In Afghan war, officer flourishes outside the box
‘Maverick’ lieutenant colonel uses unconventional arsenal against
Associated Press ALTIMUR, Afghanistan - You may wonder how Thomas Gukeisen made it to lieutenant colonel, and by age 39 at that.
He breaks Army rules and operates by his own rendition of counterinsurgency warfare whose arsenal ( Read more... )

Russia Cutting Back Armed Forces
Charles Ganske
"Continuing Russia Blog's recent run of posts about Austin-based commentators and personalities, U.S. Army Reserve Colonel Austin Bay (an ocassional guest professor at my alma mater of the University of Texas at Austin) has an excellent post over at his Strategy Page website about the recently ( Read more... )

IHT: Russian Military Modernization May Be Hampered by Economic Crisis

Charles Ganske

"The International Herald Tribune has done some of the best reporting about Russia in recent months, including C.J. Chivers recently published analysis questioning many initial reports from the August 2008 war in Georgia. The Georgia War revealed that the Russian ( Read more... )

U.S. defense secretary assails Pentagon for outmoded ways

"The advances in precision, sensor information and satellite technology have led to extraordinary gains in what the U.S. military can do," he said. "But also never neglect the psychological, cultural, political and human dimensions of warfare, which is inevitably tragic, inefficient and  ( Read more... )