The Patton of Counterinsurgency - Kagan and Kagan, Weekly Standard
Lessons on Iraq From a Founding Father - Brian O'Malley, Washington Post
Turkey - Iraq: Dangerous Neighborhood - New York Times editorial
It is Worth Fighting in Afghanistan - London Daily Telegraph editorial
Harry the Hero - New York Post editorial
Hope is on the Rise in Pakistan - Shuja Nawaz, Boston Globe
The Iranian Nuclear Challenge - Boston Globe editorial
Cuba's Generation Gap - Brian Latell, Wall Street Journal
Why Travel to Cuba Must be Regulated - Mauricio Claver-Carone, Miami Herald
Why Deal with N. Korea and not Cuba? - Miriam Leiva, Miami Herald
Prayerful Request for U.S. to Help Haiti - John Clement Favalora, Miami Herald
Putinocracy - London Times editorial
Teaching The Federalist in S. Korea - Peter Berkowitz, National Review
POW Politics - Wall Street Journal editorial
Your U.N. at Work, III - Wall Street Journal editorial
The U.N., Women and Violence - Washington Times editorial
Lapses in FISA Judgment - Washington Times editorial
Why Islam Can Enjoin Stoning - Christopher Howse, London Daily Telegraph
On Assassinating Freedom - Austin Bay, Washington Times
A Fighting 9/11 Tribute - New York Post editorial

Continue reading "1 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Teaching Marines to be Like Hunters - Rick Rogers, San Diego Union-Tribune

Trying to become predators instead of prey, Marines headed to Iraq will go through training built on advice from big-game hunters, soldiers of fortune and troops who grew up around firearms in the woods or the inner city.

Combat Hunter, a program begun at Camp Pendleton and now being rolled out nationwide, is designed to help Marines stalk and kill insurgents by using their senses and instincts. It emphasizes keen observation of Marines' surroundings and meticulous knowledge of their foes' habits...

White House Ties Troop Levels to Iraqi Elections - Doyle McManus and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times

The Bush administration believes a halt in troop reductions in Iraq after July is needed in part to ensure a large enough force is present to provide security for local elections, a senior administration official said Friday.

By tying troop levels to Iraq's provincial elections, officials in effect established a new milestone to guide U.S. policy during President Bush's last months in office. And by linking them to the elections, the administration is increasing pressure on the Iraqis to actually hold the balloting...

US Casualties Down 30% in February - Michael Goldfarb, Weekly Standard

American forces suffered 29 casualties in February, 25 of which were from hostile fire. This represents a drop of roughly 30 percent from the month prior. Good news, right? Wrong. Think Progress reports today...

It's strange how when American casualties are up, that's all we hear about, but now, suddenly, the left is overwhelmed with concern for the Iraqi people (what do they think will happen if American troops withdraw?). So what if American casualties have gone down and stayed down. So what if Iraqi civilian casualties have dropped for six straight months. They're up this month, and this is the worst possible spin one could put on the current situation, so that's what the left will report. It's instructive, however, to go back to that excellent piece in the Small Wars Journal last summer by David Kilcullen, COIN advisor to Gen. Petraeus..

U.S. COIN Doctrine Meets the Korengal Valley - Westhawk

Published in today’s New York Times, Ms. Elizabeth Rubin has chronicled her stay last autumn with a U.S. rifle company fighting a nasty insurgency in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. The focus of Ms. Rubin’s piece is Captain Dan Kearney, USA, a company commander in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team who, in Ms. Rubin’s telling of the story, is struggling to maintain the morale and discipline of his soldiers. Just five months into a 15-month combat tour, the company had lost seven killed and dozens wounded; by Ms. Rubin’s reckoning, the frustrated and isolated soldiers are on the verge of snapping.

At the same time Ms. Rubin was at Captain Kearney’s forward operating base researching her story, Colonel Chip Preysler, USA, commanding officer of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, gave an interview by video-conference with the Pentagon press corps. The transcript of the interview confirms Ms. Rubin’s descriptions of challenging mountainous terrain, a determined enemy, and hard fighting. As to the mental state of his soldiers, Colonel Preysler keeps his own counsel...

GEN Casey, Meet LTG Caldwell - Charlie, Abu Muqawama

As our regular readers know, Charlie likes to spend her spare time looking for a pike to put the Marine Commandant's head on. But it's time to share the love a bit.

On the one hand, we have LTG Bill Caldwell doing a full court press on the Army's new FM 3-0, Operations...

Bush Elbows NATO for Troop Relief - Jon Ward, Washington TImes

President Bush today called on European nations who are part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan to place more troops in major combat areas, and said he will push for commitments on that at a summit in Romania next month.

"We expect people to carry a heavy burden if they are going to be in Afghanistan," Mr. Bush said, during a press conference at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Afghanistan will be a primary issue at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, planned for April 2-4 in Bucharest...

U.S. Plan Widens Role in Training Pakistani Forces - Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, New York Times

The United States military is developing a plan to send about 100 American trainers to work with a Pakistani paramilitary force that is the vanguard in the fight against Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas, American military officials said.

Pakistan has ruled out allowing American combat troops to fight Qaeda and Taliban militants in the tribal areas. But Pakistani leaders have privately indicated that they would welcome additional American trainers to help teach new skills to Pakistani soldiers whose army was tailored not for counterinsurgency but to fight a conventional land war against India...

Turkish Troops Leaving N. Iraq - Sudarsan Raghavan and Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post

Turkey announced Friday that it had pulled its troops out of northern Iraq, ending an eight-day invasion to pursue Kurdish guerrillas that raised tensions with the Iraqi government and fears of a regional conflict. The withdrawal came one day after both President Bush and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged a swift end to the offensive.

Turkish officials denied they had been pressured into ending their country's most extensive operation in northern Iraq in more than a decade. They said they had completed their objective of weakening the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which for decades has fought for Kurdish rights and autonomy in Turkey from mountain bases in northern Iraq...

The Patton of Counterinsurgency - Frederick W. Kagan and Kimberly Kagan, Weekly Standard

Great commanders often come in pairs: Eisenhower and Patton, Grant and Sherman, Napoleon and Davout, Marlborough and Eugene, Caesar and Labienus. Generals David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno can now be added to the list.

It's natural to assume that successful pairs of commanders complement each other's personalities (the diplomatic Eisenhower and the hard-charging Patton, for example) or that the junior partner is merely executing the vision of the other (Sherman seen as acting on Grant's orders). In reality, the task of planning and conducting large-scale military operations is too great for any single commander, no matter how talented his staff. The subordinate in every successful command pair has played a key role in designing and implementing the campaign plan...

Israel Takes Gaza Fight to Next Level - Steven Erlanger and Taghredd El- Khodary, New York Times

Israeli aircraft and troops attacked Palestinian positions in northern Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 100 in the deadliest day of fighting in more than a year. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven wounded, the military said.

The Israeli attacks, mostly from the air on a clear, bright day, were aimed at stopping rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, especially after Ashkelon, a large city 10 miles from Gaza, came under fire from more advanced, Katyusha-style rockets smuggled in from Iran...

Continue reading "In Case You Missed It..." »

Taliban's Cellphone Terror - Los Angeles Times editorial
The Afghan Threat - Baltimore Sun editorial
Making the Afghanistan Mission Work - Thomas Axworthy, Toronto Star
Barak's Iraq Attack - New York Post editorial
Failure in Strategic Communications - Daniel Gallington, Washington Times
To Protect America - Clifford May, Washington Times
It's the Middle East, Stupid - Michael Oren, Washington Post
Why I Have New Hope for The Mideast - Robin Wright, Washington Post
The End of the 'Guilty Israeli' - Yossi Klein Halevi, Los Angeles Times
Prince Harry Wins His Spurs - London Times editorial
Harry's Been There and Got the T-shirt - Andy McNab, London Daily Telegraph
Pakistan Election Rewards - Lisa Curtis, Washington Times
Welcome to Kosovo, the Next Failed State? - Mark Kramer, Washington Post
Zimbabwe Circles the Drain - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Beware Dmitry Medvedev the Bear - Robert Service, London Times
Foreign Policy Won't Change - Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post
America's Enemies: 'Don't Worry, be Happy' - Oliver North, Washington Times
Crying Wolf Over Bioterrorism - Wendy Orent, Los Angeles Times
The Pyongyang Overture - Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe

Continue reading "2 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Most folks at the Small Wars Council know me, I’ve been around the Council for about a year and a half, and started inter-acting while deployed on a BN level Transition Team to Mosul. I am currently working at the Joint Center for International Security Force Assistance as an Army strategist (FA 59) at Fort Leavenworth where we have responsibilities that place us working to identify and integrate SFA knowledge and practices into the institution, and also to provide operational support to deployed units. We work with the greater JIIM community on SFA and related issues, but we are not necessarily where some have identified us as being e.g. we have a relationship with FT Riley, but they are FORSCOM driven, and we are a Joint Center – like most organizations with “Center” in the title, there is plenty of responsibility not necessarily with commensurate authority. We are a Chairman’s activity, and LTG Caldwell is “dual-hatted” as both the CAC CDR and the JCISFA Director. Originally JCISFA was established under then LTG Petraeus when he was the CAC CDR, along with the COIN Center that Cavguy works at. We are about a 25 person organization, with about five Marines, eight Army personnel, one Sailor, and eleven contractors.

JCISFA’s current mission statement: Institutionalize lessons and best practices from security force assistance (SFA) operations to better prepare U.S. and partner nation forces to rebuild security infrastructure during stability, security, transition, and reconstruction operations. Serve as the DOD Center of Excellence and U.S. Armed Forces focal point to provide advice and assistance for international security force assistance mission...

Continue reading "What is Security Force Assistance & What is JCISFA" »

Background

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and Foreign Policy magazine set out to address some of the most challenging questions facing the U.S. military in the 21st century: What is the state of America's military? How healthy are the armed forces? How prepared are they for future conflicts? How confident are they in civilian leaders and government institutions? And what impact have the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had on them? To find out, CNAS and Foreign Policy teamed up to conduct a survey to find out what senior retired and active duty officers — the very people who have run the military over the last half century — collectively think about the state of the force, the health of the military, the course of the war in Iraq, and the challenges that lie ahead.

SWJ Blog entry here.

Learn more: CNAS Fact Sheet | Questions and Data

Methodology

The U.S. Military Index is based on a survey of 3,437 retired and active duty officers holding the rank of major or lieutenant commander and above from across the services. About 35 percent of the participants hailed from the Army, 33 percent from the Air Force, 23 percent from the Navy, and 8 percent from the Marine Corps. The Index focuses on a very select portion of the retired and active duty military, including 232 retired general and flag officers, elite generals and admirals who have served at the highest levels of command. Approximately one-third were colonels or captains, while 37 percent held the rank of lieutenant colonel or commander. Twelve percent graduated from one of America’s exclusive military academies. Approximately two-thirds had combat experience, with roughly 10 percent having served in Iraq, Afghanistan, or both. Over 95 percent of participants had served in the military for fifteen years or more, 81 percent more than twenty years, and some 17 percent had served more than thirty years. Nearly 30 percent were either active duty or retired within the last ten years, with current active duty personnel accounting for over 8 percent of respondents. Participants in the survey were selected by the Center for a New American Security and Foreign Policy magazine. The nonscientific survey was administered online from December 7, 2007, to January 15, 2008.

Release Event Information:

CNAS and Foreign Policy Magazine launched the results of this survey on February 19, 2008.

The release event also involved a panel discussion with:

Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, Jr., USA (Ret)
Maj. Gen. Scales served more than 30 years in the U.S. Army, including as commandant of the United States Army War College. He is a Fox News Channel military analyst and the president of Colgen, Inc.

Lt. Gen. Greg S. Newbold, USMC (Ret.)
Lt. Gen. Newbold served more than 30 years in the Marine Corps, including as director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He currently serves as the managing director of Torch Hill Capital.

Lt. Col. John A. Nagl, USA
Lt. Col. Nagl is commander, 1st Battalion, 34th Armor at Fort Riley, Kansas. He was deployed to Iraq in 2003, helped write the Army’s counterinsurgency field manual, and is the author of Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya to Vietnam.

CNAS Clarification:

February 22, 2008--Since the February 19 release of a Center for New American Security (CNAS) and Foreign Policy (FP) magazine survey of retired and active duty officers on the state of the U.S. military, we have heard concerns from several people we respect about the manner in which its findings have been presented. CNAS takes these concerns very seriously. We regret that some of our findings were presented without the proper context and caveats for which we take full responsibility. We wish to clarify here what this index is and what it is not. We have updated our website to address these concerns. CNAS is committed to addressing this issue openly and directly.

The FP article summarizing the survey’s results noted that it was “nonscientific,” and that it included both “active and retired” personnel. While we continue to believe that the CNAS/FP survey provides many useful insights, it has become evident that its limitations require more explanation and clarification.

1. Nonscientific survey. Like many surveys conducted by the media and other organizations, including past FP indexes on terrorism, the CNAS/FP effort was not a randomized poll. Instead, emails were sent to thousands of individuals, mostly members of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), but also to additional active duty personnel currently serving in fellowships or at senior service schools, as well as to several hundred retired general and flag officers who were selected for their long service and extensive experience. Those who participated spent about twenty minutes online to complete the survey, sometime during the period between December 7, 2007 and January 15, 2008.

2. Predominantly retired officers. When we sent out the survey, we were unsure what mix of retired and active officers would respond, particularly through MOAA. As it turned out, although 285 active duty personnel responded, the response from the retired community was much larger, so that 92 percent of the 3,437 total respondents were retired. Some 700 participants had retired within the past 10 years, so that 29 percent of survey respondents were active duty or retired within the last ten years, while 71 percent had retired more than 10 years ago. Finally, and as noted in the FP article, more than two-thirds of respondents had combat experience and 10 percent had operational experience in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

3. Did not consider junior officers or enlisted personnel. The survey’s purpose was to ascertain how a very select group – retired and active duty officers who had served at the highest level of command, Major/Lieutenant Commander and up, assessed the current state of the military and a number of related issues. The survey was not designed to “take the pulse” of the entire military. In particular it did not attempt to assess the views of company-grade or noncommissioned officers, who play a pivotal role in leading today’s military and who will become senior leaders in the future. More broadly, it did not attempt to assess the views of enlisted personnel, who make up 84 percent of the active duty military. We hope that future surveys focus on these groups, but also believe that retired and active duty officers represent a very knowledgeable and influential group whose perspectives were of particular interest.

Both CNAS and Foreign Policy magazine posted the results of the survey online, including demographic data about the participants, the day that the article was released. However, while we provided the relevant information to the public, CNAS regrets not doing so more directly and effectively.

In presenting survey results at a public event on February 19, we noted several areas where retired and active duty officers surveyed seemed to have significant differences. For example, 44 percent of active duty officers and those retired for a year or less believed the military was weaker than it was five years ago, compared to 60 percent of respondents overall. On the other hand, for many questions, the results for officers who were either active duty or retired within the last year were similar to those of the overall group surveyed. We regret that we did not communicate both areas of difference and concordance more effectively. For those interested in further comparisons, we have posted results for this sub-group (active duty and retired for a year or less) on the CNAS website along with overall results for all 3,437 respondents.

