Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
Brian M Downing Early concerns and defections Shortly after the Vietnam buildup in 1965, Sen William Fulbright (D-Arkansas) chaired hearings. Foreign policy and military experts, including George F Kennan questioned the strategic justifications for the war and the way it was being fought. Fulbright’s investigations were on television. Public support for the Read More …
Brian M Downing In 1965 the US took on the main combat load in Vietnam. Each year saw more US troops, more fighting and casualties, and few if any signs of progress. Two years in, popular and elite opposition was rising. The following year public opposition was all the higher Read More …
Brian M Downing Mark Twain noted that events rhymed, but not all recurrences are as pleasing as poetic couplets. Many are poorly constructed, graceless, violent, and tragic. The Vietnam War did grave damage to American beliefs and institutions. Population pressures, police blunders, a polarizing president, and ossified political parties have Read More …
Brian M Downing Beijing faces pressures to retake Taiwan. There are important military and political reasons for China to ignore them and tamp down on the hawks. Nonetheless, the PLA may be given the order. The battle will be long and costly and the PLA may have to retreat ignobly Read More …
Brian M Downing My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop Read More …
Brian M Downing Few people had heard of the Tuareg before the wars in Libya and Mali. The Kurds were better known but the fighting in Iraq and Syria brought them to prominence. The Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic people, will make themselves better known in coming decades. Chinese policies and Read More …
Brian M Downing The Vietnam War had many ironies, twists, and convolutions. Villages, it was said, had to be destroyed in order to save them. Leaders saw signs of significant progress shortly before an unexpectedly strong enemy offensive. The values and institutions that governed America were close to collapse as a Read More …
For a week Nick and I had sworn we weren’t going to the show. It was dawn in the bunker overlooking rows of razor wire, trip flares, and land mines. Nick flicked on the radio already set on the only American station – AFVN, ”the voice of the American fighting man,” which Read More …
Obama’s foreign policy and the Nixon Doctrine Brian M Downing Politicians and the public at large are voicing frustration at the slow pace of the ISIL War. Some claim the administration doesn’t have a strategy. Many are eager to see more US troops sent back into the Middle East. Owing Read More …
I remember MAD Magazine more and more fondly these days. It wasn’t just a funny magazine for kids. It tried to teach us something about modern America and to instill critical ways of thinking about the not-so brave new world we were growing up in. If cultivated, those ways of Read More …