ARCHIVES OF June, 2009
By Steven Pressfield | Published: June 12, 2009
I blew it on Wednesday, posting this extremely interesting article by David Ronfeldt of the Rand Corporation so late in the day that it was only “onscreen” for a few hours before being shuffled downpage into the archives. So here’s a re-post that I’ll leave up in the featured position all weekend. The piece ran originally as an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on December 12, 2004. It’s terrific.
On Monday I want to share a brand-new (June ‘09) White Paper from the Center For A New American Security titled, “Triage: The Next Twelve Months in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” The piece is by Andrew Exum, Nathaniel Fick, Ahmed Humayan and David Kilcullen and is very much worth reading. CNAS is one of the most influential think tanks, if not the most influential, of the evolving Obama era. (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: June 11, 2009
Below is a terrific mini-bibliography from guest blogger Jeremy Ward that takes us back to the genesis of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.
In 2001, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, an extremely lean contingent of American forces–mostly CIA, SF and other special operators and intelligence specialists, backed up by U.S. air power–made their way into the country and hooked up with the indigenous forces that became known as the Northern Alliance. Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? The object was to destroy the Taliban as payback for their harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and permitting him to use their territory as a safe haven from which to plan, organize and launch the September 11th attacks. Sure enough, this unlikely alliance of U.S. air power, special operators and tribal/ethnic militias did just that in short order. (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: June 10, 2009
The following is an Op-ed piece by David Ronfeldt, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corporation. I’m a big fan of his work and will be citing more of it here in the future. Mr. Ronfeldt has given permission to reprint this article in its entirety. Thanks, David!
21st Century Tribes (more…)
