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Articles by Jeff Goodson
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I've used the Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry since 1957.
'Better way' to remove tunnels from Hamas' military assets — THE MILLENNIAL PRESS
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.] By Jeff Goodson Real Clear Wire The biggest problem confronting Israel in its war on Hamas is how to destroy the Gaza tunnel networks and the terrorist operations therein. Bombing works—mostly—but there’s a better way. Not only would it dramatically reduce Israeli military and Gazan civilian casualties, but it would effectively destroy the tunnel systems for the long term.
Could the Mediterranean Be the Secret to Defeating Hamas in Gaza?
The biggest problem confronting Israel in its war on Hamas is how to destroy the Gaza tunnel networks and the terrorist operations therein. Bombing works—mostly—but there’s a better way. Not only would it dramatically reduce Israeli military and Gazan civilian casualties, but it would effectively destroy the tunnel systems for the long term. That solution is to flood the tunnels with seawater from the adjacent Mediterranean. I worked on the Gaza Strip back in the 1990s.
Jeff Goodson: Flood the Gaza tunnel system
Sunset over the Israel-Gaza war zone, via Reuters live stream video. By JEFF GOODSON | REALCLEARWIRE The biggest problem confronting Israel in its war on Hamas is how to destroy the Gaza tunnel networks and the terrorist operations therein. Bombing works—mostly—but there’s a better way. Not only would it dramatically reduce Israeli military and Gazan civilian casualties, but it would effectively destroy the tunnel systems for the long term.
Flood the Gaza Tunnels
The biggest problem confronting Israel in its war on Hamas is how to destroy the Gaza tunnel networks and the terrorist operations therein. Bombing works—mostly—but there’s a better way. Not only would it dramatically reduce Israeli military and Gazan civilian casualties, but it would effectively destroy the tunnel systems for the long term. That solution is to flood the tunnels with seawater from the adjacent Mediterranean. I worked on the Gaza Strip back in the 1990s.
Flood the Gaza Tunnels
The biggest problem confronting Israel in its war on Hamas is how to destroy the Gaza tunnel networks and the terrorist operations therein. Bombing works—mostly—but there’s a better way. Not only would it dramatically reduce Israeli military and Gazan civilian casualties, but it would effectively destroy the tunnel systems for the long term. That solution is to flood the tunnels with seawater from the adjacent Mediterranean. I worked on the Gaza Strip back in the 1990s.
The Hunt for Old Guns: Just How Rare Is That Old Gun?
The Number Produced It stands to reason that the fewer guns produced of a particular model, the rarer that gun is today. (Photo: Don Summers/Guns.com) How many of these guns were originally manufactured? Most rare guns are rare for a reason: they weren’t very good, so there weren’t many bought, so there weren’t many made. Production numbers are now available for almost all antique American firearms. They’re based on historical records and recorded serial number data.
Six strategic mistakes the U.S. made in Afghanistan
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has wrought institutional amnesia at the White House, State and Pentagon about the war in Afghanistan. Two years ago this month, Joe Biden ignored his military advisers and abruptly abandoned the country. It was the worst strategic blunder in modern American military history. There’s plenty of blame to go around for the war — starting, of course, with the Pashtun Taliban, who let Al Qaeda train 10,000 fighters and protected Osama bin Laden while he planned 9/11.
In Afghanistan, We’ve Opened the Gates of Hell
The Afghanistan fiasco is the worst strategic blunder since 1938: the year that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waved around a copy of the Munich Agreement and proclaimed “peace in our time.” Chamberlain’s failure to understand the enemy gave Germany the space it needed to invade Poland — the event that marked the start of World War II. Chamberlain resigned in 1940 when his political support evaporated.
In Afghanistan, we've opened the gates of hell
The Afghanistan fiasco is the worst strategic blunder since 1938: the year that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waved around a copy of the Munich Agreement and proclaimed “peace in our time.” Chamberlain’s failure to understand the enemy gave Germany the space it needed to invade Poland — the event that marked the start of World War II. Chamberlain resigned in 1940 when his political support evaporated.
