*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Even the day after, a Saturday, the online backlash against an Army public affairs officer’s essay spilled over and invaded the birthday party my seven-year-old was attending. The phone pinged, pinged again, and then pinged some more, noises that were…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Fifty years ago this week, during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, a US Army major famously remarked to a journalist, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” Pilloried for its callousness, one fellow officer who claimed to…
*Note: This letter to the editor was published in the Baltimore Sun print edition on June 17, 2017. It can also be found online here (or PDF). Last week, U.S. Naval Academy professor Bruce Fleming described the circumstantial pomp of this year’s graduation day. He “usually love[s] it.” This year was different. It “wasn’t fun,” because Fleming felt…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. The scary/cool juxtaposition of the recent global ransomware attack with Google’s annual developer’s conference should, if nothing else, prompt us to reevaluate our relationship with the digital world. Google’s event (and the settled consensus) tells us the information age enables…
*Note: This essay was published at the Washington Post on June 2, 2017, and is available here (and PDF). Congress is in recess, and members have returned to their districts to hold town hall meetings, fundraisers and, in a few cases, don military uniforms to serve in the National Guard or Reserve. They shouldn’t. As an Army…
*Note: This essay was published in the Wall Street Journal print edition on May 26, 2017 and is available here. I didn’t even know I was crying until half my face was wet. It was Memorial Day 2004, and I had just returned from a year of fighting as a cavalry officer in Iraq. I was sitting in…
*Note: This essay was originally published at War on the Rocks on March 16, 2017 and is available online here. When twelve stars tell you to knock it off, there’s a problem. At several points throughout this past presidential campaign, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Michael Flynn’s partisan political behavior, while legal, was so out-of-line for a…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. I would never actively cheer an administrational death, but, paraphrasing Clarence Darrow, I did smile a bit while reading Michael Flynn’s resignation in the newspaper. It wasn’t for any personal ill will or partisan reason (my stance on political neutrality is well documented), but my grin…
*Note: This essay was published in the New York Times print edition on October 19, 2016 and is available online here. Tonight, like millions of Americans, I will be glued to my television, watching the third and last presidential debate. But unlike them, and millions of others, whatever I hear tonight, I won’t be taking it with…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Strategists evolve, shaped by the times they live in, prisoners of the problems of the day. And so, just as warfare constantly changes, so must strategists. So what will mold future strategists?