Tag: Military

  • The Revolt of the Maccabees

    “Instruct the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, to cause the lamp TO BURN ALWAYS. Aaron and his sons shall set them up in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain which is before the Ark of the Pact, to burn from evening to morning before the LORD. It shall be a due from the Israelites FOR ALL TIME, throughout the ages.”

     

    [Exodus (Shemot) 27. 20 – 21 Tanakh, Torah]

    The following account of the Maccabean battles is primarily from the “Battles of the Battle”, by Chaim Herzog and Mordechai Gichon. The authors state that the purpose of the book is “to narrate the military history of the Bible in terms of modern military concepts and accepted terminology.” In the present essay we will suggest some examples as to how the Maccabean battles speak to principles of warfare over the centuries with special emphasis on the subject of how volunteer militia units stack up against professional armies. (more…)

  • Why Armed Citizens Are Critical in the Next War

    The recent war in which Azerbaijan quickly defeated Armenia is the first war to demonstrate how unmanned weapons and electronic surveillance are now a critical factor in conflicts involving smaller states and/or irregular forces. 

    In this recent war, the Turkish-made BAYRAKTAR TB2 Unmanned Air Combat Vehicle (UCAV) and the Israeli-made HAROP Loitering Munition (LM) dominated the fighting and provided Azerbaijan with a war-winning advantage. The following are some lessons from that war that indicate the shape of battlespaces in the future. From Ten Lessons from the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War,
    By John Antal. See American Partisan.

    Azerbaijan outspent Armenia six-to-one, investing more than $24 billion in the decade before the war to purchase the latest Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), UCAV, and LM technology from Turkey and Israel. One of the primary lessons of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was to “know yourself and know your enemy.”

    Gaining Initiative in Action & Technology. Japan is an example of a low technology nation that created the first successful carrier groups and managed to do this virtually overnight in the years before Pearl Harbor. Buying the best carriers and taking the initiative, however, did not alone guarantee success in war. Training, organization, and leadership are key.

    KNOW YOUR ENEMY. The Azerbaijanis researched recent changes in warfare, adopted the latest weapons and looked at how Turkish forces operated in Syria.

    (more…)

  • Jihad Swarming & Counter-Terrorist Tactics

    The manner in which societies organize for war has always been dependent on a number of interrelated factors. Technology is an important factor but there are many instances where societies that are behind in the technology of warfare or even behind in industrial strength and other economic factors have been able to become better organized than their opponents. Japan, for example, created the first successful carrier groups and managed to do this virtually overnight in the years before Pearl Harbor.

    At Pearl Harbor, the Japanese executed tactics gleaned from systematic study of the British attack on Taranto that destroyed a major portion of the Italian Navy.

    Just prior to WW II, theorists like Liddell Hart advocated in favor of integrating fast moving armored vehicles with smaller infantry units and air cover. The only authorities in a position to follow Hart’s innovative doctrine who actually listened were members of the German High Command.

    The German execution of the lightning-fast tactics that the world came to know as Blitzkrieg overran France’s “state of the art” defenses in a matter of a few days with a loss of German lives that was almost nil!

    The ability of the U.S. to mobilize and organize a civilian industrial base in order to convert to the building of carriers and planes and other military armament was one important factor that turned the tables on the Japanese and the Germans. (more…)

  • Implementing the Law Enforcement Officers’ Safety Act

    RE: OPINION LETTER RELATING TO IMPLEMENTATION OF
    LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS’ SAFETY ACT

    I. PURPOSE

    The following opinion answers questions related to questions raised by the WASPC as to whether a municipal law enforcement agency exposes itself to additional liability by certifying retired law enforcement officers as having met Criminal Justice Training Commission standards for firearms qualification. The purpose of the LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS’ SAFETY ACT OF 2004 (18 U.S.C. Sec. 926B and 926C) is to supplement active law enforcement personnel in order to deter crime and prevent terrorist activity. The federal law accomplishes this by anticipating that additional armed law enforcement personnel that have already been trained will be present within each jurisdiction as officers travel from one jurisdiction to another while on business, vacationing or for any other reason. (more…)