SOFREP Daily Brief

• Qatar backing Syria?

  
  As the conflict in Syria rages on, some critics say gulf countries, including Qatar, are making things worse by backing certain violent and intolerant groups, accusations the government rejects. We discuss this, in addition to Syrian refugees, relations with Iran and the controversy surrounding the 2022 World Cup. In this week’s Headliner Mehdi Hasan speaks to Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid al-Attiyah… – Al Jazeera

• Fox News supports Sons of Serpents, Captain America’s enemy!

  Sam Wilson, aka Captain America, was only trying to be a hero when he flew to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona to investigate the disappearance of a Mexican teenager in the first issue of Nick Spencer’s post-Secret Wars series Captain America: Sam Wilson. Once there, the star-spangled Avenger faced off against one of Cap’s oldest enemies, the Sons of the Serpent—a white supremacist terror group suspected of kidnapping and possibly killing Mexicans caught crossing the desert. The masked Serpents, with their big guns and their big, muscly arms, resemble a militarized Ku Klux Klan and spew recognizable Trump-isms at a group of unarmed immigrants. They lovingly refer to… – The Daily Beast

• Why America Can’t Win Wars

  The national track record in major wars since World War II would have the actual General George S. Patton Jr. rolling in his grave—three victories (Panama, the Gulf War, and Kosovo), one defeat (Vietnam), and four ambiguous outcomes (Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya). In the last three decades, the United States has toppled four regimes through force of arms; three of the targeted countries are currently basket cases of civil war and terrorism. None of the wars spawned by 9/11 have ended well. Why can’t America win its wars today? In their adulation of the accomplishments of the Greatest Generation, Americans have forgotten why World War II ended so well. Yes… – Scribd

• The low down on the RPG-7

  

  The RPG is a rocket-propelled shaped charge antitank weapon that took its philosophical foundation from the German WWII Panzerfaust (although it shares little with that weapon mechanically). Over the course of WWII, the armor on tanks quickly because too heavy for man-portable anti-tank rifles to defeat. The solution to this dilemma was the development of shaped charge warheads, in which directed explosive energy could be used much more efficiently than simple high explosive or even simpler kinetic energy. After several earlier developmental iterations, the RPG-7 was introduced in 1961 by… – Forgotten Weapons

• New Book out on Red Teaming

  Red teaming is a practice as old as the role of the Devil’s Advocate, the eleventh-century Vatican official charged with discrediting candidates for sainthood. Today, red teams—comprised primarily of fearless skeptics and those assuming the role of saboteurs who seek to better understand the interests, intentions, and capabilities of institutions or potential competitors—are used widely in both the public and private sector. Red teaming, including simulations, vulnerability probes, and alternative analyses, helps institutions in competitive environments identify weaknesses, challenge assumptions, and anticipate potential threats ahead of the next special operations raid, malicious cyberattack, or corporate merger. But not all red teams are created equal; indeed, some cause more damage than they prevent. – Council on Foreign Relations

[Featured image: FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images]