Irregular Warfare in a New Era of Great-Power Competition
Rooted in Francis Fukuyama's idea that the end of history was near, the end of the Cold War saw renewed enthusiasm for the liberal international order. That notion proved both illusory and short lived. By 2014, marked by China's territorial aggression in the South China Sea and Russia's annexation of Crimea, the reality of great-power competition in a multipolar world had returned to define how the world is ordered in fact.
How Great Power Competition Is Changing the Geopolitics of Mongolia
Mongolia is in a uniquely precarious situation, geographically, demographically and economically. Landlocked and isolated in East Asia, it has the lowest population density of any sovereign nation in the world. Its 3 million people, in a country about the size of Alaska, are dwarfed by 133 million Russians to the north and 1.4 billion Chinese to the south. It also has one of the coldest climates in the world.
What Mattis Gets Wrong: Alliances Also Need Rebuilding at Home
Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP, File One of the most respected generals of our time, General James Mattis, has just finished an autobiography about leadership. In a recent excerpt in the Wall Street Journal, he eloquently describes how his four-decade military career formed his thinking about the importance of international alliances. It's a well-founded, and well-articulated, point of view. Few will disagree with it, and this and future presidents would be wise to embrace it.
What Mattis gets wrong: Alliances also need rebuilding at home
One of the most respected generals of our time, General James MattisJames Norman MattisMattis: 'I'll speak out' about policy issues 'when the time comes' Mattis: Trump is 'an unusual president' Ex-Mattis aide sues Pentagon claiming they are delaying his memoir MORE, has just finished an autobiography about leadership. In a recent excerpt in the Wall Street Journal, he eloquently describes how his four-decade military career formed his thinking about the importance of international alliances.
Tackling China in modern Cold War
Smart thinking isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when most people contemplate Washington. But while China puts lipstick on its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, smart thinking on what to do about it is starting to settle in. At the strategic level, the State Department has been rethinking the nature of the China threat altogether. During the post-9/11 counterterrorism era, deep thinking on great power competition went into hibernation as more pressing issues took center stage.
The fatal flaw in the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan
The Trump administration has just rolled out the economic part of its new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. It will facilitate some $50 billion in socioeconomic development, with over $27 billion going to Gaza and the West Bank. The balance will go to Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. The plan is nation-building on steroids. It would fund everything from roads, power, water, ICT and border infrastructure, to governance, to health and education, to regional economic integration.
At the Dawn of Special Operations
The Incredible Military Career of Lucien Stervinou There's a forested canyon above the town of Quimper in northwest France called les Gorge du Stangala. Drained by the Odet river, it's known locally for its wild beauty and tranquility. In World War II, while training with the British Special Air Service in Scotland, the name was adopted as the nom de guerre of a French resistance fighter and special operations warrior named Lucien Stervinou.
The Line Between Conflict and Stability in Great Power Competition
One of the most consequential policy shifts of the Trump administration followed its reappraisal of U.S. national security threats in December 2017. The administration's National Security Strategy lays out a vision for protecting the country and advancing American influence. The 2018 National Defense Strategy — mostly classified — provides guidance to the Department of Defense on how to execute it.
There's No Walking Away From Islamic Jihad
President Trump announced in December that we are pulling out of Syria, and cutting our forces in Afghanistan by half. The statements took everyone by surprise, including at the Pentagon, and generated a tsunami of commentary. Lost in most of the rhetoric was any context about the nature of the war that the U.S. is actually fighting in those countries. There are all kinds of wars — conventional and irregular wars, direct and proxy wars, ethnic, political, economic and religious wars.
