Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
Brian M Downing President Trump ordered the Pentagon to present him with a more aggressive strategy for fighting ISIL, and the chiefs are about to offer options. One option calls for deploying more troops to Syria. The units would not be ground combat units, rather they would be primarily support troops to help Read More …
Brian M Downing The long expected battle for Raqqa, the ISIL capital in north-central Syria, is underway. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of several militias, has begun encircling Raqqa. Soon the SDF will take surrounding villages, then prepare to assault the city itself. The battle will be long and Read More …
Brian M Downing Once Aleppo is completely taken and reasonably secure, Assad and Putin will turn their attention to the last rebel city in the west, Idlib. Their tactics of intensive airstrikes followed by ground assaults are effective, if inhumane. The rebels have no protection from Russian aircraft. Their foreign Read More …
Is conflict with Iran coming, again? Brian M Downing Throughout the campaign Donald Trump criticized his chief adversary for supporting the Iranian nuclear deal of 2015. The president-elect has backtracked on several matters, including prosecuting Hillary Clinton and building a physical wall along the Mexican border. Trump has not stepped Read More …
The coming ISIL dispersal – Iraq and Syria Brian M Downing In coming weeks, or months, ISIL’s prestigious holdings, Mosul and Raqqa, will have been retaken. ISIL will have only a handful of smaller towns and expanses of land – most of it wasteland. Several thousand ISIL fighters are in Read More …
Russia looks for opportunities in Iraq Brian M Downing Russia and the United States are engaged in Cold War Two – a global contest for influence, trade, military bases, and power. Russia, in conjunction with China, want to establish hegemony in the Eurasian land mass, including the Middle East. Read More …
Kurdistan after the liberation of Mosul Brian M Downing Iraqi troops will probably retake Mosul in coming weeks or months. The battle will be fierce, the casualties, both civilian and military, will be high. Afterwards, old political conflicts that were put aside after the 2014 ISIL offensive will reemerge and Read More …
The coming battle for Raqqa – and the future of Iraq and Syria Brian M Downing Iraqi and Kurdish troops are on the outskirts of Mosul, ISIL’s prized holding in Iraq. The battle will be long and costly and will entail a slew of political complications involving various foreign powers, especially the Read More …
Is Iran wading deeper into the Euphrates? Brian M Downing Over the years, since the Assad government crushed peaceful calls for reform, foreign power after foreign power has intervened with money or arms or troops – Western and Middle Eastern, Shia and Sunni, Arab and Persian. Iran has sent money, Read More …
Russia and the area that’s now Turkey got along back in the Middle Ages. Muscovite princes sent pelt-filled barges down the Dnieper to Byzantine princes. Relations have been rather bad since then. The two countries fought in the First World War and a half century before that, several European powers Read More …