Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
General Ivashov challenges President Putin, part one Brian M Downing Vladimir Putin is riding high. Oil prices are way up. His alignment with China is posing trouble for the US around the world and restoring Russia’s prestige. His position at home looks solid. A recent event, however, suggests disquiet in Read More …
Brian M Downing The Yemen war has been going on since 2014. It’s the most recent civil war since the 1960s when north and south were formed into a single country, despite widely disparate cultures and histories. Today, each side is backed by foreign powers – the north by Iran, Read More …
Brian M Downing Tensions over the Ukraine have brought firm responses from the United States and NATO in the form of troop deployments into Eastern Europe and threats of sanctions. Turkey is nominally in NATO but has opted to triangulate between Russia and the US. A Russian invasion of the Read More …
Brian M Downing Israel and Russia were once enemies. Moscow backed Arab states against the emerging Jewish state in 1948 and then in the 1956, 1967, and 1973 wars. Things changed. Israel and Russia now have important ties based on trade and geopolitics. The Ukraine crisis, though seemingly beyond Israel’s Read More …
Rumors of war between Russia and the Ukraine have become more insistent since beginning last fall. American intelligence believes fighting may break out any day. Talks are ongoing but Putin sees the US as weak, in decline, no longer able to act authoritatively. Nothing out of Washington in the last Read More …
Brian M Downing Anti-democratic sentiment is on the rise, though adherents see themselves as defenders of the nation. There’s a gap between this sentiment in the country and political power in Washington – between blood and soil and principles and processes. The gap may be closing with the aid of Read More …
Brian M Downing In the absence of common values, in a period when national institutions have lost their prestige, romance, and unifying force, when so much of life is increasingly antagonistic and violent, geographic and racial fissures do not augur well for the country. Without the reemergence of unifying forces, Read More …
Brian M Downing Concerns of Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites are on the rise once again. They come after the US, at Israel’s behest, broke with the JCPOA and imposed sanctions on Iran. In response, Iran has cranked up its centrifuges and enriched its uranium stores, though not yet Read More …
Get Back (2021) – a review by Brian M Downing Director: Peter Jackson 10/10 The Beatles continue to fascinate us. Fifty years after the band’s breakup their music is everywhere, books about them come out regularly, and their birthdays make the news. Director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) has Read More …
Brian M Downing China, Russia, and Iran are probing American resolve along the vast Eurasian periphery. China presents problems in East Asia, Iran in the Gulf and Levant, Russia from Stettin in the north to Kiev. Putin’s doing his part by deploying combat units along the border with the Ukraine. Read More …