You can’t negotiate with terrorists or compromise with insurgents
Some fifty years ago, the late Yale University political scientist Charles E. Lindblom coined the concept of “Partisan Mutual Adjustment.” …
Or when you are born
Like many, I suspect, I was quite disappointed in the performance of Louisiana Senator John Neely Kennedy in the recent confirmation hearings for Dr. Saule Omarova, President Joseph Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency, a senior position within the Treasury Department. Since Dr. Omarova was born in the Soviet…
At best it was Obama 2.0, at worst Hoover 2.0
A few years ago one of the senior acquisition officials in the Pentagon had a wonderful sign hanging outside his office. It read: “In God we trust — All others must bring data.” …
He Was Much More Than a Good Soldier
I had the privilege of meeting General Colin Powell on several occasions, but we were not close associates during my army career. I was just one among hundreds of Army officers who were fortunate to cross his path on occasion. Each intersection was, however, an experience that left me smiling…
It’s time to drop it
“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” quipped Mark Twain. The same can be said about our growing federal debt and increasing federal budget deficits. The truth is that Congress is simply unwilling to do anything to reverse our current fiscal direction. …
No doubt about it — he’s a hero!
Back in July I published a piece titled “The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Is a True Hero.” If you have not previously read it — please do so. Recently new revelations about General Mark Milley’s actions in the last months of the Trump administration have emerged, mostly from the…
Watching in real time
September 11, 2001 started for me like any other day. I had been retired from the Army for over four years and was working with Northrop Grumman, one of the major defense contractors and one widely known for its forward thinking and innovative efforts. …
I lost a soldier in Operation Desert Storm to “friendly fire.” It wasn’t the common case for such events. No one mistook my soldier for someone else, put him in the crosshairs and pulled a trigger. He wasn’t someplace he shouldn’t have been. There was, indeed, no human error involved…
Everyone in the United States is upset, disappointed, and disturbed by the images coming out of Kabul following the collapse of the Afghan government and the return to power of the Taliban. But even as efforts to establish some degree of order to a (so far) disorderly exit continue, some…
I was a young army lieutenant on May 1, 1975. I remember it well. We had just started the day with the usual morning formation after which the sergeants took charge to have the troops clean the barracks and perform other routine duties at our base in West Germany. Satisfied…
