Tony Blankley: Bring Back the Draft

Tony Blankley, former press secretary to Newt Gingrich and editorial page editor of the Washington Times, has a new book out that, among other things, argues for reinstatement of the military draft.  Unlike liberals like Charlie Rangel or even centrist Phil Carter, he doesn't do so on the basis of "fairness" or spreading the burden but rather on the sheer ...

Iraq War Now Peacekeeping Mission?

Michael J. Totten weighs in on the  Iraq War is Over and We Won argument and decides that, while he's "reluctant" to answer that question in the affirmative, "The war in Iraq is all but over right now, and it will be officially over if the current trends in violence continue their downward slide. " [Michael] Yon is braver than the ...

COIN, Armed Nation Building, and Peer Competitors

Joshua Keating reports on some interesting discussions at a high level foreign policy conference. Of particular interest is Anthony Cordesman's contention that the term "counterinsurgency" ought to be abandoned altogether in favor of "armed nation-building" and his unconventional thinking on the way in which the operation in Iraq is impacting what is generally thought to be a more important ...

Post-Conventional War Army

Don Rumsfeld spent six years leading a transformation of the United States military to fight modern conflicts. His successor, Bob Gates, is going light years beyond that. Peter Spiegel and Julian Barnes have the report. Absorbing the lessons of a troubled war, U.S. military officials have begun an intense debate over proposals for a sweeping reorganization of the Army to ...

Lawfare Amid Warfare

I have referred many times over the years to a 1992 Parameters piece written by then-Colonel Charles J. Dunlap, "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012." It was an instant classic and its lessons remain as important as ever. I had presumed Dunlap had long since retired but he has been promoted to Major General and is ...