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US Hands Over Green Zone Authority to Iraq - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America

US forces in Iraq have handed over control of Baghdad's Green Zone to the Iraqi government. Iraqi officials hailed the move, which was mandated under a new US Iraq security arrangement that also calls for US forces to withdraw from Iraq by 2011.

An Iraqi army band played the country's national anthem, during the handover ceremony, as the Iraqi flag was raised over the presidential palace for the first time since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki presided over the emotional ceremony. Addressing a crowd in the foyer of the Presidential Palace, Maliki described the historic moment.

He says that Iraqis should consider today the day of sovereignty and a new beginning, where Iraq regains every bit of its soil, in addition to its national will and sovereignty...

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"High Time" To Move Marines To Afghanistan - Cami McCormick, CBS News

The Commandant of the US Marine Corps says it's "high time" his troops leave Iraq and take their battle skills to Afghanistan. "We are a fighting machine," Gen. James Conway tells CBS News, and the fight is now in Afghanistan...

Their role in Iraq, he says, has been reduced to nation building...

"That’s not what we do," Conway told Marines in Afghanistan. "Where there’s a fight, that’s where the Marine Corps is needed."

More at CBS News.

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Oxford University Press Enters the Tabloid Market

A review of:

Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe

by Gerard Prunier.  Published by Oxford University Press, 2008.

Reviewed by:

Thomas (Tom) P. Odom

LTC US Army (ret)

Author, Journey Into Darkness: Genocide In Rwanda

In early 1994 while serving as the US Defense Attaché in Kinshasa, Zaire I had an unexpected visitor, a Zairian army lieutenant colonel who told the Marine Security Guard that he had “urgent business” to discuss with “le Colonel Odom.”  Since he knew my name, I asked my NCO, Stan, to go get him.  As I sat down with my visitor, I signaled Stan to stay and listen.

The Zairian began with a blast against US perfidy, imperialism, and assorted rot until I asked him to explain what had him all excited. Swelling even more, he proclaimed he had written proof that the US had secretly invaded Zaire in the 1970s. Intrigued I asked him to show me and he handed me a dog-eared copy of Michael Crichton’s novel, Congo. 

Crichton’s book began with a introduction that treated a fictional infiltration of the Congo in 1979 as fact to entice a would be reader. Central to the story was a heretofore unknown breed of super apes who would wreck havoc on the 12-person invasion force. 

The literary slight of hand worked on the Zairian colonel, so well in fact that he then tried to blackmail me with a threat to go public.  He was crushed when I told him that a movie made from the book was already available. I offered to find him a copy but offered no cash. He left no doubt in search of further conspiracies whose revelation might help his cash flow.

Reading Gerard Prunier’s latest book, Africa’s World War, made me feel like I had that Zairian colonel back in my office.  A tale of dark conspiracy woven with incompetence made me wonder if there was indeed a fictional Congo with an eastern neighbor, Rwanda, out there. Prunier’s writings suggest there has to be a parallel universe.  Certainly there are elements of recognizable truth involved in Prunier’s tale if you have the regional expertise to recognize them.  Without a firm grounding in the region, however, one risks being fooled just like the Zairian colonel back in 1994.

Continue reading "Book Review -- Africa's World War" »

It is a sad reflection of our time that Che Guevara is seen as a hero. So says Nigel Jones at The DailyTelegraph and Mary Anastasia O'Grady at The Wall Street Journal.

We could not agree more.

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John Pike of Global Security in today's Washington Post opinion section - Coming to the Battlefield: Stone-Cold Robot Killers.

Armed robotic aircraft soar in the skies above Pakistan, hurling death down on America's enemies in the war on terrorism. Soon -- years, not decades, from now -- American armed robots will patrol on the ground as well, fundamentally transforming the face of battle. Conventional war, even genocide, may be abolished by a robotic American Peace...

More at The Washington Post.

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Foreign Policy launches its new look today and rolls out its new A-list of bloggers, headed by Tom Ricks. Small Wars Journal will be publishing a weekly op-ed / week-in-review of what's hot in Small Wars and what's been hot at SWJ, appearing Friday nights at FP. We're happy to be partnering with FP, and wish Susan, Blake, and everyone there all the best with their expansion and growth.  We are also very lucky to be joined here at SWJ by Robert Haddick.  Robert will write the SWJ-FP feature, adding that to his writings at Westhawk, the American, and elsewhere.

Continue reading "SWJ partnership with the "new & improved" Foreign Policy.com" »

Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition by Nathaniel Fick and John Nagl in the January / February 2009 issue of Foreign Policy.

For the past five years, the fight in Afghanistan has been hobbled by strategic drift, conflicting tactics, and too few troops. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, got it right when he bluntly told the U.S. Congress in 2007, “In Iraq, we do what we must.” Of America’s other war, he said, “In Afghanistan, we do what we can.”

It is time this neglect is replaced with a more creative and aggressive strategy. U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is now headed by Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the U.S. military’s counterinsurgency strategy widely credited with pulling Iraq from the abyss. Many believe that, under Petraeus’s direction, Afghanistan can similarly pull back from the brink of failure...

Much more at Foreign Policy to include a conversation with John Nagl and Nathaniel Fick and an exclusive interview with General David Petraeus on how Afghanistan is not Iraq, it's harder.

Continue reading "Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition" »

As mentioned earlier - Tom Ricks - the special military correspondent for The Washington Post and author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq - is writing a blog for Foreign Policy (Passport) called The Best Defense. From SWJ friend Tom:

This is the first day this blog has been live. As you can see from the last couple of weeks of postings, I aim to offer commentary and news on national security and related issues. I appreciate tips and feedback, especially when it is civil.

That's only part of today's news on Tom - the Center for a New American Security announced that he has joined CNAS as a Senior Fellow.

Prior to becoming a Senior Fellow, Ricks was affiliated with CNAS as a Senior Writer in Residence, at which time he completed his new book, The Gamble: General Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-08, published on February 10, 2009 by The Penguin Press. In The Gamble, Ricks documents the inside story of the Iraq war from 2006 through 2008. Using hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reporting, Ricks -- working in the tradition of his highly lauded Fiasco -- examines the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.

You can read more on the new Foreign Policy here - and along with the new "look" they have added other first-rate writers to their lineup at Passport.

Harvard's Stephen Walt, coauthor of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, will inject a dose of realism into the online political debate. Superclass author David Rothkopf will give readers an inside look at the global powerbrokers who really run the world. FP senior editor Carolyn O'Hara and a crack team of Clinton-watchers will be obsessively following all things Hillary at Madam Secretary. And a coterie of conservative foreign-policy heavyweights, including Peter Feaver, Philip Zelikow, and FP's newest editor -- and Condoleeza Rice's longtime speechwriter -- Christian Brose, will be on hand to critique the Obama presidency at Shadow Government: Notes from the loyal opposition.

Some blogging veterans are also adding their names to our digital masthead. Daniel Drezner's readers already know that he has brought his must-read blog on foreign policy, international economics (and occasionally the Red Sox) over to FP. Marc Lynch's essential Middle East politics blog Abu Aardvark has also come aboard. And investigative journalist Laura Rozen will be writing The Cable, featuring original coverage, scoops, and behind-the-scenes reporting about the making of Washington's foreign policy in the age of Obama.

We'll also feature partnerships with the Small Wars Journal and a new column, The Call, with political forecasting by Ian Bremmer and the political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group.

Robert Haddick will write the SWJ-FP feature, adding that to his writings at Westhawk, The American, and elsewhere.

Continue reading "One Busy Guy and the New FP" »

Gaza Is Not Lebanon and Israel's campaign against Hamas may succeed says Thomas Donnely and Danielle Pletka at The Weekly Standard.

The conventional wisdom about the incursion by Israeli ground units into Gaza, mirrored in Sunday's Washington Post, is that "Israeli leaders run the risk of repeating their disastrous experience in the 2006 Lebanon war, when they suffered high casualties in ground combat with Hezbollah." Apparently, reporters and pundits are even more prone to refighting the last war than generals: Gaza is not Lebanon; Hamas is not Hezbollah and, most critically, Israel now is not Israel in 2006.

Andrew Exum, at Abu Muqawama, asks why is it so quiet along the Blue Line? He lists three points on why Hezbollah has been so quiet these past two weeks and solicits AM's readership to sound off in the comments. Ex also points to what he considers as good an article on the fighting in Gaza as any he has read in an American newspaper by Charles Levinson at The Wall Street Journal.

As forces move deeper into Gaza, Israel's leaders seek to avoid the mistakes made in the ambitious 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

Tom Ricks also wants to know why Hezbollah is being so quiet on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

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Ex does a victory dance in his post on the latest from John Nagl and Brian Burton - Striking the Balance: The Way Forward in Iraq at World Policy Journal. All I can say is how about them Ravens?

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Tom Ricks and Andrew Exum asked the question and David Kenner at FP Passport throws in:

... Because he isn’t suicidal. IDF generals have made clear that another war with Hezbollah would likely be far more destructive than the 2006 confrontation and would likely include a ground invasion. Hezbollah is adept at fighting an insurgency in South Lebanon because they have always been able to draw on the support of the Lebanese Shia and capitalize on a weak or complicit central government in Beirut. If Hezbollah initiated a war with Israel, there is no guarantee that it would benefit from either of these factors...

Continue reading "Why Hezbollah is Laying Low" »

Remarks by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley

Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C.

7 January 2009

As Prepared for Delivery

In less than two weeks, a new President will take the oath of office. And a watching world will witness the greatest of democratic traditions – the peaceful transfer of power. President Bush’s Administration has been working closely with the President-elect’s team to make this transition the smoothest in history. The stakes are clear. America is a Nation at war. And in the post Nine-Eleven world, we face complex challenges that will not pause for a change in administrations.

Last month, President Bush delivered a series of speeches about how we have worked to confront these challenges over the past eight years. At the Saban Forum, the President discussed how our approach to the Middle East changed after Nine-Eleven. At West Point, the President explained how the military has transformed to meet the dangers of a new century. And at the Army War College, the President outlined the steps we have taken to keep America safe here at home, and to promote liberty abroad as the great alternative to terror.

Today I would like to talk to you about the core convictions that have formed the basis of President Bush’s foreign policy -- what this Administration has accomplished in key regions of the world – and what opportunities and challenges await the next Administration...

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The Soft Side of Airpower
by Major John W. Bellflower, Small Wars Journal

The Soft Side of Airpower (Full PDF Article)

We are quite good at killing, we Americans. We have melded technology and the taking of life to such an extent that the process can be, for us, a quite antiseptic experience. This is especially true in the realm of airpower. However, the next, i.e. post-Iraq, phase in the war on terror will more closely resemble humanitarian-style interventions in fragile, failing, and failed (F3) states than Iraq-style invasions. Consequently, operations are likely to call less for the elimination of life than for the preservation and facilitation of life. As we begin to contemplate this next phase in the war on terror, which will likely call for heavy involvement in Africa, we should heed the words of Lieutenant General Stephen Lorenz, who counsels airmen to “challenge accepted paradigms to propose new ways of fighting from air, space, and cyberspace.” To that end, we should be mindful of the fact that kinetic effects are not always the most desired effects when intervening in F3 states. Indeed, if the Air Force seeks to play a more meaningful role in any post-Iraq engagement, it must look for novel ways of contributing to the global counterinsurgency fight. It must, as former Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne indicated, “offer the nation a flexible mix of capabilities that allow it to act in a world of growing strategic uncertainty.”

The Soft Side of Airpower (Full PDF Article)

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Since 1922, Military Review has provided a forum for the open exchange of ideas on military affairs. Subsequently, publications have proliferated throughout the Army education system that specialize either in tactical issues associated with particular Branches or on strategic issues at the Senior Service School level. Bridging these two levels of intellectual inquiry, Military Review focuses on research and analysis of the concepts, doctrine and principles of warfighting between the tactical and operational levels of war.

Military Review is a refereed journal that provides a forum for original thought and debate on the art and science of land warfare and other issues of current interest to the US Army and the Department of Defense. Military Review also supports the education, training, doctrine development and integration missions of the Combined Arms Center (CAC), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Military Review is printed bimonthly in English, Spanish and Portuguese and is distributed to readers in more than 100 countries. It is also printed in Arabic on a quarterly basis. Widely quoted and reprinted throughout the world, it is a readily available reference at most military and civilian university libraries and research agencies.

Here is the January - February 2009 lineup:

Systemic Operational Design: Learning and Adapting in Complex Missions by Brigadier General Huba Wass de Czege, U.S. Army Retired

Complexity on the modern battlefield demands a new professional culture that embraces collaborative adaptation in operational art.

The Truth is Out There: Responding to Insurgent Disinformation and Deception Operations by Cori E. Dauber

Being first and rigorous with the truth has become the new necessary combat skill of the information age.

Sentinels of Afghan Democracy: The Afghan National Army by Samuel Chan

Developing Afghanistan’s army will take persistence, courage, and understanding.

Thickening the Lines: Sons of Iraq, a Combat Multiplier by Lieutenant Colonel John S. Kolasheski, U.S. Army, and Major Andrew W. Koloski, U.S. Army

Indigenous militias composed of concerned citizens have become an essential component of counterinsurgency in Iraq.

Oil, Corruption, and Threats to Our National Interest: Will We Learn from Iraq? by Luis Carlos Montalvan

Oil production feeds corruption worldwide and creates strategic threats to U.S. interests.

