Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks’ daily take on national security.
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1000w_q95 Should this have been the American strategy in Afghanistan? Yes, I think so
In a new book on the American war in Afghanistan, Aaron MacLean presents this alternative approach as the road not taken.
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51ZaM3OUSNL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_ Book excerpt: ‘Hue ‘68’
In his new book, Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam, Mark Bowden describes what would become the biggest and bloodiest battle of the American War in Vietnam, played out over 24 days and costing over 10,000 civilian and combatant lives.
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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 16: National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster answers questions during a press briefing at the White House May 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. McMaster defended the President Donald Trump's decision to share intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during an Oval Office meeting last week. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Watching McMaster: The first rule of Realism is you don’t talk about Realism
Careful readers of Thucydides know that the’ glorification of brute force makes more enemies than friends
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3colt Why do officers carry sidearms?
A book I read recently states that it is for controlling one’s own soldiers.
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General_Sir_Alan_Brooke,_Chief_of_General_Staff,_1942_TR153 Churchill had his faults, but he was a far better strategist than his generals were
This is an excerpt from my new book, Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom.
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Yatung, junger Engl‰nder des Secret Service Twitter lists: Some British specialists in covert action and intelligence
By Luca Trenta, Best Defense guest twitterist
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Dolly_a_proud_British_Lioness_is_fighting_with_allied_front-line_forces._She_is_mascot_of_a_South_African_Pioneer..._-_NARA_-_196357 Honorary war dog: ‘Dolly’ the lioness
She hung out South African troops building airfields in the Sahara.
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170503-F-DM566-1048C We ask too much of our Air Force pilots
The U.S. Air Force is facing a severe crisis, and it's a cultural one.
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Eager Lion 17 Thinking through U.S. objectives in Syria
Following President Donald Trump’s decision last month to strike the airfield from which Syrian forces launched their last chemical weapons attack, statements by our nation’s top diplomats — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley — offered decidedly mixed messages about what exactly our attack signified.
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Sunset_Glow_on_Mt_Tamalpais_by_William_Keith,_1896 The whereabouts of Tom Ricks
I’ll be throwing down the rhymes at 1 pm today at the Book Passage store just north of San Francisco in Corte Madera, California
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Brooke_-_Churchill_-_Montgomery An surprisingly ahistorical conclusion in ‘Army,’ but some other good stuff there
If Winston Churchill had left the war to the generals, the war almost certainly would have taken longer.
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Turing_test_diagram Jargon watch: USMC personnel edition
One rule of thumb I have is that the more a military specialty is removed from combat, the more obscure its language becomes.
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AmbroseBurnsideonMount1862 Tom in Portland tonight
Come on down to Powell’s Burnside tonight.
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RAF_Fighter_Command_1940_HU104450 1940: Middle-class pilots saved England, and what that meant for British politics
This is an excerpt from my new book, 'Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom.'
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Cazale_Godfather2 Busy Tom!: Book reviews, a call for Gen. McMaster to step down, and talking this week in Seattle, Portland, SF, and LA
The "New York Times Book Review" on Sunday ran another of my big surveys of new books about military history.
