Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
Brian M Downing The West and key Gulf states are trying to find a political arrangement to bring ground troops to bear on the Islamic State. Clearly, Kurdish troops are one of the most promising options. Though landlocked, Kurdistan’s oil resources, militias, and increasing autonomy from Baghdad will make it Read More …
Brian M Downing Most accounts of the Second Gulf War (2003-11) attach significant importance to the US’s adoption of counterinsurgency doctrine in ending the Sunni insurgency there. The shift away from conventional warfare to winning hearts and minds is said to have changed the course of the war and brought Read More …
Brian M Downing The remarkable uprisings across the Arab world of the last sixteen months have ousted or imperiled leaders in several countries, including Egypt, Yemen, and Syria. None of these movements, however, has been successful in its goal of creating a new political system let alone a democratic one. Read More …
Brian M Downing A review essay of A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation by Jeremy Ben-Ami; and The Unmaking of Israel by Gershom Gorenberg. The entry of the moderate Kadima party into the right-wing Likud government has brought questions as to what the Read More …
Brian M Downing Tensions between Iran on the one hand and the US and Israel have eased substantially since war loomed just a few weeks ago. Israeli politicians, generals, and security experts have openly expressed opposition to attacking Iran. More recently, the hawkish coalition in power has brought in the Read More …
Brian M Downing The United States faces another embarrassment amid its difficult wars in the Islamic world. Following close on the heels of atrocities and miscues in Afghanistan, it has come to light that Colonel Matthew Dooley, an instructor at a military graduate school, taught his officers that the US Read More …
Brian M Downing The national borders from the eastern Mediterranean to the Iranian border were made after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Britain and France, with little consideration for sectarian or ethnic realities, drew lines across the area and established the new countries of Iraq and Syria. Read More …
Brian M Downing The escalation of tensions in the Persian Gulf and attendant positioning of military assets in the region gives the impression that war is all but inevitable. Machinery is in gear and turning faster and faster by the day, as it was in the lead-ups to the Gulf Read More …
Brian M Downing The United States has shifted its attention away from Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world and firmly fixed it on Iran. Along with this has come a buildup of naval, air and ground forces to pressure and perhaps even attack Iran over fears its nuclear Read More …
Brian M Downing Discussion of a possible war between Iran and the coalition aligning against it centers on destroying Iranian nuclear sites and ensuring that oil tankers freely transit the Strait of Hormuz. Countries embarking on war scrutinize as many scenarios and possibilities as they can, but wars invariably present Read More …