Robert Farley

Cernig on Blackwater’s Super Tucano purchase: The real story, then, isn’t that Blackwater will have its own armed air force, although matters might still end that way. The real story is that Blackwater has been handed a wink and a nod to position itself as the only capable contractor for training the pilots of the […]

Last week, the USS Kitty Hawk departed Japan for the last time, after a ten year deployment. For much of this period, Kitty Hawk was the only conventionally-powered aircraft carrier left in the US arsenal. She was kept in service because of Japanese anti-nuclear sensibilities; it was easier to keep a conventional carrier around than […]

Noah Shachtman notes that the Army has some interesting ideas about global warming: The Army is weighing in on the global warming debate, claiming that climate change is not man-made. Instead, Dr. Bruce West, with the Army Research Office, argues that “changes in the earth’s average surface temperature are directly linked to … the short-term […]

Amphibious warfare vessels are fabulously useful ships; just about everyone, from South Korea to South Africa to Turkey to New Zealand, is buying one. They typically have a couple of helicopters and some landing craft, and they give a country the capability to establish a presence in disaster relief or humanitarian intervention operations. A new […]

This seems like kind of a big deal: Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad. The edicts, or fatwas, by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani suggest he […]

RIA Novosti reports that the Russian Navy will increase its deployments in 2008. This comes on the heels of a major exercise involving the North Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet in 2007. Russia’s Northern Fleet will dispatch ships and submarines on tours of duty to various regions of the world’s oceans in 2008, the […]

George Packer writes: If the fear of Baghdad and Falluja is what keeps foreign powers from saving huge numbers of Burmese from their own government’s callousness, that will be one more tragic consequence of the Iraq war. On the other hand, if it’s going to be done, it should be done quickly. I know all […]

Marines are not eradicating poppy cultivation in Helmand Province: Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world’s largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin. The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with […]

Via Steve Clemons, the Council on Foreign Relations has released a new report on US policy towards Latin America. One highlight is a proposal to completely retool Cuba policy: Permit freer travel to and facilitate trade with Cuba. The White House should repeal the 2004 restrictions placed on Cuban-American family travel and remittances. Reinstate and […]