I carried STP 21-1-SMCT Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks in my cargo pocket throughout basic training in 1995. Even the newest privates are instructed on lawful orders.
25.11.2025 15:43
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I carried STP 21-1-SMCT Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks in my cargo pocket throughout basic training in 1995. Even the newest privates are instructed on lawful orders.
"The decision to learn a foreign language is to me an act of friendship. It is indeed a holding out of the hand. It’s not just a route to negotiation. It’s also to get to know you better, to draw closer to you and your culture, your social manners and your way of thinking." -John le Carré
Looking forward to this year's U.S.-Mexico Defense & Security Roundtable. Plenty to talk about. Join us live in Mexico City or livestream here: www.youtube.com/live/KM1YdCc...
That means that the use of force against any targeted non-state actor must be bounded and part of a coherent strategy with an achievable objective. If not, anyone with a connection in a very large illicit network, no matter how tangential, can find themselves a target for military action.
The danger is that, as the CTC study shows, the network of individuals tied to drug trafficking is massive from El Mencho in Jalisco to the United Wa State Army in Myanmar to your cousin who sells weed to his friends.
One of several legal arguments being made to justify lethal strikes against drug boats in the Western Hemisphere is that the sale of illicit drugs finances terrorists that are in an armed conflict with the United States and U.S. allies.
The study is a bit of six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but it also illuminates some key nodes of a larger illicit economic system.
Makes sense. You may not know someone in the next neighborhood, but you both use the same local drycleaner. Likewise if you need AK-47s whether you are a drug runner or a terrorist, you will hit up your local arms dealer.
The Combating Terrorism Center did a network analysis of 2,700 individuals to see if terrorist and criminal networks are linked (apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/A...). They found that 98% of the individuals were part of a single large network spanning 122 countries - a dense web of 15,000 relationships.
The convergence of transnational criminal organizations, insurgents, and terrorists is a real thing. Terrorists and criminals do participate in illicit economic activity to gain resources. However, exactness is important in shaping policy and strategy against these groups.
Thanks to @avindman.bsky.social for the opportunity to collaborate on this discussion regarding operations in the Caribbean. www.avindman.com/p/what-congr....
As we learned the hard way in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, if you are going to use military force, you should have a deep understanding of your area of operations. Thanks to Small Wars for publishing my short primer on working in the Western Hemisphere. smallwarsjournal.com/2025/11/03/w...
Why isn't the US exercising strategic patience? Petro is deeply unpopular and is likely to be replaced in Aug. What's the play, completely break the relationship with Colombia and then rebuild it next year? Why not wait a few months on the Venezuela pressure?
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/u...
Border states should pay attention because seven of the criminal groups that have been designated as terrorist organizations are in Mexico. There are more than 12,000 U.S. troops on the border. An escalation against Mexican groups could come next.
Under the War Powers Resolution, the President must have authorization from Congress within 60 days or he must stop military action. We are at 37 days.
The use of lethal force against narcotraffickers violates the spirit of the law. If there isn't an immediate threat, the President must seek authorization from Congress.
Had a good conversation with KTAR this week. Short sound bite here (play.cdnstream1.com/s/bonneville...). A few points didn't make the cut...
5. In a worst case scenario, we could see a turn away from the inter-American system based on binding international agreements (h/t Tom Long) and countries in the region could balance against the United States.
4. Frustrating U.S. unilateral military campaigns against vaporous drug trafficking organizations with no discernible end-state.
3. The culmination of the loss of Brazil as an ally - the product of poor foreign policy choices since the end of WWII.
2. The rise of regional organizations that exclude the United States and Canada while opening the door to China - specifically the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
1. The breakdown of international organizations that are generally favorable to the United States such as the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Defense Board.
The heart of our position was that regional policy in the Western Hemisphere needed to focus on opportunities more than threats. If the new U.S. strategy turns out to be a Roosevelt Corollary redux instead of investing in regional integration, we could see several negative outcomes:
We argued that "Effective engagement in the hemisphere presents an opportunity for the U.S. to increase its comparative strength to rising and revisionist powers, broaden the western democratic family of nations, and provide a powerful example to the developing world."
Lots of speculation about the new National Defense Strategy and a shift in focus to the Western Hemisphere. Several years ago, Pablo Brum and I wrote an article outlining the strategic importance of the region. wjpcenter.org/wp-content/u...
Reminder, under the War Powers Resolution, Congress has 46 days left to authorize the use of military force against Venezuelan criminal organizations and/or the Maduro regime. www.military.com/daily-news/2...
COIN has become shorthand for expensive poorly designed intervention policies. This lets our strategic leaders off the hook for their utter failure to develop effective military strategies and sets our forces up for another round of on the job training. archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/was...
After reading Blackjack, read our commentary for more details (smallwarsjournal.com/2023/03/23/p...)
So how will this go? Check out Blackjack at Small Wars Journal, a short story I wrote with Jim Marckwardt. (smallwarsjournal.com/2024/04/30/b...),
Well, here we go! Looks like the President has decided to use military force against drug cartels. (www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/u...). With a war in Ukraine raging and tensions with China on the rise, initiating a conflict with Mexico is strategic malpractice.