SWJ echoes Abu Muqawama's hearty congratulations to Colonel / Doctor Thomas X. Hammes (USMC Ret.) who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation last week. Job well done Dr. T.X.!

COMPLEX OPERATIONS

MNF-I Commander’s COIN Guidance - Will Hartley, Insurgency Research Group

The Small Wars Journal has made available an excellent COIN primer produced by the Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) headquarters. Although the concepts should already be familiar to COIN students and practitioners, they are rarely expressed so succinctly. The focus is on the current campaign in Iraq, but the principles would form a sound basis for any campaign.

The Value of Cultural Knowledge - Marc Tyrrell, In Harmonium

For the past several years, we have been inundated with arguments about “the value of cultural knowledge”. I want to make a couple of points about this “value”. Knowledge of culture, what it is, how it operates and how we as humans construct it, goes well beyond the use value that is often assumed to be the basis for measuring value. Not that I have anything in particular against Jeremy Bentham and the utilitarians, indeed, I quite like some of John Stuart Mill’s work, but there is more to the “value” of culture than is apparent in most of the recent debates.

PD and Counterinsurgency - Daryl Copeland, Public Diplomacy

Globalization is contributing to a growing international divide -- political, economic, cultural, and digital. This gap, characterized by the polarization of wealth and resources and the breakdown of shared goals and identity, has contributed to heightened instability and the generation of conflict. Terrorism and holy war have been among the reactions. Unfortunately, the West's organizational tools, policy instruments and military doctrine, mired still in Cold War era thinking, appear incapable of responding adequately.

Life Support to Our Exit Strategy - Kip, Abu Muqawama

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of General Casey's announcement this week that lieutenant colonel advisor team chiefs will be centrally selected to fill billets and that majors will not only receive professional credit for their advisor service but also be allowed to serve subsequently in conventional career progression slots.

Kilcullen on Footprint in COIN - Herschel Smith, The Captain's Journal

In Concerning the US-Iraq Security Arrangement we discussed the ongoing negotiations between the US and Iraq over exactly what the US force presence should look like in the future. We concluded with the position that an empowered Iran would result from a rapid stand-down of US forces in Iraq, and that a once-in-a generation opportunity existed to impede Iranian intentions of hegemony by our continued existence in Iraq. David Ignatius recently had an article where he discussed the “right Iraqi footprint,” citing David Kilcullen.

The Complex Terrain Network - Mike Innes, CTLab

The CTLab's Review is very much a bloggers' blog, as opposed to the op-ed and think-type pieces in the Notebook blog, or the various other media formats with which we're planning on experimenting. It's built around contributors who are and remain accomplished bloggers in their own rights, the point of it all being that it extends the conceptual tether beyond what CTLab might ordinally attempt as a university-based research unit (which is necessarily broad to begin with). I haven't written about or addressed the idea of the complex terrain network (CT-NET? TCTN?) before. But if one were to think of the external and independent vehicles of CTLab's contributors as nodes in an eclectic, elaborate, distributed architecture of percolating concepts, then we're getting somewhere. I'll suggest here that CTLab's citizen media experiments constitute a nexus of sorts for what might eventually morph into a full blown CT-NET/TCTN, made up of much wider range or contributors and thinkers. What follows in this post is the first of what should become a weekly selection and summary of CT-NET offerings.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

The Free One - David Hazony, Contentions

Four years and 500 million dollars later, the Bush Administration’s Arabic-language news network, Al-Hurra, is coming under serious fire. Last night “60 Minutes” ran a blistering investigative piece on the Springfield, VA-based channel. (You can view the piece in its entirety here.) It’s really quite shocking.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Task Force ODIN and Cloud Power - John Robb, Global Guerrillas

'Cloud Airpower' -- a three dimensional blanket of microsensors and machines that can dominate a target zone -- is the future of the Air Force. It's how the Air Force will participate in the future of warfare (which will be mostly a form of special operations and not conventional warfare). However, the AF leadership doesn't want to acknowledge it. Instead, the US Army is doing the innovation/tinkering necessary (this is a rough early effort, but it is coming from the right direction - from the bottom up).

A New Job for a Controversial General - Phillip Carter, Intel Dump

In May, the Pentagon canceled the assignment of Maj. Gen. Jay Hood to Pakistan, where he would've been the defense attache, over concerns that he was intimately involved with torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Then, last Thursday, the Pentagon announced that Hood would go instead to Tampa, Fla., to become the chief of staff for Central Command ("CENTCOM").

After The War Is Over - Strategy Page

This time around, the army wants to hang on to as many of those combat veterans as possible. Two or three tours in Iraq, for a combat soldier, produces the kind of experience you can get nowhere else. It creates an edge in future battles that can make an enormous difference. To avoid losing a lot of these guys, the army wants to keep troops with PTSD symptoms out of action for two or three years. In addition, new treatments have been developed, and old ones improved. But it will be a few years before the army knows how many PTSD victims they will have lost for good. Many marginal cases can just be moved to a non-combat job, and finish out their careers with less stress. But the hardest hit will get medical discharges.

Air Force Purge - Noah Shachtman, Danger Room

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the Air Force's military and civilian chiefs earlier this month, he insisted that the decision was "based entirely" on the service's mishandling of nuclear weapons. Michael Wynne, the ousted Air Force Secretary, would beg to differ.

Army Needs More Lethal Round - Sharon Weinberger, Danger Room

Could the U.S. Army finally be coming around to criticism of the M4 carbine rifle? Writing at Aviation Week's ARES blog, Paul McLeary says that the Army, which has staunchly defended the weapon, may be thinking about other options.

THE LONG WAR

Bankrupting the ‘Enemy’ - Westhawk, Westhawk

A story in today’s New York Times reports that old-line network news programs have largely given up covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush administration and the Defense Department have been fighting a war of attrition against both radical jihadist and a hostile global media. These wars are obviously tightly interrelated. It appears as if the Bush administration and the US military have bankrupted the media “enemy.” Now what remains to be seen is whether this success will come too late to affect the outcome against the real jihadist enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Times Tells All - Max Boot, Contentions

There are a number of points to make about this front-page New York Times article, “Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation,” in which the Times continues its self-appointed task of exposing to the world as many of the nation’s intelligence secrets as they can get their hands on. The first and most obvious point is the newspaper’s decision to name Deuce Martinez, one of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad’s interrogators, notwithstanding the CIA’s request not to do so. In its online edition, the Times prints an Editor’s Note explaining its decision.

Thoughts on the OBL Hunt? - Steve Schippert, The Tank

A week ago, Larry Kudlow asked if anyone had thoughts on a U.K. Sunday Times report that President Bush is driving an increased hunt for Osama bin Laden (et al.) inside Pakistan. My answer is that, yes, there is a notable increase in operational tempo against AQ/Taliban targets inside Pakistan. But the Sunday Times report is wrong to ascribe the renewed focus to President Bush seeking a legacy.

Europeans Join al Qaeda - Strategy Page

The buzz in Pakistan's tribal areas is that there are several dozen European converts to Islam, up in the hills, attending terrorist training sessions in al Qaeda and Taliban camps. The men, and possibly one or more women, enter the tribal areas as tourists, but are later spotted travelling with known Islamic terrorists.

Soldiers at Great Risk - J. Peter Pham, The Tank

In a Chicago Tribune op-ed published Friday, Army Maj. Kyndra Rotunda, a former legal advisor at Guantanamo and prosecutor with the Office of Military Commissions, argues that because of the latest Supreme Court ruling on the terrorist detainees, "military commanders must justify battlefield captures and prove to a US judge that decisions they made on the ground—in a faraway land during a battle—were justified" and thus the decision "puts American troops at risk and will lead to more US deaths on the battlefield because it makes it more difficult for soldiers to detain the enemy."

IRAQ

The Powers That Be - Guest Poster, Abu Aardvark

The most prominent dividing line in Iraqi politics now is between the Powers that Be and the Powers that Aren't. The PTB are the two Kurdish parties, ISCI, pieces of Da'wa, and the IIP, who has one foot in and one foot out of the government, but is on an inexorable vector towards having both feet in. I stress IIP here, because so much of non-IIP Tawafuq has broken off, most to form that Arabs Bloc or whatever it is with Mutlaq, and others to strike out on their own in the coming elections. The PTA are everyone else: these Sunnis I was just referring to, the Sadris, Fadhila, the Awakenings, the mishmash of secularists in Iraqiya who are constantly at war with each other, and a variety of independents, both in parliament and, now that provincial elections are on the horizon, increasingly at the local level.

Reports on Progress and Instability - Andrew Cochran, Counterterrorism

Two reports released today continue the "more good news but remaining bad news" pattern that we've seen in the past year, since the surge in US troops was fully implemented. In "Iraq Report 9: The Battle For Basra," published by the Institute for the Study of War in conjunction with The Weekly Standard, Marisa Cochrane (no relation) discusses the forces that enabled militias to control Basra, why Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki initiated "Operation Knight's Charge" to secure Basra, and the continuing dangers ahead. A longer status report on Iraq, the latest in a long line by the Government Accountability Office, provides more details on the security successes brought about by the surge and continuing failures of the Iraqi government.

Operations Target Mahdi Army - Bill Roggio, The Long War Journal

Iraqi security forces continue to target the Sadrist movement and the Mahdi Army in the southern provinces of Maysan, Dhi Qhar, and Wasit over the weekend. More than 113 Mahdi Army fighters and Sadrists were detained since Friday, including a senior Sadrist leader in the city of Al Kut. The arrests come as a major operation was launched in the former Mahdi Army stronghold in Maysan province.

One Hundred Insurgents Detained - Bill Murray, The Long War Journal

Iraqi and Coalition forces in and around Baghdad captured more than 100 insurgents and defused 147 improved explosive devices during the past week as part of continued security operations, according to Iraqi and Coalition spokesmen. One insurgent was killed, six kidnap victims liberated and about 700 kilograms of TNT discovered during security sweeps in the past seven days, said Iraqi Army spokesman Major General Qassim Atta during a press conference in Baghdad today.

High Fives in Fallujah - Merv Benson, PrairiePundit

There is much more. The progress of the Iraqi police has grown exponentially over the last year. It hasn't been that long when few Iraqis or Americans had much faith in them. It is interesting how the high five has given Iraqi kids a chance to actually make contact with Marines and soldiers. They seem to love it and the troops do too.

AFGHANSITAN

Afghan, US Forces Kill 55 Taliban - Boll Roggio, The Long War Journal

US and Afghan forces fought a major battle with the Taliban and "inflicted heavy casualties" on the force just miles from the Pakistani border on June 20, Combined Joint Task Force - 101 reported. More than 55 Taliban fighters, including three senior leaders, were reported killed, 25 were wounded and three were captured by a combined air and ground counterattack after a Taliban force ambushed a patrol in Paktika province.

Despair Over NATO and Afghanistan - Herschel Smith, The Captain's Journal

The Captain’s Journal doesn’t like to be negative, but it is necessary to engage in truth-telling. For more than half a year The Captain’s Journal has been in a state of near despair over the failure of NATO to deploy forces to Afghanistan, employ a realistic set of rules of engagement, and implement a coherent, consistent counterinsurgency strategy. There are seasons in counterinsurgency, and the campaign will soon suffer under the weight of US and NATO being viewed as occupiers rather than liberators. Timeliness is everything in COIN.

IRAN

The Next Twelve Weeks - Galrahn, Information Dissemination

There is currently a contest taking place between the military of Israel and the military of the United States, who can be quieter regarding Iran. Sure there is no shortage of politicians who will discuss the topic, but in politics it is only worth noting when nobody says a word. While the western media has been openly discussing the Israeli air power exercises that took place last week, many claims being it was an exercise designed to simulate an attack on Iran, the Israeli military hasn't said a word about it. What is also interesting, yet not reported that we can tell, is how we also observe almost no media coverage regarding what the US military is doing in the Middle East. All those ships, all those planes, and yet no press.