There's no walking away from Islamic jihad
President TrumpDonald John TrumpFederal worker with diabetes says she can’t afford to pay for insulin during shutdown Trump’s disapproval rating higher since shutdown began: poll Iran moving toward enriching nuclear fuel, top official says MORE announced in December that we are pulling out of Syria, and cutting our forces in Afghanistan by half. The statements took everyone by surprise, including at the Pentagon, and generated a tsunami of commentary.
The Return of Big Infrastructure as a Geopolitical Tool
Big infrastructure is back. Long relegated to a secondary development objective by the West, China's gambit to use infrastructure as a vehicle for promoting foreign policy objectives is changing the geopolitical landscape. Infrastructure is the highest priority in almost every developing country. As I learned from working in 49 of them, when you ask the leaders about their top development priority, the answer is always the same: roads, power and water.
The Return of Big Infrastructure as a Geopolitical Tool
Big infrastructure is back. Long relegated to a secondary development objective by the West, China's gambit to use infrastructure as a vehicle for promoting foreign policy objectives is changing the geopolitical landscape. Infrastructure is the highest priority in almost every developing country. As I learned from working in 49 of them, when you ask the leaders about their top development priority, the answer is always the same: roads, power and water.
Defense Department Wants Out of Stability Operations
Last January, the secretary of Defense, secretary of State and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a new interagency framework for conducting stability operations. Known as the Stabilization Assistance Review or SAR, it's the result of years of interagency friction over institutional rolls in conflict environments.
INVESTING FOR INFLUENCE
Development finance has undergone a shift. Though traditional aid flows once dominated the sector, foreign direct investment (FDI) is now by far the leading source of development finance in most of the world’s emerging states. At the same time, competition for influence in these countries is heating up, led by China’s massive investments in infrastructure projects in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Defense Department wants out of stability operations
Last January, the secretary of Defense, secretary of State and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a new interagency framework for conducting stability operations. Known as the Stabilization Assistance Review or SAR, it’s the result of years of interagency friction over institutional rolls in conflict environments.
How Development Finance Is Changing Geopolitics
Development finance has undergone a shift. Though traditional aid flows once dominated the sector, foreign direct investment (FDI) is now by far the leading source of development finance in most of the world's emerging states. At the same time, competition for influence in these countries is heating up, led by China's massive investments in infrastructure projects in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Expeditionary Economics in Context
Expeditionary economics is an important line of effort in all five kinds of irregular warfare. RAND argues, for example, that the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) model could play a major role in future foreign internal defense, counterinsurgency and stability operations, as well as serve as an enabler for counter-terrorism actions that are nested with stability ops.
Wells Fargo Lost its Soul When It Quit the Iditarod
In the winter of 1925, a deadly diphtheria epidemic hit the isolated town of Nome, on Alaska's far northwest coast. Diphtheria killed entire towns in those days, and some 10,000 people were in real mortal danger. The antitoxin on hand had long expired, but it was administered anyway to save the life of a young girl. When it failed, the only doctor in Nome sent out an urgent plea by radio for help. Fresh antitoxin was found in Anchorage and rushed by rail the 300 miles to Nenana.
U.S. Did Not Spend $43 Million on a Gas Station in Afghanistan | RealClearDefense
U.S. Did Not Spend $43 Million on a Gas Station in Afghanistan There he goes again. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko has just released an audit of the Defense Department's long-defunct Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO). Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and then-Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) requested it in January 2016. What the senators asked for was an audit of TFBSO programs, spending and performance.
No, the US did not spend $43 million on a gas station in Afghanistan
There he goes again. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko has just released an audit of the Defense Department’s long-defunct Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO). Sen. Charles Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyGOP senators eager for Romney to join them Five hurdles to a big DACA and border deal Grand jury indicts Maryland executive in Uranium One deal: report MORE (R-Iowa) and then-Sen.
