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--John Nagl, Small Wars Journal
NATIONAL SECURITY
Petraeus had Bush's Ear, Will Mike Mullen have Obama's? - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor
Military advice will abound as President-elect Obama decides what course to pursue in volatile Afghanistan and Pakistan, its neighbor.
Defense officials are conducting no fewer than three separate strategy assessments to help Mr. Obama decide on a new approach to confront the radical Islamic forces sowing unrest in the region. One report will come from Gen. David Petraeus, who came to represent the voice of the Bush administration on Iraq and who now oversees the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Another due in coming days is from Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the "war czar" at the National Security Council.
But the one that may count the most, say sources in and outside the Pentagon, is the assessment by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. For months, the chairman has said the US must do more to reverse deteriorating security in Afghanistan – a view Obama is known to share.
The three reports may help settle the question of who at the Pentagon will have the new president's ear – and many expect Admiral Mullen to assert his position as top military adviser. General Petraeus's views held sway during the latter years of the Bush presidency, when the administration was desperate for a turnaround in Iraq. But Petraeus is now aligned in public thought with Bush policies, and Obama may feel he needs a new face to represent US military endeavors. This could well be Mullen, who is keen to restore the authority of his post, which had eroded under President Bush.
More at The Christian Science Monitor.
UNITED NATIONS
Report: US Uses Aid to Promote Non-Humanitarian Goals - Colum Lynch, Washington Post
The United States, the world's largest international aid donor, is among the worst at promoting the independence, impartiality and neutrality of humanitarian aid deliveries to needy populations, according to a survey by a Madrid-based nonprofit group that monitors donors' performance.
The Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA) Humanitarian Response Index 2008 measures how effectively the world's 23 largest donors deliver aid. The United States ranked 15th in overall effectiveness and only 13th in the level of generosity measured by the size of its economy.
But it ranked near the bottom, 22nd, when it came to adherence to principles and guidelines established by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to ensure that political considerations don't exclude worthy recipients of aid.
More at The Washington Post.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS
McKiernan Discusses Challenges in Afghanistan - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service
Afghanistan’s complex environment colors military operations in the nation, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan told the Atlantic Council of the United States here yesterday.
Army Gen. David D. McKiernan said Afghanistan’s culture of violence, exacerbated by more than three decades of warfare, combines with the opium poppy trade to produce a toxic brew in the nation.
Afghanistan’s heroin trade funds the insurgency, McKiernan said. While the Taliban is the main group in the country, various other extremist groups continue to merge and fall apart and find common ground with drug traffickers, he said.
Afghan men continue to fight for various reasons, the general said. “They are either unemployed, they are fighting for intra-tribal reasons, they are fighting because their families are intimidated, they are fighting for reasons of power [or] a variety of localized reasons … including ideological reasons associated with the Taliban,” McKiernan said.
The country is dry, withered and rugged from the deserts of the south to the Hindu Kush Mountains in the north, but the most complex terrain in the country is the “human terrain,” the general said. Each of more than 400 tribal groups comprises various sub-tribes and family groups. Tribes mix and match in the cities, but 70 percent of Afghans live in rural areas, where tribal and family influences are strong. Literacy rates, tribal connections and history all contribute to the human terrain that an outsider has to consider, McKiernan said.
The Afghan army is on the right path toward providing for Afghanistan’s security, McKiernan said, but he acknowledged that the coalition has “a long way to go with respect to the Afghan police.”
The coalition is focusing its training on local police, trying to turn a cultural tide of perceived ineptitude and corruption. Often in the past, local police served as strong-men who kept people in line for local warlords. The training, known as “focused district development,” involves sending a district’s entire police force to a regional training center while a highly trained unit of police provides security in the district. When the newly trained local officers return, they work with the substitute force and coalition mentors to help their training take root. The program has been “generally successful,” McKiernan said.
“We’ve had lower numbers of security incidents, lower casualties of all kinds,” he said. “It’s a program that needs more resources and more assistance from the international community, but it’s a proven program that will continue into the future.”
McKiernan said he looks at Afghanistan and Pakistan as a “regional problem set,” as no solution will work without considering the other country. The Pakistani army, the Afghan army and coalition forces all work together near the border.
More at American Forces Press Service.
Pakistan Says NATO Afghan Supply Lines Will Stay Open - Voice of America
Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has assured NATO commanders meeting in Brussels that he will keep supply lines to their troops in Afghanistan open after a surge in attacks along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
A top NATO officer, Italian Navy Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, told reporters afterward that Kayani also urged the alliance to work with local tribal leaders, rather than just trying to seal off the border through force, which he said cannot be done.