We have updated the description of the survey methodology and results on the website, and hope that these changes and this clarification help to address any concerns regarding the survey. Our goal is to incorporate lessons learned into our future work, and we would appreciate your feedback (info@cnas.org).

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "More, from CNAS..." »

Army Manual Stresses Nation Building - Sara Carter, Washington Times
Obama's Politics of Surrender - Washington Times editorial
Prince Harry a Hero Among Thousands - The Australian editorial
Gaza Slipping Away - New York Times editorial
Israelis Exit From Gaza Maze - Christian Science Monitor editorial
Gaza Pitfalls in Every Path - Helene Cooper, New York Times
Abbas Should Try Leadership - Con Coughlin, London Daily Telegraph
Iran and Iraq: Good Neighbours? - London Times editorial
Suffering and Suffrage in Iran - Shirin Ebadi, London Times
Africa's New Peacekeepers - Peter Charles Choharis, Wall Street Journal
African Genocide Averted - Roger Cohen, New York Times
Korean Peninsula Peregrinations - Richard Halloran, Washington Times
Wrong About Mexico - Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal
Independent Kosovo a Minefield - Seumas Milne, Canberra Times
President 'Whatever' of Russia - Wall Street Journal editorial
Russia's New President Draws Questions - USA Today editorial
Russia's Sham Election - London Daily Telegraph editorial
Why Russia Holds 'Elections' - Anne Applebaum, Washington Post
The Arms Race Myth, Again - Richard Perle, Washington Post
Master of Islamist Doublespeak - Melanie Phillips, The Australian
A Toxic Time Bomb in the Northwest - Gregoire Cantwell, Washington Post
Torture Shocks - James Carroll, Boston Globe
Lawyers' $$ Over Security - Horace Cooper, Washington Times
Terror and Fairness - Markj Goldblatt, New York Post
Judges at the Helm - Phyllis Schlafly, Washington Times

Continue reading "3 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Iraq: for Once There's Hope - Martin Fletcher, London Times
Report from the Triangle of Death - Fernandez and Caraccilo, Jerusalem Post
Turks vs. Kurds - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
FM 3-24: Petraeus' Big Tent - Cullen Nutt, New Jersey Star-Ledger
The Duties of Empire - George Jonas, Ottawa Citizen
A Surge To Help Afghanistan - Joe Lieberman, Washington Post
A Conspiracy Fit for a Prince - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
Pakistan's New Frontier - Joshua White, Wall Street Journal
Two Countries on Edge - Arnaud de Borchgrave, Washington Times
Iran's Nuclear Threat - Zalmay Khalilzad, Wall Street Journal
Iran Just Won't Stay Isolated - Kupchan and Takeyh, Los Angeles Times
Mideast Salvage Mission - USA Today editorial
Gaza: Back to the Future for Middle East - London Times editorial
U.S. Navy Returns to Lebanon - David Kenner, Weekly Standard
An Inordinate Fear of Terrorism? - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
The Gaza Dilemma - Washington Post editorial
Striking FARC - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial
Crisis in the Andes - Washington Times editorial
Chávez's 'War' Drums - Wall Street Journal editorial
Kenya in Crisis - London Daily Telegraph editorial
The Tyrant of Zimbabwe - David Coltart, The Australian
Of Peace and Ethnic Blending - Jonathan Zimmerman, Philadelphia Inquirer
Russia's Make-believe Election - Boston Globe editorial
Election Season in Russia - Garry Kasparov, Wall Street Journal
A Chance to Mend Relations with Russia - Jeffrey Mankoff, Boston Globe
Russia Chooses Chains - Ralph Peters, New York Post
Tech for Troops - Frank J. Gaffney Jr, Washington Times
Good News on FISA? - Washington Times editorial
Mukasey's Paradox - Jonathan Turley, Los Angeles Times
But They Support the Troops! - James Taranto, Wall Steet Journal
The Ignorance of the Elites - Alan Nathan, Washington Times
The World Has Plenty of Oil - Nansen Saleri, Wall Street Journal

Continue reading "4 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Charlie at Abu Muqawama has the scoop (and an op-ed link) to the story behind authoring FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency.

Petraeus' Big Tent - Cullen Nutt, New Jersey Star-Ledger

The Front Page, a popular Washington, D.C., bistro, was an unlikely place for the genesis of a radical new war strategy for Iraq. But on Nov. 7, 2005, over gourmet burgers and beer, an equally unlikely group of military men and Ivy League eggheads sketched out a plan for a new Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual -- on a cocktail napkin...

Continue reading "Of Cocktail Napkins and Doctrine" »

Recent additions to the Strategic Studies Institute web page.

The Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College publishes security and strategic reports and publications which serve to influence policy debate and bridge the gap between Military and Academia.

Dissent and Strategic Leadership of the Military Professions by Dr. Don M. Snider.

One of the central difficulties to a right understanding of American civil-military relations is the nature of the U.S. military. Are our armed forces just obedient bureaucracies like most of the Executive branch, or are they vocational professions granted significant autonomy and a unique role in these relationships because of their expert knowledge and their expertise to apply it in the defense of America?

Developing Strategic Leaders for the 21st Century by Dr. Jeffrey D. McCausland.

Emerging analysis of the American interagency and intergovernmental processes has underscored the nation’s inability to respond effectively and coherently to contemporary national security demands. Modifications to various organizations and the overall interagency process have been recommended. These are clearly required, but there has not been sufficient attention focused on the nonmilitary human capital required to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

After Fidel, The Deluge? by Colonel Alex Crowther.

Cuba watchers conceptualize five post-Fidel scenarios. From most to least likely, they are: stable succession, stable transition, unstable succession, unstable transition, and chaos. But few people realize that stable succession has already occurred.

Falling Behind: International Scrutiny of the Peaceful Atom by Mr. Henry Sokolski.

If possible, it would be useful to enhance the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) ability to detect and prevent nuclear diversions. This would not only reduce the current risk of nuclear proliferation, it would make the further expansion of nuclear power much less risky. The question is what is possible?

The North Korean Ballistic Missile Program by Dr. Daniel A. Pinkston.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs have drawn international attention for years. In the early 1960s, Pyongyang began to pursue the capability to produce advanced weapons systems, including rockets and missiles. However, foreign assistance and technology, particularly from China and the Soviet Union, were instrumental in the acquisition of these capabilities.

Continue reading "Strategic Studies Institute Update" »

For years I struggled with many of my peers, trying to convince them that journalists are not the enemy. It was an uphill row to hoe, but a worthy one. Over time most seem to have accepted the proposition that journalists and their editors really do take a lot of time and effort to determine if they should run with a story, particularly one which might damage us, so the terrain shifted. More and more I came to find myself engaging with either veterans or “pro military” civilian bloggers. Their positions are more hardened than those of us serving today. Often this appears to be a byproduct of their politics. (One of the political parties has it as a basic contention that “the mainstream media” is fundamentally anti-military.) Over and over again I’ve heard the refrain by people of this inclination, that journalists don’t give a damn about those of us in uniform and would sell us out for a second if it meant a good story...

Continue reading "Mr. Bigmouth" »

Not So Big of a Tent

By Lieutenant Colonel Gian P Gentile

The notion as presented in the article by Cullen Nutt “Petraeus’s Big Tent” that the construction and writing of the American Army’s new counterinsurgency doctrine FM 3-24 was based on wide-ranging debate within the American Army is fallacious.

The outcome of the manual was predetermined by a few key individuals like General Petraeus, General Mattis, retired Lieutenant Colonel Conrad Crane, active Army Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl, and neo-conservative analyst Fred Kagan, to name a few. The fact that a conference was held at Fort Leavenworth in February 2006 to “discuss” this pre-determined doctrine and even acknowledging that at this conference there was wide inclusiveness with civilian academics and analysts does not change the fact that the doctrinal outcome of the manual with its narrow use of historical lessons learned, theories, and principles of counterinsurgency warfare was predetermined...

Continue reading "Not So Big of a Tent" »

The Limits of Fanaticism in Iraq - James Taranto, Wall Street Journal
Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics - Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times
Iraq Plus 10 Years - James Lyons, Washington Times
Afghanistan: The Forgotten War - Tom Kenworthy, USA Today
Terrorist Television - Jonathan Schanzer, National Review
Are Muslims up to the Challenge? - Yilmaz Alimoglu, Toronto Star
Gap Between Elections and Democracy - Nathaniel Heller, Washington Times
Choosing Wars - Los Angeles Times debate
Moscow, Tehran and Washington - Washington Times editorial
Putting Iran on Notice - Los Angeles Times editorial
Iran's Nuclear Shell Game - Chicago Tribune editorial
Bush's Gift to Ahmadinejad - Boston Globe editorial
Venezuela and Ecuador: Allies of Terrorism - Washington Post editorial
No Welcome Mat for Colombian Rebels - Miami Herald editorial
Uribe! - National Review editorial
Colombia a Beacon of Hope - Daniel Hannan, London Daily Telegraph
Finding FARC - Aaron Mannes, National Review
Trade Can Help Cuba Move Toward Democracy - Christopher Dodd, Miami Herald
Winning the Battle, Losing the War - James Willbanks, New York Times
NATO and the Postmodern European Generation - Roger Cohen, Boston Globe
Islam and Its Critics - Wall Street Journal editorial
Adversity: The Syndrome - Harlan Ullman, Washington Times
Concept at UK Foreign Office - Bronwen Maddox, London Times
Elusive Middle East Peace - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Balancing Diplomacy and Force - Baltimore Sun editorial
Obama's Real Mideast Problem - Amir Taheri, New York Post
Help the Good Guys in the W. Bank - Walter Isaacson, Washington Post
David Hicks: No Innocent Abroad - The Australian editorial
Silence on Armenia - Levon Ter-Petrossian, Washington Post
Medvedev's Weak Start - Toronto Star editorial
Putin's Successor or Puppet? - Baltimore Sun editorial
Memo to Medvedev - Mikhail Gorbachev, London Times
Russia: Was this Democracy? - Tony Halpin, London Times
Selling Arms to All the Wrong People - Reuben Johnson, Weekly Standard
Miscomprehending China - Gordon Chang, Weekly Standard
Africa's AIDS Puzzle - Jonny Steinberg, Los Angeles Times
Nation of Laws, Even at Guantánamo - Miami Herald editorial
The Case for Telecom Immunity - Andrew McCarthy, National Review
Feminist Follies: Slapping Soldiers - Michelle Malkin, New York Post

Continue reading "5 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Al-Qaeda Losing War of Minds - Peter Wehner, Financial Times
Nobelist Gets Math Wrong on Iraq - Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg
McCain's Consistent Folly on Iraq - Steve Chapman, Real Clear Politics
Obama's Scary Foreign Policy - Alan Dowd, Weekly Standard
Blackwater USA: Mercenary Impulse - Michael Walzer, The New Republic
Miscarriages of Military Justice - Rick Amato, Washington Times
No More Pentagon Budget Games - Robert Higgs, Christian Science Monitor
Lawfare Today: A Perspective - Charles Dunlap, Yale Journal of International Affairs
Ceasefire for Gaza - Financial Times editorial
For Israel, Hard Options in Gaza - Boston Globe editorial
Mideast Turning Point - Claude Salhani, Washington Times
A Region Essential to Peace - Ahmed Charai, Washington Times
War in South America? - New York Times editorial
In Cuba, Ignorance In Amber - George Will, Washington Post
Australia's Chance to Rebuild Ties with Pacific - Dave Peebles, Canberra Times
OPEC - Not That Powerful - Peter Grossman, Christian Science Monitor
Who Knows There's a Food Crisis? - Magnus Linklater, London Times
Africa and Child Survival - Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
Kenya and the World Bank - Wall Street Journal editorial
Far From a Russian- US Arms Race - Richard Perle, Christian Science Monitor
Homeland Security's Struggle - David Ignatius, Washington Post
Meet Sada Cumber - Stephen Schwartz, Weekly Standard
Secure Lawsuits - Washington Post editorial
An Arms Treaty Nears Orbit - Mike Moore, Washington Times

Continue reading "6 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Over the next 48 hours you may curse the hiccups as our site transitions to its new speedier host. Funny little numbers in the URL if you look there, SWC logins not holding, hiccups on comments, etc.

But at some point when that separation anxiety is past, we will probably look back fondly at the old days of cheesy shared hosting, reminiscing about how quaint it was for our hosting provider to periodically block our legitimate users from accessing our site, and then take plenty of time to load so they could savor the experience in between false IP blocks.

Only in the waning days of our time there, did we come to realize the company we kept on our old box. We were rubbing digital elbows with a virtual Who’s Who.

Continue reading "Well, there goes the neighborhood" »

Mistaken on Iraq - Lawrence Korb, National Review letter
Misreading the Surge - Gian Gentile, World Politics Review
Lessons from LTG Ray Odierno - Ralph Peters, New York Post
General Odierno Returns Home - G. Tracy Mehan, III, The American Spectator
The 'Weak States' Gap - Susan Rice, Washington Post
Promoting Human Rights - Nir Boms, Washington Times
Equal Human Rights - M. Ashraf Haidari, Washington Times
A Popularity Offensive - Michael Gerson, Washington Post
Eric Clapton is a Musical Diplomat - Ben Macintyre, London Times
McCain's National Security Bona Fides - R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., Washington Times
No Time for Foreign Policy Amateurs - Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald
Colombia's Justifiable Raid - USA Today editorial
War Drums in the Andes - Stephanie Hanson, Newsweek
South America Standoff - Michael Moynihan, Weekly Standard
South America's Fracas - Austin Bay, Washington Times
Timetable Needed for Cuba - Jorge Castañeda, Miami Herald
Why Kenya is Critical to Africa's Future - Francis Kornegay, Christian Science Monitor
Irresolution on Iran - Wall Street Journal editorial
Iran's State Within a State - Con Coughlin, London Daily Telegraph
Israel's Patience is Running Out - Vic Alhadeff, Sydney Morning Herald
Israel's Right to Fight - Ira Rifkin, Baltimore Sun
Palestinian Funding - Joel Mowbray, Washington Times
Israel's Lawyer Attack - Barbara Opall-Rome, New York Post
The Lord of War Arrested - Michael Scherer, Time
North Korea's Deadly Exit - Bill Powell, Time
Prize in Eurasian Game - Ariel Cohen, Washington Times
Dark Days in Armenia - New York Times editorial
FISA, ACLU and Terrorism - Clifford May, National Review
Post-9/11 Reform Follies - Gabriel Schoenfeld, New York Post
Buy the Best Tanker - New York Times editorial
Cantankerous Over Tankers - Washington Times editorial
War Profiteering by Tax Dodge - Boston Globe editorial

Continue reading "7 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

In what is billed as the First in a Series: The Rise of the Counterinsurgents, Spencer Ackerman of Washington Independent profiles the current debate concerning COIN in The Colonels and 'The Matrix'. The 'colonels' are LTC's Gian Gentile and Paul Yingling...

... Ultimately, the answer to that question will probably be endlessly debated. But the counterinsurgency community—they call it "COIN"—has perhaps the most organized answer. Counterinsurgency is a much-disputed concept, but it refers to methods of warfare used to divide a civilian population’s political and sentimental allegiance away from a guerrilla force. From the start of the Iraq war, a cadre of warrior-thinkers in the military has questioned the use of tactics that focus more on killing enemies than giving the Iraqi population reasons not to support terrorists, insurgents and militias. "We don’t just talk about the enemy, we talk about the environment," explained Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, until two weeks ago the corps commander in Iraq, in a lecture Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation. Not all of them assert that the early use of a counterinsurgency strategy could have won the war. But most contend, after the decline in violence in Iraq during the last half of 2007, that a counterinsurgency strategy would have allowed the war to have been less deadly than it is.

This small but dedicated group includes, most prominently, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. military forces in Iraq and Marine Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command. Other luminaries are Petraeus COIN braintrusters like David Kilcullen, a gregarious former Australian Army officer and State Department adviser; Army Col. Peter Mansoor, who will soon teach military history at the Ohio State University; and Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, who helped craft Petraeus and Mattis’ much-praised Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, a seminal text for the COIN community known as FM 3-24.

Less visible but highly influential members—many are lieutenants, captains and enlisted soldiers and Marines who came of age in Iraq and Afghanistan—include Janine Davidson, who works in the Pentagon’s directorate of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict; cultural anthropologist Montgomery McFate; Harvard human-rights expert Sarah Sewall (an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign); and Marine Corps University Professor Erin M. Simpson. The Democratic-aligned Center for a New American Security think tank plays host to many emerging counterinsurgency figures, like Colin Kahl, Nate Fick, Roger Carstens, Shawn Brimley, and, starting in the fall, Nagl. During moments of downtime, the community obsessively reads and comments on the Small Wars Journal and Abu Muqawama blogs...

...the next major debate over U.S. defense policy can be gleaned. Yingling speaks for an ascending cadre of young defense intellectuals, most of whom are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who assert that the U.S. military must embrace principles of counterinsurgency if it is to triumph in the multifaceted fight against global terrorism. Gentile, formerly one of those theorist-practitioners, believes the military has already moved too far in the direction of counterinsurgency, which he contends allows analysts to ignore the limits of U.S. military power. Both arguments represent an attempt to answer a searing question: What are the lessons of Iraq?

Charlie at Abu Muqawama has more commentary on The Colonels and 'The Matrix'.

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Continue reading "The Colonels and 'The Matrix'" »

While not all inclusive, here are some blog items that caught my eye and interest this week.

Lots going on (expect no less) over at Abu Muqawama; the COIN doctrine debate, a French COIN reading list, the Lebanon narrative and US Army doctrine, a bit about Robert Fisk (The Independent) and his disdain for our new COIN doctrine, and finally (something we linked to earlier) a little about the history of that COIN doctrine.

U.S. Tongue-Ties Self In Talking To World by MountainRunner blogger Matt Armstrong over at Democracy Project.

...we must accept that the romantic days of the United States Information Agency are gone. So many confuse the USIA and the other information services, such as Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, of recent decades with the USIA that was engaged in the active psychological struggle that largely ended with détente and the finalizing of the European partition.

Unlike half a century ago, the U.S. military has a clear voice and is arguably our dominant public diplomat. Therefore, simply resurrecting “USIA” without reorganizing our national information capabilities across civilian and military lines would turn it into just another voice struggling to be heard over America’s military commanders, spokespersons, and warfighters.

The candidates must look deeper than re-creating an agency and or re-establishing old outreach programs. They must show strong leadership and have a bold vision to rally the government and country to adapt to a world that requires understanding the information effect of action, agile response capabilities, and above all, credibility and trust...

Much more follows...

Continue reading "SWJ Items of Interest" »

The Cost Of Retreat In Iraq - Lee Kuan Yew, Washington Post
Ahmadinejad's Endless Iraq Debacle - Amir Taheri, New York Post
Must. Surrender. Somewhere. - Abe Greenwald, Commentary
Iraq Will Not be a Qaedistan - Oliver Roy, International Herald Tribune
Discard the Bush Iraq Policy - Andrew Bacevich, International Herald Tribune
A Post-Musharraf Pakistan Policy - Farhana Ali, Washington Post
Narrative First - Jerusalem Post editorial
Talk, but No Peace in Middle East - New York Times editorial
Israel's Dance of Death - London Daily Telegraph editorial
The Law and Gaza - Jerusalem Post editorial
It's Iran vs. Israel - Washington Times editorial
Hamas's Human Shields - Jerusalem Post editorial
Israel's No-Win Strategy - Daniel Doron, Wall Street Journal
Fight Fiercely for Peace - Rami Khouri, Daily Star
Life in Gaza - Jonah Goldberg, National Review
Martyrdom and National Identity - Bassem Eid, Jerusalem Post
Havoc on the Colombian Border - Boston Globe editorial
The Israel of Latin America - Rich Lowry, National Review
Threat in the Andes - William Ratliff, Los Angeles Times
A Triumph for Kenya - London TImes editorial
Feed the Hungry - Washington Times editorial
The Contrarian of Prague - Brian Carney, Wall Street Journal
Still Not at Home with DHS - National Review editorial
"Don't Protect America" Democrats - Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard
UK Military Deserves Better - London Daily Telegraph editorial

Continue reading "8 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

... or breakfast, dinner or mid-rats depending on your location. Brown-bag it in the comfort of your office next Wednesday (12 March - 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Eastern) while joining the American Security Project for an online presentation and Q&A on ASP's Are We Winning? An Interim Report concerning our efforts in the war on terror. Registration is free and open to the public.

From the ASP web page:

The American Security project will release its interim report on U.S. progress in the war on terror, Are We Winning? An Interim Report, on Wednesday, March 12 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern during a live online presentation by the study’s author, Dr. Bernard I. Finel. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Finel is the author of the first analysis that set forth 10 metrics by which to measure U.S. progress in the war on terror. Six months after the release of this groundbreaking report, Are We Winning? Measuring Progress in the Struggle Against Violent Jihadism, Dr. Finel looked at changes in these metrics and what they mean for U.S. counter-terrorism policy. He found a metastasizing jihadist threat, a continuing increase in Islamist terrorist incidents around the world, and a largely tone-deaf U.S. policy response due largely to a preoccupation with the apparent success of the Iraq “surge” strategy.

During this online event, Dr. Finel will explore the contrast between the recent drop in violence in Iraq and the increase in worldwide jihadist activity over the same timeframe, and outline some developments that may provide opportunities for the U.S. to refocus its counter-terrorism strategy on the growing threat outside of Iraq.

Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A following the presentation.

Dr. Bernard I. Finel is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Project and a former professor of military strategy at the U.S. National War College.

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "Let's Do Lunch Wednesday" »

Here is soon to be retired US Army lieutenant colonel and Center for a New American Security senior fellow John Nagl's latest for the Washington Post - We Can't Win These Wars on Our Own.

...last year's military successes in Iraq came at a very high price. The "surge" of five brigades and the extension of Army combat tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months has strained the Army to the breaking point. Neither the Army nor the Marine Corps has a reserve of ground troops to handle other crises. Meanwhile, the Taliban is regaining strength in Afghanistan and the lawless border regions of Pakistan, and the opium production that funds their insurgency hit record highs last year. And the foreseeable consequences of a hasty U.S. withdrawal from Iraq -- instability in the region, an empowered and crowing Iran, a chaotic Iraq wracked by humanitarian catastrophes -- could easily reverse last year's gains and provide a new home for terrorism in the Middle East. The fight is far from won.

For starters, we must shore up Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently committed 3,000 more desperately needed Marines to Afghanistan, beginning next month. But it would take an increase of more than 100,000 soldiers and Marines to give NATO commanders in Afghanistan the force ratios that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has enjoyed. We don't have the troops.

The best short-term solution is rapidly expanding the Iraqi and Afghan security forces to hold towns cleared by U.S. forces. Local forces, stiffened by foreign advisers, have historically been the keys to success in counterinsurgency warfare. As such, I've been among the serving officers and veterans who've urged the U.S. Army to create a standing Adviser Corps...

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "We Can't Win These Wars on Our Own" »

Yep, those of us who have been around a while know some military acronyms, maybe too many. Still, for old hands and young bucks alike - how many times have you sat in on a “way ahead”, “new concept” or “thinking out of the box” death by Power Point briefing scratching your head at the mind-boggling array of mumbo-jumbo that repackages old thoughts under a new wrapper or otherwise serves no purpose other than compelling the audience to pull out their buzz-word bingo cards?

One of my pet peeves is commonality of language – calling a spade a spade and sticking with doctrinally acceptable terms to describe doctrine that is, well, accepted. Before you go changing the language, please do us all a favor and change the doctrine first, ensure the new terminology is better suited than the old, and above all - make sure the new and improved terminology finds its way into the DoD Dictionary of Military Terms.

Continue on for the Army's attempt to reduce the noise level...

Continue reading "Army Doctrine Update" »

We Can't Win These Wars on Our Own - John Nagl, Washington Post
The State of Iraq: An Update - Campbell, O'Hanlon and Unikewicz, New York Times
Generals Criticizing War - Tom Ricks's Inbox, Washington Post
The Iraq War Will Cost Us $3 Trillion - Bilmes and Stiglitz, Washington Post
Iraq, the Uniter - Seattle Times editorial
NATO's European Mission - Washington Post editorial
The Last Letter Home - Michael Phillips, Wall Street Journal
One Brave Afghan's Mission - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Murdered in a House of God - Jerusalem Post editorial
Annapolis's Fading Hope - David Ignatius, Washington Post
'Declaration of Principles' for the Mideast - Herbert Kelman, Boston Globe
Killings Cannot Dim Israel's Respect for Life - Ron Prosor, London Daily Telegraph
Israel's Moral War Against Hamas - Efrain Inbar, Jerusalem Post
Living with the Enemy - Jonah Goldberg, New York Post
The Israel Litmus Test - Aaron David Miller, Los Angeles Times
Is There a Cure for Cuba? - George Will, Washington Post
Let the South Americans Settle It - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Thugs, Demogogues and Latin America - David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
Tax Cut For Hugo Chavez? - Investor's Business Daily editorial
Cocaine Means Part of Africa Dies - Antonio Maria Costa, Guardian
Taiwan's Straits of Reality - Herbert London, Washington Times
Medvedev's Russia - Chicago Tribune editorial
Bellicosity in Belarus - Tsotne Bakuria, Washington Times
Other National Elections that will Affect America - Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald
We Need to See More Uniforms - Jenny McCartney, London Daily Telegraph
The Brave Wear a Uniform - Sarah Sands, Independent
Terrorism: Listen Up - Clifford May, Washington Times
Tweak $70 Billion War on Terror - Gordon Barthos, Toronto Star
Bring Khadr Home - Toronto Star editorial
Waterboarding - William Safire, New York Times
Chance for U.S. to Say 'No' to Torture - Mark Bowden, Philadelphia Inquirer
Dems vs. Defense - New York Post editorial
Mapping Our World - Baltimore Sun editorial
The Rosenberg Case - Washington Post editorial

Continue reading "9 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Continue reading "We are Americans Sunday" »

Fighting Global Insurgency - Los Angeles Times editorial
Losing `the Other War' - Miami Herald editorial
S. Asia: Cauldron of Chaos - Peter Brookes, New York Post
The Fall of the Lord of War - Boston Globe editorial
The Chávez Democrats - Wall Street Journal editorial
The FARC's Guardian Angel - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post
The FARC Files - Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal
Cuba Embargo Has Run Course - Vickki Huddleston, Miami Herald
Is a Third Intifada Brewing? - Ilene R. Prusher, Christian Science Monitor
Fear and Gullibility as Weapons - Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post
Chaos of Gaza Cries Out - Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star
Fatah Must Reinvent Itself - Mouin Rabbani, Daily Star
Where is My Brother, My Keeper? - Shmuley Boteach, Jerusalem Post
Palestinian Celebration of Murder - Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News
The Way of the Albatross - James Zumwalt, Washington Times
Tribalism Here, and There - Roger Cohen, New York Times
Surrendering the Rule of Law - Nat Hentoff, Washington Times
Home-grown Terrorism - Philip Jenkins, Los Angeles Times
Reject U.N.'s Anti-democratic Conference - Claudia Rosett, Philadelphia Inquirer
Sound Veto - National Review editorial
High-flown Nonsense Over Terror - Stephen Pollard, London Times
China: Let's Talk - Washington Post editorial
Malaysia's New Dawn - The Australian editorial
The Great EU Betrayal - William Rees-Mogg, London Times
Do Not Betray the Commonwealth - Philip Johnston, London Daily Telegraph
Outsourcing US Security - Christian Science Monitor editorial
The "Don't Protect America" Democrats - Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard
No Saudi Help on Oil - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
America Can't Afford to Maintain Empire - Cynthia Tucker, Baltimore Sun
The Arms Race in Space May Be On - Steven Lee Meyers, New York Times
Give Military Kids a Break - Washington Times editorial

Continue reading "10 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Spencer Ackerman's second installment in his Washington Independent "Rise of the Counterinsurgents" series - A Famous Enigma - is now posted. This segment focuses on Lieutenant General Ray Odierno. Here's a link to the first segment - The Colonels and 'The Matrix' - for those who may have missed it.

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "A Famous Enigma" »

Moving Forward in Iraq: Lessons in Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

A Seminar with the Formulators of Counterinsurgency Doctrine

Sponsored by the Institute for the Study of War

March 13, 2008, 1:00pm to 6:00pm.

Georgetown University Convention Center

3800 Reservoir Road, NW Washington DC

Registration Required

The dramatic success of Coalition counter-insurgency operations in Iraq in 2007 was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where teams of experienced officers and civilians developed a new conceptual framework for counter-insurgency. This framework, published as Army Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency, formed the basis for all Coalition efforts in Iraq in 2007, partly because the Commanding General in Iraq, David Petraeus, was also responsible for drafting and publishing the Field Manual. Once in Iraq, Petraeus and his staff and subordinate commanders like Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, put the doctrine into practice—at the same time further refining and improving the intellectual framework with the feedback of real life. Almost all of the most successful revolutions in warfare have resulted from such a process. The American experience in counter-insurgency warfare in Iraq in 2007 provides new opportunities to develop, and perhaps even revolutionize, the practice of counterinsurgency. Join us as we seek to explore how this doctrine came about, how it has functioned, and how it can be advanced in the future.

The educators and specialists who will conduct the lectures and lead the discussions at the March 13 seminar include Dr. Conrad Crane, head of the U. S. Army Military History Institute, who directed the development of the U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine that General Petraeus is now implementing in Iraq; Dr. Paul Melshen, who is the lead for Counterinsurgency Studies at Joint Forces Staff College; and Colonel Craig Bollenberg, who recently returned as a planner for General Petraeus at Multi-National Force-Iraq.

The Institute for the Study of War will host “Moving Forward in Iraq” at the Georgetown University Convention Center at 3800 Reservoir Road, NW Washington DC, on Thursday March 13, 2008, from 1:00pm to 6:00pm. Space is limited to permit the opportunity for questions and discussion, and advanced registration is required for attendance. Email Adriel Domenech at adomenech@understandingwar..org or call at 202-293-5550 to reserve your place.

Continue reading "Moving Forward in Iraq" »

Civil-Military Guidelines & Reference for Complex Emergencies

March 2008 document (guidebook) from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

About the document:

Civil-Military Guidelines & Reference for Complex Emergencies is the first collection of core humanitarian instruments developed by the United Nations (UN) and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) on civil-military relationship in complex emergencies. Its goal is to help promote respect for international law, standards and principles in these situations.

Engaging military support for humanitarian operations is not a new endeavour. In today's security environment, however, the military are ever more involved in the 'direct' provision of aid, while humanitarian actors are often faced with situations where there are no alternatives but to rely on the military, as a last resort, for safety and to access populations in need - at the serious risk of compromising their neutrality, impartiality, and/or independence, and thus their ability and/or credibility to operate.

Combined with the tides toward 'integration' and 'whole-of-government' approaches, as well as the increased propensity of some Governments to deploy mixed civilian-military teams to provide aid as a 'tool' to address security threats, the situation calls for enhanced understandings between the military and humanitarian professionals at all levels.

International law, standards and principles can assist both actors to properly and legitimately discharge their respective missions in far-away lands. Adhering to these and de-conflicting each others' activities can maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of the respective operations. These tasks are crucial when working in the same area.

Written in a practical, user-friendly style that brings together the essential guidance materials on the subject into a single form, the Booklet aims to assist professionals to handle civilmilitary issues in line with such law, standards and principles, in a manner that respects and appropriately reflects humanitarian concerns at the strategic, operational and tactical levels.

Continue reading "Civil-Military Guidelines & Reference for Complex Emergencies" »

In his latest missive on the U.S. endeavor in Iraq (“Misreading the Surge Threatens U.S. Army's Conventional Capabilities”), Army Lieutenant Colonel Gian Gentile claims that the Surge forces and the new U.S. Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency doctrine had little effect on the situation in Iraq. Rather, U.S. forces paid off the insurgents, who stopped fighting for cash. Once again, Gian Gentile misreads not just what is happening today in Iraq, but the history of the war.

To borrow a quote from Ronald Reagan, "Gian, there you go again."

Gentile's analysis is incorrect in a number of ways, and his narrative is heavily influenced by the fact that he was a battalion commander in Baghdad in 2006. His unit didn't fail, his thinking goes, therefore recent successes cannot be due to anything accomplished by units that came to Iraq during the Surge.

The facts speak otherwise. Gentile's battalion occupied Ameriyah, which in 2006 was an Al Qaeda safe-haven infested by Sunni insurgents and their Al Qaeda-Iraq allies. I'm certain that he and his soldiers did their best to combat these enemies and to protect the people in their area. But since his battalion lived at Forward Operating Base Falcon and commuted to the neighborhood, they could not accomplish their mission. The soldiers did not fail. The strategy did...

Continue reading "Misreading the History of the Iraq War" »

BOOK REVIEW
By Lieutenant Colonel (ret) Thomas P. Odom, of

Special Operations and Strategy: From World War II to the War on Terrorism
By James D. Kiras
Published by Routledge

Continue reading "No Silver Bullet, No Brass Ring: SOF and Attrition-Based Strategy" »

Lawfare's Soft Targets - Andrew McCarthy, Human Events
Reality and the Iraq War - Michael O'Hanlon, USA Today
Iraq's Surging Violence - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
Iran's Fear, Iraq's Chance - Amir Taheri, New York Post
Keeping Iraq in the Dark - Glenn Zorpette, New York Times
Help for Our Helpers in Iraq - Boston Globe editorial
Fuzzy Plans for Iraq - Derrick Jackson, Boston Globe
Turkey in Iraq: Poor Communication - Tulin Daloglu, Washington Times
Weak Democracy in Pakistan - Boston Globe editorial
Pakistan's Progress - Kay Bailey Hutchison, Wall Street Journal
Slow but Steady Not Bad for Pakistan - Bronwen Maddox, London Times
Israel, Pull No Punches in Gaza - Richard Chesnoff, New York Daily News
Colombia Border Conflict Resolved? - David Montero, Christian Science Monitor
Chavez Threatens War to Protect Terrorists - Oliver North, Human Events
Brand Cuba - Michael Casey, Wall Street Journal
When Cuban Spies Become Diplomats - Chris Simmons, Miami Herald
Ms. Rice's Retreat - Washington Post editorial
Bush's Tortured Veto - Los Angeles Times editorial
Tortured Logic - San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Waterboarding Veto - Philadelphia Inquirer editorial
Anti-terror Conundrum - Joshua Sinai, Washington Times
Did We Overreact to 9/11? - Scott MacLeod, Time
The Left's Patriotism Gap - Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times
Australia's Regional Priorities - The Australian editorial
Malaysia's 'Political Tsunami' - Lorien Holland, Newsweek
Right Recipe for Thailand? - Hannah Beech, Time
Defence Lacks Solutions - Allan Behm, The Australian
Rudd's Quest for True Blue Muslims - Richard Kerbaj, The Australian
Aid for Poor Makes Little Difference - Mark Lange, Christian Science Monitor
Radio Fear America - New York Times editorial
Military Deserves Better from the MoD - London Daily Telegraph editorial
Boeing Loses a Tanker War - Chicago Tribune editorial
Plane Wreck - Frank Gaffney Jr., Washington Times
Spanish Election: A Mandate in Madrid - London Times editorial

Continue reading "11 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Continue reading "The Daily Show With LTG William Caldwell" »

Continue reading "Semper Fi, Berserkely" »

On 9 February SWJ conducted a phone interview with Brigadier General Jim Huggins, Deputy Commanding General (Manuever), of Multi-National Division - Center (3rd Infantry Division / MND-C). MND-C arrived in-country last March as part of the “the surge” and the new population-centric counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy directed by General David Petraeus, Commanding General of Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I). MND-C’s area of responsibility are the security zones located along the southern edge of Baghdad and scales from the border of Saudi Arabia to the border of Iran.

A summary of highlights from the interview follow.

1. We continue offensive operations in the Southern Security Belts. These operations started with the Surge and are methodical, not in any way “whack-a-mole” style. As General Petraeus stated, we cannot “kill our way” through and out of an area, what this meant for us was the Division moving into an area to establish security followed by what is now called Sons of Iraq (formerly Concerned Local Citizens) who assumed security duties for a given area. As background, we believe the formation of SOI / CLC was a direct result of the Surge.

2. An integral part of our offensive operations is a refined intelligence-driven targeting process that has denied AQI sanctuary forcing a dispersion of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leadership and some of the Sunni extremists out of our area. The Division is now looking at exactly what this exodus means in terms of AQI capabilities as well as planning for capacity building and tying into overall Corps’ operations to further pressure AQI and build on success. Capacity building includes increasing Iraqi security force (Army and Police) capabilities as well as supporting other lines of operations to include governance, rule of law and very targeted projects to build the perception of security in all the small towns and villages – what we cannot do is ‘blow by’ areas and leave the Iraqis living in what can be called a ‘war zone’...

Continue reading "SWJ Interview with BG Jim Huggins" »

The Pentagon vs. Petraeus - Wall Street Journal editorial
Adm. Fallon Steps Down - New York Post editorial
Fallon Didn't Get It - Max Boot, Los Angeles Times
Fallon: The Man Between War and Peace - Thomas Barnett, Esquire
Long Fight with AQ-I in Mosul? - Sam Dagher, Christian Science Monitor
Baghdad Music and Ballet School Soldiers On - Melik Kaylan, Wall Street Journal
Pakistan's Political Enemies - Harlan Ullman, Washington Times
Slaughter, Jubilation, and the "Peace Process" - Jaff Jacoby, Boston Globe
Bipartisan Support for State of Israel - The Australian editorial
Israel's Far-flung Friend - Philip Chester, The Australian
If Talks fail, Dissolve the PA - Ali Jarbawi, Daily Star
Gaza: The Futility of Deterrence - Daoud Kuttab, Jerusalem Post
Create Opportunity from Gaza's Strife - Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star
Residents and Citizens - Jerusalem Post editorial
Whither Israeli Arabs? - Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post
Explaining Iran - Jerusalem Post editorial
Iran: Glass Half Full or Half Empty? - Karim Sadjadpour, Daily Star
Iran Still a Target? - Stephen Kinzer, Baltimore Sun
Russia: Change You Cannot Believe In - Reuben Johnson, Weekly Standard
Serbia’s Choice - New York Times editorial
Why Serbia Will Join the EU - Kouchner and Bildt, London Times
The Latest Dutch Film Debacle - Joseph Loconte, Weekly Standard
Sarkozy the Savior? - Paul Belien, Washington Times
Darfur's Return to Hell - Bloomfield and Butler, Independent
Tensions Ease in South America - Washington Times editorial
Sent Back to Cuba - Miami Herald editorial
China's War on Terror - Wall Street Journal editorial
Door Opens for Opposition in Malaysia - Natasha Rudra, Canberra Times
Beware the Dangers of Goa - London Times editorial
The New Face Of Hunger - Ban Ki-moon, Washington Post
OPEC's Triumph - Robert Samuelson, Washington Post
Facing Challenges with Courage, Confidence - Chertoff and Ridge, Miami Herald
Inverse False Alarms on Terror - Gartenstein-Ross and Dabruzzi, Weekly Standard
The Waterboarding Veto - Daniel Gallington, Washington Times
Peacenik Thugs - Michelle Malkin, New York Post
The Flag and the Cross - Baltimore Sun editorial

Continue reading "12 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

BPC and the Indirect vs. Direct Approach in The Long War

By Major Rob Thornton

Some time ago I began to consider how our various efforts in the Long War are linked. Many on the Small Wars Council (SWC) have slogged through this with me on threads such as “Stability Operations vs. Irregular Warfare”, and many other threads in which we try to establish the linkages between strategy to operations to tactics, or in which we consider policy.

Part of what a “strategist” (and I use the term loosely!) tries to do is to understand and relate the writing, speeches and statements of our elected and appointed officials to our efforts – or how our policy objectives get implemented into some type of action to realize them. Army strategists are taught the Ends, Way & Means formula, but they are also taught to consider other perspectives on strategy such as if a strategy is complete, feasible, acceptable, and suitable. This is important, because the strategist must consider if the actions or “ways” to achieve the “ends” are within the bounds of our strategic culture, if they do more harm then good, if they are suitable in terms of balancing our foreign policy goals with our ability to sustain domestic will, are the ways supported by the means, etc.? These are all important questions when it comes to devising strategy. A SWC member who has written a great deal about this is Dr. Steve Metz.

At the last SWC get together her at Leavenworth, SWC member “Hacksaw” brought up an interesting point. He posited we were on the “Strategic Defensive” (and you guys thought all we did at the non-virtual gatherings was drink beer!). I chewed on that yesterday, as I thought it provided me an angle I had not considered. He’d also referenced Clausewitz as having stated that the “defense is the stronger form of warfare” – which also was worth chewing on. While after thinking and talking about it some more, I don't agree with Hacksaw in total, but I do think there is there is merit to the notion of the rationale for pursuing aspects of an indirect approach which coincide with the scale of our policy objectives, and the means available to pursue them...

Continue reading "BPC and the Indirect vs. Direct Approach in The Long War" »

Thom Shanker and David Stout of the New York Times are reporting that Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of US Central Command whose views on Iran and other issues have seemed to put him at odds with the Bush administration, is retiring early, the Pentagon said Tuesday afternoon.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Press Conference - Transcript

President Bush Remarks on Admiral Fallon's Retirement - Transcript

More from the Times article:

... despite the warm words from Mr. Bush and Mr. Gates, there was no question that the admiral’s premature departure stemmed from policy differences with the administration, and with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq.

Mr. Gates acknowledged as much when he said that Admiral Fallon, in asking permission on Tuesday morning to retire, had expressed concerns that the controversy over his views were becoming “a distraction.” But the secretary labeled as “ridiculous” any speculation that the admiral’s retirement portends a more bellicose American approach toward Iran.

Admiral Fallon had rankled senior officials of the Bush administration with outspoken comments on such issues as dealing with Iran and on setting the pace of troop reductions from Iraq — even though his comments were well within the range of views expressed by Mr. Gates...

The Times article quotes "officials" as saying the last straw, however, came in an article in Esquire magazine by Thomas P. M. Barnett, a respected military analyst, that profiled Admiral Fallon under the headline, “The Man Between War and Peace.”

Tom Ricks, Washington Post, in an article titled Commander Rejects Article of Praise reported that Fallon called Barnett's Esquire piece poison pen stuff that is really disrespectful and ugly. Ricks had more:

Fallon has previously made it clear he has differences with the Bush administration's foreign policy. Some White House aides were said to be unhappy with his decision to dump "the long war" as a phrase to describe U.S. efforts against terrorism. In addition, some White House officials were irked by the persistent friction between him and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Fallon and Petraeus are known to have disagreed about plans and troop levels in Iraq, but Petraeus, even though technically subordinate to Fallon, appears to have more influence with Bush.

Asked about his dealings with Petraeus, Fallon said in a December interview, "That stuff is all overblown. . . . We talk daily." He added, "Dave does internal Iraq. I do the region."

Fallon, a career naval aviator and one of the last Vietnam War veterans on active duty, took over as chief of the Central Command in March 2007, becoming the first Navy officer ever to hold that post...

American Forces Press Service is reporting that Fallon's deputy, Army Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, will take over as acting Central Command commander until a permanent replacement is nominated and confirmed.

On a likely permanent replacement Ricks reports:

A likely successor to Fallon is Petraeus, some defense experts said. The general could be promoted to the Centcom post and replaced in Baghdad by Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who until last month was Petraeus's deputy in Iraq. Odierno, who has been nominated to become Army vice chief of staff, developed a strong working relationship with Petraeus.

Another possible successor mentioned yesterday is Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the head of Special Operations in Iraq. McChrystal recently was nominated to be director of the staff of the Joint Chiefs, a key Pentagon position.

More at the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Christian Science Monitor. Commentary by Max Boot at the Los Angeles Times, the gang at Abu Muqawama, Galrahn at Information Dissemination, Jules Crittenden at Forward Movement, Westhawk, Jason Sigger at Danger Room, Blackfive, and Zenpundit.

Tom Barnett has no comment.

