Margaret Thatcher Passes away

Margaret Thatcher  the famous Iron Lady of 1980’s Britain and only female Prime Minister in English History has passed away in London from an apparent stroke.  She will be remembered as one of the most effective Prime Ministers in British history.  Not least among her accomplishments was her steadfast opposition to the Soviets in partnership with Ronald Reagan and most notably to me her refusal to bow to Argentina and the way in which she prosecuted the 1982-1983 Falklands War to regain the islands after the Argentine’s invaded and seized them. I hope the British realize what a treasure they have lost and remember her fondly. May she Rest in Peace

Stormin’ Norman passes away.

The architect of the whirlwind coalition victory against Saddam Hussein in the 1990 Gulf War, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf has passed away from complications related to pneumonia at age 78.  He will be remembered by military historians for the way in which he designed the air and ground campaign that resulted in what has come to be called the 100 Hour War.  He also had some very memorable press conferences during the war. Our thoughts are with his wife and children in their time of grief.  May he Rest in Peace. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, coalition forces leader during Persian Gulf War, dies

The Reality of War – Violent Death

Today I was reading a selection of articles from Foreign Affairs magazine dealing with modern Counterinsurgency and its perceived success or failure.   One of the things that struck me about the articles and that Bing West brings out in his rebuttal to two critiques of a piece he wrote is the modern predilection for forgetting, either purposefully or not, that war is in essence about man killing man.   What should be the enduring image of war is that of a battlefield strewn with bodies after the armies have moved on such as those below. That is not the image that the modern West has of warfare though.   … More after the Jump…