As my readers know, I have given ample warnings on how the Syrian Civil War would spiral out of control and potentially envelop the Middle East in a regional war. A key piece holding the patchwork of post-Colonial, Mesopotamian nations together has been the acquiescence of the Kurdish populations living primarily in Northern Iraq, Syria, […]
Al Qaeda(AQ) is more powerful today than it was over a decade ago when then President George W. Bush declared his nebulous, ill-fated war on terrorism. Ironically, one could strongly argue it was the war against AQ that made AQ more popular and resilient than it could have ever hoped to be autonomously operating […]
Disturbing news continues to pour out of Iraq as it appears Al Qaeda forces in Iraq have transformed from an insurgent force to conventional military force. This is considered the last stage of a guerilla war by Mao Tse-Tung’s guide to guerilla warfare. The successful takeover of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi by Al […]
October 10, 2013: Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John F. Sopko, wrote to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel about serious concerns with the impact of the drawdown on security and the related implications for ensuring adequate oversight of the U.S.-funded reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. In brief, […]
America’s war against Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan began over 12 years ago this last week. This grim milestone came and went with no media coverage even as some of America’s best men and women were killed there in combat this week. Now, in the lead up to a complete US military withdrawal […]
Syrian government forces reinforced by Lebanese Hezbollah forces have been consolidating their control over the strategic rebel held district of Homs, which is Syria’s third largest city. Homs has been controlled by rebels in part since 2011. The recent military success by the Syrian military and Hezbollah fighters has left the rebels in retreat and […]
Tuning into the Fox and CNN “entertainment” networks, one would be lucky to catch a small bit of news between the brain numbing, around the clock reports on the Trayvon Martin Case and Anthony Weiner’s perverse antics. Nonetheless, a close follower may have gathered that “former” Egyptian President Morsi was overthrown in a broadly supported coup […]
INTRODUCTION The mighty U.S. military industrial complex (MIC) continues to swell, particularly after two decade-long, trillion dollar wars and a post 9/11 world wrought with conflict. A 2012 CNBC report concluded that among the ten biggest U.S. government contractors, defense contractors secured a remarkable nine of the ten spots (Toscano, 2012). These mega-Fortune 500 companies […]
April 2013 has gone down as the deadliest month in Iraq since June of 2008 when the worst of the insurgent violence was finally beginning to diminish. The casualty figures are staggering with the United Nations reporting 712 people killed last month, including 117 members of the Iraqi security forces.[i] Whether or not one believes […]
Confirming B2Wire analysis from April 10, 2013, it appears that North Korea has put away its missiles and has now suddenly become a “non-threat.” Not so ironically, the appearance and disappearance of the “imminent” threat North Korean missiles posed to the United States directly corresponded with the implementation of Sequestration and defense cuts and then […]
Speaking in Washington on April 3, 2013, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. can’t afford to dismiss North Korean threats as bluster. “It only takes being wrong once, and I don’t want to be the secretary of defense who was wrong once, so we will continue to take these threats seriously,” he said.[i] Secretary […]
For years economists have warned of the time when international trade will begin decoupling from the U.S. Dollar as the world’s reserve currency. As the theory goes, the United States will face financial and economic collapse if the position of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is undermined. In short, the U.S. can finance its […]
Over the last month, North Korea has significantly escalated tensions on the peninsula by announcing it has entered a “state of war” with South Korea, closed key border areas, and announced the reactivation of shuttered nuclear facilities. The statement, carried by the communist country’s KCNA news agency, says inter-Korean relations will be dealt with in a wartime manner. “From this […]
Part II of our series continues to evaluate the success of the War on Terror. It is our thesis that not only has American policy and strategy failed to defeat terrorist threats to the United States from radical Islam, but it has in fact exasperated them. Today, Al Qaeda and terrorism have become the new […]
As the never ending War on Terror drags on into the fourth consecutive presidential term without any decisive gains, one must question not only the effectiveness and strategy, but also our very leadership. Nowhere is the ground truth more palpable than in western Pakistan. Since President Obama took office and significantly increased drone strikes against […]