North Korea And The Enigmatic Threat.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  April 10th at 10:08 PM  | 

People can’t quite figure out Kim Jung Un. They couldn’t quite figure out the last Kim either – or the one before that. The North Koreans have a cyclical pattern or making loud threats against the US and South Korean until they get paid and then they recline until the next time they’ve driven their society into another ditch.

Each new crisis results in two diametrically opposed opinions. One goes that the North Koreans are bluffing once more and suggests we should just ask them how it will cost this time to make them pipe down. Guy Somerset posts an article in Takimag that represents this school of thought. He holds King Jung Un in contempt from his opening paragraph.

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Happening Now: Attempted Assassination in Somalia. Also, American Ambassador to Libya is Killed. Violent mobs assault U.S. Embassies in Egypt and Libya on 9-11.

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  September 11th at 10:59 PM  | 

UPDATE at 7:19 a.m. on September 12, 2012, by Erick: While all of this is going on in Egypt in Libya, look a bit to the Southeast and Al Jazeera is reporting an attempted assassination of Somalia’s newly elected President while he was meeting with Kenya’s foreign minister. UPDATE at 7:03 a.m. on September 12, 2012, by Erick: American Ambassador to Libya and career member | Read More »

India, Abbottabad, and Osama bin Laden: Did New Delhi Assist the U.S. on Operation Neptune Spear?

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  September 10th at 07:15 PM  | 

The most-discussed “revelation” in No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden, by former Navy SEAL “Mark Owen,” is certainly Osama bin Laden’s status as unarmed when he was shot twice in the head by an American operator in his Abbottabad house. Not only was the al Qaeda leader and terror mastermind not holding a weapon when he was | Read More »

Video: Two Paths

By: Caleb Howe (Diary)  |  May 29th at 07:00 PM  | 

A new video from Ben Howe via Breitbart.tv (h/t @LarryOConnor): It never ceases to amaze me how good Andrew Breitbart was at summing up a situation, or to sadden me that he’s gone. And he’s right. We have only two choices for the top of the ticket in November. It’s important to remember that. Consider this an Open Thread.

Over the Brink and Into the Abyss: A Memoir from World War II Austria

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 21st at 11:59 PM  | 

THE BASIC HISTORY of World War II’s European front is (or should be) well known to every western adult and schoolchild. From the offensives that brought the majority of the European continent under Axis control, to the D-Day invasion and Operation Overlord, to Hitler’s unthinkable campaign to exterminate Jews and other “undesirables,” the general flow of the first half of the 1940s has been the | Read More »

After a Decade of Operations, Is It Time to Pull the Plug on Afghanistan?

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 15th at 10:44 PM  | 

As we hit the 10 1/2 year mark in Afghanistan, the state of trust and confidence between the coalition and the Afghan people is at perhaps its lowest ebb, and support for the war effort is wavering across the political spectrum.  Given this, it appears time to reconsider the current status of our effort there — what have we accomplished, and what do we still | Read More »

Afghanistan on the Brink: Is the One-Man ‘Kill Team’ the Last Straw?

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 11th at 10:32 PM  | 

Early Sunday morning, a U.S. Army soldier reportedly left an coalition outpost in the Panjwai district of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, walked a mile, broke into three houses, shot sixteen civilians to death, and burned several of the corpses. The soldier, a staff sergeant from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, was deployed in support of Special Forces who were engaged in “village stability operations” on | Read More »

Act of Valor: A Review and Commentary

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  February 24th at 01:30 PM  | 

Act of Valor 4 stars (out of 5) Directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh 111 minutes THERE IS NO question that Act of Valor is a unique film, for many reasons.  The most prominent among these is inarguably the combination of active duty Navy SEALs in starring roles, and the extent to which the film’s advertising and promotion have focused on that role – factors | Read More »

‘Powerful Peace’: A Navy SEAL’s Personal Lessons About Humanity, Conflict Resolution, and the Cost of War

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  February 22nd at 12:01 AM  | 

SINCE THE RODNEY King riots of 1992, “Can’t we all just get along?” has been a common (and commonly misquoted) refrain in America, both among serious persons and those seeking to inject levity into tense situations.  In a forthcoming book, though, retired Navy SEAL J. Robert DuBois responds to that question with a plan of action that he hopes people at home and around the | Read More »

The Degüello: The Story of One Special Forces A-Team and the Mission of a Lifetime

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  February 18th at 06:23 PM  | 

JUST WEEKS AFTER the attacks of September 11, 2001, a small number of elite special operators were inserted into northern Afghanistan.  The Degüello, by Special Forces veteran Scott Zastrow, tells the story of the first unit to deploy: ODA 555, or ‘Triple Nickel,’ an A-Team from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne).  Accompanied by an Air Force combat controller, the ten-man team infiltrated | Read More »

Rethinking the Calls for Intervention in Syria

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  February 10th at 06:00 AM  | 

My RedState colleague and good friend Victoria Coates recently wrote a post calling for a humanitarian intervention in Syria on behalf of the opposition and civilians who are being killed daily by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.  She writes: “In dealing with Libya and Syria, consistency need not be the hobgoblin of little minds but can rather be the hallmark of a consistent and coordinated foreign policy.  | Read More »

A Successful Rescue in Somalia and a Psychological Lift for America

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 25th at 03:00 PM  | 

Last night, a joint force from America’s Tier One special operations command conducted a raid on a pirate camp in Somalia, freeing two hostages – an American and a Dane – and killing their captors before exfiltrating north to Djibouti via helicopter. USA Today‘s lead paragraph captures the mission well, while also serving as the best recruiting pitch for the Navy’s Sea, Air, and Land | Read More »

Why We’re Not Going to War with Iran

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 20th at 05:30 PM  | 

“U.S. Ponders Ways to Use Force on Iran” “Here’s How the U.S. Could Invade Iran” “U.S. Said Set to Attack Iran” “Does [the U.S. President] Plan to Invade Iran?” “Saudis Deny U.S. Planned to Attack Iranian Oilfields” “U.S. May Attack Iran Missiles: White House Mulls Ways to Protect Gulf” “[U.S.] Navy Denies Plan to Attack Iranian Ships in Persian Gulf” “U.S., Allies Setting Stage to | Read More »

‘Bin Laden’s Legacy’: Al Qaeda’s Economic War on the West

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 13th at 12:01 AM  | 

TEN YEARS HAVE passed since terrorists hijacked airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  In that period, America has fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, carried out hundreds armed drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen (among other locations), and conducted covert operations around the world, all in the name of what President George W.  Bush termed the “Global War on | Read More »

A New Day in Libya: Brief Thoughts on What Happened and What to Watch For

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 22nd at 07:00 PM  | 

This weekend brought good news for those who have lived under the oppressive regime of Moammar Qaddafi for all or part of his 42 year reign of terror, as the dress-wearing perma-Colonel and his regime have been largely overthrown after a months-long civil war.   As has been noted across the international affairs-sphere over the course of the last 24 hours, the toppling of Qaddafi’s | Read More »