Jeff Meiser
@jwmeiser.bsky.social
3.3K followers 370 following 270 posts
Former war college professor NDU now UPortland. Tweets on politics, IR, strategy, hip hop. Book: Power and Restraint. My views rep only me.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
jwmeiser.bsky.social
DoD renaming to DoW is the apogee of GWOT lethality cult thinking
joestieb.bsky.social
I read the WAPO piece defending the DoD renaming, and this might be one of the most pathetic mainstream media takes of the year:

"If those troops are commanded by the War Department, rather than the Defense Department, might it prompt more opposition to their deployment?"

Pure magical thinking.
Reposted by Jeff Meiser
foreignaffairs.com
“It has been clear from Israeli actions as well as the rhetoric of numerous Israeli officials that Israel’s war is not simply against Hamas but aimed at all the residents of Gaza,” writes Robert Pape.
The Unparalleled Devastation of Gaza
Why punishing civilians has not yielded strategic success.
www.foreignaffairs.com
jwmeiser.bsky.social
💀💀💀
gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social
Born too late to do presence patrols in Baghdad
Born just in time to do presence patrols on the Mall
jwmeiser.bsky.social
It’s a great book
jwmeiser.bsky.social
100% co-sign this thread
gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social
There are multiple ongoing conflicts that are equally as disastrous in terms of humanitarian suffering and countless examples in recent memory.

Israel’s actions in Gaza aren’t really outside the norm in conflicts. But it is far outside the norms of what we expect from governments we support.
jacobinmag.bsky.social
Israel’s war in Gaza combines a staggeringly high death rate, shocking violence toward children, unparalleled physical destruction, and now a world-historical famine.

The world has, by objective measure, never seen anything like this.
jwmeiser.bsky.social
McKenzie thinks all the nation-building shit was a bad idea but also was against leaving in 2021
jwmeiser.bsky.social
I’ve heard good things about The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War by Stoker, but haven’t read it yet
jwmeiser.bsky.social
Not specifically I don’t think
jwmeiser.bsky.social
I enjoyed Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, though I have to admit it’s the only book I read on the topic so I can’t say if it’s the best
jwmeiser.bsky.social
“In our planning process, assumptions are assertions about a future condition, upon which the plan is based”
Hmm, “assertions about a future condition”?
Does he mean if-then statements, if we do x then y will happen?
jwmeiser.bsky.social
Gen. McKenzie: “The Doha agreement signed in February 2020 was, to use a phrase from our operational jargon, the proximate ‘defeat mechanism’ that brought down the Afghan government”
jwmeiser.bsky.social
Gen. McKenzie says we lost in AFG because of the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan.
He also says it’s Tommy Frank’s fault we didn’t get bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
jwmeiser.bsky.social
That’s what’s up
Reposted by Jeff Meiser
seva.bsky.social
US bureau of statistics next year:
jwmeiser.bsky.social
No self-respecting Americanist would assign this book except to demolish it