part of the reason the Just War tradition in Christian theology is accepting…
**Note: when first published, I made the error of referring to CT and COIN as different potential “strategies” in Afghanistan. I should have known better. As Kilcullen himself says, COIN is an “operational technique” that does not supplant the need for true, comprehensive strategy or policy. Often, COIN operational technique falls under the umbrella of…
I’ve been watching the PBS documentary The War by Ken Burns, and, although not quite as good as his The Civil War, is still very well done. If The Civil War was an A+, then The War is an A-. Both are highly watchable, gripping, and informative.