On August 30th, 2021, after 20 years of military occupation, the Pentagon announced the completion of withdrawal of US forces in Afghanistan. Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie stated, “The last C-17 lifted off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 30th, this afternoon….” Weeks prior to the withdrawal, Taliban forces had swiftly regained control of […]
Tag: us military
Confronting China: The Best Deterrence Lies in a Multilateral Alliance
In my last article, I detailed some of the strategic and technological changes that the U.S. needs to make to its military strategy to successfully deter China from military action in East Asia. Though maintaining our military edge is important, China is a rising power while the U.S. is in relative decline. China has both […]
The Civilian-Military Gap and the Undermining of the US Military
Civilian control of the military is one of the hallmarks of a democratic society. A government whose military is not under civilian control is effectively an authoritarian government, with the power to conduct state-sponsored violence on a whim. As mandated by the Constitution, the U.S. Armed Forces are under complete civilian control, meaning the decisions […]
This Technological Terror
Technology has always been critical to the ability of the US military to project power, and military funds have long propelled American technologies to the cutting edge – GPS, the Internet, self-driving cars, and computers were all initially defense-funded projects. In the 1950s American nuclear superiority counterbalanced Soviet numerical advantage. Later, advanced attack helicopters balanced […]