Reconstruction and Post-Civil War Reconciliation by Major John J. McDermott, U.S. Army

Americans involved in nation building and stability operations abroad need not look far from home for lessons.

The Making of a Leader: Dwight D. Eisenhower by Colonel Robert C. Carroll, U.S. Army Retired

Greatness and high office presented no ready-made path to the president most remembered as a general.

Ethical Challenges in Stability Operations by Sergeant Jared Tracy, U.S. Army

An occupying army’s obligations lay naked to the world in the information age. Soldiers should be prepared properly for their moral responsibilities.

Reassessing Army Leadership in the 21st Century by Major Jason M. Pape, U.S. Army

Rank and legal authority can simulate leadership, but a new age needs a new understanding of following and leading.

The Future of Information Operations by Major Walter E. Richter, U.S. Army

Information warfare operates off a defunct paradigm sorely in need of revision.

Current U.S. Policy of Provoking Russia is Fundamentally Flawed by Major John M. Qualls, U.S. Army Retired

With so much at stake, Americans might do well to consider Russia’s perspective.

Book Review - Contemporary readings for the professional.

Continue reading "Military Review: January - February 2009 Issue" »

Small Wars Journal (the site) has been owned and operated by Small Wars Foundation (the non-profit corporation) since June 1, 2008. We have just received notice from the IRS that Small Wars Foundation is officially recognized as an exempt organization under section 501©(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

This is great news for us as we can now pursue subsequent phases of our nefarious plans.

For those of you who have been kind enough to donate to Small Wars Journal, the determination and tax exempt status are retroactive to all donations made 1 June 2008 and later. We will be sending out individual emails shortly to make sure you get the good word before the tax man claims too large a chunk. Please check with your people as to the tax deductibility of your contribution. And fire them if they tell you it isn't.

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We’ve been tracking two Posts by Tom Ricks at his new blogosphere home (The Best Defense) at Foreign Policy. The first post, Fiasco at the Army War College, concerns one of our Small Wars Council members – Dr. Steven Metz. In that post, Ricks asks - Did faculty members at the Army War College curtail their criticism of the Iraq war for fear of institutional retaliation? The second post, an offshoot of the first, Fiasco at the Army War College: The Sequel concerns Mark Perry, an author of several books on defense issues, who wrote to say that a series of experiences two years ago at the college so concerned him that he sent a letter outlining his worries to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen.

If you feel compelled to comment here or at the Council on either post keep it professional and in context of the issues presented by Ricks – personal attacks won’t cut it. Thanks much.

Ex at Abu Muqawama is also tracking...

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Via e-mail from Michael Yon (and on his web page):

Word just came to me that Paula Lloyd died. The word came from a close mutual friend who currently is in Afghanistan. Godspeed to Paula. Those who knew Paula said many great things. I was told she was engaged to be married. Now Paula is with God.

Paula Lloyd, a Human Terrain Team member in Afghanistan, was attacked last November in the southern village of Maywand by a man who doused Lloyd in a flammable liquid and set her on fire.

We join Michael in offering our condolences to Paula's family, friends and co-workers.

Update: More from Noah at Danger Room.

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Like them or hate them, we still need private security contractors says Colonel Mark Cancian (USMCR Ret.) at FP's Passport.

In criticizing the use of contractors in Iraq, some observers cite Blackwater as the tip of the contractor iceberg. It's a fair analogy, but it deserves to be taken a step further. As with an iceberg, you may be able to shave some off the tip, but hacking away at the body is pointless...

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2009 Conference of Army Historians

The U.S. Army Center of Military History is soliciting papers for the 27 - 30 July 2009 biennial Conference of Army Historians, to be held in the Washington, D.C., area. This biennial conference has traditionally featured presentations on joint and combined military history as well as papers presented by civilian historians from government and academia. As such, we are very pleased to invite members of the international and academic communities to both attend and present papers on the 2009 theme of "Exiting War: Phase IV Operations.”

“Phase IV Operations,” a term used by the U.S. military and the U.S. Department of State, is used to describe all post-conflict operations and efforts, including reconstruction. As such, papers may deal with any aspect of the U.S. Army's role in post-conflict operations, including but not limited to: peace-keeping, nation-building, reconstruction, counter-insurgency, occupation, and withdrawal. Special attention will be given to topics that focus on the current Global War on Terror.

Presenters should be prepared to speak for twenty minutes. Should the Center of Military History decide to publish the conference papers, those speaking will have an opportunity to submit a formal paper for consideration.

Further information on the conference location will be forthcoming on the Center of Military History Website.

Prospective participants should send a detailed topic proposal and formal CV no later than 16 January 2009 to Conference of Army Historians, U.S. Army Center of Military History, ATTN: DAMH-FPF, 103 Third Avenue, Fort McNair, DC 20319-5058 or via email at CMHHistoriansConf@conus.army.mil.

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... at Foreign Policy's Passport - This Week at War by Robert Haddick.

Today is the first installment of "This Week at War," a new weekly feature at Foreign Policy, reviewing what's hot in small wars, and at Small Wars Journal...

Yep.

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SWJ friend Herschel Smith on Major General John Kelly and USMC COIN efforts in Iraq at The Captain's Journal.

... We have observed before that it is the responsibility of the people and government of Iraq to progress on reconciliation, and that the Marines can help only marginally in this endeavor and certainly don’t belong in the middle of internecine struggles at this point in the counterinsurgency and reconstruction effort.

... Rather than being in the middle of internecine struggles, the Marines have led by example. This is counterinsurgency at its very best, and represents the closing of an era in Anbar. It’s the final phase of the campaign, and while troops will remain in Iraq for some time to help ensure border sovereignty, proper training of Iraqi Security Forces and robust actions against remaining hard core al Qaeda in Iraq fighters, General Kelly has every reason to be proud of his Marines and his own effort.

Nothing follows.

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Petraeus Discusses Way Ahead For Afghanistan

Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

Peace and stability in Afghanistan are incomplete without improving relations among the country and its neighbors, the top U.S. military commander in the region said here yesterday.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. Central Command commander, told an audience at the Washington Convention Center that the road to success in Afghanistan involves commitment and comprehensive coordination from Pakistan, India and possibly Russia and Iran to combat the spread of terror and extremism in central Asia.

“It’s not possible to solve the challenges internal to Afghanistan without addressing the challenges, especially in terms of security, with Afghanistan’s neighbors,” Petraeus said in an address to the U.S. Institute of Peace. “A regional approach is required.”

Petraeus spoke as part of a conference highlighting some of the foreign policy challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama’s administration, citing complexities of the war in Afghanistan and his perspective on the way forward to bring peace to the region...

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Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn’t know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.

Now, he was home to stay and I suddenly felt at once sad, relieved, and useless. It had been my honor to take Chance Phelps to his final post. Now he is on the high ground overlooking his town.

A Soldier's Story: "Taking Chance" - Caitlin A. Johnson, CBS News, 15 April 2007

After they are brought to Dover Air Force Base, all fallen soldiers, Marines, airmen, and sailors are escorted home to their families and loved ones by a uniformed member of the U.S. armed forces. In mid-April 2004, 38-year-old U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Michael R. Strobl, a manpower analyst assigned to the Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., accompanied the body of a young Marine killed in Iraq to his final resting place in Wyoming. Strobl wrote the following description of his journey to Wyoming in a small, spiral notebook on his way back to Virginia.

"Taking Chance" - A personal narrative by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl, CBS News

Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn't know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.

Over a year ago, I volunteered to escort the remains of Marines killed in Iraq should the need arise. Thankfully, I hadn't been called on to be an escort since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. The first few weeks of April, however, had been tough ones for the Marines. On the Monday after Easter, I was reviewing Department of Defense press releases when I saw that a Private First Class Chance Phelps was killed in action outside of Baghdad. The press release listed his hometown as Clifton, Colorado — which is near where I’m from. I notified our battalion adjutant and told him that, should the duty to escort PFC Phelps fall to our battalion, I would take him.

Lance Corporal Chance Phelps - Wikipedia
Taking Chance - LtCol Michael Strobl, PBS
Taking Chance Home - Blackfive

The Marine Corps is a special fraternity. There are moments when we are reminded of this. Interestingly, those moments don’t always happen at awards ceremonies or in dress blues at Birthday Balls. I have found, rather, that they occur at unexpected times and places: next to a loaded moving van at Camp Lejeune’s base housing, in a dirty CP tent in northern Saudi Arabia, and in a smoky VFW post in western Wyoming.

Semper Fi.

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Christopher Castelli of Inside the Navy (subscription required at Inside Defense) is reporting that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates received feedback on several key strategic initiatives from combatant commanders last week as top US military leaders converged on the Pentagon for a high-level summit.

Internal documents indicate the January 7 morning session was scheduled to cover current defense actions and planning, with remarks by Gates and Mullen. That was to be followed by an afternoon agenda built around the theme of “A Balanced Defense Strategy,” the title of Gates’ recent Foreign Affairs article.

Gates was slated to kick off the afternoon meeting by discussing the fiscal year 2010 budget, as well as potential supplemental funding for FY-09 and FY-10. Gates has told Congress he needs roughly $70 billion more in FY-09 to finance the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Next up was a discussion of the upcoming 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review led by the Pentagon’s policy shop. That was supposed to be followed by a session on current force planning and future requirements, including the status of the defense planning scenarios and future scenario requirements.

In another Inside the Navy article Zachary Peterson reports that The Marine Corps’ Strategic Vision Group is busy briefing US military combatant commands around the world, think tanks and congressional committees on the service’s vision for the future, which includes returning to Navy ships and a focus on hybrid warfare, the colonel who heads the strategy group tells Inside the Navy.

Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway has called for Marines to return to their expeditionary roots, which means shipborne operations in close-to-shore areas around the globe. The briefs, presented by Col. Steven Zotti and his team, outline how the Marines see the future and their role in protecting U.S. national security interests abroad in the decades to come.

SWJ friend and Marine brother-in-arms Frank Hoffman is quoted as follows:

“These distinctions may no longer be as relevant as they were in the past,” according to an information paper on the topic authored by retired Lt. Col. Frank Hoffman, a research fellow at the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities, a division of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, VA.

Much more - for those who subscribe to Inside Defense - to include their interpretation of the roles and missions of the Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group (MCTAG), which has small teams deployed to Africa and South America and, according to Inside Defense, how the MCTAG would fold into a larger effort to form Security Cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Forces aimed at training and civil-military operations on a task-oriented basis.

Update: For more see Warfighting, Peacemaking, and Hybrid Warfare at Sea at Information Dissemination.

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An American Strategy for Asia by Dan Blumenthal and Aaron Friedberg, American Enterprise Institute

Purpose

The new administration confronts an unusually long and daunting list of pressing foreign policy problems: ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the continuing threat of global terrorism, a brewing crisis in Pakistan, unresolved nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, Russia's new aggressiveness toward its neighbors, and the lingering aftereffects of a global financial meltdown. All will demand urgent attention and timely action. The president-elect will be lucky if he has a moment to savor his victory, let alone to pause and reflect on the longer-term trends that are reshaping the world.

Yet such reflection is badly needed. As important as they undoubtedly are, all of the issues listed above are being played out against the backdrop of something even bigger: a massive, rapid shift in the distribution of global wealth and power toward Asia. This process has been gathering momentum for more than thirty years; if current projections are borne out, in the next thirty Asia's rise will fundamentally alter the structure of the international system and the character of great power politics.

It is difficult to exaggerate the magnitude of what is taking place. The changes now underway are comparable in scale, and potentially in historical significance, to the "rise of the West"--the emergence of Europe as the world's leader in wealth and military power--or the rise of the United States to global preponderance that began in the nineteenth century.

Such a profound shift will eventually require the reexamination, and ultimately the reorientation, of many aspects of America's foreign, economic, and defense policies. These changes may be forced by events. Or they could be shaped by a clear and coherent national strategy, a plan of action that looks beyond today's turmoil, sets broad goals, and identifies the tools and policies that will be necessary to achieve them.

The purpose of this report is to put forward an American strategy for Asia. While it is motivated by an awareness of long-term trends, the emphasis of this report will be on the concrete and practical. We intend not only to identify goals, but also to specify the steps that a new president should take over the next four to eight years to bring them closer to realization.

Our report differs from others on related subjects in two important ways. First, it is focused rather than comprehensive. Instead of touching lightly on every conceivable subject relevant to Asia, we have chosen to concentrate on those that we believe to be of greatest strategic importance. Second, our report is more candid than is typically the case about the challenges that are likely to emanate from Asia and, in particular, about those that may result from the rise of China. Our intention is not to be provocative, but rather to be clear. Ritualized "happy talk" about where China is headed will do little, if anything, to alter Beijing's course. But unwarranted optimism on the part of our leaders may make it harder to maintain public support for the policies necessary to keep the peace and secure American interests, and it could set the stage for future disappointment and overreaction if exaggerated expectations of Sino-American friendship are not met. We have been reminded in recent years how important it is not to overstate the magnitude and imminence of threats to our nation's security, but it is at least as important to be clear and honest in acknowledging their existence.

An American Strategy for Asia

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Top Officer Urges Limit on Mission of Military - Thom Shanker, New York Times

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that senior officers must work to prevent the militarization of American foreign policy, and he urged generals and admirals to tell civilian leaders when they believed the armed forces should not take the lead in carrying out policies overseas.