Larijani’s Candor - Max Boot, Contentions

Iran’s denials that it was arming and training violent militias in Iraq have never been terribly convincing. But now, in the midst of threatening the United States, Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and its former national security adviser, seems to have given up any pretence of Iranian non-involvement.

Who Doesn’t Want To Talk? - Abe Greenwald, Contentions

In all the debate about whether or not the U.S. should talk to Iran about halting its nuclear program, something critical was overlooked: Iran’s very refusal to discuss the matter. Today, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said, “Suspension of enrichment has no logical reason behind it. We believe that no proposals should be made that lead to the Iranian nation being denied its rights.” In other words, “Don’t even talk to us about stopping enrichment.”

Sarkozy “Guarantees” Israel - Abe Greenwald, Contentions

As the first French President to visit Israel in twelve years, Sarkozy received a standing ovation at the Knesset and pledged to “block” Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He added: “I ask you to trust us because we want to help you . . . France is ready to provide its guarantee, ready to mobilize its diplomatic service, its resources, its soldiers. You can trust France.” Furthermore, Sarkozy vowed to halt France’s rapprochement with Syria until the latter curbs its coziness with terrorists in general and Iran in particular.

AFRICA

The Definition of State Terror - Charlie, Abu Muqawama

In a word: Zimbabwe... This will likely get worse before it gets better. And look for a fair amount of blame to be placed at the feet of Thabo Mbeki whose once-ideologically aligned ANC government has refused to pressure Mugabe. The legacies of guerrilla wars never fade easily.

Africa's Shame - Douglas Farah, Counterterrorism

The recent assault by armed government gangs, leading to dozens of deaths and hundreds of encarcerations, has led the opposition in Zimbabwe to withdraw from the electoral process. The striking inability of Tabo Mbeki in South Africa and other sub-Saharan African nations and institutions (the Africa Union, for example) is a shameful episode that has set the continent back for decades. But there are reasons other than human rights and the rule of law to be concerned about Zimbabwe and its meglomaniacal leader, Robert Mugabe. To discern that, one only has to look at other criminal states in the region, and their history.

EUROPE

Human Geography - Richard Fernandez, The Belmont Club

The Balkans are, without being it physically apparent, an ancient battleground. Occasionally, some incongrous artifact gives the game away. At the beautiful town of Kotor in Montenegro, for example, Michael Totten came across what appeared to be “a well-lit Great Wall of China [that] shot straight up the side of a mountain”. It was an ancient defensive wall constructed to defend the town from the hills, which overlook it almost everywhere. Kotor had been fortified and fought over since Greek times. Yet beauty and life had always coexisted cheek by jowl with war. A Washington Post article from 2006 captured the dissonant juxtaposition between the human and the natural landscape. “It seems hard to believe now, but until Yugoslavia started to crumble in the early 1990s, Montenegro was a holiday hot spot for models, monarchs and movie stars. Claudia Schiffer, Queen Elizabeth II, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor all partied (or at least vacationed) here.”

WORLD

Climate Change Could Spark War - Noah Shachtman, Danger Room

Environmental groups have been warning for years that global climate change could make already-tense parts of the world even worse, and even spark whole new conflicts. Now, the nation's spies are saying pretty much the same thing. The US intelligence community has finished up its classified assessment of how our changing weather patterns could contribute to "political instability around the world, the collapse of governments and the creation of terrorist safe havens."

RECOMMENDED READING

UK CT & COIN Features - 23 June 2008 - Insurgency Research Group

A round-up of today’s newspaper articles covering the UK’s involvement in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations at home and abroad.

UK CT & COIN Features - 22 June 2008 - Insurgency Research Group

A round-up of today’s newspaper articles covering the UK’s involvement in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations at home and abroad.

CTLab: New Weekend Posts - Tim Stevens, Ubiwar

New posts at CTLab Review.

Recommended Reading - Mark Safranski, ZenPundit

Thought I’d start with a Point-Counterpoint theme and then go from there.

Iraq News (23 June) - LT Nixon Rants

The good, the bad, and the ugly.