Defense and the National Interest

By William S. Lind
One of several dead hands the First Generation of Modern War lays on contemporary state militaries’ throats is linearity. Most state militaries both seek and expect linearity on and off the battlefield. Sometimes, this manifests itself in tactics that offer magnificent if unintentional tableux vivant. I recall a field [...]

Statement Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight
By: Douglas Macgregor, PhD, Colonel (ret) U.S. Army
February 8, 2008
Click here to download (68 KB PDF)
COL MacGregor provides a penetrating analysis of the implications of ad-hoc agreements with the current Iraqi government. We can’t say we weren’t warned.

By William S. Lind
One of the more intriguing questions Clio poses is the degree to which great military victories were the fruit of smart plans as opposed to dumb luck. Did the North Vietnamese expect the Tet Offensive to be a tactical defeat but an operational victory? They now claim they did, but [...]

By William S. Lind
A piece in the December 27, 2007 Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Vote on fate of Kirkuk postponed,” by Tina Susman and Asso Ahmed of the L.A. Times, reported that
Kurdish lawmakers agreed Wednesday to a six-month delay in a referendum on whether the oil-rich city of Kirkuk should join the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan [...]

By William S. Lind
From: Major Wormwood, III Section (Current Ops)
To: General Screwtape, Chief-of-Staff, Supreme Infernal Headquarters, Chateau de Malpense
Re: End of year net assessment
Sir:
Your Lucifership asked for a short report on the state of the world before the week of December 25, when all Hell is too weak to work. Please forgive my non-use [...]

By William S. Lind
Fourth Generation Seminar
(Note: This On War column is a product of the Fourth Generation War seminar, whose earlier products include the fourth generation war manual FMFM-1A [237 KB PDF]. The seminar, which I lead, is currently composed of U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army officers, mostly captains. W.S. Lind)
Recent tactical [...]

Retired US Army COL Doug Macgregor has just published a critical look at this issue.
While the arrangement reached by U.S. military commanders and dubbed the “Great Awakening” has allowed the administration and its allies to declare the surge a success, it carries long-term consequences that are worrisome, if not perilous. The reduction in U.S. casualties [...]

What do you do when you fail in the “marketplace of ideas”? You could give force a chance. Carl Conneta at the Project on Defense Alternatives has written an interesting piece on this subject. He observes that
Using military power to prevent the emergence of threats often implies treating actors who are not [...]

Is this beginning to sound familiar?

Already, a walk through neighborhoods where the volunteer groups are active is an unsettling experience. Small groups of young armed men guard street corners, while others ride in open trucks. In many areas they wear camouflage uniforms that resemble military ones, making it hard to tell whom they work [...]

By Elaine M. Grossman, Global Security Newswire
© National Journal Group Inc.
In his testimony before House and Senate panels this week, Army Gen. David Petraeus urged a deliberative approach to shifting security responsibilities to the nascent Iraqi army, but it is not clear he will have the last word on timing.
Some top military and civilian officials [...]