Adm. Mike Mullen, who as chairman is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, also called for more money and personnel to be devoted to the civilian agencies responsible for diplomacy and overseas economic development...

More at The New York Times.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Makes Case for Non-military Solutions - Julian Barnes, Los Angeles Times

The country's top uniformed officer said Monday that the Defense Department should be ready to tell civilian leaders when military force is not the best response -- and be prepared to transfer resources to other agencies during times of crisis.

Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, previously has made the case for nonmilitary solutions to world problems, but his comments Monday were his most forceful to date on the subject. They also came as he prepares to report to a new president who has pledged to strengthen America's "soft," or nonmilitary, power abroad.

Reacting to trouble spots is a natural reflex for the military, and the Pentagon's willingness to respond ensures that it gets more resources. But its ever-present readiness means the military is frequently asked by top civilian leaders to do more.

More at The Los Angeles Times.

Continue reading "CJCS on Foreign Policy" »

Via the Los Angeles Times - Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak dies at 95.

"Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Victor H. "Brute" Krulak, celebrated for his leadership in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and for his authoritative book on the Marines, "First To Fight," died Monday at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. He was 95 and had been in declining health for several years."

"In a career that spanned three decades Krulak displayed bravery during combat and brilliance as a tactician and organizer of troops..."

More at the International Herald Tribune and San Diego Union Tribune.

Lt. Gen. Krulak's official USMC biography:

Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, a "paramarine" during World War II, was born in Denver, CO, January 7, 1913. He was commissioned a Marine second lieutenant upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy, May 31, 1934. His early Marine Corps service included: sea duty aboard USS ARIZONA, an assignment at the U.S. Naval Academy; duty with the 6th Marines in San Diego and the 4th Marines in China (1937-39); completion of the Junior School, Quantico, VA (1940); and an assignment with the 1st Marine Brigade, FMF, later the 1st Marine Division.

At the outbreak of World War II, he was a captain serving as aide to the Commanding General, Amphibious Corps, Atlantic Fleet, General Holland M. Smith. He volunteered for parachute training and on completing training was ordered to the Pacific area as commander of the 2d Parachute Battalion, 1st Marine Amphibious Corps. He went into action at Vella Lavella with the 2d New Zealand Brigade.

As a lieutenant colonel in the fall of 1943, he earned the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart Medal on Choiseul Island, where his battalion staged a week-long diversionary raid to cover the Bougainville invasion. Later, he joined the newly formed 6th Marine Division and took part in the Okinawa campaign and the surrender of Japanese forces in the China area, earning the Legion of Merit with Combat "V" and the Bronze Star Medal.

After the war, he returned to the United States and served as Assistant Director of the Senior School at Quantico, and, later, as Regimental Commander of the 5th Marines at Camp Pendleton. He was serving as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, when the Korean Conflict erupted, and subsequently served in Korea as Chief of Staff, 1st Marine Division, earning a second Legion of Merit with Combat "V" and Air Medal.

From 1951 to 1955, he served at HQMC as Secretary of the General Staff, then rejoined Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, as Chief of Staff. In July 1956, he was promoted to brigadier general and designated Assistant Commander, 3d Marine Division on Okinawa. From 1957 to 1959, he served as Director, Marine Corps Educational Center, Quantico. He was promoted to major general in November 1959, and the following month assumed command of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.

General Krulak was presented a third Legion of Merit by General Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for exceptionally meritorious service from 1962 to 1964 as Special Assistant for Counter Insurgency Activities, Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On March 1, 1964, he was designated Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, and promoted to lieutenant general.

For the next four years he was responsible for all Fleet Marine Force units in the Pacific, including some 54 trips to the Vietnam theater. He retired on 1 June 1968, receiving a Distinguished Service Medal for his performance during that period.

Rest in peace General Krulak and our condolences to the family and friends of this great Marine.

Please see A New Kind of War written by Lt. Gen. Krulak.

Serving in the Joint Staff as the focal point in counterinsurgency operations and training, I went to Vietnam eight times between 1962 and 1964. In those early years, I learned something of the complex nature of the conflict there. The problem of seeking out and destroying guerrillas was easy enough to comprehend, but winning the loyalty of the people, why it was so important and how to do it, took longer to understand. Several meetings with Sir Robert Thompson, who contributed so much to the British victory over the guerrillas in Malaya, established a set of basic counterinsurgency principles in my mind. Thompson said, "The peoples' trust is primary. It will come hard because they are fearful and suspicious. Protection is the most important thing you can bring them. After that comes health. And, after that, many things--land, prosperity, education, and privacy to name a few."

Update: Brute Force by Mackubin Thomas Owens, National Review

The country lost a storied Marine when retired Lt. Gen. Victor “Brute” Krulak died in his sleep on December 29 at the age of 95. Krulak was a thinker as well as a fighter, and in both capacities, he left his imprint on the Corps...

In 1962, former PT boat skipper President Kennedy directed the services to emphasize counterinsurgency training, and Krulak played a central role in implementing the president’s directive. During this period, Krulak met several times with Sir Robert Thompson, the architect of the British victory over the guerrillas in Malaya. From Thompson he absorbed a set of basic counterinsurgency principles that the Marines subsequently sought to apply in Vietnam. As Krulak observed, “The more [aware I became] of the situation facing the Vietnamese government and the Vietnamese Army, the more convinced I became . . . that our success in the counterinsurgency conflict would depend on a complete and intimate understanding by all ranks from top to bottom of the principles Thompson had articulated.”...

Much more at National Review.

Continue reading "Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak (Updated)" »

Via Reuters - President-elect Obama named four former Clinton administration officials to top defense positions, including former Pentagon comptroller William Lynn as deputy defense secretary. The other nominations are Michele Flournoy to become under secretary of defense for policy, Robert Hale as comptroller and Jeh Johnson to general counsel.

Update # 1: Obama Selects 4 More Senior Defense Officials by Ann Scott Tyson at The Washington Post and Unexpected Pick for Deputy Defense Secretary Suggests Gates Had a Say by Spencer Ackerman at The Washington Independent.

Update # 2: Inside Defense (subscription required) reports that outgoing Pentagon policy chief Eric Edelman said that defense official Joseph Benkert is slated to stay on until the new administration finds a successor and that another defense official, Michael Vickers, may stay even longer. Benkert is the assistant secretary of defense for global security affairs. Vickers is the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities.

Update # 3: The Cable via Abu Muqawama reports on rumors that the Center for a New American Security's Derek Chollet is likely to be named Deputy Director of the State Department Office of Policy Planning and CNA's James N. Miller is going to be named Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

Continue reading "Obama Names Officials for Pentagon (Update # 3)" »

Here's the latest from the US Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute:

After Iraq: The Search for a Sustainable National Security Strategy by Dr. Colin S. Gray

A sustainable national security strategy is feasible only when directed by a sustainable national security policy. In the absence of policy guidance, strategy will be meaningless. The only policy that meets both the mandates of American culture and the challenges of the outside world is one that seeks to lead the necessary mission of guarding and advancing world order. The author considers and rejects a policy that would encourage the emergence of a multipolar structure to global politics. He argues that multipolarity not only would fail to maintain order, it would also promote conflict among the inevitably rival great powers. In addition, he suggests Americans culturally are not comfortable with balance-of-power politics and certainly would not choose to promote the return of such a system. Various “pieces of the puzzle” most relevant to national security strategy are located; leading assumptions held by American policymakers and strategists are identified; alternative national security policies are considered; and necessary components of a sustainable national security strategy are specified. The author concludes that America has much less choice over its policy and strategy than the public debate suggests. He warns that the country’s dominant leadership role for global security certainly will be challenged before the century is old...

Regional Spillover Effects of the Iraq War by Dr. W. Andrew Terrill

The Iraq war has been one of the dominant factors influencing U.S. strategic thinking in the Middle East and globally since 2003. Yet the problems of this highly dynamic and fluid war have sometimes forced U.S. policymakers to address near-term issues that cannot be safely postponed at the expense of long-term strategic thought. Such a technique, while understandable, cannot continue indefinitely as an approach to policy. Long-term planning remains vital for advancing regionwide U.S. and Iraqi interests following a U.S. drawdown from Iraq. Such planning must include dealing with current and potential “spillover” from the Iraq war.

Regional spillover problems associated with the Iraq war need to be considered and addressed even in the event of strong future success in building the new Iraq. In less optimistic scenarios, these issues will become even more important. Spillover issues addressed herein include: (1) the flow of refugees and displaced persons from Iraq, (2) cross-border terrorism, (3) the potential intensification of separatism and sectarian discord among Iraq’s neighbors, and (4) transnational crime. All of these problems will be exceptionally important in the Middle East in the coming years and perhaps decades, and trends involving these issues will need to be closely monitored. The author presents ideas, concerns, and strategies that can help to fill this gap in the literature and enrich the debate on the actual and potential spillover effects of the Iraq war that will face U.S. policymakers, possibly for decades. Of these problems, he clearly is especially concerned with the spread of sectarian divisions which, if not properly managed, can have devastating regional consequences. This monograph forms an important baseline useful for considering future trends in each of the areas that the author has identified...

Affairs of State: The Interagency and National Security by Dr. Gabriel Marcella

The United States has a large and complex interagency process to deal with national security on a global basis. It is imperative that civilian and military professionals understand that process. The chapters in this volume deal with various dimensions and institutions, from the National Security Council, the Department of State, and other agencies. It also contains case studies of interagency coordination and integration...

HAMAS and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics by Dr. Sherifa D. Zuhur

Efforts to separate HAMAS from its popular support and network of social and charitable organizations have not been effective in destroying the organization, nor in eradicating the will to resist among a fairly large segment of the Palestinian population. It is important to consider this Islamist movement in the context of a region-wide phenomenon of similar movements with local goals, which can be persuaded to relinquish violence or which could become more violent. Certainly an orientation to HAMAS and its base must be factored into new and more practical and effective approaches to peacemaking in the region. At the same time, HAMAS offers a fascinating glimpse of the dynamics of strategic reactions and the modification of Israeli impulses towards aggressive deterrence, as well as the evolution in the Islamist movements’ planning and operations. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict bears similarities to a long-standing civil conflict, even as it has sparked inter-Palestinian hostilities in its most recent phase...

War without Borders: The Colombia-Ecuador Crisis of 2008 by Dr. Gabriel Marcella

Unprotected borders are a serious threat to the security of a number of states around the globe. Indeed, the combination of weak states, ungoverned space, terrorism, and international criminal networks make a mockery of the Westphalian system of international order. Latin American countries are experiencing all of these maladies in varying degrees. The Andean region is under assault by a different kind of war that defies borders. In this context, Dr. Gabriel Marcella analyzes the lessons to be learned from the Colombian attack against the clandestine camp of the the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which was located at an isolated area within Ecuador on March 1, 2008. This single incident and its aftermath had profound reverberations throughout the Hemisphere. The events leading to the attack illuminate the vulnerabilities of states, societies, and the international community to the actions of substate groups conducting criminal activities. Accordingly, the hemispheric community of nations needs to develop better ways to anticipate and resolve conflicts. The United States plays a critical role in the emerging security environment of the Andean region. Yet a superpower is often unaware of the immense influence it has with respect to small countries like Ecuador, which is trying to extricate itself from becoming a failed state. The author recommends that the United States manage its complex agenda with sensitivity and balance its support for Colombia with equally creative support for Ecuador...

Continue reading "Newest at SSI" »

Next-War-itis, This-War-itis, and the American Military by Michael P. Noonan at Foreign Policy Research Institute

In a recent CBS News story, Marine Corps Commandant General James Conway stated—for at least the second time publicly—that it was time for the Marine Corps to leave Iraq and focus on Afghanistan. In the Commandant’s view, the Marine Corps is a “fighting machine,” Iraq has turned into “nation building,” and “[t]hat’s not what we do…. Where there’s a fight, that’s where the Marine Corps is needed.” The subtext of this seems clear enough. General Conway feels that his Marines should focus on “real war,” where their martial skills of air and artillery strikes and violent maneuver to close with and destroy the enemy are employed to effect. The extended current counterinsurgency and nation-building campaign in Iraq is seen as a misapplication of the Corps’ core competencies and soften the force, or at least emphasize the wrong skills sets and lessons that will cause the United States to pay a steep tax in blood and treasure on some future battlefield.

These comments caused a stir in some circles. Some argue that his comments misread the source of success in Al Anbar, where patient “nation-building” by the Army and the Marine Corps was crucial. It also arguably misreads what will be most useful in Afghanistan, where U.S. strategy emphasizes more than just conventional brawn. But this is not just solely an issue of debate amongst the Marine Corps. All of the services currently are having debates about their dominant service culture and core competencies. A distilled short hand for this debate is between the antagonistically labeled schools of “this-war-itis” and “next-war-itis.” This short piece will provide a glimpse of these contemporary debates and offer opinions on how they might play out going into the Obama administration. This is an important debate because strategic success—and no small amount of treasure—is at stake...

Much more at Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Continue reading "Next-War-itis, This-War-itis, and the American Military" »

Colonel Gian Gentile has a new piece up at Foreign Policy entitled Think Again: Counterinsurgency continuing his theme on why the U.S. Army's focus on nation-building at the expense of warfighting is misguided and dangerous.

The bottom line for Gian:

"The U.S. military is still too focused on conventional warfare." - Absolutely not.

"Small wars are the wars of the future." - Perhaps.

"The surge worked in Iraq." - Not quite.

"General Petraeus is a military genius." - Time will tell.

"The military should embrace nation-building." - If those are the orders.

More at Foreign Policy.

Derek S. Reveron writes in FP - Think Again: Pirates - more than 20 countries are joining a special U.S.-led naval force to combat pirates off the coast of Somalia. But it won’t be warships that defeat these modern-day sea dogs.

Derek's bottom line is:

"Piracy Is Making a Comeback" - No, it never went away.

"Pirates Are Terrorists" - Not yet.

"Pirates Are Terrorists" - Wrong.

"If Captured, Pirates Could Easily Be Tried for Their Crimes" - Guess again.

"The World Needs a War on Piracy" - Absolutely not.

More at Foreign Policy.

Continue reading "Think Again: Counterinsurgency and Piracy" »

Mullen Urges Emphasis on ‘Soft Power’ in Foreign Policy - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff advocated a “whole-of-government approach” to foreign policy in a speech here last night, urging more funding for nonmilitary departments’ roles overseas.

“I believe we should be more willing to break this cycle, and say when armed forces may not always be the best choice to take the lead,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told a Nixon Center audience.

Mullen said civilian agencies representing American “soft power” -- the Departments of State, Justice, Commerce and Agriculture -- deserve more money and support than they currently receive, and should play an enlarged role internationally.

The chairman’s remarks align with those made by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has warned against a “creeping militarization” of US foreign policy. In a speech in June, the secretary said diplomacy and development should lead American efforts abroad.

“Broadly speaking, when it comes to America’s engagement with the rest of the world, it is important that the military is -- and is clearly seen to be -- in a supporting role to civilian agencies,” Gates said.

Mullen echoed Gates, saying that the US military should be “just as bold in providing options when they don’t involve our participation or our leadership.” He added that this notion should apply even when alternative options are unpopular, or when they demand resources be transferred from the military.

The Defense Department’s fiscal 2009 budget was about $650 billion, compared to the State Department’s reported budget of about $11.5 billion.

“As an equal partner in government, I want to be able to transfer resources to my other partners when they need them,” Mullen said. “And we need to reallocate roles and resources in a way that places our military as an equal among many in government, as an enabler, a true partner.”

More at American Forces Press Service.

Continue reading "DoD and US Foreign Policy" »

Continue on for today's Small Wars Journal news and opinion roundup...

Continue reading "14 January SWJ Roundup" »

Excellent piece by Colonel H. R. McMaster in the current World Affairs - The Human Element: When Gadgetry Becomes Strategy.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the political debates concerning the nature and scope of US involvement in those countries, have resurrected the “lessons” of Vietnam once again. Far from having kicked the “Vietnam syndrome,” as President George H. W. Bush put it in the exuberant aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, it now seems possible that the memory of the Vietnam War will be forever conflated in the public imagination with the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, producing something like a Vietnam syndrome on steroids...

Much more at World Affairs.

Continue reading "The Human Element" »

US State Department Press Release / Transcript

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
January 13, 2009

Other Participants:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore
Department of State Counselor Eliot Cohen

MR. COHEN: Let me welcome you all to the official signing of the United States Government Interagency Counterinsurgency Guide. My name is Eliot Cohen. I’m the Counselor at the Department.

This is going to be a very brief ceremony, but I want to thank, first and foremost, everybody who’s made the effort that has yielded up the COIN guide. It took a lot of work by the many different departments of government that are represented in it, and it’s a very fine piece of work.

There’s a larger thanks, I think, to the many, many thousands of Americans whose practice out in the field has informed the writing of this guide, because it wasn’t just an intellectual effort back here in Washington. In many ways, it’s the distillation of a lot of experience.

I’m particularly grateful to the ladies and gentleman standing to my right. I want to particularly single out my boss, Secretary Rice, and Secretary Gates, who I think have, by both word and deed, signaled the importance of State, Defense, and of course, AID working together. And I don’t think that there’s ever been a period in our history where the two departments of government have worked so closely, and I think that’s a – that’s going to be an important legacy.

If I could, my last observation is really addressed to Dr. Rice and Dr. Gates. It’s a little bit unprecedented, I think, to have a pair of Ph.D.s running the State Department and the Defense Department – but not just Ph.D.s., people who have been great educational leaders. And I think that the long-term significance of this guide, which had better outlive the Bush Administration, is going to be as a document that will be used in war colleges, at our own Foreign Service Institute. I can guarantee there’ll be at least one civilian university that will use it. (Laughter.) And it will do what good doctrine ought to do, which is to stimulate thought. It’s not a template. I don’t think it’s going to be a rigid set of prescriptions. But what it will do, I think, will be to stimulate thought and to be the basis of ever-developing practice in this field.

So thank you very much. Madame Secretary.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, thank you very much, Eliot, Dr. Cohen, who has been a terrific Counselor and has spearheaded this very important effort. The last several years have taught us some important lessons; first of all, that the old notion of war and then peace is really not appropriate to the challenges that we face in the international system now. Whether one is talking about Iraq or Afghanistan or even places like Liberia or Haiti, you are usually talking about a continuum between war and peace where one is trying at the same time to bring security, development, and governance to the people of a war-torn or a civil war-torn or conflict-torn region.

And this counterinsurgency doctrine and this manual really is a compilation of the experiences that we have had in learning how to fight together, how to work together, and ultimately how to deliver for people defense, democracy, and development. And I could not have had a better partner than Secretary Gates, Bob Gates, my good friend of many years now, in bringing the two departments together to bring our individual and unique experiences and individual and unique talents to this fight.

I’m very proud of the effort that we’ve had here, and together with Henrietta Fore, I think that you’re seeing that democracy, defense, and development, the three Ds, will be at the foundation for American policy going forward. And I’m very proud of this effort, and I suspect that that means that there are two American universities that may be teaching from this manual. (Laughter.)

And now to my good friend, Bob Gates. And not only are we both Ph.D.s and former high-ranking university administrators, but we both studied the Soviet Union, which, in case you don’t know, no longer exists. And it means that we found useful work after that. (Laughter.)

Bob.

SECRETARY GATES: Thank you, Condi. I’m honored to sign the Interagency Counterinsurgency Guide today and demonstrate my support for whole-of-government counterinsurgency process. Military efforts alone are rarely effective in counterinsurgency operations. This guide reflects strong efforts by many organizations and individuals to build the soft power capabilities and the coordinating processes within the United States Government that are so central to our counterinsurgency efforts.

So I want to thank Secretary Rice, Administrator Fore, and Counselor Cohen for providing strong leadership in building soft power capabilities within our foreign policy establishment and advancing the image of the United States among our partner nations.

Thank you.

ADMINISTRATOR FORE: And let me add for my two secretaries that it is very important for us in the world of development to have a guide such as this. It’s a very complex and challenging area – the work of counterinsurgency. We in development will particularly focus on helping host country governments how they can deal with good governance while having an atmosphere of counterinsurgency. It is very challenging, but country ownership and legitimacy of a government, as well as continuing good governance and democratic reforms, are a very important and integral part. And we will add our highest accolade in that we will use this guide in the field.

Thank you.

-----

More by Nathan Hodge at Wired's Danger Room - A Counterinsurgency Guide for the Next Administration?

Continue reading "Signing Ceremony for U.S. Government Counterinsurgency Guide" »

The Defense Stimulus by Tom Donnelly at The Weekly Standard.

The politics of the current economic crisis are fluid -- the Bush administration's original diktats for bailing out the troubled financial sector and the auto industry have generated growing resistance -- but it's likely that Barack Obama will be able to produce a stimulus package quickly after his inauguration. Even House Republican leader Rep. John Boehner "believe[s] Washington has to act." Indeed, the stimulus debate that remains was succinctly framed by his counterpart in the upper house, Sen. Mitch McConnell: "The question is: How big and in what form?"

A key part of the answer on the spending side of the equation is increased defense spending, by at least $20 billion per year, particularly on procurement and personnel. These kinds of expenditures not only make economic good sense, but would help close the large and long-standing gap between U.S. strategy and military resources. If bridges need fixing, so too do the tools with which our military fights. A critical element in any recovery will be strengthening the foundations of the globalized economy, built upon U.S. worldwide security guarantees...

More at The Weekly Standard.

Continue reading "The Defense Stimulus " »

Phil Carter, who sadly no longer maintains Intel Dump, called this back in October of 2004 in his Slate op-ed To Fight Another Day - subtitled the real reason Guantanamo detainees have returned to the battlefield.

New battlefield reports indicate that at least eight and as many as 25 of the 202 prisoners paroled by the Pentagon from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have rejoined the fight as members of the pro-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan, or as part of al-Qaida. One of the now-free prisoners fighting in Afghanistan proudly proclaimed that he won his parole simply by lying through his teeth throughout the time he was at Gitmo. And the Pentagon blames fibbing prisoners and inadequate screening systems - driven by this summer's Supreme Court terrorism decisions -for allowing these men to escape from captivity.

It's more than a little disingenuous to blame the Supreme Court for these problems, though, especially since most of these detainees were released before the June decisions were handed down. The real problem is that the Defense Department and U.S. intelligence community developed inadequate and unreliable systems for screening detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Just as one might expect, detainees exploited the flaws in this system to secure their freedom by any means available - including telling a few lies to deceive their captors into believing that they were innocent. Ironically, it didn't have to be this way - international law would have allowed the United States to warehouse the Gitmo detainees until "the cessation of active hostilities" and to interrogate them, too. But by rejecting the Geneva Conventions' restrictions on Gitmo detainee operations, the United States also rejected its benefits - creating the situation we have today in which paroled detainees have returned to fight against us...

More at Slate.

Continue reading "Flashback: Why They Fight Again" »

IBOLC: Platoon Leader Decision Making for the 21st Century
by Major Michael Fortenberry, Small Wars Journal

IBOLC: Platoon Leader Decision Making for the 21st Century (Full PDF article)

In the Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course (IBOLC), lieutenants train to lead infantry platoons in modern warfare. While much time is spent teaching the students to embrace the Warrior ethos, infantry culture and small unit tactics, critical thinking and decision making skills are the most important leader trait developed during the course. Students are trained and assessed in three critical areas: Intelligence, Character and Tactical Skills and Competencies Development. These individual and leader tasks and skills are essential in leading Soldiers on today’s battlefields.

The typical methods of teaching Infantry leadership do not permit lieutenants to fully recognize the intricacies of modern warfare. Thus, IBOLC is an outcomes-based leader development program designed to build the foundation of infantry leadership and prepare lieutenants for the complexities of the operational environment. Using its’ long-established framework of embedding the basics of Infantry tactics and doctrine, the curriculum has become more relevant with emphasis on teaching lieutenants how to think.

IBOLC: Platoon Leader Decision Making for the 21st Century (Full PDF article)

Continue reading "IBOLC: Platoon Leader Decision Making" »

Continue on for today's Small Wars Journal news and opinion roundup...

Continue reading "15 January SWJ Roundup" »

The Best Defense-Related Books of 2008 by Paul McLeary, Aviation Week

When developing a list of the best defense-related books published in 2008, I sent e-mail messages to people I respect to ask what books are getting their attention and a piece of their ever-dwindling time. Given the sheer volume of books published, and the flood of war and military-related titles that have hit the market during the past few years, I was surprised to find that a few recommendations came up time and again...

Dave Dilegge, who runs the Small Wars Journal web site, splits the difference between Metz and Nagl. Like Metz, he names Baghdad at Sunrise (DTI October 2008, p. 68) and like Nagl, he shortlists In a Time of War. From there, he strikes out on his own, citing Bing West’s The Strongest Tribe (reviewed on the Ares blog in October), as “a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the Iraq war was turned around and the choice now facing America.”

Dilegge also includes Tell Me How This Ends by Linda Robinson, which he describes as “an inside account of [Gen. David Petraeus’s] attempt to turn around a failing war.” Rounding out his list is We Are Soldiers Still, Joe Galloway’s follow-up to his classic bestseller, We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, in which Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies and both countries...

Both Metz and Dilegge include Baghdad at Sunrise on their lists of the year’s best, and with good reason. The author, Peter Mansoor, was a brigade commander in Baghdad in 2003-04...

See more recommendations from John Nagl and Steve Metz at Aviation Week.

Continue reading "The Best Defense-Related Books of 2008" »

Reaffirming the Right of Israel to Exist in the Face of Hamas Attacks in Gaza or the only thing Hamas likes better than dead Israelis is dead Palestinians. By Mortimer Zuckerman at U.S. News and World Report

What the world cannot remember the Israelis cannot forget. The Israelis know the Jewish nation has been one defeat away from extinction for 70 years. They know that every partition plan in the region, from the dawn of Zionism to the present day, has failed because of the Arab failure to accept the State of Israel. They know that the Palestinian leadership is virtually hopeless, wherein the people who are moderate are not effective and the people who are effective are not moderate.

Today the impossible Yasser Arafat has been replaced by the impotent Mahmoud Abbas. It was Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, who presided over the division of the Palestinians into Fatah and Hamas. Hamas doesn't want peace, and Fatah can't deliver it. Fatah is so weak that it cannot enforce the rule of law against terrorism or make compromises for fear of the radical Islamists. Indeed, without the support of the Israeli Defense Forces, even now it is under threat of being displaced by Hamas. Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a major Hamas leader, underlined Fatah's weakness when he said, "Fatah can't stop us from seizing control of those [West Bank] territories. It is only a matter of time."

Much more at U.S. News and World Report.

Continue reading "Reaffirming the Right of Israel to Exist" »

US Air Force Major General Charlie Dunlap says forget the lessons of Iraq in the latest edition of The Armed Forces Journal.

Among defense intelligentsia, there are few mantras more chic than that which claims the US military "forgot the lessons of Vietnam." Had it not done so, received wisdom insists, America's armed forces would not have struggled in Iraq for so long. Powerful adherents to this theory have spawned a follow-on analog, that we must not "forget the lessons of Iraq."

Unfortunately, some of the key lessons these enthusiasts believe should be learned are the wrong ones, and these mistaken ideas are causing America's military to be altered in ways that may prove troubling as the US faces an increasingly complex and dangerous range of security threats.

Indeed, the devotees of the forgot-the-lessons-of-Vietnam philosophy have become so ascendant that they might be said to form the New Establishment of defense strategists. The New Establishment is especially strong in the Army. As a result, much of the service is being reconceptualized into a constabulary force in which nation-building and stability operations all but trump force-on-force war fighting...

What say you?

Continue reading "Fuggeddaboudit " »

Mexico's Instability Is a Real Problem - Joel Kurtzman, Wall Street Journal opinion

Mexico is now in the midst of a vicious drug war. Police officers are being bribed and, especially near the United States border, gunned down. Kidnappings and extortion are common place. And, most alarming of all, a new Pentagon study concludes that Mexico is at risk of becoming a failed state. Defense planners liken the situation to that of Pakistan, where wholesale collapse of civil government is possible.

One center of the violence is Tijuana, where last year more than 600 people were killed in drug violence. Many were shot with assault rifles in the streets and left there to die. Some were killed in dance clubs in front of witnesses too scared to talk.

It may only be a matter of time before the drug war spills across the border and into the US. To meet that threat, Michael Chertoff, the outgoing secretary for Homeland Security, recently announced that the US has a plan to "surge" civilian and possibly military law-enforcement personnel to the border should that be necessary.

More at The Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading "South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)" »

US Strikes More Precise on al Qaeda - Sara Carter, Washington Times

US strikes against terrorist suspects in Pakistan's tribal region have become more accurate in the past few months, leading to the confirmed deaths of eight senior al Qaeda leaders and a decrease in civilian casualties that have roiled US-Pakistani relations, The Washington Times has learned.

Among those killed was the mastermind of a 2006 plot to detonate liquid explosives aboard planes flying across the Atlantic and the man thought to have planned the Sept. 20 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, that killed 53 people, including two members of the US military.

More at The Washington Times.

Drones Shatter Invincible Image of Osama bi Laden - Michael Evans, The Australian

Osama bin Laden is not yet a busted flush, but the damage caused to his organisation by US Predator spy drones operating close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has torn a huge hole in his global network.

Al-Qa'ida's tentacles still reach out to bin Laden supporters and sympathisers in dozens of countries, but every time a senior commander is eliminated by a Hellfire missile or a precision-guided bomb from an unmanned Predator, the effect is felt across the terrorist network.

Although al-Qa'ida has no central communication system and no headquarters, cells in Europe or North Africa will have points of contact (individuals who can act as messengers or as lower-echelon supervisors, and who can pass on advice or guidance).

In recent months, the Predators' successes unquestionably have weakened al-Qa'ida's global reach, and the prosecution of 86 Islamic terrorists in Britain over the past two years has forced supporters to adopt a low profile.

More at The Australian.

Continue reading "Precision in The Long War" »

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We'll cut to the quick - here is the new US Government’s Counterinsurgency Guide. More later, been on the road, as has Bill...

Update: Comment, via e-mail, on the new USG COIN Guide by Colonel John Agoglia, Director of the COIN Training Center in Kabul...

Congratulations are in order for all who helped write and publish it. And while a sign of changing times - having DoS, USAID and DoD co-writing and co-signing this document - what would be even more useful is to get many who wrote it out here helping us implement it as we prepare for this upcoming campaign season that will be fraught will challenges as we flow in additional troops, I believe additional DoS and USAID officers would seriously help prepare for the upcoming election here - as our new President's team gets their feet on the ground. I know as the Director of the COIN Training Center Afghanistan in Kabul I can use and would welcome all the help I could get and I am sure the folks in the Embassy, the various commands and the PRTs would agree!!!!

Congratulations again, but now it's time to implement the guidance and get this campaign back on track!!

Continue reading "USG COIN Guide" »

Defense Policy Nominee Pledges Work on Iraq, Afghanistan, National Security - Sara Moore, American Forces Press Service

During her Senate confirmation hearing yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to become undersecretary of defense for policy vowed to rebalance U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and advance U.S. security interests in other parts of the world.

Michele A. Flournoy told the Senate Armed Services Committee that if confirmed, she will work with Obama to responsibly end the war in Iraq and shift more focus to stabilizing Afghanistan. She also said she will work to reduce the strain on the military and ensure military members have the resources they need.

“This is a critical time for our country,” she said. “The stakes are high, the resources are tight and the need to make hard choices is pressing.”

Flournoy said she believes the United States needs to increase its troop presence in Afghanistan, and that the increase should happen quickly. Creating a new strategy in Afghanistan by working with NATO, the Afghan government and international donors will be one of the top priorities for the new administration, she said.

“I think our objective in Afghanistan has got to be to create a more stable and secured environment that allows longer-term stabilization and prevents Afghanistan from returning to being a safe haven for terrorism,” she said.

As the United States focuses more on Afghanistan, emphasis will shift away from Iraq, Flournoy said. However, she emphasized, that shift needs to be done in a responsible manner, in accordance with the status-of-forces agreement between the United States and Iraq.

“I don't know what the long-term support for Iraqi forces in our long-term relationship is going to look like,” she said. “I don't know if the Iraqi government will want any U.S. forces in Iraq once … we reach the end of the SOFA agreement. So I think it's an open question.”

Flournoy, who served as the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction in the Clinton administration, said she looks forward to again contributing to national security and working to support the troops.

“I will do my best to help the U.S. military adapt to the challenges of the 21st century,” she said. “I will also do my best to ensure that our brave men and women in uniform have what they need to be successful in the field and that they have the peace of mind knowing that their families are receiving the support that they deserve.”

Continue reading "Flournoy Vows Rebalance" »

Gian Gentile versus Abu Muqawama, Round 582 - yep.

I assume most of you have seen Gian Gentile's latest piece, in Foreign Policy. He takes a series of statements regarding defense policy and then offers a short argument in favor of or in opposition to each one. Always one to rise to the bait, here's my take on each...

One take-away by Gian posted at the comments section:

Dude, AM, brother in arms, please stop calling me anti-coin. Dave D at SWJ loves to apply that moniker to me; but it is not true. I am not anti-coin and if you have read any of my stuff you will see how over and over again I call for the Army to maintain, institutionalize what we have learned from coin over the past seven years. I have also said over and over again that the army does need a coin capability in the future. However, we should not transform the army to a force built primarily for coin and irregular war. For scholarly and professional arguments that support this view see Colin Gray's new excellent essay in SSI on US Strategy and MG Dunlap's brand new piece in AFJ.

Continue reading "Gian vs. Ex" »

Our second contribution to Foreign Policy by Robert Haddick is now posted. Good stuff - by you - keep it coming...

Continue reading "FP - SWJ: This Week at War #2" »

Over at FP's The Best Defense Tom Ricks asks why is Larry Di Rita still defending Rumsfeld? This question was sparked by former Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita's recent National Review piece Clearing the High Bar which was sparked by Tom Donnelly's critique of President Bush as a wartime commander, also at NR.

Continue reading "DiRita's Revisionism?" »

... or what Taliban apologists ignore or otherwise explain away.

‘They Want Us to Be Stupid Things’ - New York Times editorial

The war in Afghanistan has been so disastrously mismanaged that some NATO allies - eager to shed their commitment - are arguing that it is too late to salvage. We, too, are deeply worried. Anyone who has questions about why it is so important to try should go back and read the story of 17-year-old Shamsia Husseini that was published in The Times on Wednesday.

Ms. Husseini is a student at the Mirwais School for Girls outside Kandahar. Two months ago, as she was walking to school with her sister, a man on a motorcycle sprayed her with acid, burning her face and eyelids. Fourteen other students and teachers were attacked that day in an attempt to shut down the school. It failed.

As Ms. Husseini told our colleague Dexter Filkins, “The people who did this to me don’t want women to be educated. They want us to be stupid things.” Ms. Husseini’s parents told her “to keep coming to school even if I am killed.”

More at The New York Times.

Afghan Girls, Scarred by Acid, Defy Terror, Embracing School - Dexter Filkens, New York Times

One morning two months ago, Shamsia Husseini and her sister were walking through the muddy streets to the local girls school when a man pulled alongside them on a motorcycle and posed what seemed like an ordinary question.

“Are you going to school?”

Then the man pulled Shamsia’s burqa from her head and sprayed her face with burning acid. Scars, jagged and discolored, now spread across Shamsia’s eyelids and most of her left cheek. These days, her vision goes blurry, making it hard for her to read.

But if the acid attack against Shamsia and 14 others - students and teachers - was meant to terrorize the girls into staying home, it appears to have completely failed.

More at The New York Times.

Nir - what say you?

Continue reading "One Consideration, of Possibly Hundreds, in any Taliban Negotiations..." »

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In Focal Point: Art Therapy for Jihadists - Foreign Policy marks the beginning of a new collaboration between Passport and the award-winning PBS show Wide Angle. In the coming weeks, we will be featuring exclusive clips from their new online series Focal Point.

Damn, we thought we were special. Seriously, if you have not perused the "new and improved" Foreign Policy web page - you should - now.

Continue reading "FP - Keeps On Keeping On" »

Israeli Cabinet Approves Unilateral Gaza Truce - Voice of America

Israel's security cabinet has voted for a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Following the vote Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza has achieved all of its objectives.

IDF to Remain in Gaza Until it's Clear Hamas Halts Rocket Fire - Jerusalem Post

The cabinet on Saturday night voted in favor of an Egyptian-backed, unilateral 10-day cease-fire deal, ending Operation Cast Lead three weeks after it began.

At a press conference directly following the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the aims of the operation in the Gaza Strip had been "met in full," and that the cease-fire would be observed from 2 a.m. on Sunday.

If Hamas continues to fire on the South, however, Israel will reserve the right to return fire, the prime minister said. "If [Hamas] return to their unruly attacks they will be surprised again by the hand of Israel - I don't advise them to try it," he said.

Hamas leaders have repeated, however, that the group will not respect any cease-fire as long as Israel remains inside Gaza.

More:

Israel Announces Ceasefire on Gaza - The Times
Israel Declares Unilateral Gaza Cease-fire - Associated Press
Israel Declares It Will Cease Fire; Hamas to Fight On - New York Times
Israel Declares Ceasefire in Gaza - BBC News
Israel PM Declares Halt to Gaza Offensive - Agence France-Presse
Israel Rejects Suggestions of Gaza "War Crimes" - Reuters

Continue reading "Israeli Cabinet Approves Unilateral Gaza Truce" »

John Nagl, Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, provides (via e-mail) the lead-in and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, at The Washington Post, provides the food for thought.

First John:

NATO's Secretary General earns his salary for the year in the Washington Post piece below describing much-needed improvements to the counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a population security approach that builds Afghan government legitimacy; better understanding within NATO of counterinsurgency principles, especially the comprehensive approach that focuses on non-military solutions; a regional approach that includes Pakistan as an inherent part of the problem in Afghanistan; and better strategic communications to the region and to our own peoples.

He'll earn next year's salary a hundred times over if he can get NATO to implement the wisdom contained here.

And from Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the Washington Post:

It has been seven years since Afghan forces supported by the United States toppled the Taliban and denied al-Qaeda the terrorist haven, training ground and launch pad that Afghanistan had become. Since then, there has been clear, substantial progress, including democratic elections, the liberation of many Afghan women to take their place in public life, and improvements in health care and education.

But an honest assessment of Afghanistan must conclude that we are not where we might have hoped to be by now. While the country's north and west are largely at peace and improving, the south and east are riven by insurgency, drugs and ineffective government. Afghans are increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress in building up their country. And the populations in countries that have contributed troops to the NATO-led mission are wondering how long this operation must last -- and how many young men and women we will lose carrying it out.

In April, to mark the 60th anniversary of NATO's founding, the member nations' heads of state and government will meet in Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany. This meeting is to be part of Barack Obama's first visit to Europe as president, and it will present an opportunity for alliance leaders to discuss the way forward. Five key lessons from recent years should help shape the path of this mission...

Continue on for the five key lessons. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is the Secretary General of NATO.

Continue reading "Afghanistan: We Can Do Better" »

Transition in Iraq
Withdrawing the BCTs
by Colonel Robert Killebrew, Small Wars Journal Op-Ed

Transition in Iraq: Withdrawing the BCTs (Full PDF Article)

A meeting with the JCS is the first item on President Obama's agenda after he takes office on 20 January. As reported in the national press, he intends to fulfill his campaign promise of withdrawing all remaining Brigade Combat Teams in Iraq within the next 16 months.

