“Heck, I reckon you wouldn’t even be human if you didn’t have some pretty strong personal feelings about nuclear combat.” Maj. King Kong, USAF Charges of treason leveled by politicians and journalists against Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of … Continue reading
Earl H. Tilford
Gaza: Total War Reality
The current fighting in Gaza rapidly approaches total war intensity. Strategy for Hamas has always involved the total war objective of annihilating Israel. For Israel, fighting Hamas and Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and Syria, involves a long, protracted … Continue reading
From the Dawn of the American Twilight
Fifty years ago this spring, my wife and I, both Air Force intelligence officers, returned to Udorn Air Base, Thailand from an “in-country rest & recuperation” trip to Chaing Mai. That night I worked the mid-shift in the intel shop … Continue reading
Looking back at a year and Christmas past—and toward a better 2021
“This could be the greatest day of our lives, but you’re gonna let it be the worst.” —Bluto Blutarsky, Faber College, Autumn 1978 On Christmas eve before bed, I received a Facebook message from a friend overseas. It included a … Continue reading
History and War: A Veterans Day Reflection
For 50 years, I have had one foot planted in Sparta and one in Athens: the military and the academy. The dichotomy is not simply between militarism and intellectualism. Athenians Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were soldiers as well as philosophers. … Continue reading
September 11: Nineteen Years On, A Remembrance
A late summer, early morning dawn greeted me as I pulled into the faculty parking lot at Grove City College, a small, Christian liberal arts school in northwestern Pennsylvania. As I walked to my office, I marveled at the bright … Continue reading
Confessions of a Draft Dodger
“And we know that to them who love God all things work together for good to them that are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 Next month I turn 75. The ubiquitous “they” tell me I’m on a COVID-19 … Continue reading
COVID 19: Yes, this is War
In mid-March, President Donald Trump declared himself a “wartime president.” While the usual legion of media critics bellyached, Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic has rallied the country to a semblance of togetherness not seen since the terrorist attacks of September … Continue reading
Thinking the Unthinkable—and Responding Wisely
In 1994, I was in my first year as director of research for the U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute. Part of our mission was to consider how the Army might respond to various strategic threats. Fifteen very bright people, to … Continue reading
Afghan Imbroglio in Context
Last weekend, U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, representing a Taliban delegation, signed an agreement that could lead to substantive peace negotiations between all parties involved in what has become America’s longest war. In October 2001, … Continue reading
Higher Education in an Increasingly Diverse Culture
“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life” Plato Howard Mumford Jones, an English professor at the University of Michigan and later at Harvard, long ago commented that American colleges and … Continue reading
How Martin Luther King, Jr. Changed Hearts
My father was a Presbyterian minister in rural northwest Alabama from 1961 to 1965. I came of age there, then left the University of Alabama with an M.A. in history in 1969. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Governor George … Continue reading
It is for Professors to Teach and Students to Learn
While all the rage in education, my hackles rise when an educator declares, “We learn from our students” or “Students should construct their own knowledge.” Granted, the 55 years since I was a freshman may explain my antediluvian notion that … Continue reading
The Strategic Effect of Operation Kayla
Raids, like Operation Kayla resulting in the death of Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi and other ISIS terrorist leaders, are usually small affairs with limited results. Nevertheless, such meticulously planned and superbly executed raids also can have significant strategic implications. Roughly five decades … Continue reading
A Time of Civility Needed Again
Tonight, President Donald Trump will visit Minneapolis. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated, “While there is no legal mechanism to prevent the president from visiting, his message of hatred will never be welcome in Minneapolis.” For those too young to remember, … Continue reading
Missing in Action: How America Forgets MIA Day
Presidential proclamation, along with decrees by state governors, have served to establish September 20 as a national day of recognition for thousands of American service personnel who remain missing in action. Since World War II, over 81,000 Americans who served … Continue reading
When Collusion Twice Saved the World
In November 1971, after serving a year as an intelligence officer supporting the secret American war in Laos, I returned to an assignment in the Intelligence Early Warning Center (INEW) at Headquarters, Strategic Air Command (SAC), near Omaha. The INEW … Continue reading
Showdown with the Ayatollahs: A Dangerous Situation
Yesterday, President Donald Trump imposed more economic sanctions on Iran. In response, Iranian officials denounced the sanctions. Does diplomacy have a chance in this situation? Or is war inevitable? Going to war is the highest responsibility of any government. Once violence … Continue reading
Russia Heats Up: New Challenges to U.S. National Security
The news program “60 Minutes” recently interviewed two F-22 Raptor pilots who, without Air Force approval, announced they would no longer fly the Raptor due to unresolved problems in its oxygen system resulting in a number of cases of hypoxia. … Continue reading
Angela Davis and the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award
On Friday, January 4, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute revoked its invitation to honor city native Angela Y. Davis at a February gala event where she was to receive the institute’s Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award. Many individuals … Continue reading