General Kayani's presence at the meeting indicates how interlinked security developments in Pakistan have become with those in neighboring Afghanistan, where NATO has about 70,000 troops.
Pakistani and NATO officials say they are pooling their efforts to fight militants on both sides of the border. They say the ongoing "Operation Lionheart" involves US- led coalition forces in Afghanistan giving assistance to Pakistani troops fighting militants in Pakistan's tribal district of Bajaur.
More at Voice of America.
American Craft Kills 5 Militants in Pakistan - Jane Perlez and Zubair Shah, New York Times
Striking for the first time beyond Pakistan’s tribal areas, an American pilotless aircraft fired missiles at a village well inside Pakistani territory on Wednesday, killing five foreign militants, a Pakistani intelligence official and local residents said.
The attack appeared to represent a widening of the American campaign aimed at killing militants with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, who use safe havens in Pakistan as a springboard for attacks against NATO and American soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani government did not immediately comment on the attack, but it has protested more than 20 other American strikes in the past two months, saying they were an infringement of the nation’s sovereignty and alienated the Pakistani public.
More at the New York Times and Washington Post.
Pakistan Says Al-Qaida Operative Killed in US Missile Strike - Ayaz Gul, Voice of America
Authorities in Pakistan say a suspected US missile strike has killed at least six al-Qaida-linked militants in a remote northwestern village. Meanwhile, senior military officials say that close coordination between Pakistani troops and US-led coalition forces has helped an ongoing offensive to evict militants from a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Officials say a pre-dawn missile strike by what is believed to have been a US unmanned spy plane destroyed a militant hideout in the northwestern district of Bannu. Most of those killed in the attack are said to be foreign fighters, including a senior al-Qaida operative of Arab origin identified as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi.
Witnesses say that militants quickly removed bodies from the scene before local authorities arrived to investigate the incident.
More at Voice of America and Agence France-Presse.
Confounding Confusion - Arnaud de Borchgrave, United Press International opinion
It was tantamount to a dialogue of the deaf as a lame duck US president tried to make himself understood by President Hamid Karzai in Kabul and President Asif Zardari in Islamabad. "I know you believe you understood what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize what you heard is not what I meant" was interchangeable for anything one said to the other two.
In Afghanistan, Karzai, barely in control of his own capital, pushed ahead with a Saudi peace initiative by offering to talk turkey with archenemy Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive, one-eyed Taliban leader who has been in hiding since the United States invaded Oct. 7, 2001, and toppled his regime. There is a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Karzai pledged he would resist demands from the international community to hand over Mullah Omar to US authorities.
Defiant, the Afghan president said he would go to any length to protect Omar, and NATO forces in Afghanistan would be left with two choices: "Remove me or leave." Despite a string of denials, Saudi King Abdullah's dinner in Mecca Sept. 27 with both Taliban and Karzai government envoys was the first step on a protracted negotiation with a view to forming a coalition government.
Meanwhile, Karzai is setting up a new organization to identity Taliban fighters who might want to switch sides and accept to be retrained for a civilian job. And this at a time when the Taliban's Islamist guerrillas have stepped up operations throughout Afghanistan, a country the size of France, and are slowly encircling the capital, Kabul. Some 70,000 allied troops are spread around some of the world's most inhospitable terrain, but only 10 percent of the non-US troops are allowed to engage in combat, hamstrung by scores of caveats imposed by their national parliaments.
More at United Press International.
IRAQ
US Troops in Baghdad Take a Softer Approach - Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post
With violence down sharply this year, the US military is broadening its efforts to reconcile Sunnis and Shiites, reintegrate former insurgents into society and repair the rift between residents and their government.
But as American forces begin to withdraw, some Iraqis question the long-term impact of the pacification campaign. Iraq has no history of democracy, and the government that has come to power since the 2003 US-led invasion is sharply divided along sectarian lines.
"The idea or identity of this is American, not Iraqi," Kassim Daoud, a former Iraqi national security minister, said of the US efforts. Although the Iraqi government has declared its support for reconciliation, he said, "it hasn't got a real program or a map."
More at The Washington Post.
AFRICA
Africa: The Next Crisis - Richard Rahn, Washington Times opinion
The recent drop in oil and other commodity prices makes it almost a certainty that some unstable commodity-exporting nations will reach a crisis stage in the next few months. The only question is, which countries are likely to erupt first?
The Middle East is always a safe bet for an explosion, but there is a very good chance the next eruption will be in Africa, with the most likely location being Congo, followed by Sudan. In Latin America, Argentina is headed for another debt default and financial meltdown, and Venezuela continues to rapidly deteriorate. And there is Russia, which is likely to react poorly as its once booming economy goes into to a sharp recession. Pressures will mount on the United States to become involved, particularly in Africa, as mass killings begin again.
More at The Washington Times
SOMALIA / PIRACY
World Grapples with Pirate Problem - Peter Spiegel and Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times
The Saudis chose to negotiate. The Indian navy opened fire. The US Navy said shipping companies should do more to protect their vessels, and the ship owners said governments should guard the high seas.
But everyone wants the barely functioning government of Somalia to control the pirates who sail from its ports to seize the cargo ships and tankers that ply past.
Mightily armed, but slightly baffled, 21st century civilization appears to have no collective answer to piracy, a scourge once considered banished into history.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
Somali Pirates Seize Ninth Vessel in 12 Days - Catherine Philp, The Times
The battle with pirates operating off the coast of Somalia grew yesterday when raiders seized two more ships but lost one of their own in an uneven firefight with the Indian Navy. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) described the situation yesterday as “out of control”.
The surge in hijackings came as Saudi Arabia confirmed that a ransom demand had been made for the freeing of the Sirius Star supertanker, seized at the weekend with her crew of 25 and a cargo of oil worth $100 million (£65 million).
Two more vessels – a Thai fishing boat with a crew of 16 and a bulk carrier, believed to be Greek, with an unknown number of people aboard – were seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden yesterday, bringing the total to nine vessels in 12 days.
Late on Tuesday night the Indian frigate Tabar destroyed the raiders’ “mother ship” after coming under attack from pirates firing rocketpropelled grenades, the Indian Navy said. The confrontation was the first involving one of the vessels used by the pirates to extend their range. Shipping groups said that the loss of a vessel did not mean that the pirates’ activities would be curtailed. “The situation is already out of control,” said Noel Choong, head of the piracy reporting centre at the IMB in Kuala Lumpur. “With no strong deterrent, low risk to the pirates and high returns, the attacks will continue.”
More at The Times
Indian Naval Warship Destroys Pirate Vessel - Emily Wax and Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post
An Indian navy frigate battled with and sank a vessel described as a pirate mother ship in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest and most lawless shipping lanes, the navy said Wednesday.
Amid a surge of piracy around the hijacking-plagued Horn of Africa, the Indian navy said in a statement that fire from its INS Tabar set the pirate vessel aflame after it failed to stop for investigation.
The overnight battle in the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to the Suez Canal and the main shipping route from Asia and the Middle East to Europe, occurred days after the Saudi-owned Sirius Star supertanker and its 25 crew members were seized. It is the biggest tanker hijacked to date and is carrying 2 million barrels of oil -- a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output, valued at $100 million.
More at The Washington Post.
A Surge to Wipe Out Pirates of the Horn - Everett Pyatt, Real Clear World opinion
Last night the Indian Navy Ship Tabar struck a long overdue blow for freedom of the seas by sinking a pirate mother ship in the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden. At last, the pirates will know that the hijacking party has been crashed.
Some are questioning whether the Tabar acted in self-defense. Ridiculous, they acted in the cause of law and order in support of freedom - a much higher calling.
Perhaps this event will shake other nations out of their unwillingness to address the threat and put together a meaningful military force to eliminate these nautical terrorists who prefer to call themselves businessmen. They make the Mafia look like kindergarteners.
More at Real Clear World and:
Indian Navy Destroys Pirate Ship in Gulf of Aden - Voice of America
Indian Navy Says It Sank Pirate Ship - New York Times
Indian Warship Destroys Suspected Pirate Vessel - Los Angeles Times
India Leads Fight Against Somali Pirates - Christian Science Monitor
Pirate Boat Sunk But Attacks Continue - Daily Telegraph
Indian Navy Sinks Pirate 'Mother Ship' - Associated Press
Negotiations Begin for Sirius Hostages - The Australian
Somali Pirates Talk Ransom for Supertanker - Voice of America
Saudi Owners 'Talking to Pirates' - BBC News
Somali Pirates Transform Villages into Boomtowns - Associated Press
Military, Shippers Must Work Together to Deter Pirates, Official Says - AFPS
Time for an Anti-piracy Coalition of the Willing - Forbes opinion
Bring Justice to Somalia's Fisheries - Christian Science Monitor opinion
IRAN / ISRAEL
Iran Said to Have Nuclear Fuel for One Weapon - William Broad and David Sanger, New York Times
Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.
The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.
Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design - a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.
More at The New York Times.
Israeli Air Force Chief: We are Ready to Deal with Iran - Jerusalem Post
"We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us" in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, IAF commander Maj. -Gen. Ido Nehushtan told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Tuesday.
A strike against Iran's nuclear facilities "is a political decision," the IAF commander said, "but if I understand it correctly, all options are on the table… The Air Force is a very robust and flexible force. We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us."
When asked by the paper whether the Israeli military was able to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, which are spread around the country and partly located underground, Nehushtan said, "Please understand that I do not want to get into details. I can only say this: It is not a technical or logistical question."
More at The Jerusalem Post and:
Iran Increasing Uranium Stockpile - Daily Telegraph
UN Nuclear Agency Criticises Iran - Agence France-Presse
IAEA, Iran in Silent Standoff over Nuclear Probe - Reuters
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
Afghans Call for Public Executions - The Australian
British Unit Protecting ISAF Headquarters - United Press International
Training Turns Afghan Civilians into Soldiers - AFPS
Pakistan
Pakistan General Killed in Drive-by - The Australian
Top Pakistan Ex-commando Killed - BBC News
Iraq / OIF
Agreement Respects Iraqi Sovereignty, Allows US Operations - AFPS
Sadrists Block Debate on Iraq-US Pact - Voice of America
Brawl Halts Session of Iraqi Parliament - New York Times
Iraqi Session on US Pact Ends in Shouting Match - Los Angeles Times
Hardline Iraqi MPs Shout Down US Pact in Parliament - Agence France-Presse
Two Iraqis Face Trial Over Margaret Hassan Murder - The Times
Iraqis Arrest Local Official, Coalition Captures Terror Suspects - AFPS
Iraqi Yellowcake Discovery - Washington Times opinion
Iran
Iranian 'Blogfather' Arrested as Israeli Spy - The Times
The Long War
Al Qaeda Coldly Acknowledges Obama Victory - New York Times
Al-Qaida Insults Obama, Uses Racial Slur in Web Message - Voice of America
Al Qaeda No. 2 Insults Obama - Christian Science Monitor
White House Condemns Zawahri's Obama Insult - Voice of America
Al-Qa'ida Lashes 'House Negro' Obama - Associated Press
US Department of Defense
New Effort Taps Best Commercial Practices for Defense Acquisition - AFPS
Multinational Conference Focuses on Joint Solutions - AFPS
United States
GMU Accepts Grant from Islamic Center - Washington Times
Australia
Security Fear Over Sailors' Holidays - The Australian
Reservists 'Need a Bigger Role' - The Australian
Africa
Congo Rebels Pull Back From Hot Spots - Voice of America
DRC Rebels Pull Out to Let Aid In - BBC News
Rebels Used to Boots, Not Suits, Seek to Govern Congo - New York Times
Charities Launch Appeal as Congo Suffering Grows - The Times
UN Reports on Fighting in Darfur - BBC News
Talking in Secret in Zimbabwe - Los Angeles Times
Nigerian Soldiers Jailed for Life for Arms Sales to Rebels - Voice of America
Rwandan Capital Protests Extradition of Top Official to France - Voice of America
Shabab Denies Kidnapping Italian Nuns in Kenya - Voice of America
Forgotten in Libya's Dungeons - Washington Post opinion
Americas
Claims of a Rigged Vote Foment Bitter Protests in Nicaragua - New York Times
Democracy in Nicaragua In Peril - Washington Post
Bolivia's Morales Diplomatic, Defiant in Visit to DC - Washington Post
Chavez Threatens Election Crackdown - Associated Press
Chavez Effect Is Wearing Off - Daily Telegraph opinion
Asia Pacific
Grenade Attack Kills Thai Protester - New York Times
1 Dead, More than 20 Injured in Bomb Attack at Thai Government House - Kyodo
Fatal Blast Hits Bangkok Protest - BBC News
Europe
Ukraine Begs NATO to Ignore Russian Pressure - The Times
Georgia, Russia Conclude Talks - Voice of America
Mistrust Fuels Intolerance in Divided Kosovo - Reuters
Spain: Detained Basque Militant was Top ETA Leader - Associated Press
Obama, Misha and the Bear - New York Times opinion
Middle East
Obama Tells Abbas He’ll Work for Peace - New York Times
Bombed Syrian Site Appears to Have Been Nuclear Reactor - Washington Post
IAEA Report: Uranium Found in Syria Site Hit by Israel - Kyodo
Syria Must Stop Playing the Spoiler - The Times editorial
Arab World Looks to a New America - Der Spiegel opinion
South Asia
India Releases New Security Manual - United Press International
India: Hindu Extremists' Reward to Kill Christians - The Times
Amnesty in Urgent Sri Lanka Plea - BBC News
BOOKS
Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips
Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.
Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor
This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.
The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West
From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.
Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson
After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key US and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.
The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward
Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.
We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway
In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.
In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy
The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.
Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz
Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.
EVENTS OF INTEREST
6-7 December - Boyd Conference 2008 (Conference). Charlottetown, Prince Edward, Canada. There is an opportunity to hold a short, intense seminar on the applicability of Boyd’s ideas, particularly operating inside the OODA loop and grand strategy (sustaining our own morale and attracting the uncommitted), on the weekend of December 6-7 at the University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI. Canada. The theme would be applying these ideas to conflict in the post-Iraq era, and more specifically to the types of diffused, networked, “open source” armed conflicts that some have called “fifth generation warfare.” We are also interested in exploring solutions, such as the role of “resilient communities” (RC), for countering them. As Oil and food prices have climbed and the mortgage crisis has grown, the need to think more about Resilient Communities has become more urgent. We may have to re-invent our world! We envision this as a working seminar to help shape the policy agenda in the first year of the new administration.
8 December - Counterinsurgency Leadership Seminar (Seminar). Quantico, VA. On 8 December 2008 the US Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare (CIW) will host a Counterinsurgency Leadership Seminar at Little Hall (Base Theater), Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia, featuring Colonel Stephen Davis (USMC), Colonel David Maxwell (USA) and Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling. This seminar is cosponsored by CIW, US Joint Forces Command Irregular Warfare Center (IWC), the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center (COIN Center) and Small Wars Journal (SWJ). Seminar Panel Members: Colonel Stephen Davis, USMC. Col Davis is currently the Deputy Commanding Officer of Marine Corps Special Operations Command. Previously, Col Davis commanded Regimental Combat Team 2 in Iraq. Colonel David Maxwell, USA. COL Maxwell is currently the G-3 (Operations Officer) of the US Army Special Operations Command. Previously he commanded the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines. Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling, USA. LTC Yingling is the Commander of 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery and is currently deployed to Iraq performing detainee operations. He has served two previous tours in Iraq, and has also deployed to Bosnia and Operation Desert Storm. Colonel Daniel Kelly, USMC, will moderate. Col Kelly is the Director of the US Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare. He has held a wide variety of command and staff billets and participated in numerous operations to include Operations Restore Hope / Continue Hope (Somalia), Operations Allied Force / Joint Guardian, (Kosovo) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF I and II).
13 January - The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948: Past, Present, and Future (Symposium). Washington, D.C. Mark your calendar for January 13, 2009. That is the confirmed date for “The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948: Past, Present, and Future”, a symposium to discuss the legislation on which America’s arsenal of persuasion is anchored. The one-day event will be hosted in Washington, D.C., with the location and co-sponsor all but confirmed. The format is four 90 minute panels and will emphasize Q&A, discourse, and debate and not presentations or monologues. The four panels will focus on past, present, future, what to do, respectively. Panelists will be drawn from practitioners (State and Defense Departments), academics, Congress, and the media. The event is free and open to the public but registration will be required (see below). This is a first of its kind in-depth discussion into the legislation that continues to set the parameters of our global engagement. Enacted at the beginning of the First War of Ideas, it is long past time to discuss it ten or more years into the Second War of Ideas, a struggle that goes beyond terrorism and insurgency and into economic and financial power.
26-28 February - Student Conference on National Affairs (SCONA) (Conference). Texas A&M University - Memorial Student Center Complex, College Station, TX. Sponsored by Texas A&M University. The Student Conference on National Affairs at Texas A&M is in its 54th year. This years conference topic is US Interventions in Problematic Area's Around the World. It will take place from February 26th to the 28th. While the conference activities are focused toward Graduate and Undergraduate students, the speakers we have are open to the general public. Two of the at least five speakers we have confirmed are, Joe Galloway, Author of We Were Soldiers Once and Young, and James Olson, former Director of Counter Intelligence for the CIA. The other speakers will be the best individuals we can find in military, humanitarian, and business issues. We are currently interested in any individuals with a background in Humanitarian issues to speak, or individuals with professional knowledge on the topic to facilitate our student delegate roundtables. More information can be found at scona.tamu.edu and interested parties can contact scona.information@yahoo.com.