Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks’ daily take on national security.
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111201-A-8267F-567 U.S. Army military policemen take a knee during a patrol along a road outside Camp Taji, Iraq, on Dec. 2, 2011. The soldiers are assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. The military policemen rolled out before sunrise to patrol roads to ensure the safety of the brigade's convoys traveling through the area from Baghdad. DoD photo by Sgt. Kissta Feldner, U.S. Army. (Released) ‘Taking a knee’: An Army tradition
In the Army, taking a knee is a way of gaining perspective. The rest of us could use some of that.
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800px-F-100C_188TFS_TuyHoa ‘Vietnam’ 7: Demonstrators to the front
While unfit to comment on the wild student riots that dominate much of Episode 7, I think their importance is overplayed — hugely visual, of course, but overplayed.
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Ice_Cold_in_Alex_poster War films: A British selection of the best
“The 30 best war films of all time” — selected by someone who clearly loves movies about the Brits in World War II. The parenthetical remarks are mine.
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VIETNAM WAR- 25TH ANNIVERSARY: D.R. Howe treats the wounds of Private First Class D.A. Crum, "H" Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, During Operation Hue City in Vietnam 06 February, 1968 AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES (Photo credit should read NATIONAL ARCHIVES/AFP/Getty Images) Burns and Novick’s ‘Vietnam’ 6: Macabre, mostly
The sixth episode of the series shows us where the war's bloody unwinding began.
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170428-F-AI758-098 A military therapy dog
Labradors are good at therapy.
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soldierreadinglist The Army reading list: Annoying habits, bad choices and very woolly thinking
This year's summer reading list is breathtakingly mediocre.
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dakto Burns’s ‘Vietnam’ 5: On the brink of Tet
In episode 5, Burns dives into the Tet offensive and wrestles with unrest on the home front.
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Hardtack_II_Socorro_test Hey: We are edging closer to nuclear war!
Why is President Harry S. Truman on President Donald Trump’s mind this week?
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Robert_McNamara_at_a_cabinet_meeting,_22_Nov_1967 Burns’s ‘Vietnam’ 4: I think I see the point. Maybe.
T.R. Fehrenbach, in his classic book about the Korean War, says that bombs from the sky aren’t the same as boots on the ground.
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A front view of four nuclear free-fall bombs on a bomb cart. Like I was saying: Tactical nukes are on the table for use against North Korea
Here’s an exchange Defense Secretary James Mattis had with reporters yesterday about tactical nuclear weapons.
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Bruce_Crandall's_UH-1D ‘Vietnam’ Episode 3: Casting the die
Episode 3 forgets how the U.S. neglected greater cooperation with South Vietnam at great cost.
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Screen Shot 2017-09-18 at 9.20.45 AM Veterans Administration throws suicide stats out the back door on Friday at 5 p.m.
Suicide rates for veterans climb to "staggering" proportions.
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8290528771_1298f2ca6e_o ‘Vietnam’ Episode 2: There’s an iceberg ahead, but the ship speeds up
The message of this gloomy episode in the “Vietnam” min-series is that by 1963 the Vietnam War was in a downward spiral and doomed to failure no matter what else happened.
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Giap-Ho ‘Vietnam’: Episode 1 starts the clock
It would be a spoiler to describe how this episode of the Ken Burns-led ‘Vietnam’ saga begins, except to say it reflects the cinematographer’s artistry at a high level of professional competence.
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leo tolstoy Edgar on Strategy (II): An anti-strategist’s view
What Tolstoy can teach us about the traps of self assurance.
