”MEL1776” COMMENTS ON MAJ. DAVID F. BIGELOW’S “MANAGING MANPOWER” ARTICLE, JUNE AFJ (http://www.armedforces journal.com/2008/06/3486514)

A focus on efficiency over tradition in the military is long overdue. We still suffer some from a …

TO JAMES BAKER AND WARREN CHRISTOPHER, co-chairs of the National War Powers Commission report, for a practical, fair and balanced proposal that deserves high-priority consideration by the next president and Congress. The …

Civilian organizations reach out to war wounded

On Dec. 19, 2006, Minnesota Army National Guardsman J.R. Salzman was leading a convoy to Tallil Air Base in southern Baghdad when an explosively formed …

Southern Command commander Adm. James Stavridis, in his address to the Joint Warfighting conference in June, offered this appeal to service men and women and defense industry people: Read; think; write.

Everyone …

Recruiting and retention costs are soaring, but do they work?

The Defense Department faces daunting responsibilities to meet military personnel requirements, just as it did in past periods of extended military operations, …

The fundamental dictum guiding our diplomats and analysts has been that states and human collectives act in their own rational self-interest. This is utterly wrong, leading us to convoluted analyses that seek …

Al-Qaida is shifting its tactics and finding new followers

The good news is that nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida appears to be battered. The bad news is that like …

Anbar, properly adapted, offers lessons for quelling Pakistan’s tribal regions

Following years of promising gains since 2001, Afghanistan is in a tailspin. Not long ago, a sophisticated Taliban assault on a Kandahar …

Officers should exercise their citizen’s right to vote

In an interview with National Public Radio this spring, Gen. David Petraeus was asked about the prospect of a new president taking office next …

TO THOSE who rushed to condemn Wes Clark’s remark about Sen. John McCain’s qualifications to be president. What Clark told “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer was something few would dispute: “In …