Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
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 …
Brian M Downing Presidents inherit foreign policy burdens from their predecessors. LBJ was handed a deteriorating situation in Southeast Asia. Nixon got an unwinnable war and a public that wanted out of it. Bush the Younger bequeathed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to Obama and Trump. Both managed to muddle Read More …
Brian M Downing Retired general and former National Security Advisor HR McMaster published a Veterans Day op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. Reflecting on the defeat in Afghanistan and pondering future conflicts, he warns that leaders must have the will to see things through. Otherwise young Americans will not Read More …
Brian M Downing Throughout the Cold War Soviet and American planes buzzed each other, their ships slipped in and out of the other’s territory and otherwise tested each other. Probes were sometimes done with a wink, sometimes with malice. China was weak and relatively inactive then. By the late sixties Read More …
Brian M Downing IS-K, heretofore a small network of Pakistani Pashtuns and a miscellany of foreign jihadis, is now taking in former Afghan army soldiers. The view here has been that tens of thousands of ANA veterans are eager to regain the honor they lost in the ignominious collapse last Read More …
Brian M Downing Saudi Arabia and Iran have compelling domestic incentives to pursue negotiations and ease tensions. Dialog is almost certainly being encouraged by China. It may even have helped initiate it. It has considerable influence on both sides of the Gulf and ambition to replace the United States as Read More …