Assist. Prof. @ACSC_Airpower. Explorer of far off places in the Balkans. U.S. military, operations other than war, peacekeeping, refugees. My views are my own.
Oct 11, 2022 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
@BretDevereaux@cwjones89 The initial phase focused on Serbian fielded military targets-keep in mind the aim is to stop Serbian ethnic cleansing against Kosovars. The expectation was that it would be fast, much like Deliberate Falcon in Bosnia in 1995. But…
@BretDevereaux@cwjones89 In Bosnia there were heavy fielded forces to target because there was a civil war. Not so much in Kosovo, no need for massed forces to massacre civilians or just force them out. And without better intel, targeting small units is hard. Plus…
Sep 20, 2022 • 23 tweets • 7 min read
Let's talk #Russian#nuclear strategy and why that's relevant to recent developments in Russia's war in #Ukraine.
First, Ukraine has made major territorial gains, especially around Kharkiv. This has put a lot of pressure on Putin. 1/23
This has hit his international standing and was on display at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Uzbekistan. Putin was publicly put down by Modi and Xi, and today Erdogan also chided him - they all had the same message: the war must end. 2/
Mar 5, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
If this is verified, then it looks like what many of us feared has happened - Russian forces have opened fire on unarmed civilians protesting their occupation. A few thoughts on what this might mean. (All caveats of the fog of war apply) 1/
As many have noted, simultaneous peaceful protests and armed resistance very often lead to massive over reaction against the peaceful protesters. This is exacerbated in Ukraine by the presence of the territorial defense and other volunteers. Mistakes are easy in this situation 2/
Mar 1, 2022 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
I've been seeing a lot of calls for a #NoFlyZoneOverUkraine. On the surface this might seem a great option - no more Russia bombing civilians. But imposing a no-fly zone involves active combat. #NATO would be declaring war on Russia. So let's talk about no-fly zones. 1/
Step 1 - Determine what type of no-fly zone. An absolute NFZ with no aircraft allowed, no hostile aircraft (& hostile as any military aircraft vs actively engaged in hostilities, wh/ would allow for ISR platforms), fixed wing vs rotary wing, etc. 2/
May 31, 2020 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
I want to add a few thoughts this morning. #Minneapolis#police followed through on this framing of “urban warfare” last night. They approached protesters as “enemies” and treated them accordingly. It’s tempting to fall into the rhetoric of war 1/
Based on the images/videos/testimonies, it would be easy to describe the police as waging war on the protesters. But I want to resist that - because it just feeds into this false narrative. Describing police attacks as “war” still implies protesters are a threat and insurgents 2/
