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Yes we do. I second Teddy and Brit's motion, a new thread is in order.

Victor Davis Hanson is an excellent author, with a lot of interesting ideas that I find myself agreeing with. His Op Ed pieces are good too. However, his thesis on a Western Way of war requires an incredibly selective and biased reading of history. The chapters on individual campaigns and wars...

S_Baker- Thank-you. I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the subject, and what you see missing in my post. I certainly agree that the tactics of terrorism and the grievances of the Muslims are not new at all. I was trying to explain that (a) there cannot be a 'War on Terror', but there...

Perhaps not operational battalions, but they do have Lieutenant Colonels, RSMs, Adjts, Ops & Trng Cells, Transport Section, Battalion Orderly Rooms, and one or more (notional) Companies within them. That seems to fit many characteristics of a battalion structure. I believe that we can - and...

That tells me: a) Graham hangs out with people in a social class the consider military service beneath them. b) The recruiting posters suck. This is idiotic, and frankly, displays the lack of knowledge which our civilian Minister has of the workings and meanings of the military and why it is...

Haven't read the article, don't want to register for the site. However, I'd have to agree that the 'War on Terror' is something of a farce. Certainly there is an enemy, but defining it as 'terror' - which is an action, a tactic, or a methodology - is inappropriate and misleading. The 'War on...

Right now a Reserve unit administers itself as a battalion, and carries the load of paperwork and command structure expected to run a battalion. However, a reserve unit does not have nearly the same resources as a real battalion to run that administrative load - not as many clerks, not the...

No reserve unit will ever be a real battalion - let alone a multi-battalion regiment - in peacetime. And, as was mentioned by Infanteer, mobilization is no longer possible and is thus irrelevant. So why maintain the bloated structures where companies pretend to be battalions and battalions...

Just a heads up, the documentary "A Company of Soldiers" is available to watch on the PBS website via streaming video. For those who missed it on TV, check it out. Good quality video - and an excellent documentary. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/company/view/ I realize there's...

But they're armed, they kill people, they meet objectives, and they are definitely fighting for one side. They are usually paid by the US, whether the military or State Dept or through US-funded contractors. I would say they are most definitely there to help fight the war. How are they not...

Mercenary is a soldier motivated money, serving outside of his national armed forces. Of course, that has all sorts of problems. Basically, accept that being a mercenary is not a bad thing, despite the mis-informed views in the media. The Vatican Guards are mercenaries, heirs of a long...

The names and traditions aren't the problem, its the regimental structure - which forces us into absurd formations - that is starving the reserves. We use the terms "brigade", "regiment", and "battalion" to describe rather miniscule non-capable formations. The administrative and command...

Its just a trick, a deception. Why would they move the SAS? Everyone knows the SAS is part of the Army. Why would they be at an RAF base? Obviously a rouse. Its like moving JTF2 to Cold Lake. I saw a book that said the boathouse was plywood, can anyone confirm?

I have to agree. With all sincere condolences to the victims and families, acts like this are the nature of beast. I'm not sure flying private security personnel around Iraq makes the flight crew 'noncombatant' - civilian maybe, but they're definitely involved. That said, the perpetrators and...

Diplomacy has a lot to do with fairness. Without fair and even diplomacy we don't build up trust and norms of behaviour in the international system, and that leads to friction and problems like conflict, trade wars, and isolationism. The article describes some unique cases of true 'realist'...

I've always thought Gen. Krulak should have copyrighted the term 'Three Block War'. The royalties could have added nicely to his pension..  :warstory:

Edward Campbell- I would disagree with the assertion in the article you posted regarding a trend towards a unipolar world. The trend as I see it is actually going in the other way. Regional power blocs are asserting themselves more so than before, and this only increase will continue. While the...

Too imagine that the protests in China could ever be anything but carefully by the government is ridiculous. I'm sure there are very real feelings in China against Japan - but since good old Mao Tse Tung killed more Chinese than the Japanese ever did, I wonder who the people would protest given...

I find the numbers thrown around interesting - 5,000 new regs, 3,000 reservists, $13 billion over five years. Did they pull these numbers out of a hat? Did someone honestly sit down, look at Canadian defence requirements, future security needs, operational rotations, force generation ability...

I think this is overly pessimistic. With the increased demands of society and the work force, education has to have gotten better. Unless you can produce statistics, its heresay whether or not high schools are producing better or worse people. Now, how many of the smart high school graduates...