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Moammar Khadafy can survive and even prevail over the vastly more pow erful and technologically advanced NATO-led coalition. To do so, the Libyan dictator can not only exploit the inherent weaknesses of any coalition, but even turn NATO's technologies into a weakness. From the Navy's Top Gun to the Army's OPFOR (Opposing Force), the US military systematically trains to think like its enemies -- to anticipate how the enemy will try to overcome US advantages, pitting his strengths against our weaknesses. This classic "Red Hat versus Blue Hat" analysis begins by comparing objectives. The United States and NATO want to...

As the cliche goes, there are no coincidences in politics. Obama fundraiser group Code Pink just happened to have arrived in Cairo last week for the group’s ninth visit there in two years as part of its campaign to undermine the Mubarak government and help Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza. Code Pink and the media are trying to portray the leftist group's 'sudden' appearance in Cairo Wednesday as an act of courageous support for a democratic revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.Code Pink protests the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. February 2, 2011. Code...

Indonesia orders Super Tucanos for light attack role By Greg Waldron Indonesia plans to buy eight Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano light attack turboprops, and could eventually double its order - the first for the Brazilian type in the Asia-Pacific region. "Air force headquarters has decided to replace our Rockwell OV-10 Broncos with as many as 16 Super Tucanos," says Indonesian air force operational commander Yushan Sayuti, according to a report by the country's official Antara news agency. The first Super Tucanos will arrive in 2012 under the initial order, which also includes ground-support stations and a logistics package. Several other...

Members of United States-allied Awakening Councils have quit or been dismissed from their positions in significant numbers in recent months, prey to an intensive recruitment campaign by the Sunni insurgency, according to government officials, current and former members of the Awakening and insurgents. Although there are no firm figures, security and political officials say hundreds of the well-disciplined fighters — many of whom have gained extensive knowledge about the American military — appear to have rejoined Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Beyond that, officials say that even many of the Awakening fighters still on the Iraqi government payroll, possibly thousands of...

Two top California legislators are coming under fire after new evidence has emerged that they helped a group of radical antiwar activists cross the Iraqi-Jordanian border in order to deliver aid to families of enemy insurgents in the war-ridden Iraqi city of Fallujah. In December 2004, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D) each sent letters of diplomatic courtesy to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, requesting assistance for members of the radical group Global Exchange and the antiwar group Palisadians for Peace. The letters, according to a January 4, 2005 article written by Islam Online correspondent Adam...

N.K. collapse could spark global crisis 2010-09-05 17:22 QUANTICO, Virginia (AFP) -- North Korea‘s regime has long defied naysayers by persevering through famines, floods and global opprobrium. But what would happen if the upcoming power transition marks the beginning of the end? In the view of one U.S. military strategist, a collapse of North Korea -- a dirt-poor nation with an indoctrinated population and nuclear-armed military -- could result in no less than the greatest world crisis in modern times. Col. David Maxwell, who heads the Strategic Initiatives Group at the Army’s Special Operations Command, said that the U.S. needed...

Many women in Russia's volatile Chechnya region said on Friday they had been harassed and some physically harmed by bands of men for not wearing head scarves during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Against the backdrop of a spreading Islamist insurgency, many fear that growing interest in radical Islam could fuel separatism in the volatile North Caucasus, where the Kremlin watches uneasily as sharia law eclipses Russian. Residents and witnesses told Reuters that bearded men in traditional Islamic dress have been roaming the streets both on foot and in cars since Ramadan started on Aug. 11, demanding bare-headed women...

Spokesman says increased use of unmanned aircraft has forced change in operations, but drummed up new recruits The Taliban have admitted that US drone attacks have disrupted their operations in Afghanistan but insist it will be only for the short term. Under Barack Obama, the US has stepped up the use of unmanned aircraft to target Taliban leaders and foreign fighters sheltering in neighbouring Pakistan, particularly in the border region of North Waziristan and South Waziristan. "In the short term, yes, you can say it has caused us some difficulties because of the martyrdoms and realignment of our ranks,"

According to U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the good news from Afghanistan is that the Taliban are not winning. The bad news is that the coalition isn't either. "I think that in the last year we've made a lot of progress," the commander of international forces said in an interview last week. But by progress, he meant stopping the momentum the insurgents had built up the previous year. Overall, the general said, "I think I'd be prepared to say at this point, nobody is winning." It's sobering when a stalemate is considered positive movement in war.

