Search results for: isil
BUCKLEY AFB: Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work told reporters today that ISIL is under tremendous pressure from the United States — “from every single direction, the north, the east, the west and the south” — and the terrorist group has lost every engagement with allied forces over the last six months. That apparently includes in cyberspace.…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: The US is waging an outright cyber war against Daesh, the self-proclaimed Islamic State, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs made clear this morning. While Carter did not say so, we believe this is the first official confirmation by a senior military official that the United States has waged…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.- Air Warfare, Allies, budget, Congress, Global, Land Warfare, Naval Warfare, Networks / Cyber, Space, Threats
US, Allies Must ‘Stop Fixating’ On ISIL & Friends; ‘Frankly, We Are Losing’
Western democracies and their military instruments of power are struggling with what seems to be the novel and dangerous apparition of radical global extremism. This headline-grabbing new threat, whether called the Islamic State, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Boku Haram or something else, captivates both our military’s and the public’s attention. Yet for all the emphasis on dissecting…
By Ben ZweibelsonWASHINGTON: Perhaps the most respected living Defense Secretary, Bill Perry, sat down with reporters today to tout a new book and give the American people a shot at one of the finer brains to have led the Pentagon. Perry is renowned for having hosted the so-called Last Supper with defense industry chiefs, which set the stage…
By Colin ClarkAnthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is simply one of the sharpest minds dealing with American national security. When he says the Obama administration hasn’t done enough to counter ISIL, or Daesh as we prefer to call them now, it’s worth noting. Read on to see what the White House and Pentagon should be…
By Anthony H. CordesmanBALLSTON, Va: Since early November, three Marine Corps MV-22B Ospreys and 26 marines have been on alert at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, on 30-minute alert to fly in and rescue a U.S. or coalition pilot downed while bombing or shooting at the Islamic State in Iraq or Syria. On 29 occasions between Nov. 1 and…
By Richard WhittleAirpower sounds swift and surgical, but sometimes it’s really closer to trench warfare with wings. Earlier this week, with the smoke still rising from the retaken Iraqi city of Tikrit, Central Command released detailed data on air strikes against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. We’ve crunched the numbers, and it’s clear the eight-month-old campaign is becoming…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: The most surprising thing about a Central Command list of 3,222 ISIL targets struck during the air campaign is the number of tanks, Humvees, MRAPs and Armored Personnel Carriers. Yes, the MRAPs and Humvees are American-made military equipment seized by ISIL as it swept the Iraqi Army aside on its way from Syria…
By Colin ClarkThe ISIL-induced crisis in the Middle East is a major one with regional implications. With several years of dynamic change in the region, and the failure to create a stable Iraq during the period after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, ISIL has functioned like a match thrown into a gas can. What should we do? We…
By Robbin Laird and Ed TimperlakeWASHINGTON: The enemy of my enemy is….who exactly? That is the question U.S. Central Command planners confronted recently when they targeted the Khorasan Group, a hardcore Al Qaeda cell in Syria suspected of planning terrorist attacks against the United States and Europe. Not surprisingly, the U.S. strikes also killed fighters from the Al-Nusra Front,…
By James KitfieldHoward Bloom is, for lack of a better term, an original thinker. He penned “The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History,” “Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century,” and most recently, “The Mohammed Code.” Bloom wrote this op-ed for us in response to the question…
By Howard Bloom
President-elect Trump has promised to destroy Daesh. If Trump wants to avoid being the third Administration in succession to sink into the morass of the Middle East, it is essential to first ask what declaring victory would look like. Part of the West’s challenge is rooted in that Daesh is a brand inside a religion and…
By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird