Brian Bauer

About the author

is an 11-year veteran who spent his military career serving as a crew chief, gunner, aerial gunnery instructor and avionics technician with one of the Navy's dedicated SOF-support helicopter squadrons HSC-84 and its predecessor unit HCS-4. He completed several tours to Iraq, providing SOF Helicopter Assault Force (HAF) support for Direct Action operations. After leaving the Navy in 2013, he has completed a degree in Political Science and is now working on his MBA at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Helicopter Assault: Putting SOF on target

Somewhere in the vicinity of Baghdad, 4 Navy HH-60Hs lift out of a FOB, their cabins packed full of SOF assaulters. As the birds lift, the engines whine, struggling to perform in the hot summer air. The targeted individuals are all members of an al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) cell, and tonight we know where they are. […]

Religion. Politics. Jihad. (Pt. 3)

Religion is the mobilizer of militants and serves as justification for brutality. Still, we must consider solutions beyond bombs and bullets.

Religion. Politics. Jihad. (Pt. 2)

Religious terror organizations have at their core religious ideology. IS and AQ are not alone in their use of religion to mobilize militancy.

Religion. Politics. Jihad. (Pt. 1)

The assertion that religion is part of the global jihad movement is by no means profound, but the fusion is more complex than most like to acknowledge.