Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, his office said Wednesday, throwing into doubt when and if he will return to Washington to resume his duties in the Senate. The Mayo Clinic said doctors diagnosed a tumor called a glioblastoma after surgery to remove a blood clot above McCain’s left eye […]

General Cirilito “Lito” Sobejana joined the Golan Heights United Nations mission in 2013 as the Chief of Staff of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) responsible for ensuring that Syria and Israel do not violate the Agreement on Disengagement that they signed at the end of the 1973 Yom-Kippur War.  For Sobejana and his Philippine […]

This is a tough pill to swallow. Since 2003 we’ve seen the troubled city of Mosul in northern Iraq change hands numerous times.  From Saddam, to the coalition, to the government of Iraq (GOI), to ISIS, and now the city appears to be back under the nominal control of GOI, at least on paper.  Many […]

In many ways the battle for Marawi has been a curious event which has seen bandits belonging to the allegedly ISIS affiliated Maute Group attacking a Muslim city in order to raise their public profile and demonstrate their power to the Philippine government.  Philippine SOF units and Marines worked hard to cordon the enemy into […]

I sat in the back of a van that bounced into a remote training base in Northern Syria. Like many of my Kurdish hosts, I was technically in the country illegally after being smuggled in from adjacent Kurdistan. It was 2014 and the war was young, none of us knowing how much bloodshed was still […]

Following my late night attendance of General Sabban‘s birthday party in Zamboanga, I met the general the following morning at the airport to catch a plane to Tawi-Tawi.  I was pretty exhausted, but Sabban looked none of the worse for wear.  I had been invited down to Tawi-Tawi for the activation anniversary of 2nd Marine […]

The Philippine Armed Forces may have cordoned off Marawi, but tough urban fighting looms ahead even as the Scout-Rangers and Light Reaction Regiment have cleared buildings on the outskirts of the city.  With the Maute Group having press ganged civilians into service, the enemy numbers somewhere around 300 armed fighters who are holed up in […]

From Hugo Chavez to Vladimir Putin, it appears that Oliver Stone has yet to meet an authoritarian hiding behind left cover that he isn’t in love with.  In 2014, Stone produced “Mi Amigo Hugo” to glorify the Venezuelan dictator and received mostly jeers, many seeing Stone as a useful idiot in the machinations of Chavez […]

Russia’s full throttle disinformation campaign against the West continues in earnest.  Considering the dearth of Russian fake news, I’ve decided to highlight some selected stories each week to help make readers aware of: 1) fake news 2) what Russia wants us to believe and 3) take a look at both internally as well as externally […]

I sat across from a Light Reaction Regiment operator at a restaurant where we tried in vain to escape some of the humidity.  He’s smoking a cigarette while we discuss his unit and their operations.  He is a quiet man, quick to tell me that his job is to execute the mission rather than complain […]

Read Part 2 HERE During this time the Light Reaction Battalion participated in numerous operations, with the Army giving them a mandate to crack down hard on the Abu Sayyaf group. During one mission, snipers from a Light Reaction Company were tasked to find and eliminate a Abu Sayyaf High Value Target. They crept into their […]

On April 30th, 1980 terrorists stormed the Iranian embassy in London, England to demand the release of prisoners held in Iran.  Throughout the 1970’s international terrorism was a frightening new reality that western governments were still trying to cope with.  By taking hostages and barricading themselves against assaulters, terrorists could hold entire countries hostage in […]