Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners
Quotes of the Day:
"War educates the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man. On its own scale, on the virtues it loves, it endures no counterfeit, but shakes the whole society until every atom falls into the place its specific gravity assigns it. It presently finds the value of good sense and of foresight, and Ulysses takes rank next to Achilles. The leaders, picked men of a courage and vigor tried and augmented in fifty battles, are emulous to distinguish themselves above each other by new merits, as clemency, hospitality, splendor of living."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Thus it has come about that our theoretical and critical literature, instead of giving plain, straightforward arguments in which the author at least always knows what he is saying andthe reader what he is reading, is crammed with jargon, ending at obscure crossroads where the author loses its readers. Sometimes these books are even worse: they are just hollow shells. The author himself no longer knows just what he is thinking and soothes himself with obscure ideas which would not satisfy him if expressed in plain speech.”
- Major General Carl von Clausewitz
“America doesn’t lose wars, it loses interest.” - Hussain Haqqani, former Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S.
1. Inside Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan: Warnings, Doubts but Little Change
2. U.S. Embassy contractors, visa applicants among Afghans left behind after one of the largest airlifts in history
3. Report: Army official’s secret texts said, ‘We're f-ing abandoning Americans,' as US withdrew from Afghanistan
4. Corporate boards, consulting, speaking fees: How U.S. generals thrived after Afghanistan
5. The Appeal of Covert Action: Psychology and the Future of Irregular Warfare
6. State Department Press Briefing – September 2, 2021
7. As they did on the battlefield, the Taliban outlasted the U.S. at the negotiating table
8. Taliban say U.N. promises aid after meeting with officials in Kabul
9. How a Long Island Man Became the ‘Forrest Gump of Jihad’—and Then Flipped
10. American Spies Are Fighting the Last War, Again
11. Assessing Shortcomings of the U.S. Approach for Addressing Conflict Below the Threshold of War
12. Afghanistan: 'Everyone got it wrong' on Taliban takeover - armed forces chief
13. The Afghanistan Meltdown Proves Vietnam Taught Us Nothing
14. OPINION | RICHARD MASON: A smarter way to dominate enemies
15. Ritchie Boys: The secret U.S. unit bolstered by German-born Jews that helped the Allies beat Hitler
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/9-6-2021-National-Security-News-and-Commentary.html?soid=1114009586911&aid=NcL_AAXM8C8
