by Susan Katz Keating Why did Soviet forces abandon Afghanistan in 1989 after nearly 10 years of war? Western analysts have burned through terabytes trying to explain it. What else besides the fierce Mujahideen drove the Red Army to retreat with nothing to show but shattered pride? Some credit the …

The degree of hazard depends on the type of weapon, height of the burst, distance from the detonation, hardness of the target, and explosive yield of the weapon.  by Susan Katz Keating Russian President Vladimir Putin again raised the specter of nuclear war when he announced that a conventional attack …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating My inbox is overflowing. In the wake of current events, some of my correspondents fear that the U.S. will implode. One reader, “Freaked Out,” writes: “I saw the story about you in The New Yorker magazine, and you talked about riots and civil war. Are we …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating I’m told that Vladimir Lenin has been spotted racing through American streets with fire in his eyes, trying to make it to the revolution – but they started without him. Poor Vlad. He dragged himself out of the mausoleum, dodged Teslas and taco trucks, only to …

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment is known as the Night Stalkers. They move at a moment’s notice, arriving time on target, plus or minus 30 seconds. Check out the team in action.

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating It was designed in the shadows and delivered in fire. Operation Rising Lion is more than a military strike – it’s also a case study in elite-level warfighting, a stunning demonstration of what happens when clandestine missions, surgical airpower, and special operations converge with precision and …

by Martin Kufus Excerpted from Plow the Dirt but Watch the Sky: True Tales of Manure, Media, Militaries, and More, by Martin Kufus. And the sign said YOU ARE LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR.  Our Mercedes bus idled at Checkpoint Charlie, the tightly controlled Allied crossing through the Berlin Wall into the …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating The gatekeepers in the U.S. security world are suffering from a dangerous case of collective amnesia when it comes to China. Witness the shocked undertones surrounding reports on two recent cases of Chinese nationals being charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States. The …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Something strange crackled through the shortwave radio bands coming out of Russia last week. The long-dormant station UVB-76  –  known to old intelligence hands as the “Doomsday Radio” – buzzed to life on June 4, and began broadcasting again. The transmission was cryptic. The voice …

by Susan Katz Keating It was the largest amphibious assault in the history of warfare, and one of the most decisive military missions of modern times. The outcome of WWII rested upon the success of D-Day – a mission that was long in the making, and shrouded in secrecy until …