Articles & Multimedia
Showing 1-10 of 10 Publications
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A New U.S. Military Would Be an Army of Advisers
The United States has an extraordinary ability to defeat any conventional armed force on the planet; our tanks, ships and planes will make short work of any enemy in frontal w...
By John A. Nagl
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Iraq veteran: This is not what my friends fought and died for
For a veteran of the fighting there—and proponent of the counterinsurgency strategy that provided a chance for the country to stabilize—watching the recent unraveling of Iraq ...
By John A. Nagl
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What America Learned in Iraq
THE costs of the second Iraq war, which began 10 years ago this week, are staggering: nearly 4,500 Americans killed and more than 30,000 wounded, many grievously; tens of thou...
By John A. Nagl
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Does military service still matter for the presidency?
In every presidential election since 1992, the candidate with the less distinguished military résumé has triumphed. Bill Clinton defeated war heroes George H.W. Bush and Bob D...
By John A. Nagl
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Falling In and Out of War
When you’ve been wrong about something as important as war, as I have, you owe yourself some hard thinking about how to avoid repeating the mistake. And if that’s true for a m...
By John A. Nagl
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Commentary: Americans can agree that the Iraq war was a mistake
This was a preventive war designed to prevent Iraq from using or proliferating its presumed weapons of mass destruction to terrorists or terrorist states, but those weapons di...
By John A. Nagl
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Afghan Strategy Begins to Make Gains
To U.S. voters weary of war after a decade of casualties, high costs and frustration, the conflict in Afghanistan may look like a quagmire. The accepted image now seems to be ...
By John A. Nagl
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Opinion: Find ways to keep quality midgrades
It’s been a tough decade for the U.S. Army. Like the rest of the nation, it was unprepared for the asymmetric attacks of Sept. 11. Special Forces teams, with CIA agents and Ai...
By John A. Nagl
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After Gates: Asymmetric Threats
When Robert Gates began his service as U.S. secretary of defense, his priorities were clear: "Iraq, Iraq and Iraq," as he said at his Senate confirmation hearing. The priority...
By John A. Nagl
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Counterintuitive Counterinsurgency
As the Obama administration debates whether to stick with the counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan, opponents point to that nation's flawed presidential election as a re...
By John A. Nagl & Richard Fontaine