Defense of the Expeditionary Airfield: A Core USMC Competence

10/13/2014
10/13/2014: U.S. Marines attending Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) Course 1-15 conduct a Defense of the Expeditionary Airfield Two (DEAF-2) exercise which involves defending a forward arming refueling point site against simulated attackers at Bull Attack, Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range, Calif., Oct. 03, 2014. The DEAF-2 exercise supported WTI…

The Commissioning of the USS America, October 11, 2014

10/13/2014
10/13/2014: Second Line of Defense has followed the USS America in detail since it christening event. Now the ship has been commissioned and will prepare for its active duty role.  It will do so in a troubled world, where the Marines and sailors are likely to see difficult duty in…

A Look at the Eurozone After the Vote on Scottish Independence: More Fissures on the Way?

10/10/2014
By Harald Malmgren Eurozone politics are currently being reformulated as the result of a rise in right-wing economic nationalism sentiment and growing Euro-skepticism. In Germany, the FDP pro-market, conservative minority party had for decades been an important counterbalance to left socialist pressures in German economic policy.  Today, the FDP has…

In Iraq: Back to the Tribes

10/10/2014
2014-10-10 By Amatzia Baram In October 2006 and more so since early 2007, more than three years into the insurgency in Iraq the US decided to approach the Sunni tribes in a systematic way for cooperation against al-Qa`ida. By late 2008 with the Surge and through cooperation with the Sunni…