Featured in The Long March
I was in the wrong fight in Iraq. As an immigration lawyer, I found the right one
Editor's note: this post first appeared in November, 2016 I can’t remember the exact moment (if there even was one)...
That’s All, Folks!
This is the final Long March post. My best wishes to you all, and my thanks to all who contributed, both as writers and commenters
Lessons Learned From More Than 10 Years Of Reading Tom Ricks’ Blogging
Friends and enemies were made and I've enjoyed meeting Tom Ricks and other TBD/TLM regulars. I regret not knowing some better and resolve to befriend others before the venue closes
A Bad Lieutenant, And Other Recent Instances Of Navy Misconduct
Graft and lying to investigators, yep. He had retired and gone to work for awhile on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee and was up for a job in USAID, which isn't going to happen now
The Brits Found The Wreck Of A Continental Navy Warship. Now They’re Plotting Their Revenge
The remains of John Paul Jones' ship, the Bonhomme Richard, have been found just off the British coast, and are supposedly visible from a cliff and walkable at certain tides
Speaking Truth To Power: How Promotion Seeking Pollutes Decision-Making
What can we do to counter the negative effects of ambitious promotion seeking? Don't look at your evaluation, speak truth to power, and strive for impact, not promotion
3 Tips On How To Make It Through A Serious History Book
3 Tips On How To Make It Through A Serious History Book
How To Get Beyond The Army’s ‘Cargo Cult’ Approach To Mission Command
Cargo Cultists provide an example of how not to implement change — one the Army should consider as it struggles to make Mission Command a reality
Sir, Put Down Your Narrative And Step Away Slowly
I am skeptical of a lot of the recommendations I read on leadership, which often strikes me as pyramids of buzzwords, but I liked this article by a former British submariner who went on to do a PhD in leadership.
The AI Column: The Most Important Challenge To Trump’s Trade War With China
The murky relationship between trade, technology, and national security will remain a problem
It’s Time For ‘The Long March’ To Come To A End
Here's a letter I sent last week to the fine people who run Task & Purpose. We'll be wrapping things up over the next week or so
Marine Commandant Gen Neller Shows The Right Way To Respond To Criticism From Within
The lead letter in the January issue of the Marine Corps Gazette is a salute from Commandant Gen. Robert Neller thanking the magazine for the articles
Jim Webb As Trump’s Defense Secretary Would Be A Nightmare For Both
A report indicated that former Senator Jim Webb, a decorated Vietnam veteran who briefly was Navy secretary during the Reagan Administration, might become President Trump's next secretary of defense.
‘The Many Faces of War’ Isn’t A Comfortable Book, But It’s A Damn Good One
'The Many Faces of War' is a well-researched, creative, historical, mythological and academic look at war, in the cold and often harsh light of trauma, damaged brains, mythology and a very broad sweep of literature
How To Listen To A War Story
Why do we, as a society, insist on searching for absolute meaning in stories about war?
What Military Units Can Learn From The Rules And Suggestions Of My Local Animal Shelter
I recently signed up to volunteer at my local animal shelter. Their rules of behavior stuck me as pretty generally applicable to any organization, but perhaps especially to small military units
Friday Dog: What Are These World War I Dogs Doing?
I don't know, and there's no caption information that I can find. Nor for this one: National Library of Scotland
It’s Time to Reconsider Trump And Foreign Policy: Maybe He’s On To Something
The powers that be in Congress, the media, DoD bureaucrats, and the traditional think tanks like CNAS might want you to believe that they have a plan to recraft American foreign policy—they don't
4 Myths Of Mission Command Everyone Should Reconsider
1. The Wehrmacht was the best at it and their military excellence relied on it. The idea of Mission Command...
How Mattis’s Resignation Perfectly Captures The Moral Dimension Of Leadership
The recent resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis reminds us that serving the nation at the strategic level is not an amoral activity, nor a place where realism pushes ethics off the stage or where Machiavelli is more useful than Aristotle
Why The Infantry Company Is No Larger Than 150, According To A British Soldier
150 is about as large a group of people as the human brain can handle in personal relationships, notes a British military commentator
It’s A Big Deal: An Officer Grades The Army Staff College And Its Leadership
I have spent the past year being graded, evaluated, and assessed as a student at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). After graduating and reflecting over the past year, I will now grade, evaluate, and assess CGSC.
The Army Reserve Simply Doesn’t Have Enough People Willing to Fill Command Slots
Tom note: Here is the seventh entry in our 10 Long March posts for 2018, the 4th most-read item of...
Ricks: All I Want For Christmas Is A New Secretary Of Defense
And so Mattis goes. It was probably inevitable after his former subordinate John Kelly was said to be leaving his...