Sven Ortmann 30 September 2009 William S. Lind has proposed a re-training of U.S. infantry with what he calls “true light infantry or Jaeger tactics” to solve tactical challenges in Afghanistan. He especially referenced General McChrystal’s restrictions that recently limited the Western ground forces’ ability to address tactical challenges with fire support. A simple step from […]

William S. Lind 29 September 2009 The headline of the September 23 Washington Post read, “Less Peril for Civilians, but More for Troops.” The theme of the article was that restrictions General Stanley McChrystal has imposed on the use of supporting arms in Afghanistan, with the objective of reducing Afghan civilian casualties, have increased American […]

William S. Lind 22 September 2009 The Washington Post yesterday made available an unclassified version of General Stanley McChrystal’s long-awaited report on the war in Afghanistan. Politically, the report is bold, in that it acknowledges the enemy has the initiative and we have been fighting the war – for eight years – in counterproductive ways. […]

Although he may not realize it: Its not just in the technology realm that America’s enemies are seeking advantage.. Unable to counter the U.S. dominance in long-range strike, enemies in wars use information operations among the people to influence perceptions about civilian casualties and deny the U.S. ability to leverage its asymmetric advantages. Deptula said […]

William S. Lind 14 September 2009 The Taliban’s air force recently delivered another devastating strike, hitting two fuel tanker trucks that had been captured by local Taliban-affiliated forces in northern Afghanistan. As usual, many civilians were killed, inflaming the local population against NATO forces in an area that had been relatively quiet. The air strike […]

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William S. Lind 9 September 2009 An article in the August 28 New York Times described a recent epiphany on the part of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. It seems that Admiral Mullen now “gets” a point Fourth Generation war theorists have made for years, namely that Information Operations […]

Thoughts on the use of general purpose forces versus special operations forces and special forces in current and future conflicts. by Douglas Macgregor, PhD, COL, US Army, Retired. Doug and I sometimes disagree on how much conventional force we still need.  In this PowerPoint (827 KB), delivered in April at the National Defense University in […]

[Editor’s note:  Two of our more frequent contributors recently engaged in some e-mail ping-pong, and they thought you might enjoy their exchange.  Loggie is a retired logistician, now consulting. Max grew up in Montreal, Canada, and was exposed to the French Quebec separatist movement and the terrorist FLQ activity of the early 1970s. This exposure […]