Doug Macgregor

Stories by Doug Macgregor

Donald Trump: Breaking With The Past (The Beltway Ain’t Happy)

Donald Trump: Breaking With The Past (The Beltway Ain’t Happy)
Donald Trump: Breaking With The Past (The Beltway Ain’t Happy)

President Trump is breaking with the past. He’s arguing that Washington must cut its losses, withdraw its forces, climb out of the Middle Eastern and Afghan money pits, and acknowledge that Seoul (with U.S. backing) won the war on the Korean Peninsula. Washington hates him for doing these things, but most Americans and future generations of Americans will love him for it.

Mr. President, Leave Syria

Mr. President, Leave Syria
Mr. President, Leave Syria

No one knows precisely what happened inside the White House that resulted in President Trump’s sudden about-face on Syria. One day he was planning to extricate American ground troops from Syria; then he wasn’t. Regardless, whoever is urging the president to leave a small contingent of 2,000 lightly armed soldiers and Marines in a remote corner of Syria is doing the president and the nation a grave disservice. 

Trump’s Vision & NATO’s Future: Streamline The Alliance For Modern War

Trump’s Vision & NATO’s Future: Streamline The Alliance For Modern War
Trump’s Vision & NATO’s Future: Streamline The Alliance For Modern War

It would be wrong for Europeans to conclude that President Trump wants to withdraw all US forces from Europe. The President simply wants the US military to be NATO’s security guarantor of last resort, not NATO’s “first responder.”

Army Modernization Needs Experimental Force

Army Modernization Needs Experimental Force
Army Modernization Needs Experimental Force

The Army says it’s learned its lessons from more than two decades of failed acquisition. Its Big Six will work. The service will build the weapons it needs to overmatch the Russians and Chinese and it will do it at reasonable speed and cost. Doug Macgregor, a retired Army colonel famous for his penetrating analyses and critiques of the Army he loves, isn’t buying it. Why? Read On, dear reader! The Editor.

Why Are We Buying The Army’s Big Six? What Will They Do?

Why Are We Buying The Army’s Big Six? What Will They Do?
Why Are We Buying The Army’s Big Six? What Will They Do?

The last time the US Army tried to modernize it spent $20 billion buying the Future Combat System, which was cancelled as it foundered. Is the Army repeating the same mistakes with its Big Six?

Putin Rebuilds Russia’s Military While US Strategy Is All Over Map

Putin Rebuilds Russia’s Military While US Strategy Is All Over Map
Putin Rebuilds Russia’s Military While US Strategy Is All Over Map

In his 1940 book, The New World Order, H.G. Wells wrote, “I think that in the decades before 1914 not only I but most of my generation – in the British Empire, America, France, and indeed throughout most of the civilized world – thought that war was dying out.” That assertion now seems naïve, even childish.…

What Should Congress Do About Ukraine?

Poland suddenly reappeared in 1919, 120 years after it vanished from the map of Europe, sowing confusion at the Versailles Peace Conference as the great powers tried to heal the wounds of World War I. The British questioned the legitimacy of the new Polish State and the French were suspicious of Polish ambitions. Frustrated with…

Five Rules for Defense Spending

Five Rules for Defense Spending
Five Rules for Defense Spending

  In 1796 Thomas Jefferson said there were two types of American political parties, “One which fears the people most, the other fears the government.” In domestic politics the contemporary American political divide is equally wide and Americans should not expect their elected leaders to change course one iota. National defense is different. There is a…

2013: Time For US Strategy To Get Real

As the old year dies, Breaking Defense has asked its expert Board of Contributors to look ahead at the next (click here for the whole 2013 forecast series). Today we hear from Col. (retired) Douglas Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran of the first Gulf War, prolific author, and a passionate skeptic of conventional strategic wisdom.…