Category Archives: Newsletter
NSF: Significant Conclusions from the Afghanistan Study Group
Colleagues: The “New America Foundation” convened a mixed group of scholars, national security experts, and veterans of the Afghanistan conflict to produce this study, “Rethinking the U.S. War in Afghanistan”. The report was written by the “Afghanistan Study Group”, which … Continue reading
NSF: Upcoming Programs
Memorandum for: Members of the National Security Forum From: Your Minister of Enlightenment SUBJ: Upcoming NSF/World Affairs Council Meetings Colleagues: We have three very interesting meetings coming up in September and early October. The first will be with Werner Fornos, … Continue reading
NSF: Random thoughts on defense economics
Colleagues: More and more concern has been demonstrated by the Secretary of Defense regarding the unsustainability of America’s military spending. He has proposed severe cutbacks in major weapon systems, reducing headquarters (including at the Pentagon), cutting the number of General officers and … Continue reading
NSF: US Policy in Afghanistan and Iraq: Looking Ahead to the Next Year
Colleagues: Two very interesting articles today worth reading, one on Afghanistan and one on Iraq, both looking forward to the next year and critical milestones that American policy in that region faces. First, a CSM article on the key turning … Continue reading
NSF: Increasing global reliance on counter-terrorism strategies
Colleagues: Several of you have chided me for not critically looking at ”Option 2” for Afghanistan, the so-called “Counter-Terrorism” alternative that VP Biden apparently favored. That approach has been expanded to include more reliance on UAVs (Predators), Special Forces units, … Continue reading
NSF: The AQ/Islamist Jihad is a real threat. Now here is how to defeat t…
Colleagues: This is an excellent piece by a COL Tom Snodgrass (USAF/Ret). The author does not flinch from stating explicitly that our “losing” in Afghanistan and Iraq would mean a significant gain for Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated insurgent/terrorist … Continue reading
NSF: Hiroshima/Nagasaki Revisited
HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI REVISITED: WAS THE DROPPING OF THE ATOMIC BOMBS JUSTIFIED? The period between August 6 and August 9 always calls for revaluations of President Truman’s decision to drop the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That took on … Continue reading
NSF: China–Thoughts on the economy, the currency, and politico-military…
Colleagues: Over the past few months I have been collecting facts and opinion pieces on China–it’s economic prowess, its currency “reform”, its overseas involvement, and its increasingly tension-filled relationship with the U.S. I decided to put these random thoughts together … Continue reading
NSF: Elite opinion rapidly shifting against the war, but not the Administration
Colleagues: Two very different perspectives on the war in Afghanistan today. As I have noted, I am amazed at the rapidity in the shift of opinions written by national security experts over just the past two months toward the conclusion … Continue reading
NSF: On Greg Mortensen’s Influence on the U.S. Military and our COIN doc…
Colleagues: In a recent post I noted how much the U.S. Army and top military leaders had been influenced by Greg Mortensen, the author or the highly acclaimed, “Three Cups of Tea”. However, that has been a reciprocal relationship, as … Continue reading
