On the anniversary of the day President Harry Truman desegregated the military, President Donald Trump announced, via Twitter, that the United States military would no longer welcome or support the service of transgender American citizens. As a nation, we have been here before.… continue »
Early in the summer of 2003, as we made our initial push from the Kuwaiti border up through central Iraq and then on into Anbar Province, our armored cavalry unit was not meeting the resistance we’d expected and so we were able to move much more quickly.… continue »
Amidst all of the confusion, the lies, and the damaged norms of the Trump administration, one of the best hopes for good governance has been tied to a handful of respected, trusted senior officials with military backgrounds. Indeed, National Security Adviser H.R.… continue »
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As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump voiced his support for deliberately targeting the families of terrorists. Fortunately, he has not adopted this policy as president. But he has nonetheless demonstrated a proclivity for eased rules of engagement on the battlefield and intensified military strikes.… continue »
Human Rights Watch saw Shia armed forces allied with the Iraqi government commit horrific abuses against the Sunni civilian population during the operation to retake Fallujah back in May. We didn’t want it to happen again in Mosul.
As a result, Human Rights Watch pressed the Iraqi government to keep the abusive units within the Popular Mobilization Forces, also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, out of the Mosul operation.… continue »
As indicated by Ryan Goodman in a recent Just Security post, the report, “People on War: Perspectives from 16 Countries,” by the International Committee of the Red Cross, provides an important and very sobering assessment of global opinion concerning the law and conflict.… continue »
[Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, the Department of Defense released an updated version of its Law of War Manual. Just Security is hosting an online “mini forum” to discuss the new changes to the Manual.]
An important function of the 2015 DoD Law of War Manual has been to address longstanding confusion concerning the U.S.… continue »
The Defense Department published new revisions to its Law of War Manual this evening. This is the second time the document has been changed since it was first released in the summer of 2015. The first round of revisions focused on the section on journalism and changed some of the language to provide greater legal protection to reporters working in war zones.… continue »
President Barack Obama made a last trip to MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday to put his final mark on his administration’s counterterrorism strategy and to thank members of the military for the role they played in that fight.… continue »
The Pentagon will soon have permission from Congress to make condolence payments to the families of civilians killed or injured by American airstrikes in Syria, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. The new funding is buried deep in the annual defense policy bill, which is quickly on its way to becoming law.… continue »