You often hear women, especially feminists and sluts, complaining about how it’s such an unfair double standard that men are called studs when they sleep around, yet women are called sluts. It’s really not a double standard though, because both scenarios are pretty different in terms of circumstances and consequences. I can think of at least three crucial differences. First, sleeping around is easier for women. Regardless of how you feel about promiscuity, we can all agree that a guy who manages to rack up a lot of sexual partners has to have some skills. It’s challenging for men to...

SANAA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Yemen rejected a ceasefire offer from Shi'ite rebels on Sunday and said fighting was continuing, as neighbouring Saudi Arabia accused the insurgents of mounting sniper attacks inside its territory. The conflict with the northern rebels, who complain of social, religious and economic discrimination in the southern Arabian state, has rumbled on since 2004, but intensified last year and drew in oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Yemen is also struggling against al Qaeda and southern secessionists, and Western powers fear it could become a failed state. The U.S. State Department's counterterrorism chief was visiting Yemen on Sunday, state...

Kuwait has been investigating reports of an Iranian-backed Shi'ite insurgency plot. Officials said Kuwait has launched an investigation into allegations that Shi'ites funded and directed by Iran planned to attack key facilities in the Gulf Cooperation Council sheikdom. The investigation was said to center on Shi'ite soldiers in neighboring Bahrain trained in sabotage. Officials have warned of a growing Shi'ite threat in Kuwait, a Sunni-ruled country with nearly 50 percent of the population being Shi'ite. They said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has increased surveillance and other intelligence operations in Kuwait, which hosts more than 15,000 U.S. military soldiers. "There...

The war against Iranian supported, Shia tribesmen, in northern Yemen, continues. Many of the key rebels have retreated to their fortified villages in the mountains. The Yemeni air force is bombing these villages, and the Shia rebels are complaining about civilian casualties. That's usually a sign that they are losing, and striving to make their use of human shields as effective as possible. The Saudi Air Force is heavily patrolling, and bombing the Yemen border region, hitting rebels (and non-hostile smugglers) caught crossing the semi-desert frontier region. Yemen has had its differences with Saudi Arabia in the past, particularly over...

A video of the talk I gave at the Army Heritage Education Center in mid-March is now available online:Perspectives: March 18, 2009 “Why the Civil Rights Movement was an Insurgency, and Why it Matters” Mark S. Grimsley, Ph.D. Harold K. Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History, U.S. Army War College Most Americans fail to appreciate that the Civil Rights movement was about the overthrow of an entrenched political order in each of the Southern states, that the segregationists who controlled this order did not hesitate to employ violence (law enforcement, paramilitary, mob) to preserve it, and that for nearly a...

One night in August, the Taliban stormed a local police station in this once-peaceful province and shot dead the governor's younger brother. Since then, the governor has singled out a culprit: The German military, which he says refused to send a helicopter to rescue his brother as he bled to death. "I called them and they said that wasn't a mission they could do," said Gov. Mohammad Omar. "They don't like to go out at night." German officials said there was no way they could have saved his brother. They offered their condolences, and said the death is just one...

Communist Group's Founder Says Ranks of Guerrillas to Grow More than 40 years after founding the Communist Party of the Philippines, a former literature professor who has long stayed outside his homeland says the party's military wing plans to significantly increase its armed capabilities in the next three years. Jose Maria Sison, who was imprisoned in 1977 by then-President Ferdinand Marcos and freed in 1986 by Corazon Aquino shortly after "People Power" put her in power, says the insurgency he seeded with Maoist ideas intends to use sympathizers to recruit 3,000 to 5,000 new guerrillas in impoverished rural areas. He...

Among allies, USAF takes irregular warfare path alone By Stephen Trimble While most of its allies seek to refocus on conventional warfare, the US Air Force may soon spend hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire dozens of light fighters and airlifters uniquely dedicated to counter-insurgency roles. Having spent much of the past decade supporting US-led military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, the major air powers of Europe are looking to recalibrate their fiscal resources and activities more towards conventional operations, say several analysts. "We have invested far too much in [irregular warfare, or IW]. We now have to claw...

This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.

On the Friday after he was inaugurated, Barack Obama held a full-scale National Security Council meeting about the most serious foreign policy crisis he is facing — the deteriorating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "It was a pretty alarming meeting," said one senior Administration official. "The President was extremely cool and in control," said another participant. "But some people, especially political aides like Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod who hadn't been briefed on the situation, walked out of that meeting stunned." The general feeling was expressed by one person who said at the very end, "Holy s___."The situation in Afghanistan...