Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
Brian M Downing The remarkable rising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has roused interest throughout the world. Interest is especially keen in Iran, where official statements and propaganda have been aimed at the so-called Arab Street for many years now. Egyptians did not need a foreign agit-prop campaign to know Read More …
Brian M Downing The ongoing insurgency in the Pashtun regions of Afghanistan rightly commands attention, but it obscures a critical second conflict in the country. Longstanding antagonisms between the non-Pashtun peoples of the North and the Pashtun people of the South are heading toward fissure. Paradoxically, settlement of the insurgency, through negotiation Read More …
Brian M Downing Pakistan has closed the legendary Khyber Pass through flow critical NATO supply convoys. The stated reason for the closing, now in its fifth day, is in retaliation for an attack inside Pakistani territory by American forces on a Taliban band that had sought safe haven in Pakistan. Read More …
A review of Thomas Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979. (Cambridge University Press, 2010) Brian M Downing Thomas Hegghammer, a research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, looks at al Qaeda with an eye trained in international affairs, statistical analysis, and sociology. His book is Read More …
Brian M Downing The world is seeing a tragedy unfold as monsoon rains swell the expansive Indus River and flood large parts of Pakistan from Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province to the Arabian Sea. Whether directed by Pakistanis or outside agencies, relief will not always be a straightforward humanitarian effort – neither Read More …
Brian M Downing In the last year, the US has experienced a number of terrorist attacks, successful or not, and prevented the occurrence of others. The most recent, a failed car bombing in New York City, has led to concern the country is facing the prospect of a wave of Read More …
Brian M Downing United States Secretary of Defense Gates recently complained there was no plan to halt Iran’s nuclear research, which is thought to be aimed at building atomic weapons. It is more accurate to say that plans to halt the program – both diplomatic and military – are impractical Read More …
Counter-insurgency, then and now A Question of Command by Mark Moyar Reviewed by Brian M Downing In Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead, an operation on the fictional island of Anopopei comes to a successful conclusion, but owing to the campaign’s intricacies, no one is quite sure why. Headquarters writes a report Read More …
Brian M Downing Statements coming from the London summit on Afghanistan recognize the need for a negotiated settlement to the wars that have raged there for most of the last thirty-two years. The statements are surprisingly candid; diplomatic language is usually less direct than what the NATO chieftains and Kabul Read More …
Brian M Downing In recent weeks the US has begun to pressure Pakistan into doing more to counter the insurgency in Afghanistan, by interdicting supplies going to insurgents and by helping to target Taliban leaders operating near Quetta, in western Pakistan. Joint chiefs head Admiral Mullen has strongly urged Read More …