Updated Links:

"Fox" Fallon Wasn't Hounded Out - Fred Kaplan, Slate
The Fall of Admiral McFallon - Mackubin Thomas Owens, Weekly Standard
A CENTCOM Chief Who Spoke His Mind - David Ignatius, Washington Post
Fallon: Right Man for Wrong Job? - Bronwen Maddox, London Times
Vice President Fallon? - Frank Gaffney Jr., National Review
The Importance of Fallon's Fall - Michael Barone, Real Clear Politics
Resigned to Reality of This War - Oliver North, Human Events
Demagoguing Adm. Fallon's Departure - Washington Times editorial
Fallon vs. Petraeus - Los Angeles Times editorial
Silence in the Ranks on Fallon - San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Fired for Speaking the Truth - Boston Globe editorial
CENTCOM Commander Resigns - David Betz, Kings of War

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Continue reading "Adm. Fallon to Retire Early (Updated)" »

Support for War Effort Highest Since 2006 - David Paul Kuhn, The Politico
'D' for Defense - Los Angeles Times debate
Iraq's Persian Gulf - London Times editorial
Apathy Rules Iran - London Daily Telegraph editorial
Iran: Sanctions Aren't Working - Bennett Ramberg, Daily Star
Demagoguing Adm. Fallon's Departure - Washington Times editorial
Fired for Speaking the Truth - Boston Globe editorial
Fallon vs. Petraeus - Los Angeles Times editorial
A CENTCOM Chief Who Spoke His Mind - David Ignatius, Washington Post
"Fox" Fallon Wasn't Hounded Out - Fred Kaplan, Slate
Fallon: Right Man for Wrong Job? - Bronwen Maddox, London Times
The Fall of Admiral McFallon - Mackubin Thomas Owens, Weekly Standard
Vice President Fallon? - Frank Gaffney Jr., National Review
How the Press Failed on Iraq - Greg Mitchell, Salon
Soaring Afghan Costs - Toronto Star editorial
Taliban Exploit Religious Sentiment - Waliullah Rahmani, Jamestown Foundation
Afghanistan's Drug Trade Hits Home - Anand Gopal, Christian Science Monitor
Israel Rattling the Cage - Larry Derfner, Jerusalem Post
Time May Play Against Syria in Lebanon - Michael Young, Daily Star
Natural Partners in Quest for Peace - Eimert van Middelkoop, The Australian
Malaysia: A Tale of Two Countries - Greg Sheridan, The Australian
Back to Srebrenica - Douglas Bland, Ottawa Citizen
Moscow's Missile Gambit - Joseph and Crouch II, Washington Post
Faking it, 50 Years of EU ‘Democracy’ - Bruno Waterfield, London Daily Telegraph
Tibet and the Olympics - Wall Street Journal editorial
Pelosi's FISA Sabotage - Washington Times editorial
FISA: A U.S. House Divided - Orrin Hatch, Washington Times
Boeing's Loss Prompts Jingoistic Outburst - USA Today editorial
Why Boeing is Protesting - Mark McGraw, USA Today
Boeing Flap: Due Diligence - James Lyons, Washington Times
The Left vs. Military Recruiters - Michelle Malkin, National Review
The Left's Patriotism Gap - Jonah Goldberg, National Review
Bomber Command Deserves a Medal - Martin Gilbert, London Daily Telegraph

Continue reading "13 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Continue reading "Charlie Rose: CJCS Admiral Mike Mullen" »

What Lies "Beyond Goldwater-Nichols"? by Thomas Donnelly, American Enterprise Institute, 13 March 2008.

... Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Americans and their allies have slowly and painfully come to the conclusion that they are in a Long War to create a new political order in the Islamic world that we can better live with--that is, a region with greater inherent stability of the sort that comes from a legitimate government that is at peace with us, with its neighbors, and with its own people. We have found that we cannot comfortably accommodate, in an age of terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons, what John Quincy Adams called "derelict" states.

And so our policy strongly suggests that our strategy imitate the "clear, hold, and build" tactics that underlie the success of the Iraq surge and the progress made in the U.S. sectors of Afghanistan. Strategically, we are attempting to clear, hold (preferably through allies, rather than ourselves directly), and build on a larger level, in an effort often described as a global counterinsurgency. The policy also suggests that it is the "building" that makes for a decisive victory. That is, victory on the battlefield is not the same as victory in the war; military success is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition. And a corollary is that the military's tasks--for the military's missions are rightly defined by the nation's needs and by political leaders, not by any internal structure of the armed forces--extend beyond the destruction of enemy forces.

Yet the need for "building"--which, at minimum, means state-building--means that there are missions that demand more than military power. And so there has been a lot of effort to mobilize other agencies and other elements of American power, even in cases where these other agencies are poorly suited or highly reluctant to be mobilized. Others with experience of modern counterinsurgencies, such as the Australians, often describe this as a "whole of government" approach. It is an approach that makes great common sense, but one that needs to be correctly translated into an American idiom without inverting the real meaning...

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Continue reading "What Lies "Beyond Goldwater-Nichols"?" »

Drug Intoxicated Irregular Fighters: Complications, Dangers, and Responses by Dr. Paul Rexton Kan, US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, 12 March 2008.

The presence of drugged fighters is not unknown in the history of warfare. Yet widespread drug use on the battlefield is now part of protracted conflicts largely fought by nonprofessional combatants that take place in an international system characterized by the process of globalization. From marijuana, khat, hallucinogenic mushrooms, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine to looted pharmaceuticals, irregular fighters have found a ready supply of narcotics to consume for a variety of combat purposes. Such consumption has led to unpredictable fighting, the commission of atrocities, and to the prolongation of internal violence. The presence of intoxicated combatants will continue to be a feature of armed conflict and requires a fuller accounting to adequately prepare policymakers and military planners for future conflicts...

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "Drug Intoxicated Irregular Fighters: Complications, Dangers, and Responses" »

Petraeus Shouldn't be a Solo Act - Korb and Duggan, Los Angeles Times
Al Qaeda's Fading Victory - Austin Bay, Washington Times
On War: Two Americas - Clifford May, National Review
Containment Strategies - Kenneth Weisbrode, Washington Times
Iran's Choice: Military or Military - Amir Taheri, London Times
Iran Can Only Wait and Pray - David Blair, London Daily Telegrah
Iran: A New Mideast Partner? - Stephen Kinzer, Boston Globe
Iran and Iraq - Diana West, Washington Times
The Dems’ Iraq Paralysis - Abe Greenwald, Commentary
Obama on Iraq - Michael Gerson, Washington Post
What Foreign Policy Agenda? - Andrew Kohut, New York Times
In Search of a Mideast Cease-fire - Boston Globe editorial
Tired Gaza Two-Step - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
The Fight for Lebanon's Freedom - Ghadry and El-Khoury, Washington Times
Sudan: Preventing Another Genocide - New York Times editorial
Peace Won't Come to Zimbabwe - Tupy and Coltart, Wall Street Journal
Bush at the China Olympics - Christian Science Monitor editorial
Arming the Panda - Daniel Freedman, National Review
Food Crisis - Washington Post editorial
No Simple War - Ed Ruggero, Los Angeles Times

Continue reading "14 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

The Long War: A Marine Perspective on the Global War on Terrorism

By Andrew Lubin

The Global Interdependence Center hosted General Robert Magnus, Assistant Commandant, United States Marine Corps, at the University of Pennsylvania Wednesday evening.

Using the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a backdrop, Gen Magnus spoke about using various types of power in order to advance national security and the national interest. “Clausewitz said that you need to understand the war you are in,” Magnus explained, “war is an exercise of politics, but by other means.”

But having a ‘hammer’, as he described the Marine Corps and the American military, does not mean that the military should be the primary method of enforcing national strategic interests. There are many ways to utilize the American military, he explained, citing Marine efforts in training Afghan Police, reconstruction efforts in Ramadi, and the Provisional Reconstruction Teams in Iraq who are involved in job creation that ranges from opening shops to vaccinating cows. “If we don’t help them find jobs,” Magnus commented,” then they’ll go back to earning money by dropping an IED on our troops.”...

Continue reading "The Long War: A Marine Perspective" »

Abu Muqawama has updated the AM Counterinsurgency Reading List...

The gang at Abu Muqawama has put our heads together and updated, once again, our famous Counterinsurgency Reading List. Added to the list are books by Giustozzi and Glubb as well as articles by McMaster, MacFarland, and many others. As usual, everything is hyperlinked. Enjoy!

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "AM: COIN Reading List Update" »

Two quick items from the folks at King's College.

Insurgency Research Group Blog - Kings of War

Some Kings of War readers may have noticed the recent launch of the blog of the Insurgency Research Group (IRG) here at King’s. The aim of the IRG is to act as a centre of gravity for the community of British COIN researchers/practitioners which, while relatively sizable, is diffuse and unfocused. The IRG blog, which is being run by King’s graduate Will Hartley, is meant as a vehicle for this community to publicize events, share ideas and socialize (virtually, so to speak). It’s a bit like KOW only more focussed on insurgency...

Counterinsurgency in Iraq - Insurgency Research Group

RAND has released a monograph, entitled Counterinsurgency in Iraq (2003-2006), written by Bruce R. Pirnie and Edward O’Connell. The paper provides a useful overview of the conflict, and of the various armed actors involved, before assessing the US COIN campaign, and analysing the flaws in US strategy which contributed to the rapid deterioration in the situation in the first years of the campaign...

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "KOW / IRG Twofer" »

Continue reading "Charlie Rose: LTG William Caldwell" »

The Surge in Iraq: One Year Later by Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, Heritage Foundation - 13 March lecture transcript (pdf).

I returned from Iraq a little over two weeks ago, and trust me, it's great to be in Washington and in your company today. After nearly 15 months in Iraq--most­ly spent focusing on where we are and where we're going--it's a pleasure to step back and reflect a bit about where we've been. I'd like to speak with you about Iraq in 2007, to include the surge, its implemen­tation, and my assessment of its impact...

Talking Points:

- For the government of Iraq, the 2007 surge has provided a window of opportunity. This window will not remain open forever.
- In a very real way and at the local level, the surge allowed Coalition and Iraqi forces to hold the hard-earned ground that was wrested from the enemy, while continuing to pursue terrorists as they struggle to regroup elsewhere.
- By November 2007, there were 30 attacks in al-Anbar province during the last week in October; one year prior, there had been over 300.
- To capitalize on the reduction of violence in 2007, Iraqi leaders must make deliberate choices to secure lasting strategic gains through reconciliation and political progress.
- The improved security conditions resulting in part from the surge of 2007 have given the Iraqis an opportunity to choose a better way.

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "The Surge in Iraq: One Year Later" »

Hard-Won Progress In Baghdad - Anthony Diaz, Washington Post
The War for Iraq and its Lessons - Jules Crittenden, Weekly Standard
Looking at Iraq - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
IDA Report Gunsmoke - William Kristol, Weekly Standard
Hussein’s Horrific 1988 Genocide - Carter Andress, National Review
Saddam's Dangerous Friends - Stephen Hayes, Weekly Standard
Paulos Faraj Rahho, R.I.P. - Nina Shea, National Review
Reporting on the PKK - Deborah Howell, Washington Post
Bush's Afghanistan Envy - Fred Kaplan, Slate
Leaving Musharraf Behind - New York Times editorial
Turkey Changes, by the Numbers - Soner Cagaptay, Los Angeles Times
Model Azerbaijan - S. Rob Sobhani, Washington Times
How Not to Deal with Iran - Arthur Herman, New York Post
Australia Can't be Bullied on Backing Israel - The Australian editorial
Israel's Fear of World Opinion - Edward Bernard Glick, Washington Times
Tired Gaza Two-step - Victor Davis Hanson, Washington Times
Facing Mideast Facts - Mona Charen, National Review
Tamil Tigers and Elections - Wall Street Journal editorial
Sri Lanka's New Martyrs - Roger Severino, Washington Times
Trouble in Tibet - Washington Post editorial
China's Contradiction in Tibet - Boston Globe editorial
Tibet: Fire on the Roof - London Times editorial
Free Tibet Campaign: Tiananmen Revisited - London Daily Telegraph editorial
Assessing Terrorism - Claude Salhani, Washington Times
Human Rights Roll Call - Wall Street Journal editorial
Silence in the Ranks on Fallon - San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Resigned to Reality of This War - Oliver North, Human Events
Journalists: Detachment Matters - The Australian editorial
Times Square Blast: Media Hounded - David Karnes, Los Angeles Times
Passing Gas on Tanker Deal - National Review editorial
Democrats for Boeing - Christian Lowe, Weekly Standard

Continue reading "15 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Continue reading "This is another type of warfare..." »

Iraq: Where Was the Plan? - L. Paul Bremer III, New York Times
Iraq: Too Heavy a Hand - Richard Perle, New York Times
Iraq: Das Loot - Anne-Marie Slaughter, New York Times
Iraq: So Much for Good Intentions - Kenneth Pollack, New York Times
Iraq: There’s No Freedom Gene - Danielle Pletka, New York Times
Iraq: Worries Over Being ‘Slimed’ - Nathaniel Fick, New York Times
Iraq: Congress in Recess - Paul Eaton, New York Times
Iraq: The Army Grew Into the Job - Frederick Kagan, New York Times
Iraq: Worse Than Lyndon Johnson’s Team? - Anthony Cordesman, New York Times
Iraq: A Crude Case for War? - Steven Mufson, Washington Post
Iraq:Honesty Needed - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post
Iraq: War's Price a Burden for Decades - Joseph Stiglitz, Philadelphia Inquirer
Iraq: Public Suffers War Fatigue - Dick Polman, Philadelphia Inquirer
Iraq: Mess will Snare Next President - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Iraq: Mistakes, but Just War - Richard Perle, London Daily Telegraph
Iraq: Prolonging the Horror - Simon Jenkins, London Times
Iraq: War's Price Tag - Los Angeles Times editorial
Iraq: Five Years Later - Philadelphia Inquirer editorial
Patton, Iraq, and the 2008 Vote - Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe
IDF in Lebanon, Lessons for the Future - Tom Ricks, Washington Post
Defense Trade Currents - William Hawkins, Washington Times
A Farewell to the Army - John Rogers, Washington Post
From the Battlefield to B-School - Jane Porter, Business Week
Who Says The Elite Aren't Fit To Serve? - John Renehan, Washington Post
Waiting Games in the Middle East - David Ignatius, Washington Post
The Importance of Fallon's Fall - Michael Barone, Real Clear Politics
A New Pakistan - Washington Post editorial
Colombian Crisis Averted, for Now - Los Angeles Times editorial
Trade with Colombia Advances U.S. Interests - SOUTHCOM Generals, Miami Herald
Reprieve for a Beleaguered Haiti - Boston Globe editorial
Ending African 'History' - Faure Gnassingbe, Washington Times
China’s Shame - London Times editorial
EU Helps China Cripple Charity - Christopher Booker, London Daily Telegraph
Going Foggy on Beijing - Washington Times editorial
We Can Reduce Hunger in the World - Ban Ki-moon, Miami Herald
The Intelligence Cover-Up - New York Times editorial
Dim-bulb Intelligence Bill - Terence Jeffrey, Washington Times
Wiretapping's True Danger - Julian Sanchez, Los Angeles Times
America Must Not Justify Torture - Dennis Jett, Miami Herald

Continue reading "16 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Continue reading "Iraq Update Briefing" »

Long Hard Road: NCO Experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq - Published by the US Army Sergeants Major Academy.

The call to war is often met by young Soldiers who lack an understanding of what they are about to encounter. These young Soldiers must be trained, prepared, and then led in battle by those with experience and understanding---the Noncommissioned Officer Corps. In an effort to preserve the history of the US Army Noncommissioned Officer and to provide future noncommissioned officers with an understanding of the actions necessary to prepare Soldiers and to lead them in war, the US Army Sergeants Major Academy undertook a program to gather and publish the stories of NCOs who had served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of the papers received were from students of the US Army Sergeants Major Course who had already deployed to either Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. This work highlights a few of those stories. A wide range of topics have been chosen to allow the reader to understand the preparations, training, and actions needed for NCOs to accomplish their missions.

The work is prepared in two sections: the first we call Stories from Afghanistan and the second, Stories from Iraq. Stories from Iraq is further broken down into “Fighting the Iraqi Army” and “Fighting the Insurgency.” Each story has a brief introduction to provide the reader with a background and setting for the story. Timelines are also provided to assist the reader in following the stories in relation to other events that are taking place during the same time frame. In addition, maps provide the reader with an understanding of where in Afghanistan or Iraq those events occurred.

To help readers understand many of the acronyms used by the US Army and specific units, a Glossary is made available as well; it is by no means inclusive of all Army acronyms.

Colonel David J. Abramowitz and Command Sergeant Major James E. Dale charged three members of the US Army Sergeants Major Academy staff to put this work together: Jesse McKinney (SGM Retired), School Secretariat Director; MSG Eric Pilgrim, Editor-in-Chief of the NCO Journal and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom; and L.R. Arms, Curator of the NCO Museum and a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran. They were assisted in their efforts by Ms. Melissa Cooper, Museum Specialist, Ms. Jeannie Tapia, Academic Records Technician, and SPC Joseph Edmondson, Graphic Artist. Together they reviewed more then 683 papers to determine which papers would be included in this work. Many of the selected stories were shortened and edited for clarity; however, every attempt was made to remain true to the author’s original intent. In the future, the Sergeants Major Academy will hopefully continue to produce works of this nature, ultimately retaining the knowledge and experiences gained in warfare by noncommissioned officers.

L.R. Arms
Curator
US Army Museum of the Noncommissioned Officer

Continue reading "Long Hard Road" »

Cheney's Mideast Mission - Washington Times editorial
What the Middle East Needs Most - John Cooley, Christian Science Monitor
Fox Fallon's Fall - Arnaud de Borchgrave, Washington Times
Iraq is Measure of McCain's Stature - London Daily Telegraph editorial
Iraq Question McCain Must Answer - Peter Feaver, Weekly Standard
Iran's Islamic Outrage - Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, New York Post
Salvaging Our North Korea Policy - John Bolton, Wall Street Journal
Mr. Hu's Tibet Replay - Wall Street Journal editorial
Tibet's Nonviolent Path - Christian Science Monitor editorial
Tragedy in Tibet - Robert Barnett, Wall Street Journal
Sri Lanka's Recurring Fever - Boston Globe editorial
Moving Forward In Armenia - Sargsyan and Baghdasaryan, Washington Post
Venezuela's Student Power - Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal
How Much Homeland $ecurity? - CharlesPena, Washington Times
Energy Security - Reuben Jeffery III, Washington Times
The Torture Party - Nat Hentoff, Washington Times
Ploughshares Blather - Peter Huessy, Washington Times

Continue reading "17 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

24 March issue of Newsweek - Five years on, the war is transforming the American officer corps...

Scions of the Surge by Babak Dehghanpisheh and Evan Thomas

... Many Americans were asking that question last spring and summer. While it's too soon to say Iraq has turned the corner, the violence in Baghdad and most of the country has since declined precipitously. Much of the credit has gone to Gen. David Petraeus, the commander who has changed the way the U.S. Army fights. "You can't kill your way out of an insurgency," Petraeus told Newsweek, in an interview in his Baghdad headquarters last month. He has moved soldiers out of their secure megabases and into small outposts deep inside once alien and hostile neighborhoods, and he has ordered his men out of their armored convoys. "Walk … Stop by, don't drive by," says Petraeus, reading from a "guidance" he is drafting for his soldiers. The objective, he repeats over and over, is no longer to take a hill or storm a citadel, but to win over the people.

But this new way of war needs a new kind of warrior, and it needs tens of thousands of them. Five years into the longest conflict the U.S. military has fought since Vietnam, young officers like Tim Wright have been blooded by multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They've learned, often on their own, operating with unprecedented independence, the intricacies of Muslim cultures. Faced with ineffective central governments, they have acted as mayors, mediators, cops, civil engineers, usually in appalling surroundings. Most recently, and hardest of all, they've had to reach out and ally themselves with men who have tried and often succeeded in killing their own soldiers. Brought up in rigid, flag-waving warrior cultures that taught right from wrong, black from white, they've had to learn to operate amid moral ambiguity, to acknowledge the legitimate aspirations of their enemies...

The Fight Over How to Fight by Evan Thomas and John Barry

... But what if a military must prepare to fight not one war, but two very different kinds of war? That is the challenge facing the world's greatest superpower at the beginning of the 21st century. The American military must continue to ready itself for high-tech warfare; it must still be able to fight "big wars" against rising powers like China. At the same time, it must anticipate what military planners blandly term "low-intensity conflict" but what Rudyard Kipling more aptly called the "savage wars of peace"—small, asymmetrical conflicts against determined partisans with wicked low-tech weapons like IEDs, the improvised explosive devices that have cost America so dearly in Iraq.

The tension over which war to prepare for has created a generational divide in the American military, particularly the U.S. Army, between old bulls who want to focus on all-out combat, drowning the enemy in precision firepower, and young upstarts who believe that in today's messy world of failing states, firepower is not enough—it is necessary to win hearts and minds...

The Enemy Comes in From the Cold by Larry Kaplow

Hawija is a mean town, decaying and sullen. Not long ago a sniper hit a soldier from Black Sheep Company while he was standing inside a downtown police station. But the company's commander, 32-year-old Capt. Quinn Eddy of the 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, speaks without malice of the insurgents taking potshots at his men. "A lot are just triggers who get paid," he says. "They're just trying to survive." Before Iraq, Eddy served a tour in Afghanistan. The enemy in Hawija, he says, is "not the same Al Qaeda that you and I know."...

‘A Good Way to Spread a Message’ by Babak Dehghanpisheh

... Greater cultural sensitivity has long been a goal of the U.S. Army in Iraq, but only lately, as soldiers come back for the second or third time and deploy deeper into Baghdad neighborhoods, has it become a reality. It's paid off. Late last summer, Marckwardt bonded with a soft-spoken university professor named Abu Muthana over their shared love of Spanish. Disillusioned with the insurgency, Abu Muthana now commands a U.S.-supported neighborhood patrol group. "We thought the Americans were our enemy," he says. "But we Iraqis woke up and realized we have a common enemy." That's not all they have in common.

‘The Fight That We Are in Now’ by Larry Kaplow

Capt. Neil Hollenbeck declines to second-guess whether America should have invaded Iraq. What he will say is this: "The reason we invaded Iraq to begin with and the reason we're fighting now are different. We're fighting different enemies now." He pauses to think. "The threat we're fighting now is instability and terrorism." Another pause. "The fight that we are in now is not one of our choosing. It's just one we're choosing not to walk away from." Questions of winning and losing are above his rank, he adds, although he thinks a stable Iraq, with a government that can grow into its responsibilities, is "obtainable."

That's why he's here, hunting down the last Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters in the rural Arab Jabour district, south of Baghdad. Hollenbeck and his troops live in an abandoned farmhouse with no running water or electricity, only a generator to run their radios and a light or two. He doesn't mind roughing it; that's part of the strategy. The main thing is to protect the people: you have to live among them, not on heavily fortified bases, as Gen. David Petraeus's counterinsurgency manual says. When the book first came out, Hollenbeck was at Fort Benning, taking classes in conventional warfare between deployments to Iraq. He remembers how good it felt to read something that actually applied to the unconventional conflict he had seen in Iraq...

Images of War: Photographic timeline of the five years of conflict in Iraq

Video: U.S. Troops in Their Own Words

Video: Inside an Iraq Preschool

Continue reading "Newsweek Cover Story: Iraq" »

Andrew Exum, King's College Ph.D. candidate and former Army officer with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has an excellent article in the Combating Terrorism Center's Sentinel - Drawing the Right Lessons from Israel’s War with Hizb Allah.

... It is impossible to gauge the degree to which the U.S. Army’s conventional combat skills have been eroded by the focus on counter-insurgency warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is certainly likely that the high operations tempo, endless deployments and shortened training schedules have more to do with any erosion in collective task proficiencies than counter-insurgency manual FM 3-24. Yet, the U.S. military is almost certainly drawing the wrong lessons from the 2006 war if it is used to ignore the hard won lessons of counter-insurgency and revert back to the kind of conventional war-fighting with which the U.S. military has always been more comfortable.

Drawing the wrong lessons has happened before...

Again, excellent article and well worth the read.

Continue reading "Drawing the Right Lessons " »

Stuck in the Iraq Loop - Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek
What Has the Surge Really Achieved? - Jonathan Foreman, Pajamas Media
Security Gains Reverse Iraq's Spiral - Gary Langer, ABC News
Poll: Iraqis See Progress - Tom Bevan, Real Clear Politics
War Issue Waning - Linda Chavez, Washington Times
Victims and Survivors of the Whitehall Warriors - Peter Riddell, London Times
Brown's Pragmatic War on Terror - Rachel Sylvester, London Daily Telegraph
The Politics of Defense - Carter and Korb, Los Angeles Times debate
Saving the Republic - Bruce Fein, Washington Times
No Restraint on Renegade Spies - Boston Globe editorial
Iran's Checkmate - Ali Safavi, Washington Times
Importance of Fallon's Fall - Michael Barone, Washington Times
Turkey Wrestles with Islam's Place - Christian Science Monitor editorial
Abu Dhabi's Sovereign Funds - Yousef Al Otaiba, Wall Street Journal
Fight the FARC - Benard and Sugarman, National Review
Democracy in Retreat - Larry Diamond, Real Clear Politics
The New Dhimmi Times? - Frank Gaffney Jr., Washington Times
Voice Needed for Positive Islam - Frank Kaufmann, Washington Times
Habib's Lost Case a Victory for Sense - Gerard Henderson, Sydney Morning Herald
Taiwan Strait Tightrope - Ted Galen Carpenter, Wall Street Journal
Chinese Espionage - J. Randy Forbes, Washington Times
China Terrorizes Tibet - New York Times editorial
Crush Tibet: China's Only Path - Rosemary Righter, London Times
Tibet and the Ghosts of Tiananmen - Bill Powell, Time
Seeds of Rsistance Remain in Tibet - H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe
God and Man in China - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Beijing's Dread of Dissent - John Lee, The Australian
Cellphone Pictures In Lhasa - Anne Applebaum, Washington Post
Patriot Tanker Games - Wall Street Journal editorial
HMAS Sydney: Closure After 67 Years - The Australian editorial

Continue reading "18 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Discuss at Small Wars Council

Continue reading "Boston Dynamics' Big Dog Quadruped Robot" »

Free Speech for Officers? - Carter and Korb, Los Angeles Times debate
Five Years In Iraq - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post
Iraq: Five Years Hence - London Times editorial
Five Years On, Iraq Slips Off the Radar - Peter Baker, Washington Post
U.S. is Finally Getting it Right in Iraq - Larry Diamond, San Francisco Chronicle
Operation Iraqi Freedom - Harlan Ullman, Washington Times
No Surrender - Fouad Ajami, Wall Street Journal
Progress in Iraq - Helle Dale, Washington Times
Is Life Improving for Iraqis? - Sam Dagher, Christian Science Monitor
Iraq: Stock Taking is in Order - Thomas Raleigh, San Francisco Chronicle
Figuring Out the Insurgency - Dexter Filkins, New York Times
Facts for Feith on CPA History - L. Paul Bremer III, National Review
How Will the Iraq War End? - Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor
How Did I Get Iraq Wrong? - Phillip Carter, Slate
How Did I Get Iraq Wrong? - Josef Joffe, Slate
How Did I Get Iraq Wrong? - Richard Cohen, Slate
Iraq's Army and Britain's Soldiers - Thomas Harding, London Daily Telegraph
A Surge in Iraq Gasbags - Cerf and Navasky, Los Angeles Times
Wrong Place, Wrong Reason - Joseph Galloway, Miami Herald
Still Stuck in Iraqi Quagmire - Max Hastings, Canberra Times
Photographer’s Memory of Iraq - Max Becherer, New York Times
Five Years On: Iraq Still Dangerous - Patrick Cockburn, Canberra Times
Five Years On: Media's Role in Iraq - Christian Science Monitor editorial
Five Years On: Folly's Toll - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
War in Iraq: 5 Years On - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial
The 5-year Mess in Iraq - San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Iraq's Grim Bookends - Mark Santora, New York Times
Clintonian Dishonesty on Iraq - Washington Times editorial
Code Pink Strikes at Pro-Troops Event, Again - Catherine Moy, Human Events
Canada's Afghan Escape Hatch - James Travers, Toronto Star
Iran's Miiltary Moves Up - Amir Taheri, New York Post
For Iran: Iraq a Two-Edged Sword - Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor
Al Jazeera Aims to Influence American Politics - Humberto Fontova, Human Events
Kosovo’s Dark Meaning - George Will, Newsweek
The Sahara Dispute - Robert Holley, Washington Times
Chávez Behind Andean Troubles - Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami Herald
Cuba's Talent Exodus - Miami Herald editorial
China's True Face - Washington Post editorial
China's Tibet Spin - Los Angeles Times editorial
China's Olympic Hurdle in Tibet - Toronto Star editorial
Tibet Again Under China's Boot - Miami Herald editorial
Tibet: US Needs to Work Behind the Scenes - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
New China's Tibet Test - Frida Ghitis, Toronto Star
European Democracy - Wall Street Journal editorial
Club Gitmo - Jacob Laksin, Weekly Standard
America’s Naval Supremacy Slipping - W. Thomas Smith, Jr., Human Events
JSF: Swedish Fly - Stuart Koehl, Weekly Standard

Continue reading "19 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

US Military Takes Lessons From Iraq 'Insurgent' War by Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor

As the fight in Iraq drives fundamental changes to the military, it is also forcing a debate on how far those changes should go.

Five years of war in Iraq have emphasized how US forces need to be adept at fighting so-called irregular warfare: One moment, troops are conducting full-combat operations, while the next, they're handing out candy and soccer balls.

But as the fight in Iraq – and in Afghanistan and elsewhere – drives fundamental changes to the military, it is also forcing a debate on how far those changes should go, especially as the Pentagon looks ahead to potential future conflicts.

At the center of this debate is a proposal to create a permanent force of 20,000 new "combat advisors." Such a force would position the Army to better train indigenous forces to take on counterinsurgencies for themselves. The idea behind it is that today's wars are not fought with tanks and bombers so much as with hearts and minds, and many officers believe the Army needs to train a generation of soldiers as "warrior diplomats."

More at CSM.

