Bing West

BING WEST, author of “One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War” and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs:

• A look back at the devastating combat waged by the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in Sangin, Afghanistan (Helmand Province)
• Afghanistan today and the plan to withdraw most U.S. troops by the end of the year
• The skewed rules of engagement U.S. servicemen faced when implementing a counterinsurgency strategy

PART TWO

• How stringent rules of engagement breed a risk-averse culture
• President Obama’s feckless security policy and how it harms America’s long-term credibility
• The challenges posed by Iraq’s ethnic tensions
• Working with an Iranian-friendly Shiite administration in Baghdad

PART THREE

• Turkish President Erdogan’s Islamist ambitions
• Why the Afghanistan air campaign of 2001 was an ideal campaign for containing the spread of jihadist insurgencies
• How the War on Terror represents a greater clash of civilizations that will last for generations

PART FOUR

• What the two controversial memoirs by Secretaries of Defense Gates and Panetta indicate about President Obama’s leadership
• The FBI Director’s warning about China’s relentless hacking of American businesses
• Failure of the Republican Party to articulate meaningful alternatives and be consistent in its opposition to current Administration policy
• The indispensable capability offered by land mines and the ideological motive behind the President’s desire to remove them from America’s arsenal