Assuming the present state of affairs in Iraq continues, getting the combat brigades out in 16 months should be a doable objective that American military leaders can wholeheartedly support. The reduction in violence, the progress of the Iraqi army, and the shaky but generally positive direction of the Iraqi government all seem to indicate that in a year or more the U.S. and allied contribution can have become mainly -- though not exclusively -- to support Iraqi security forces. This is not, however, "endex" in Iraq, and we can still lose this war if we fail to make a satisfactory transition from warfighters to supporters.

Our basic objectives in Iraq under an Obama Administration will almost surely remain what they have been under President Bush's; a generally democratic and secular Iraq, a U.S. ally at peace with its neighbors, and a bulwark against Iranian aggression at the head of the Persian Gulf. Whether those objectives, all or in part, are achieved depends on how we handle the transition from combat to support of the Iraqi government and its security forces.

Transition in Iraq: Withdrawing the BCTs (Full PDF Article)

Continue reading "Transition in Iraq" »

A Farewell Warning On Iraq - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion

President Bush teased his ambassador in Baghdad by giving him the nickname "Sunshine," because of his sometimes-gloomy assessments of the political situation there. But Ryan Crocker persisted down to the last days in describing things precisely as he saw them.

Journalists probably shouldn't have heroes, but Crocker is one of mine. We first met in 1981 in Lebanon, and I've watched over the years as he took on the toughest challenges in the Foreign Service and became a superstar diplomat without ever losing his mordant sense of humor or his determination to speak truth to power. Crocker is leaving Baghdad and retiring from the Foreign Service next month, and he agreed (characteristically, with a grumble) to sit for a farewell interview last week while he was in Washington.

What made Crocker so unusual was his raw curiosity about the world. In the summer of 1970, when he was a student at Whitman College and determined not to spend the rest of his life in Walla Walla, Wash., he hitchhiked from Amsterdam to Calcutta. Traveling across the vast arc of the Middle East, he developed a fascination that never left him...

Much more at The Washington Post. BTW - Ryan Crocker is an official SWJ hero too - the right man, in the right job, at the right time - it does not get any better than that folks.

John Nagl's take via e-mail - I think General Petraeus would agree that an underappreciated pillar of our Iraq policy for the past two years has been American Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who retires next month. His replacement will be one of the most critical appointments made by the new administration. Crocker's exit interview with the reliably excellent David Ignatius provides important guideposts to a responsible American drawdown of forces and transition to a new role in Iraq.

Well said John!

Continue reading "A Farewell Warning On Iraq" »

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A Proposal for a Unifying Strategic Doctrine for National Security
by Colonel David Maxwell, Small Wars Journal Op-Ed

A Proposal for a Unifying Strategic Doctrine for National Security (Full PDF Article)

It is important at this time in history, especially as a new President takes office, to continue the debate on how the United States thinks about its place in the world and its own security. As the U.S. leadership assesses National Security and the complex and globalized world in which it finds itself, three important potential realities should be contemplated.

First, people who are disadvantaged, disenfranchised, downtrodden, or disassociated are vulnerable to ideological and political manipulation by insurgent, terrorist, criminal, or other organizations (which could include alternatives to sovereign government organizations or nation-states seeking influence over the population of a rival nation-state). Such organizations have always and will continue to seek to exploit people for their own ends. These groups sometimes evolve into violent extremist organizations that use politics, economics, or religion to manipulate or exploit people.

Second, the U.S. is has and will likely be exploited as a target to enhance the legitimacy of an organization or even a nation-state in the eyes of its own constituency. I offer the following examples. The dictators of Cuba, Iran, and north Korea use the fact that they are perceived by the U.S. as a threat. They use this perception to enhance their own legitimacy among their people. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda’s single most important measure of effectiveness (from their perspective) is that the AQ network still exists despite having had war “declared” (in the figurative vice Constitutional sense) against them. The U.S. as a world superpower, perceived hegemon, and an enemy is a useful paradigm for opposition elements.

Third, there will always be conditions in the world that will lead to people being disadvantaged and disenfranchised and make them vulnerable to exploitation.

A Proposal for a Unifying Strategic Doctrine for National Security (Full PDF Article)

Continue reading "A Proposal for a Unifying Strategic Doctrine for National Security" »

Herschel Smith has at it at The Captain's Journal...

Continue reading "The Great COIN Debate: Time for a Change?" »

Continue on for today's Small Wars Journal news and opinion roundup...

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Christian Brose at FP's Shadow Goverment on the unintended consequences of COIN.

Continue reading "COIN Huckleberry" »

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Barack Obama, and the U.S. Military
by Captain Timothy Hisa, Small Wars Journal Op-Ed

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Barack Obama, and the U.S. Military (Full PDF Article)

On Martin Luther King Jr. day many federal employees including military personnel not deployed will enjoy a federal holiday. This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. day will be of greater significance given that Barack Obama will be sworn in as the first African-American President and Commander in Chief the following day. In 2007, Barack Obama hailed the Tuskegee Airmen as trailblazers for racial equality, and in a fitting tribute, he has invited the surviving soldiers of this unit to his inauguration.

The Tuskegee Airmen indeed paved the way for African-Americans but it would be a historical oversight to overlook the accomplishments of the many other African-American Soldiers who have distinguished themselves in America’s history. From the heroic deeds of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment which captured Fort Wagner from the Confederates and is recalled in the movie Glory, to the Buffalo Soldiers who settled the Western Frontiers.

The Army continues to honor the tradition of the Buffalo Soldiers and the accomplishments of African Americans in the military by ensuring the lineage, history, and tradition of those units live on. For example, the 24th Infantry Regiment which was activated in 1869 specifically for black soldiers continues to serve the nation as an active army unit. The black soldiers of 24th Infantry served with great distinction in numerous wars: Spanish-American War, the Pacific in World War II, and the Korean War. I am especially fond of 1-24 Infantry aka “Deuce-Four” because it was my first unit and the one which I am regimentally affiliated with.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Barack Obama, and the U.S. Military (Full PDF Article)

Continue reading "Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Barack Obama, and the U.S. Military" »

At Defense News by William Matthews - Can Obama Get Results From 'Soft Power'?

When candidate Barack Obama said he would pursue "tough, direct diplomacy without preconditions" with Iran, his rivals sneered.

Sen. John McCain, the Republican front-runner for the U.S. presidency, called the suggestion "reckless."

President George W. Bush likened Obama's proposal to World War II-era appeasement.

And Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's chief Democratic challenger, called Obama's plan "naïve and irresponsible."

Obama's response: "Strong countries and strong presidents meet and talk with our adversaries. We shouldn't be afraid to do so. We've tried the other way. It didn't work."

Now that Obama's about to become president, McCain is back in the Senate, Bush is headed to retirement and Clinton is Obama's choice to be secretary of state...

More at Defense News.

Continue reading "Can Obama Get Results From 'Soft Power'?" »

A Fresh Take on Afghanistan - Malou Innocent, Wall Street Journal opinion

When he takes office today, Barack Obama will inherit a situation in Afghanistan that is growing increasingly complex. Mr. Obama has made success in the war there a key element of his foreign policy, so it's important for the new administration to understand the current facts on the ground. American policy there is due for a rethink.

Since 2007, the war in Afghanistan has undergone a dramatic shift, from large-scale attacks to more asymmetric terrorist assaults and roadside ambushes. Pro-Taliban militants attack those perceived to be in support of the Afghan government -- namely, US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces and humanitarian aid workers. The Taliban's aim is not direct confrontation, but rather a protracted war of attrition that will gradually expand their political and economic influence. Defeating the spreading Islamist insurgency depends on the coalition's commitment to increase the Afghan government's ability to improve security, deliver basic services and expand development for economic opportunity.

But the biggest challenge here will be to reconcile the imbalance between what Afghanistan is - a complex tapestry of traditional tribal structures - and what we want it to be - a burgeoning nation-state governed centrally from Kabul. Containing the insurgency will require working with local leaders to ferret out militants...

More at The Wall Street Journal.

H/T Dave Maxwell.

Continue reading "A Fresh Take on Afghanistan" »

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20 January 2009

To: President Barack Obama

From: Andrew Lubin

Ref: Afghanistan

Dear Mr. President:

I’m one of the many hundreds of millions today who watched you take the Oath of Office to become the 44th President of the United States. (and who would miss a chance to see the United States Marine Corps Band – known since 1801 as “The President’s Own” – open the ceremonies?) And your inaugural speech was even more impressive.

You’ve got an interesting four years ahead of you. Between the economy and two wars, your first day at work will be a long one…so having spent a fair amount of time in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008, let me make a few suggestions that might make your first day a little easier...

Continue reading "Andrew Lubin's Letter to President Obama on Afghanistan" »

Inaugural Address of President Barack Obama

20 January 2009

President Barack Obama

Thank you. Thank you.

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.

I thank President Bush for his service to our nation as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.

The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.

Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.

The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth.

We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.

We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its costs.

We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.

All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.

And those of us who manage the public's knowledge will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched.

But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.

The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.

Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.

And so, to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We'll begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard- earned peace in Afghanistan.

With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet.

We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense.

And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that, "Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.

And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.

And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service: a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.

And yet, at this moment, a moment that will define a generation, it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.

It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.

It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old.

These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.

What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence: the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall. And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day in remembrance of who we are and how far we have traveled.
In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by nine campfires on the shores of an icy river.

The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood.

At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you.

And God bless the United States of America.

-----

Links:

The New White House Web Page

The White House Blog

Agenda Items:

Defense

Foreign Policy

Homeland Security

Iraq

Veterans

More

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Here are the latest SITREPs from the US Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center

30 November 2008

Wanted to provide you some insights from trips to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the UK we have had in last month and to solicit your thoughts on a concept to form a “COIN CFE Triad” and potentially an “ABCA COIN Constellation” to harmonize efforts in a time of increasing demand, greater complexity, and diminishing resources. We see this as supportive of Secretary Gates’ recent call to “institutionalize capabilities such as counterinsurgency” (a must read – link here) and welcome your feedback:..

9 January 2009

Appreciate everyone’s efforts this past year toward the continued enhancement of counterinsurgency capabilities in support of our troops. While there has been progress across many fronts, there is much yet to be done. The nation’s ability to institutionalize its counterinsurgency, security force assistance, and stability operations competencies has been a hot topic of senior leadership this past month (see President’s Dec 08 USMA speech and Secretary of Defense’s Jan 09 article in Foreign Affairs). It is important to emphasize that these skills should not be in competition with, but inherent to, full-spectrum capabilities...

Good stuff check both SITREPs out.

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Aligning a Counterinsurgency Strategy for Afghanistan
by Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Millen, Small Wars Journal

Aligning a Counterinsurgency Strategy for Afghanistan (Full PDF Article)

Of all the challenges that beset Afghanistan, the most dramatic is the lack of an integrated counterinsurgency strategy. Objectively, the coalition and the international community have provided admirable assistance to Afghanistan. Without exaggeration, Afghanistan’s political, economic, and social situation has improved exponentially. Nevertheless, three interrelated challenges require resolution before Afghanistan can continue on its forward path—the insurgency, warlordism, and the neglect of the local communities.

As implied, an integrated strategy pursues tangible objectives which solve immediate problems, but it also contributes to the resolution of long-term menaces. Realistically, the Afghan insurgency is not a virulent threat to the government. The various insurgent groups have failed to extend their powerbase beyond their local powerbases and certainly cannot be construed as representing a unified front. Yet, Taliban groups, or those who claim to be Taliban for personal gain, do disrupt the necessary reforms essential to Afghanistan’s progress. Similarly, endemic warlordism (local powerbrokers, drug lords, politicians, and other opportunists) resists government authority for the pursuit of personal gains. In the long term, warlordism represents a greater threat to the Afghanistan’s liberal democracy. As in the past, the local communities (e.g., the thousands of hamlets, villages, towns, and city neighborhoods) suffer the greatest neglect. As long as the insurgency and warlordism exists, local communities will remain on the fringes of international and government beneficence.

As this article reveals, the principle of Subsidiarity forms the underlying approach to a counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan. In essence, Subsidiarity embraces decentralization of governance to the lowest level. Because this form of federalism has a long-standing tradition in Afghanistan (as well as the West), the populace readily accepts the concept. This concept permits the central government to focus on national issues. However, it does not signify neglect. Rather, it permits federal, international, and coalition agencies to empower local communities in a decentralized manner without deleterious intrusion from above. In short, it shifts the counterinsurgency effort to the local communities.

Aligning a Counterinsurgency Strategy for Afghanistan (Full PDF Article)

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Intelligence Agencies' Databases Set to Be Linked - Siobhan Gorman, Wall Street Journal

US spy agencies' sensitive data should soon be linked by Google-like search systems, nearly five years after the intelligence community was rebuked by the 9/11 Commission for failing to "connect the dots" and detect the attack.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has launched a sweeping technology program to knit together the thousands of databases across all 16 spy agencies. After years of bureaucratic snafus, intelligence analysts will be able to search through secret intelligence files the same way they can search public data on the Internet.

Mr. McConnell's new technology program is also addressing a more basic problem: Spies often have trouble emailing colleagues in other US intelligence agencies, because email addresses aren't readily accessible, and messages sometimes get eaten by security filters. Mr. McConnell aims to solve that by uniting the agencies' email systems into a single system with a full directory that links names, expertise and addresses.

More at The Wall Street Journal.

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Military Brass Joins Wired Troops: Admirals and generals hope to connect with soldiers via their own Facebook pages and blogs. But will they tweet?