Continue reading "US Military Takes Lessons From Iraq 'Insurgent' War" »

Afghanistan’s New Deal - Zalmay Khalilzad, New York Times
US Takes Iraq Insurgent War Lessons - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor
Pentagon Divided on Iraq Strategy - Julian Barnes, Los Angeles Times
America and Iraq - Wall Street Journal editorial
Petraeus Politics - Washington Times editorial
Fantasies on Iraq - Washington Post editorial
Mission Still Not Accomplished - New York Times editorial
Arrogance on Iraq - USA Today editorial
For Bush, Five Doubt-free Years - Boston Globe editorial
The Tides of War - New York Post editorial
Iraq By the Numbers - Foreign Policy key indicators
Stabilizing Iraq - Michele Flournoy, Washington Times
Iraq: Five Years Gone - Fred Kaplan, Slate
On War's Anniversary, Bush Cites Progress - Dan Eggen, Washington Post
Five Years On, Still Too Late to Judge - Mark Moyar, Christian Science Monitor
5 Years of Lessons from Iraq - Thomas and Beckel, USA Today
Working with Iran to Stabilize Iraq - Selig Harrison, Boston Globe
Five Years on, Bush Pleads for Iraq - Martin Chulov, The Australian
Get the Iraq War Wrong? I Didn't - Christopher Hitchens, The Australian
Shock and Awful - Ralph Peters, New York Post
Whatever Happened to Moqtada? - Senor and Martinez, Wall Street Journal
McCain's Missed Opportunity on Iraq - David Broder, Washington Post
What McCain Gaffe? - Max Boot, Commentary
McCain's Challenge - Jerusalem Post editorial
US Spending Too Much On Wrong Weapons - Pascal Boniface, Daily Star
Hezbollah's Final Straw - Elie Fawaz, International Herald Tribune
Paving the Way for Iran's Political Violence - Sadegh Zibakalam, Daily Star
The Serb Problem - Wall Street Journal editorial
Britain's Security Blanket - London Times editorial
More Security Threats, But Smaller Risks - Bronwen Maddox, London Times
Intel Needed on Foreign Terrorists - Paul Weyrich, Washington Times
Torture in the Court - Carter and Korb, Los Angeles Times debate

Continue reading "20 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Wading through all the Iraq five years on commentary plastered across op-ed pages this week? Make sure you don’t inadvertently skip over Michele Flournoy’s piece in today’s Washington Times – Stabilizing Iraq. Flournoy, president and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security and a former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense, offers up a fair and balanced assessment of where we’re at in Iraq and what needs to be done to guard against a backslide in recent hard-won gains.

Where we're at:

... Security in many parts of the country has improved markedly due to a host of factors: the Sunni "Awakening," Moktada al-Sadr's ceasefire, the shift in U.S. strategy to protecting the Iraqi population, the surge of U.S. forces in Baghdad, increasingly effective operations against al Qaeda and greater professionalism among some (though not all) Iraqi military units. Having lived through the sectarian violence of 2006 and early 2007, many Iraqis now feel that Iraq has been given a second chance.

But increased security has also created rapidly rising expectations for essential services like electricity, for political reconciliation and open, free and fair elections, for equitable distribution of Iraq's vast oil wealth, and for jobs.These expectations must be met to consolidate recent security gains.

We are now in what U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine calls the "build" phase — certainly the hardest phase in which the primary objective is enhancing the legitimacy of the host-nation government in the eyes of the population. The problem is that, to date, improved security has increased our legitimacy, not that of the Iraqi government...

What needs to be done:

... Unless we succeed in pushing the Iraqi government to embrace political accommodation and invest in its own country in the coming months, the Bush administration risks not only losing hard-fought security gains but also bequeathing to the next president an Iraq in danger of sliding back into civil war.

Read it all and also check out Foreign Policy's graphic representation Iraq by the Numbers - five years on, key indicators paint a picture of a country trying to rise from the rubble.

Continue reading "Stabilizing Iraq" »

Theater Military Advisory and Assistance Group (TMAAG)

By Brigadier General Thomas M. Jordan (USA Ret.)

With the newly released publication of its principal operational manual, FM 3.0, the Army defined the principal conceptual underpinnings which will drive operational concepts over the next 10-15 years. The latest edition recognized the importance of understanding the complexity of the operational environment, and the nature of persistent conflict where the application of the military element of power is just one of the key ingredients necessary to achieve success. In light of this understanding, the Army adapted and raised the importance of stability operations onto an equal footing with combat operations. While the Army has made some important changes in training to implement this idea, the pending HQDA approval and resourcing decision of the Theater Military Advisory and Assistance Group (TMAAG) design and implementation strategy represents a visible and demonstrable investment in resources that reinforces the Army commitment to building partnership capacity (BPC) in an uncertain world. The proposed implementation strategy would establish one TMAAG for USARSO in FY10 (EDATE: 16 Oct 09) as proof of principle (PoP). The PoP would test the concept and make appropriate refinements as part of the overall determination to resource additional TMAAGs.

TMAAG’s origin was the Army’s “Unified Quest 2007” series of seminar wargames that supported the Chief of Staff of the Army’s (CSA’s) annual study plan. One of the resulting insights was a potential gap in the Army’s ability to meet Combatant Commanders' daily operations requirements regarding theater security cooperation, military engagement, and Building Partnership Capacity (BPC). The CSA directed TRADOC, and in turn, the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas as the lead to develop an operational concept and organizational solution to the perceived gap...

Continue reading "Theater Military Advisory and Assistance Group (TMAAG)" »

Quiet Victory - Rich Lowry, National Review
Iraq Plus Five: What Went Right - Amir Taheri, New York Post
Surge of Optimism - Richard Nadler, National Review
If Iraq is Better, it's Because of John McCain - Con Coughlin, London Daily Telegraph
The Long War - Clifford May, National Review
Iraq and Unintended Consequences - Washington Times editorial
Democratic Fantasy Foreign Policy - National Review editorial
Key Decisions on Iraq that Still Haunt Us - Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald
Iraq: The Real Story - Oliver North, Human Events
No Great Expectations - Diana West, Washington Times
Hope in Pakistan - Richard Holbrooke, Washington Post
Turkey’s Democracy on Trial - New York Times editorial
A Palestinian Poll - R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., Washington Times
Freedom for Zimbabwe - Morgan Tsvangirai, Wall Street Journal
Sad Anniversary of Cuba's `Black Spring' - Miami Herald editorial
Hope and Change Amid Despair - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
Democrats Are Still Weak on Security - Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal
Gordon Brown's Dangerous World - London Daily Telegraph editorial
The Tightrope over Tibet - London Times editorial
China Fouls its Own Olympics - Boston Globe editorial
Beijing Olympics Imperiled - Washington Times editorial
All the Torch Represents is China - Simon Barnes, London Times
The World is Watching China - Frida Ghitis, Miami Herald
Gordon Brown Must Back Tibet's Freedom - Alice Thomson, London Daily Telegraph
China and Darfur - Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
N. Korea Nuclear 'Incentives' - Washington Times editorial
Wiretaps and Blue Dogs - Wall Street Journal editorial
Buying American - Carter and Korb, Los Angeles Times debate

Continue reading "21 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

On 20 March, Colonel Daniel Roper, Director of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center, particpated in a DoD Bloggers Roundtable to share his views on our COIN efforts in light of his two recent trips to Iraq. The transcript of this roundtable can be found here.

More on this roundtable at Argghhh! - Counterinsurgency: Forest and Trees.

Also on the 20th, Colonel Peter Baker, Commander of the 214th Fires Brigade, particpated in a roundtable to discuss the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq's Wasit province and several programs the PRT has undertaken to build long-term policing, education, medical, and engineering capacities. That transcript can be found here.

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "Iraq Counterinsurgency Assessment" »

Christian Science Monitor's three part series - Five Years in Iraq.

1. How Will the Iraq War End? By Peter Grier

From the point of view of the US, the Iraq war might be over when a president simply declares an endpoint. To an Iraqi, it might take much longer than that. Iraq today might be only at the midpoint, even the beginning, of a cycle of epic geopolitical change, say some analysts in a Monitor survey of experts in the region as well as in the US. For evidence, look at the Balkans, they say, which is still experiencing the geopolitical aftershocks of its mid-1990s wars.

2. Is Life for Iraqis Improving? By Sam Dagher

When asked how they expect things to be one year from now, 45 percent of Iraqis said things would be somewhat better or much better, according to the results of a poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News and released Monday. That's up from 29 percent six months ago, but lower than in 2005. The poll shows that Shiites and Kurds are more optimistic than Sunnis.

3. A Deep Disquiet in the U.S. By Peter Grier

The Iraq war has been perhaps America's bitterest lesson since Vietnam in the realities of war and geopolitics – profoundly altering ordinary citizens' sense of their country, its essential abilities, and the overall role it plays in the world.

The series also includes links to audio slide shows and past CSM war in Iraq coverage.

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Continue reading "CSM: 5 Years in Iraq" »

All week SWJ friend and Intel Dump blogger Phillip Carter and Center for American Progress fellow Lawrence Korb have been debating issues related to U.S. national security over at the Los Angeles Times. Phil also practices government contracts law with McKenna Long & Aldridge in New York City. He previously served as an Army officer for nine years, deploying to Iraq in 2005-06 as an embedded advisor with the Iraqi police in Baqubah.

Today, Carter and Korb close their Dust-Up with a discussion on the kinds of conflicts the U.S. military can expect to fight in the future. Previously, they discussed congressional oversight of the armed forces, Adm. William J. Fallon's public disagreement with the administration, the use of evidence gleaned from torture and the Air Force tanker contract.

Carter focuses on a military that can handle all kinds of war...

Historically, the Army has trained for big wars and thought of small wars as lesser kinds of conflict, hoping that the skills for major combat operations would trickle down well to things such as counterinsurgency. Our fighting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, particularly during their first few years, illustrates the folly of this idea. To paraphrase Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, one of this generation's leading defense intellectuals, counterinsurgency is the graduate level of warfare. It involves a fundamentally different approach, in which the use of force is highly constrained and the support of the local population is the objective (as opposed to the capture of terrain or destruction of the enemy). A military trained for combat operations cannot easily adjust to this modus operandi. The military must rethink its approach to training, organizing and equipping for warfare, and abandon the one-size-fits-all approach.

... while Korb discusses building the world's first responder.

After five years of war in Iraq and six-plus in Afghanistan, the United States military is facing a crisis not seen since the end of the Vietnam War. Equipment shortages, manpower shortfalls, recruiting and retention problems and misplaced budget priorities have resulted in a military barely able to meet the challenges America faces today and dangerously ill-prepared to handle the challenges of the future.

As operations in Iraq eventually draw to a close, we must plot a new strategic direction for our nation's military. Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of the Army War College, has noted that the current crisis in Iraq presents the "opportunity to transform ourselves as we rebuild." As Phil points out, we have an awful track record of getting it right.

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Continue reading "Fighting Governments and Guerrillas" »

Hopeful Milestone in a Troubled War - The Australian editorial
Iraq: The Real Story - Oliver North, Real Clear Politics
End Support for Sunni Militias - Katulis and Moss, Philadelphia Inquirer
Iraq a Minefield for Candidates - Carl Leubsdorf, Real Clear Politics
Iraq & Afghanistan: Message from McCain - London Times editorial
Saddam, The Terrorist's Friend - Greg Sheridan, The Austalian
Iran's Tribute to Democracy - Boston Globe editorial
Iranian Entanglements - Christopher Holton, National Review
Peace-loving? - Walter Williams, Washington Times
With Extreme Prejudice - James Taranto, Wall Street Journal
A Beijing Boycott Won't Work - Colin Moynihan, London Times
China's Genocide Games - Eric Reeves, Boston Globe editorial
Dalai Lama is No Politician - Patrick French, New York Times
Burma: Futile Diplomacy - Washington Post editorial
America needs a 21st Century GI Bill - Ford and From, Chicago Tribune
It's Good to Finally Find HMAS Sydney - Mike Carlton, Sydney Morning Herald
Accounting for CIA Money - New York Times editorial

Continue reading "22 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Continue reading "Charlie Rose: Discussions on Iraq and Tibet" »

A hat tip to Kip at Abu Muqawama for posting on a story we missed - In Mosul, New Test of Iraqi Army by Solomon Moore of the New York Times.

Now, five years into the war, American commanders say that the reborn force is coming into its own. And Mosul, an ethnically mixed city that has been under stepped-up assault by insurgents and where Iraqi Army units far outnumber their American counterparts, offers a possible glimpse into the future. But the Iraqi Army’s performance in Mosul so far suggests that while the Iraqi forces are taking on more responsibility and have made strides, there are still troubling gaps.

Kip has more at Wired's Danger Room blog.

Bill Roggio of Long War Journal is currently on an embed in Mosul and provides a quick-look situation update as well an insight on Iraqi Army training.

In Mosul, the Iraqi Army also lives a dual existence. As the Iraqi Army conducts operations to dismantle the terror networks in the city, it also builds for the future. The 4th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division seeks to expand its ranks while developing its noncommissioned officers, the backbone of any modern military. This is a difficult task to manage while fighting a brutal insurgency, but a necessary one as a professional army is required to successfully fight an insurgency.

On a related issue, Alexandra Zavis of the Los Angeles Times discusses a byproduct of one counterinsurgency tactic of our strategy in Iraq - as calm returns to some areas, the U.S. military is faced with the question of what to do with the tribesmen it hired to defend their neighborhoods.

After five years of trial and error, the strategy of recruiting tribesmen to help defend their neighborhoods against Islamic extremists has proved one of the most effective weapons in the U.S. counterinsurgency arsenal.

But restoring a measure of calm to what were some of the most violent places in Iraq has in turn presented the U.S. military with one of its biggest headaches: what to do with the more than 80,000 armed men whose loyalty has been bought with a paycheck that cannot go on forever.

*SWJ Note: SOI (Sons of Iraq), formerly know as Concerned Local Citizens, serve as neighborhood watches and man checkpoints.

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Continue reading "Mosul a new test for Iraqi Army; What to do with SOI?" »

Continue reading "Easter Sunday - Fight the Good Fight" »

Gen. McCaffrey Briefs the Future - Tom Ricks, Washington Post
The Army's Manpower Squeeze - Los Angeles Times editorial
Hopeful Milestone in a Troubled War - The Australian editorial
A Cost Benefit Analysis of Iraq - Gregory Scoblete, Real Clear Politics
Iraq, $5,000 Per Second? - Nicholas Kirstof, New York Times
Iraq: The Real Story - Oliver North, Washington Times
McCain's AQI Mistake - Robert Novak, Real Clear Politics
Cheney in Baghdad - Stephen Hayes, Weekly Standard
Where Has All the Rage Gone? - Tariq Ali, The Guardian
War Dodgers - Ben Ehrenreich, New York Times
Afghanistan Progress Despite Horrors, Apathy - John Metzler, World Tribune
Evil Targets the Pope - New York Daily News editorial
Why Radical Islam Just Won’t Die - Paul Berman, New York Times
The Bombers Who Bailed - Michael Jacobson, Washington Post
Kosovo: Recognition Without Power - Stephen Schwartz, Weekly Standard
China: Reminder of the Worst - Miami Herald editorial
Behind the 'Modern' China - Robert Kagan, Washington Post
China's Dilemma in Tibet - Richard Halloran, Washington Times
What They're Fighting for in Tibet - Abrahm Lustgarten, Washington Post
Volcano in the Himalayas - Joshua Kurlantzick, Los Angeles Times
Tibet: New Generation of Rebels - Jane Macartney, New York Post
Tibet: West Can Use Olympics as a Weapon - Michael Portillo, London Times
China: Gold Medal in Tyranny - Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard
Dalai Lama's Gestures from Britain - Melanie McDonagh, London Daily Telegraph
Taiwan's New Head Seeks Change - Schuman and Tso, Time
A Ticking Clock on N. Korea - David Ignatius, Washington Post
Missile Defense at 25 - James Hackett, Washington Times

Continue reading "23 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Posted by Tom Ricks in today's Washington Post - Looking Toward the Future slide from a briefing presented by General Barry McCaffrey, US Army (Ret.), on 19 March 2008.

