The spec ops stretch
The impending expansion of Army special operations forces laid out in this year’s Quadrennial Defense Review is spreading waves of unease throughout the Special Forces community.
By Sean D. Naylor
Revenge of the staff weenie
If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, the long history of military humor proves that satire may well be the last refuge of the patriot. Perhaps the single best source for...
By Christopher Griffin
Airstrike
Professor Collins’ spirited defense of the ground perspective is exactly the kind of discussion I hoped my article would catalyze. His views are predictable, and not just because he is...
By Maj. Gen. Charles J. Dunlap Jr.
From the ground up
Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap’s essay on air power, “America’s asymmetric advantage,” in the September AFJ was a blast from the past — a throwback to the...
By Joseph J. Collins
Lessons from Lebanon
Much has been written about Israel’s strategic errors in this summer’s conflict with Hezbollah, from the embrace of the long-since discredited notion that a war can be won with...
By Ralph Peters
New rules for new enemies
We put an Army on the battlefield that I had been a part of for 37 years. It doesn’t have any doctrine, nor was it educated and trained, to deal with an insurgency. ... After the...
BY LT. COL. JOHN A. NAGL AND LT. COL. PAUL L. YINGLING
Air power’s lost lessons
The period between the first and second world wars served as the formative years for the development of American military aviation and air power theory. The practical application of air...
BY LT. COL. SKIP HINMAN
Why doctrine matters and how to fix it
Not too long ago a bright war college student said to his instructor, “I know all this Clausewitz stuff is important, but I’m going to the Army Staff and what I really need to...
By COL. ROBERT KILLEBREW (Ret.)
Halloween surprise?
It’s October, and voters appear likely to turn over control of the House of Representatives and maybe the Senate, too, to the Democrats. So it’s time for an October surprise....
By WILLIAM MATTHEWS
Ideological threats
Ralph Peters once again offers a needed perspective on the reality of today’s ideological fight [“The hearts-and-minds myth,” September]. While academia may loathe...
In this issue
Is doctrine too rigid for the adaptive thinking needed to win the war we fight today, or did decades of relative peace cause us to drift from war-fighting fundamentals? This debate over...