William S. Lind 29 June 2009 The advent of General Stanley McChrystal as America’s overall commander in Afghanistan appears to be good news. He seems to understand that in this kind of war, the rule must be, “First, do no harm.” Associated Press recently reported him as saying that his measure of effectiveness will be […]

On MotherJones.com: Shock and Audit, by Rachel Morris I’ve skimmed the series and it seems worth a more detailed read.  In the meantime, the opening paragraph contains this checklist, which reads like a manifesto of the Defense Reform Movement (of which Boyd was a founding member): But although the press touted the proposals as bold […]

William S. Lind 22 June 2009 The current crisis in Iran is not 4GW. It is a struggle for control of a state, not an attempt to replace the state with something else. However, it could prove a harbinger of 4GW in Iran, because what is at stake is the legitimacy of current Iranian political […]

William S. Lind 17 June 2009 Secession is in the air. In Texas, a Republican governor has dared breathe the word. Vermont has an active and growing secessionist movement. Oregon, Washington and British Columbia already call themselves Cascadia. Last weekend’s Wall Street Journal led off with a piece on secession. The author, Paul Starobin, wrote […]

Some of you may recall that a while back, October 2006 to be exact, DNI ran an op-ed by Steve Pressfield on tribalism. Now, the novelist (Gates of Fire, The Afghan Campaign, Killing Rommel, etc.) has a new video blog series about tribalism. He maintains that “The enemy in Afghanistan today (and in Iraq and […]

by William S. Lind June 2, 2009 The recent fire/counterfire between President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney over Guantanamo, the prisoners held there and techniques used in their interrogation revealed a distressing ignorance in the White House. Specifically, it revealed that Obama and his advisors are ignorant of military theory.