Continue reading "Looking Toward the Future" »

Afghan War Trend Worsening - Mark Trevelyan, Reuters
Talk of a Troop Surge for Afghanistan - Anna Mulrine, US News and World Report
4,000 Deaths in Iraq - USA Today editorial
Secular Vision of an Iraqi Family - Sam Dagher, Christian Science Monitor
Iraq: No Light at End of Tunnel - Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald
Blaming the War - Debra Saunders, Real Clear Politics
Saddam's Terror Links - Wall Street Journal editorial
Saddam Helped al Qaeda - Washington Examiner editorial
Private Sector’s Tramping in Iraq - New York Times editorial
Imprisoned in Iraq - Washington Post editorial
Musharraf Quickly Losing Control - Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor
Pakistan: Grab this Moment of Hope - Richard Holbrooke, Miami Herald
Words Over Weapons - Joanna Chen, Newsweek
Speak Out on Tibet - New York Times editorial
Tibet is China's Olympic Challenge - The Australian editorial
Atheists in Religious Raiment - Boston Globe editorial
Dalai Lama's Moment of Truth - Follath and Wagner, Der Spiegel
Tibet Uprising is Dilemma for China - Richard Halloran, Real Clear Politics
A Monk's Struggle - Pico Iyer, Time
The Very Model for a Modern China - Christian Science Monitor editorial
Taiwan's Poll Shows a True Democracy - Bruce Jacobs, The Australian
How the UN is Feeding Tyranny in Zimbabwe - Michael Holman, London Times
The Latin Crisis - Kay Bailey Hutchison, Washington Times
Ending the Unrelenting Scourge in Colombia - Marco Vicenzino, Boston Globe
Bogotá Eyes the Irish Model - Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal
Castro: On History's Ash Heap - New York Daily News editorial
Bin Laden’s Jihadist Message for Europe - Walid Phares, Human Events
After Putin - Joseph Biden Jr., Wall Street Journal
Perils from Across the Pond - Peter Brookes, New York Post
US Should Not Fiddle with NATO - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Where Europe Draws the Line on NATO - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post
My Party is Good for Turkey - Egemen Bagis, Los Angeles Times
The End of Britain as We Know It - Stephen Webbe, Christian Science Monitor
Gurkhas Have Earned the Right - Philip Johnston, London Daily Telegraph
McCain as C-in-C? - Robert Maginnis, Human Events
Obama as C-in-C? - Kris Kobach, Human Events
Chainsaw Diplomacy - Peter Beinart, Time
The Torture President - Nat Hentoff, Washington Times

Continue reading "24 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

I think the SWJ community will benefit from the attached essay by Dr. David Ucko, who recently completed his doctoral work at King’s College London. This well-crafted essay has just been published by Orbis, the policy journal of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. It’s an objective assessment of where the United States stands in our adaptation to counterinsurgency and irregular warfare, from an outsider’s perspective.

Dr. Ucko’s research is focused on how well the U.S. is absorbing the right lessons from today’s ongoing conflicts, and how well DOD is institutionalizing the necessary changes across the doctrine, structure, training and education and equipment pillars of combat development. A student of American military culture, he notes our history of adapting to counterinsurgency campaigns, but then quickly discarding the lessons learned at the close of the war to return to our preferred conventional mode.

Ucko challenges whether or not DOD has truly embraced irregular warfare. “With the eventual close of the Iraq campaign,” he asks “will counterinsurgency again be pushed off the table, leaving the military just as unprepared for these contingencies as it was when it invaded Iraq in 2003?” Thus, this essay fits into the context of the debate we have seen on these pages and in the Armed Forces Journal (Shawn Brimley and Vikram Singh’s “System Reboot”) about whether or not the American Way of War will adapt or revert to form...

Continue reading "An Outsider's Perspective" »

The Political Context Behind Successful Revolutionary Movements, Three Case Studies: Vietnam (1955-63), Algeria (1945-62), and Nicaragua (1967-79) by LTC Raymond Millen, US Army, at the US Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute, 20 March 2008.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the new world order did not bring about a closure of revolutionary warfare. In fact, the Soviet-inspired wars of liberation against imperialism have been eclipsed by reactionary, jihadist wars. By all indications in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Somalia, and Iraq, Islamic militants have embraced revolutionary warfare, although not Mao’s People’s War model. Therefore, a study of revolutionary warfare is apt because the conflict between the West and radical jihadism will continue to take place in dysfunctional, collapsing, or failed states. The author examines the political-military lessons from these conflicts and suggests that the United States should minimize the level and type of assistance to states fighting in an insurgency because these states possess greater advantages than previously supposed.

Nothing follows.

Continue reading "Political Context Behind Successful Revolutionary Movements" »

Today’s Junior Army Officers

By Captain Tim Hsia, U.S. Army

Debating retention of junior officers is a perilous matter but there are just too many vital issues currently concerning the future of the officer corps that it is necessary to inject some realism within the debate. Junior officers are leaving the army at an alarming rate and not simply because of continuous deployments and the state of affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lieutenants and Captains, although focused at the tactical level, still ponder what exactly senior officers and politicians have in mind in regards to the plan and endstate for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and how it will affect the Army as an institution. These important questions are debated by junior officers on a daily basis. Nonetheless, these questions at a personal level are subordinate to an even more vital question which junior officers contemplate, and that is whether to leave the military for the corporate sector.

Possible solutions to the current retention of junior officers lie perhaps not in wild conjectures but in looking to the past. James Kitfield’s “Prodigal Soldiers” documents the problems, dilemmas, and hopes of junior officers during the Vietnam era. Those junior officers who served in Vietnam fully understood the sacrifices they would have to make before commissioning. This is similar to today’s junior officers who volunteered after the events of 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. Officers who continued to serve in the Army after Vietnam did so because of their strong belief in preserving and safeguarding the Army as an institution. These officers continued to stay in the Army and Armed Forces despite the poor state in which the Army suffered thru during, and after the Vietnam era. As Kitfield writes, it was this generation of officers who successfully led the country thru the Cold War and Persian Gulf I. These officers were also fully aware of the proper role between their political masters and the military because they were firsthand witnesses of the dereliction of duty chronicled by Col H.R. McMaster. The result was the Powell doctrine which took into account the relationship between the American people and the military...

Continue reading "Today’s Junior Army Officers" »

U.S. Captains Bear Weight of Iraq Strategy by Michael Kamber, International Herald Tribune.

During the war in Iraq, young army and Marine captains have become American viceroys, officers with large sectors to run and near-autonomy to do it. In military parlance, they are the "ground-owners." In practice, they are power brokers.

"They give us a chunk of land and say, 'Fix it,' " said Captain Rich Thompson, 36, who controls an area east of Baghdad.

The Iraqis have learned that these captains, many still in their 20s, can call down devastating American firepower one day and approve multimillion-dollar projects the next. Some have become celebrities in their sectors, men whose names are known even to children.

Many in the military believe that these captains are the linchpins in the American strategy for success in Iraq, but as the war continues into its sixth year the military has been losing them in large numbers — at a time when it says it needs thousands more.

Most of these captains have extensive combat experience and are regarded as the military's future leaders. They're exactly the men the military most wants. But corporate America wants them too. And the hardships of repeated tours are taking their toll, tilting them back toward civilian life and possibly complicating the future course of the war...

Much more.

Also see The Captain Crisis by Herschel Smith at The Captain's Journal

Discuss at Small Wars Council

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Continue reading "U.S. Captains Bear Weight of Iraq Strategy" »

War's Outcome 'Will Merit the Sacrifice' - DeYoung and Abramowitz, Washington Post
War Plan With a Steady Troop Level - Meyers and Shanker, New York Times
Captains Bear Weight of Iraq Strategy - Michael Kamber, International Herald Tribune
Iraq’s Window of Opportunity - Pete Hegseth, National Review
Iraq Toll - Philadelphia Inquirer editorial
Numbers Fetish - Investor's Business Daily editorial
4,000 Dead for What? - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
Grim Milestone - Jules Crittenden, Forward Movement
Abusing America's War Dead - Ralph Peters, New York Post
Iraq: Not Blowback, but Turnaround - Oliver Kamm, The Guardian
Saddam Tied to Terrorists - Washington Times editorial
Saddam was an Islamofascist Threat - Deroy Murdock, National Review
Intelligently Misleading - Michael Tanji, Weekly Standard
Errol Morris's Abu Ghraib Smoking Gun? - Kyle Smith, Commentary
Afghan Alarm - Karl Inderfurth, Baltimore Sun
How al Qaeda Will Perish - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
No Way to Combat Terrorism - Dean Godson, London Times
Armchair Warriors Fighting Delusional War - Alastair Crooke, The Guardian
The Israel of the Balkans - Michael Totten, Commentary
Turks Losing Faith in Ankara - Tulin Daloglu, Washington Times
Make Sudan an Offer It Can’t Refuse - Mark Helprin, New York Times
Zimbabwe's Ahab - Peter Godwin, Los Angeles Times
A FARC Fan's Notes - Wall Street Journal editorial
Test in Taiwan - Washington Post editorial
Taiwan Takes Step Forward for Peace - The Australian editorial
Taiwanese Ballots and Chinese Bullets - Don Feder. Washington Times
Olympic Fallacies - Anne Applebaum, Washington Post
A Clash for Power at Tibet's Peril - H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe
Pelosi’s Vacation FISA Alibi - Peter Hoekstra, National Review
War and Forgiveness - Wall Street Journal editorial
Precious Medals - Jonathan Last, Weekly Standard

Continue reading "25 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

A Grand Strategy of Sustainment

By Shawn Brimley

America has been adrift for too long. The attacks of September 11th did not “change everything,” but exacerbated the difficulty of articulating a purpose for American power since the Berlin Wall fell nearly two decades ago. America has suffered from strategic whiplash: the nebulousness of the post-Cold War era was rapidly replaced by a post-9/11 myopia on Islamist extremism and the so-called “war on terrorism.” This myopia lay at the root of the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, and it remains the chief obstacle preventing the emergence of a reasoned and pragmatic debate over the purpose of American power in the 21st century. The absence of a true grand strategy imperils America.

The Bush administration has pursued a foreign policy that is narrow in its view, negative in its purpose, and has produced negligible results. Americans deserve a grand strategy that is panoramic in view, positive in its purpose, and persuasive as a basis for the continued exercise of American power...

Continue reading "A Grand Strategy of Sustainment" »

A small sampling of several recent discussions at the Small Wars Council - for our many lurkers - take the plunge - registration is easy and the price is right...

Continue reading "What's Going on at the Council" »

Intense Fighting Erupts In Iraq - Freeman and Raghavan, Washington Post
Iraq: Crackdown Sets Off Fighting - Kanber and Glanz, New York Times
Battles Erupt with Mahdi Army - Sam Dagher, Christian Science Monitor
Basra is the Test - London Daily Telegraph editorial
Anatomy of the Surge - Peter Feaver, Commentary
Unshared Sacrifice in Iraq - Mark Shields, Toronto Star
Voices From Iraq - Robert McFarlane, Wall Street Journal
The 'Emboldenment Effect' - James Taranto, Wall Street Journal
Iran’s at War... with Us - Max Boot, Commentary
Saudi Arabia and Human Rights - Caryle Murphy, Christian Science Monitor
Islam and Free Speech - Peter Hoekstra, Wall Street Journal
The Arabs Meet in Crisis - Amir Taheri, New York Post
Egypt Targets Moderates - Liam Stack, Christian Science Monitor
Africa and the Rise of Asia - Thomas Barnett, Washington Times
Robert Mugabe: a Bad Man in Africa - London Times editorial
Politics and Power in Zimbabwe - Robert Rotberg, Boston Globe
Secular Jihad in Turkey - Mustafa Akyol, Wall Street Journal
Building Strategic Relationships - Helle Dale, Washington Times
Disarmed in the War of Ideas? - Frank Gaffney Jr., Washington Times
A Brave New World Without Us - Lionel Beehner, USA Today
West Awakes from Suicidal Slumber - Janet Albrechtsen, The Australian
Appeasing the Islamists - Paul Belien, Washington Times
Islam’s ‘Public Enemy #1’ - Raymond Ibrahim, Weekly Standard
Allam an Allah - National Review Q&A
Olympic Shame - Washington Post editorial
A Letter to Beijing - Wall Street Journal editorial
China Drops the Ball - Toronto Star editorial
The Last of the Tibetans - Ian Buruma, Los Angeles Times
Olympic Nightmare - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Chinese Close Window on Tibet - Gwyyn Dyer, Canberra Times
China Blind to Hostility - Richard Spencer, London Daily Telegraph
Cross-Strait Opening - New York Times editorial
Medvedev's Chance To Lead? - Masha Lipman, Washington Post
NSLs: Oversight's Results - Washington Post editorial
War Movies, Missing the Point - Max Boot, Commentary
British Army Must Go Into Schools - Magnus Linklater, London Times

Continue reading "26 March SWJ Op-Ed Roundup" »

Afghan Soldiers Train at US Army Base

Voice of America
By Greg Flakus
Fort Riley
25 March 2008

US troops at Fort Riley, in the Midwestern state of Kansas, are training for deployment in Afghanistan along with 31 soldiers from Afghanistan's National Army. Some 300 US soldiers are in the current exercise and, as VOA's Greg Flakus reports from Fort Riley, they are getting a good preview of the kind of conditions and problems they will face after they deploy to Afghanistan.

In this exercise, the soldiers are raiding the suspected base of an insurgent group in order to apprehend what they call "a bad guy." The training takes place in a mock Afghan village complete with so-called enactors, usually Afghan Americans, who play the role of villagers and combatants. Soldiers must safely enter the village, locate the house of the insurgents and enter without harming any of the civilians who wander the streets nearby.

Carrying out such an operation requires cultural sensitivity and knowledge of local traditions. US soldiers are taught to respect local village leaders and to work closely with Afghan security forces and that is one reason the Afghan soldiers are here taking part in these exercises. US Army advisors do most training of Afghan soldiers in Afghanistan, but these 31 men are here so that they can help US soldiers learn how to work with Afghan counterparts before they leave Fort Riley...

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The Army's TMAAG

By Colonel Robert Killebrew, USA (Ret.)

The Chief of Staff of the Army's recent decision not to field the proposed Theater Military Advisory and Assistance Groups (TMAAG) was the right one. Regardless of which party wins the general election this fall, future U.S. national security strategy will include increased assistance to allies fighting against radical Islamic aggression. Whether called "building partnership capacity" or some other acronym, the essential idea will be to help other states fight their own wars, rather than providing U.S. combat forces as a first resort. The Army's TMAAG was an effort to get out front of this emerging strategy, but it was taking the wrong route.

Providing enhanced military assistance to a particular allied country, as part of overall U.S. policy toward that country, is first and foremost a political act overseen by the U.S. Chief of Mission -- the Ambassador -- working with the host country and the U.S. regional commander. The COM and the regional commander negotiate very specific support for the host country based on its needs. Military support to the COM is either assigned permanently in-country or "visits" as military training teams (MTT)...

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