A great piece by the Afghanistan Analysts Network team as they gathered a diverse sampling of Afghans and discussed what the recent truce-cease fire between the Afghan government forces and the Taliban. Best thing you’ll read this month about Afghanistan Article link

A review of The Koran in English : A Biography Author, Bruce B. Lawrence Princeton University Press, 2017 Five-star book, worth your money. “The world is certainly full of shadows.” -Arberry Let Bruce B. Lawrence shed some light on the Koran’s various English translations. Lawrence has written a valuable study of many of the English… Read More Book review: The Koran in English

Our nation has a SecState that can score touchdowns and a President that calls daring plays. (When does SEC football start…) This statement is a better than many would’ve guessed possible. Now can they carry it through. Let’s hope so. Damn good start.

Episode one is available on our website https://werejusttalkingaboutit.libsyn.com/about Also available on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/were-just-talking-about-its-podcast/id1404984777?mt=2&i=1000414834953 Hollie Fleck, my amazing producer, and I will drop a couple more episodes soon and then “We’re Just Talking About It” will show up in all your favorite podcast listings. So for now please use our website and share it with your… Read More Jason Howk’s Podcast: We’re Just Talking About It

Published in the Foreign Service Journal Lessons learned since I first served in an Embassy in 2002

We are excited to announce our first episode of the podcast “we’re just talking about it” is in the can and out for review with our early listeners. Host Jason Criss Howk and cohost and producer Hollie Fleck will be having a conversation in plain English every other week to help people understand Islam. Not… Read More New Podcast: Islam 101– the conversation we should have started on 12 Sept 2001

I’m knee deep into writing a book about Afghanistan and have engaged in many discussions with Afghan Hands across the Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational spectrum. Some early thoughts… 1. American presidents have poorly communicated why the US and the coalition are there and how they define success and how it will be achieved. A.… Read More Afghanistan: How and Why

In his final public appearance as Assistant to the President for National Security LTG McMaster provides some thoughts for us to absorb and act upon. “Russia employs sophisticated strategies deliberately designed to achieve objectives while falling below the target state’s threshold for a military response.” See full remarks here 3 April

Jason Criss Howk, This story is one of the reasons why I travel around America talking to non-Muslims about Islam and Muslim cultures. Read about two female bigots as they train their children to hate Muslims in Arizona. In 2015 I retired from the Army and decided to take action to make America more tolerant… Read More Why I’ve spent almost 3 years talking about Islam

President Ghani has pushed again to get the Taliban to rejoin Afghan society by entering into the Peace and Reconciliation Process that Afghans agreed to in 2010, with the support of the international community. The Taliban, as they have been since 2009 when they heard of the initial offers, are divided on the idea. As… Read More The Taliban are in a Bind, but are they Willing to Make a Deal

So it looks like the FBI and others had taken notice of the latest coward child-murderer…yet it happened— again. Dear U.S. and local government, We must be proactive and interdict shooters. If you hear politicians calling for more praying or calling for banning firearms you can bet they don’t understand this problem. I have repeatedly… Read More Prayer and Gun Bans Won’t Stop Mass Murderers

The Taliban are reaching out again to the US for a few reasons… That they think they can ultimately defeat the official government of Afghanistan is likely not one of them. Guardian article on latest outreach. As the capabilities of the Afghan security forces increase, as the support of Afghan coalition partners continues, and as… Read More Why the enemy talks of peace on Valentine’s Day

The “Greatest Communicator” Generation Jason Criss Howk, U.S. Army retired 10 Feb 2018 Living with purpose. I think that may best define my wartime generation. We are a close cohort.  In this long war, with such a small force, we have repeatedly worked together on life-or-death issues like no generation of peacemakers has in U.S.… Read More The “Greatest Communicator” Generation

While I am on record that some of their language is harmful to the long-range strategic messaging campaign against violent Islamist butchers this is worth a read. You can’t solve a problem you don’t understand. “Some of the returnees, no doubt, were disillusioned by the brutal experience of life under the bloodthirsty rule of the… Read More Reading “The Travelers”

This week you might have noticed the Taliban was involved in a few separate peace talks and struggling violently to deal with ISIS in Afghanistan. The Afghan Army is taking advantage of the situation and pushing even harder this winter after a very successful year in 2017 leading its own operations. “This winter, however, Afghan… Read More Afghan War is On Azimuth

A short article worth your time from former Strike officers Wylie, Childers, and Sylvia. As the US Army continues to learn from advisory and assistance missions it would do well to understand that the “accompany and enable” phases are the ones where the critical human bonding that creates trust in wartime is occurring. Every returning… Read More Strike Iraq: Advise, Assist, Accompany, Enable

Grant, McChrystal, Lincoln, and Karzai…Civ-Mil Lessons Jason Criss Howk Reading Chernow’s new 5star-book about Grant has helped me to better frame some recent events, as they seem to be history repeating themselves. Every high profile general has his enemies, seen and unseen. Generals also have their supporters that, if the generals are lucky, place efficiency… Read More Grant, McChrystal, Lincoln, and Karzai…Civ-Mil Lessons

A few thoughts on the books I was learning from this year, just in time for Jolabokaflod for you Icelandians. I like to read about 10 books at a time so when I get bored with one book I can grab another. My list usually contains books about current events, a classic, something I would… Read More What I was Reading in 2017. How about you?

I recommend adding the 2017 National Security Strategy to your holiday reading list. Nadia has done a great job putting this together and it clarifies many key positions in language that can’t be misunderstood by ourselves, allies, and enemies. Of key importance to me were the clarifications that: America is not at war with the… Read More Making America’s Positions Clearer

The Press and the Presidency Jason Criss Howk 26 November 2017 Unless you live under a rock, you have likely noticed that the current president has been sparring vigorously with the majority of the press in America. Unfortunately, many in the press have taken the bait and are making this rift look like a 3rd… Read More The Press and the Presidency