Christian Science Monitor article by Gordon Lubold, and no we aren't making this up, that cites Small Wars Journal and innovation in the same breath... Damn, just damn.

Some of the US military’s top flag officers are becoming dedicated bloggers and attempting to change the military and extend their reach, one Facebook “friend” at a time.

They are using the Internet and social media to reach down within their own traditionally top-down organizations – and outside them, too – to do something the military isn’t known for: creating more transparency to empower young military leaders and the public.

Some senior officers say transforming the military means more than buying next-generation vehicles or developing new training. It’s giving more people more access to what they’re doing and thinking. That’s already happening as top officers create their own blog sites and Facebook pages in order to keep pace with the plugged-in, hyperconnected charges they lead...

As social media expands and its value becomes more apparent, those kinds of policies may be reassessed, defense officials say. Meanwhile, sites like Small Wars Journal (SWJ), a respected online forum, offer warrior academics a chance to vet ideas and build consensus.

“It connects the top thinkers on the direction the military should go as it adapts to the wars in the 21st century,” says John Nagl, a former Army officer and author who is a regular part of the debate on SWJ. “It allows instantaneous feedback and ideas to be debated in real time, and it accelerates the debate.”...

More at CSM - and a hearty thanks - as well as a Tip of the Hat (Akubra is my brand) Gordon and John - much appreciated, to say the least.

Update #1: Nice piece by Galrahn over at Information Dissemination - Admiral, Do You Tweet Sir?

... In no small part due to a comment in the article by John Nagl, the Small Wars Journal gets an honorable mention in this article as an example where new media is having influence in the national security debate. While it is possible other areas of new media are having a similar effect, I would argue the Small Wars Journal is the exception, not the rule, and is the only place this is happening. What makes the Small Wars Journal unique?

Because it is where active and retired members of the military want to debate their ideas, want their opinions in the open source on any given topic, and Dave has tapped into a community that has become comfortable with their ideas debated in an open forum. The Small Wars Journal has the capacity to "help shape the public debate about national security policy" primarily because those involved in the debate have found value participating in the public debate...

More at ID and another thanks and a tip of the hat.

Update # 2: Mark Safranski (Thanks and H/T) at Zenpundit - When Old Government Intersects with New Media

... Tradtional think tanks are not set up to do what SWJ does because they come with either ideological baggage (Heritage, Brookings Carnegie) or institutional affiliations (SSI, CNA, Hoover) that preemptively circumscribe membership, discussion and research interests for fear of drying up the revenue stream. Few large donors, be they Uncle Sam, Richard Mellon Scaife or George Soros, are motivated to open their checkbook by the idea of unfettered inquiry and unlimited time horizons or providing a platform to their professional or political opponents. Attempts by official orgs to imitate SWJ will result in costly but sterile echo chambers. Genuine Web 2.0 interactivity is not desired because it is spontaneous and unpredictable but without that interactivity there’s no spark, no insight and no intellectual productivity...

Much more at Zenpundit.

Update # 3: More from Galrahn at Information Dissemination - CSIS Studies the Digital Network Advantage

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has a new 47 page PDF report out titled International Collaborative Online Networks: Lessons Identified from the Public, Private, and Nonprofit Sectors. I thought the report was very interesting, and very well done.

More at ID.

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Interview: Colonel Peter Mansoor On Petraeus And Obama - Marc Ambinder at The Atantic

Yesterday, President Barack Obama held the first meeting of his military cabinet. Expectations are huge; among those in attendance was Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in chief of Centcom and the officer who will be responsible for the Obama administration's strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For some insight into what Gen. Petraeus expects from President Obama, I spoke with a friend of his; Col. Peter Mansoor (Ret)., a key adviser who served two tours in Iraq. Mansoor is the author of Baghdad at Sunrise and an architect of the counterinsurgency doctrine that proved successful in Iraq. Mansoor is now a professor of history at Ohio State University...

Read the interview at The Atlantic.

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Mullen Releases Concept for Future Joint Operations

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has signed off on the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations, a document the military will use to help determine future capability development for the joint force in 2016 through 2028.

U.S. military planners worldwide will use the Capstone concept to drive “future joint solutions and guide future joint force development work,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said.

U.S. Joint Forces Command led the concept’s development, with input from the military services, combatant commands and the Joint Staff. This is the concept’s first update since August 2005, when then-Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers signed the document...

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John Nagl on The Expeditionary Imperative at The Wilson Quarterly

America’s national security structure is designed to confront the challenges of the last century rather than our ­own...

We can and must do better. As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has noted, the national security community continues to devote the vast majority of its resources to preparing for conventional ­state-­on-­state conflicts, but “the most likely catastrophic threats to our ­homeland—­for example, an American city poisoned or reduced to rubble by a terrorist ­attack—­are more likely to emanate from failing states than from aggressor states.” For that reason, Gates has been a vocal advocate of increasing the resources devoted to accomplishing U.S. objectives abroad without relying on military power. In what he describes as a “man bites dog” moment in political Washington, he has argued outspokenly for reinforcements for his comrades in arms in other departments, including Justice, Agriculture, and ­Commerce...

Much more at The Wilson Quarterly.

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Tell Me Why We’re There? Enduring Interests in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) - Nathaniel C. Fick, David Kilcullen, John A. Nagl and Vikram J. Singh, Center for a New American Security Policy Brief

In 2009, the Obama administration will attempt to deliver on campaign promises to change the Afghan war’s trajectory. In April, the Strasbourg NATO summit will determine the alliance’s role in shaping the future of the country and the region. By the fall, Afghans will have voted for their president for only the second time since 2001, an event which may irrevocably set the country’s course. By the end of this summer’s fighting season, the war in Afghanistan will not yet be won, but it could well be lost.

After seven years and the deaths of more than a thousand American and coalition troops, there is still no consensus on whether the future of Afghanistan matters to the United States and Europe, or on what can realistically be achieved there. Afghanistan does matter. A stable Afghanistan is necessary to defeat Al Qaeda and to further stability in South and Central Asia. Understanding the war in Afghanistan, maintaining domestic and international support for it, and prosecuting it well requires three things: a clear articulation of U.S. interests in Afghanistan, a concise definition of what the coalition seeks to achieve there, and a detailed strategy to guide the effort.

U.S. interests in Afghanistan may be summarized as “two no’s”: there must be no sanctuary for terrorists with global reach in Afghanistan, and there must be no broader regional meltdown. Securing these objectives requires helping the Afghans to build a sustainable system of governance that can adequately ensure security for the Afghan people—the “yes” upon which a successful exit strategy depends.

Tell Me Why We’re There? Enduring Interests in Afghanistan (and Pakistan)

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Fit (and Ready) to Fight Revisited
Controlled-Aggression Techniques for Total Force Readiness
by First Lieutenant Nick Stewart

Fit (and Ready) to Fight Revisited (Full PDF Article)

Three years ago, Air and Space Power Journal published my vortices regarding the lack of physical and personnel security training provided by our nation’s Air Force. As a newly-commissioned officer, I informally interviewed another newly-commissioned lieutenant who had deployed to combat-stricken Afghanistan during his enlisted service and to a senior colonel with 100+ flying hours as a combat navigator on the B-52 Stratofortress. Both combat veterans were trained in defense mechanisms and small arms weaponry just prior to their respective deployments.

However, these officers readily stated that in a situation where all ammunition is expended and with enemy soldiers or insurgents / terrorists remaining active and present, their respective capacity for survival in a hand-to-hand combat environment was non-existent. Today, my concern is solidified; Airmen are woefully unprepared to defend themselves. Training in close-quarters combatives and the utilization of weapons of opportunity is an urgent requirement for our Air Force.

Fit (and Ready) to Fight Revisited (Full PDF Article)

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SWJ's 3rd weekly contribution to Foreign Policy - This Week at War by Robert Haddick - is now posted. Topics include President Obama and the coexistence doctrine; withdrawing from Iraq, too slow or too fast; and was deterrence restored in Gaza?

Continue reading "This Week at War # 3" »

Military to Focus on Shorter-term Goals in Afghanistan, Gates Says

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

As part of the Obama administration’s assessment of the strategy being employed in Afghanistan, the U.S. military will focus its efforts on achieving shorter-term goals there, the Defense Department’s top official said here yesterday.

“One of the points where I suspect both administrations come to the same conclusion, is that the goals we did have for Afghanistan are too broad and too far into the future,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters at a Pentagon press conference.

President Barack Obama met with Gates and other National Security Council members at the White House on Jan. 21.

The United States needs to set “more concrete goals” for Afghanistan that “can be achieved realistically within three to five years,” Gates said. For example, he said, efforts should be made to re-establish Afghan government control in the country’s southern and eastern regions, as well boost security and improve the delivery of services to the population.

And, U.S., coalition and Afghan military operations targeting al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents must be maintained in Afghanistan to prevent the re-establishment of terrorism in the region, Gates said...

Continue reading "Shorter-term Goals in Afghanistan" »

Over at the US Naval Institute Blog - Vice Admiral John C. Harvey, Jr. had the following to say in the commentary:

... We just need to remain steady in our approach and steadfast in our resolve and I think we’ll come through the next few years of ongoing conflict and economic crisis in fine fashion. There’s lots of opportunities in every crisis and we’re poised to take advantage of them.

With respect to your comment concerning participation in the blogosphere and the upcoming milbloggers conference, let me speak pretty plainly - most of the blogs I’ve dropped in on and read on a regular basis leave me pretty cold. Too many seem to be interested in scoring cheap, and anonymous, hits vice engaging in meaningful and professional exchanges. There is also a general lack of reverence for facts and an excess of emotion that, for me, really reduces the value of the blog. Incorrect/inaccurate data and lots of hype may be entertaining for some, but just doesn’t work for me.

My best example of a truly worthwhile blog, worthy of our time and intellectual engagement, is the Small Wars Journal. The tone is always professional, the subject matter is compelling and the benefit from participating is significant.

All that said, here I am - I recognize the reality of the blogosphere and the potential that exists for worthwhile exchanges that enhance our professional knowledge and overall awareness. My intent is to continue to participate when I can and where I see I can make a contribution to a professional exchange, but my view today is that the bloggers generally see their activity as far more meaningful than I do right now. I do, however, remain hopeful...

Thank you sir and we will do our damndest to live up to your kind words. Keelhaul us if we stray.

Continue reading "How About That - Thank You Admiral Harvey" »

Soft Power: More than Hearts and Minds
by Lieutenant General Norman R. Seip, Small Wars Journal Op-Ed

Soft Power: More than Hearts and Minds (Full PDF Article)

Leading up to the Presidential Inauguration, the use of military “Soft Power” has been roundly debated as military policy evolves under the new administration. The conventional thought process on how and why militaries conduct soft power operations, non-traditional missions involving humanitarian assistance, disaster response and infrastructure development in foreign nations, has been to view these missions as a means to increase the ‘attractiveness’ of American culture. In fact, the Los Angeles Times even likened these missions to getting “what you want through attraction rather than coercion…” (Joseph Nye, Los Angeles Times, Jan 21, 2009).

But to cast Soft Power as simply a ploy to win hearts and minds is to miss the larger goal. When U.S. forces open a clinic to treat patients in remote regions, our nation’s image is not the doctor’s motivation. When Air Forces exchange ideas on how to work together during natural disasters, influencing trade policy isn’t part of the flight plan. And when a soldier sits down with a village elder to discuss assistance in erecting a bridge, whether or not the population finds American culture appealing is not in the blueprints.

Soft Power: More than Hearts and Minds (Full PDF Article)

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Sorry, Pentathlete Wasn’t on the Syllabus
by Captain Crispin Burke, Small Wars Journal Op-Ed

Sorry, Pentathlete Wasn’t on the Syllabus (Full PDF Article)

In the last few years, the Army has been promoting the “Pentathlete” model of leadership: a leader skilled in his or her tactical field of expertise, as well as skilled in all forms of military as well as diplomatic power. Indeed, it is a reflection of the change that is needed in our officer corps, changing our personnel system and our zeitgeist from an industrial-age model to an information-age model. Unfortunately, the Pentathlete is only getting lip service at the various captains’ career courses in the Army.

Sorry, Pentathlete Wasn’t on the Syllabus (Full PDF Article)

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... let's not reset back to institutional folly like this:

Stifled Innovation? Developing Tomorrow's Leaders Today by Dr. Leonard Wong, US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, April 2002. Synopsis and emphasis by Cavguy at the Council.

Of the 365 days in the year, approximately 109 days are unavailable for training due to weekends, federal holidays, payday activities, and the Christmas half-day schedule. This results in a total of about 256 available days for company commanders to plan and execute training.

Requirements for mandatory training at the company level riginate from Army Regulation 350-1, Army Training, policy letters, command training guidance, and other directives. Scrubbing all levels of command down to the Brigade level, to include Department of the Army, Major Army Command (MACOM), Corps, Division, and installation level, for anything that generates a training requirement results in the identification of over 100 distinct training requirements...

... Note that, as expected, most directed mission-related training requirements come from Division-level or below. More importantly, most directed nonmission-related training requirements originate from DA and MACOM levels. This is critical since policy actions may be most effective in reducing the DA and MACOM requirements.

Incorporating the amount of time necessary to execute each directed training requirement (for example, training on “The Benefits of an Honorable Discharge” takes about 60 minutes a year) results in approximately 297 days of directed training.