Ending Burma’s Rohingya Dilemma | RealClearDefense
French President Charles De Gaulle once famously asked how you can govern a country with 246 kinds of cheese. He might as well have been thinking of Burma, which recognizes eight races and 135 ethnic groups. Diversity is divisive, and Burma’s extreme diversity has led to decades of extreme internal conflict. Mostly Buddhist since the eleventh century, today it has some forty-seven armed ethnic groups. About twenty of them are of special security concern.
The NFL between a Rock and a Hard Place
The whole thing started last year when San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat out the traditional pre-game playing of the National Anthem. Fans, outraged that he wasn't fired outright or at least benched under a "sit for the Anthem, sit for the game" policy, abandoned pro football in droves. Kaepernick was released by San Francisco later in the year, and since then, no other NFL team has picked up his contract.
12 Big Changes in Afghanistan Strategy | RealClearDefense
Several authors are promoting the narrative that President Trump’s new strategic approach to Afghanistan is not much different from that of President Obama. The reality, however, is quite different. The new approach—it’s not really a strategy in the military sense of ways, means and ends—marks a watershed in how the U.S. has approached Afghanistan and starts fleshing out an evolving new Trump doctrine of principled realism. To be sure, the objective of the new strategy has not changed.
Trump's Winning Afghanistan Strategy | RealClearDefense
President Trump's deliberative approach to formulating a new Afghanistan strategy has drawn fire from every corner of the political spectrum. That ended Monday night, when he announced a new long-term approach to Afghanistan and South Asia designed to achieve an ‘honorable and enduring outcome.' In a major break with the past, Trump's 'principled realism' strategy, is conditions-based rather than driven by arbitrary timelines.
Trump's winning Afghanistan strategy plans for the long term
President Trump’s deliberative approach to formulating a new Afghanistan strategy has drawn fire from every corner of the political spectrum. That ended Monday night, when he announced a new long-term approach to Afghanistan and South Asia designed to achieve an ‘honorable and enduring outcome.’ In a major break with the past, Trump’s 'principled realism' strategy, is conditions-based rather than driven by arbitrary timelines.
Development at War: A Short History | RealClearDefense
Socioeconomic development plays a major role in cold, conventional and irregular warfare. Recent history illustrates how the nature of that role varies with the nature of the conflict, and recent trends portend likely development execution in future operations. The modern era of international development started after the end of World War II. Secretary of State George C.
USAID and State: On Marrying Bears and Frogs | RealClearDefense
The debate continues to rage in Washington, D.C. over how to integrate the U.S. Agency for International Development into the Department of State. It’s the wrong debate—again—but for now, it has captured the city’s imagination. Both financial and ideological considerations drive the discussion. After the last eight years, with the national debt nearly doubled to twenty trillion dollars, it is clear to most that the nation cannot simply carry on like we are Greece.
Rest Easy, Dad: Your FBI Will Survive
Born in 1916, he grew up with ten brothers and sisters on the wharves of Galveston. Like most back then, the Goodson family scratched its way through the Depression and bit every nickel to see if it was real. All of the kids went to public schools. There was no money for college, but dad got into Rice University which was free if you had the grades. He took a degree in history, and went on to law school at the University of Texas.
After Mosul Falls, How Much Rebuilding Help Should the U.S. Give?
Restoring stable governance means creating a government that can supply basic services — and there are several ways the United State can provide assistance. As the siege of Mosul progresses to its logical conclusion, the debate over what comes next is heating up. Some say creating workable governance in a complex socio-cultural environment should be left to local stakeholders, with the U.S. staying out of it altogether. Others, like retired Gen.
The Myth of the $43-Million Gas Station in Afghanistan
Maybe SIGAR, like the American people, is tired of seeing tax dollars flushed away in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. I once heard SIGAR tell an audience, he knew that about $76 million had been “spent” on Afghan reconstruction, up to that point. He then told us he could only account for about half of it. Wonderful! Was he misinformed, just plain stupid, lying? While this particular project may have merit, there are plenty of others which did or do not.
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