Of the 297 days, about 85 percent (or 254 training days) is mission-related training and 15 percent (or 43 training days) is nonmission-related training.

The number of days required by all mandatory training directives literally exceeds the number of training days available to company commanders. Company commanders somehow have to fit 297 days of mandatory requirements into 256 available training days.

When we eventually get back to "normal" let's get back to the future.

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Triathletes, Not Pentathletes Yet
A Response to “Sorry, Pentathlete Wasn’t on the Syllabus.”
by Captain Patrick McKinney, Small Wars Journal Op-Ed

Triathletes, Not Pentathletes Yet (Full PDF Article)

First, I largely agree with Crispin Burke (SWJ, 24 January 2009) concerning instruction at Captains Career Courses and the requirements of junior Army leaders, however, since his attendance to Aviation Captains Career Course (AVCCC) in early 2007, positive changes in other CCC’s have been implemented. CCC graduates are likely not the Pentathletes the Army needs, but are closer to Triathletes than single sport amateurs. I am currently enrolled in the Military Intelligence Captains Career Course (MICCC), and cannot speak for changes in other branches, but will attempt to address issues Burke raised in his piece.

Burke is correct that by and large, “the Pentathlete is getting lip service” but is it unrealistic to expect the CCC to graduate experts in all areas. It is more reasonable, and a better starting point, to graduate Triathletes that are competent in a larger set of skills, with a foundation that will allow them to grow into Army Pentathletes. Due to deployments, garrison OPTEMPO, and personal experiences, Captains entering the various CCC are more experienced than CCC students in previous years, and need the CCC to assist them in their progression as Captains. The CCC curriculum needs to adjust to this reality, and from my experience thus far at the MICCC, those changes are being made.

Triathletes, Not Pentathletes Yet (Full PDF Article)

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How Not to Lose Afghanistan - New York Times

Barack Obama has said that his priority in the war on terrorism is Afghanistan, and is poised to increase troop levels there, perhaps by as many as 30,000. How should the United States deal with growing strength of the Taliban? Is increasing troop levels enough? We asked some analysts for their thoughts on military and political strategy in the region...

Kori Schake, former national security adviser
Andrew Exum, former United States Army officer
Bruce Riedel, former C.I.A. officer
John Nagl, former United States Army officer
Parag Khanna, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation

Read all five in full at The New York Times.

H/T to Rebecca White.

Continue reading "How Not to Lose Afghanistan at NYT Room for Debate" »

Let's Have Flexible Armed Forces - Mackubin Thomas Owens, Wall Street Journal opinion

During the 1990s, the U.S. defense debate was dominated by those who argued that advances in technology, particularly information technology, had revolutionized military affairs and changed the nature of warfare. Under former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, this view -- now called transformation -- came to characterize U.S. military planning. Based on the example of the 1991 Gulf War, advocates of transformation argued that our technological edge would allow American forces to identify and destroy targets remotely, defeating an adversary at low cost in casualties.

Though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have largely discredited staunch transformation advocates, a heated debate still rages about the shape of the future U.S. military. One side, the "Long War" school, argues that Iraq and Afghanistan are characteristic of the protracted and ambiguous wars America will fight in the future. Accordingly, they say, the military should be developing a force designed to fight the Long War on terrorism, primarily by preparing for "small wars" and insurgencies...

More at The Wall Street Journal.

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In testimony today to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates discussed current operations (Afghanistan and Pakistan - Iraq after SOFA - North Korea, Iran and proliferation - Russia and China) as well as ongoing institutional initiatives (Ground Force expansion and stress on the Force - National Guard - nuclear stewardship - defending space and cyberspace - wartime procurement - defense acquisition).

News Links:

Gates Warns of Prolonged Commitment in Afghanistan - Washington Post
Gates: US Lacks Strategic Plan to Win in Afghanistan - Baltimore Sun
Gates: Modest Goals, More Strikes - New York Times
Gates Says US Must Set Realistic Goals in Afghanistan - Los Angeles Times
Gates Says Afghan Terror Fight Trumps Nation-Building - Bloomberg
Afghanistan is ‘Greatest Challenge - Financial Times
Afghanistan is Top US Priority: Pentagon Chief - Agence France Presse
Gates Expects More Troops in Afghanistan - Associated Press
Military Ready to Send More Troops to Afghanistan, Gates Says - AFPS
Pentagon Sees Limit on US Troops in Afghanistan - Reuters
Gates Says More Troops for Afghanistan by Summer - Associated Press
Gates Says Missile Attacks in Pakistan Will Continue - CNN
Iran Playing "Subversive" Latin America Role - Reuters
US Moves to Counter Chinese Military Modernization - Voice of America
Gates on How to Institutionalize Counterinsurgency - Washington Independent
Procurement Reform Must be Government Priority, Gates Tells Senate - AFPS
Gates: Cash Cows of War Running Dry - Wired

Continue on for several excerpts from the opening remarks by Secretary Gates...

Continue reading "SECDEF at the SASC" »

Interesting thoughts from Spencer Ackerman about the limits of social networking, commenting on Jonathan Stray's social network of the counterinsurgent policy crowd. Both pieces are worth a look.

This node analysis is, after all, how they found the right rat hole near Tikrit. Jonathan could be onto something.

Though it pales in comparison to the IW Bottle of Scotch challenge laid out by Frank Hoffman, there's some Thunderbird for anyone that can produce action photos of the elusive Mr. Flick in his burrow.

Update: Some more at Abu Muqawama and Ghosts of Alexander.

(Nothing Follows)

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Defense Department Establishes Civilian Expeditionary Workforce

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

The Defense Department is forming a civilian expeditionary workforce that will be trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of military missions worldwide, according to department officials.

The intent of the program “is to maximize the use of the civilian workforce to allow military personnel to be fully utilized for operational requirements,” according to a Defense Department statement.

Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed Defense Department Directive 1404.10, which outlines and provides guidance about the program, on Jan. 23...

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A must read - now available for pre-order: The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by Dr. David Kilcullen.

From the product description - David Kilcullen is one of the world's most influential experts on counterinsurgency and modern warfare. A Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, his vision of war dramatically influenced America's decision to rethink its military strategy in Iraq and implement "the surge."

Now, in The Accidental Guerrilla, Kilcullen provides a remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa. Kilcullen sees today's conflicts as a complex pairing of contrasting trends: local social networks and worldwide movements; traditional and postmodern culture; local insurgencies seeking autonomy and a broader pan-Islamic campaign. He warns that America's actions in the war on terrorism have tended to conflate these trends, blurring the distinction between local and global struggles and thus enormously complicating our challenges. Indeed, the US had done a poor job of applying different tactics to these very different situations, continually misidentifying insurgents with limited aims and legitimate grievances (whom he calls "accidental guerrillas") as part of a coordinated worldwide terror network. We must learn how to disentangle these strands, develop strategies that deal with global threats, avoid local conflicts where possible, and win them where necessary.

Colored with gripping battlefield experiences that range from the jungles and highlands of Southeast Asia to the mountains of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to the dusty towns of the Middle East, The Accidental Guerrilla will, quite simply, change the way we think about war. This much anticipated book will be a must read for everyone concerned about the war on terror.

This book should be required reading for every American soldier, as well as anyone involved in the war on terror. Kilcullen's central concept of the 'accidental guerrilla' is brilliant and the policy prescriptions that flow from it important. And that's not all; the book has many more insights drawn from various battlefields. - Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

Order The Accidental Guerrilla now.

Continue reading "The Accidental Guerrilla" »

Dan Twining over at FP’s Shadow Government warns the new administration about moving the goalposts in Afghanistan while Charlie at Abu Muqawama takes on the Commandant of the Marine Corps on his desire to get his Marines out of Iraq and into Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Herschel Smith talks of lies, damn lies and statistics while freting over whether John Nagl’s reputation may suffer by getting an agreement nod from The Captain’s Journal.

Spencer Ackerman (aka ATTACKERMAN) chimes in on about how Secretary Gate's SASC testimony offers a glimpse into a new Afghanistan policy - BUT - Jules Crittenden rounds up that same testimony quite nicely - thanks Jules.

SWJ’s (and FP's) own Westhawk, at his proper blog, poses two humdinger questions - does Obama see Karzai the same way Kennedy saw Diem? – and - what if Afghans will not defend themselves?

Tom Ricks (The Gamble) at FP’s Best Defense, points out the obvious concerning a new and wise policy brief and the not so obvious in dubbing Gentile and Exum the Lewis and Martin (almost typed in Clark) of Counterinsurgency.

Max Boot at Contentions pays high praise to Yochi Dreazen for his reporting in general and for this specific dispatch from Afghanistan.

Ever diligent Bill Roggio, with no time for such speculation, keeps on keeping on with just the facts ma’am at The Long War Journal.

Something in Wednesday's water - or truly interesting times?

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Continue on for today's Small Wars Journal news and opinion roundup...

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Sons of Iraq Transfer on Pace for April Completion

By Adam Weinstein, MNC-I Public Affairs
Jan. 28, 2009

The Government of Iraq and Coalition Forces are on pace to transfer all Sons of Iraq security volunteers to Iraqi control by April, and progress on finding jobs for the men is accelerating, representatives of the camps say...

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Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea by Paul B. Stares, General John W. Vessey, and Joel S. Wit, Council on Foreign Relations

Overview: North Korea possesses nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them, and despite some progress, it is by no means clear that the ongoing six-party talks will be able to reveal the full extent of the country’s nuclear activities, much less persuade Pyongyang to give them up. The United States maintains tens of thousands of forces on the Korean peninsula in support of its commitments to the Republic of Korea (South Korea), a country with which the North is still technically at war. And the peninsula sits in a strategically vital region, where the United States, China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea all have important interests at stake.

All of this puts a premium on close attention to and knowledge of developments in North Korea. Unfortunately, Kim Jong-Il’s government is perhaps the world’s most difficult to read or even see. This Council Special Report, commissioned by CFR’s Center for Preventive Action and authored by Paul B. Stares and Joel S. Wit, focuses on how to manage one of the central unknowns: the prospect of a change in North Korea’s leadership. The report examines three scenarios: managed succession, in which the top post transitions smoothly; contested succession, in which government officials or factions fight for power after Kim’s demise; and failed succession, in which a new government cannot cement its legitimacy, possibly leading to North Korea’s collapse. The authors consider the challenges that these scenarios would pose—ranging from securing Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal to providing humanitarian assistance—and analyze the interests of the United States and others. They then provide recommendations for U.S. policy. In particular, they urge Washington to bolster its contingency planning and capabilities in cooperation with South Korea, Japan, and others, and to build a dialogue with China that could address each side’s concerns.

With Kim Jong-Il’s health uncertain and with a new president in the United States, this report could not be more timely. And with all the issues at stake on the Korean peninsula, the subject could not be more important. Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea is a thoughtful work that provides valuable insights for managing a scenario sure to arise in the coming months or years.

Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea

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ISF Partnering Brief

by Lieutenant Colonel Dale Kuehl, US Army
Senior Combined Arms Battalion Trainer
National Training Center

I put this brief (ISF Partnering) together as a vehicle to discuss partnering with Iraqi Security Forces for units training at NTC as they prepare for deployment to Iraq. Throughout OIF we have used various phrases to describe conducting combined operations to include "put an Iraqi face on it", "IA in the lead", and "By, With, Through". I personally struggled with this in theater and I see units routinely struggle with this as they train for deployment. "IA in the Lead" often becomes a US plan and we put the IA on the lead stack to clear a building to get the "Iraqi face on it".

I prefer the term partnership. A combined approach built upon a relationship developed with our Iraqi Security Force partners. What I have put together here is based upon my experience trying to partner in Baghdad and some reflection on how I could have done it better. Partnering starts at the top with the right attitude. The commander must invest in developing relationships with Iraqi officers and truly try to integrate his staff with his counterpart. How to organize for that integration is also important, whether your unit is partnering with a brigade with several battalions or just one battalion.

We often made mistakes in not adequately preparing for a combined patrol. We show up at the IA unit 30 minutes before the patrol, without adequately conducting troop leading procedures and then complain that our partners screw up the mission. It is much more effective to include our partners in the planning process and use every patrol as a training opportunity - for them and us.

At the battalion and brigade level we should be thinking about how we can include our partners in our targeting process. In theater we started with a weekly synch meeting with the ISF to discuss the focus over the next week. Initially we did this primarily at the staff level. Over time we expanded to include battalion commanders, staffs, and company commanders from the ISF and CF and used it as a training opportunity and forum to discuss issues. We later added an intel synch meeting for the S2s to share information that helped to inform our targeting.

Finally, commanders should think about how they can conduct combined command and control. We tried several different techniques to include establishing our battalion command post as a Joint Security Station with an Iraqi Battalion and also using a smaller tactical command post in a similar role. This also served as a good place to conduct a combined morning update brief which we did two to three times a week.

ISF Partnering Brief

Nothing follows.

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The Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review Report has just been released.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) released a statement on the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review Report, which was required by the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act:

The Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review Report demonstrates that the Department of Defense’s understanding of its mission and the core competencies required to achieve it has expanded quite substantially since the attacks of 9/11. The scope of the mission the Department is preparing to tackle is daunting and will require careful scrutiny.

This report represents an advance by organizing in one place a host of ideas about new or newly emphasized missions for the Department – from the need to provide support to civil authorities, to cyber warfare, to training and mentoring foreign security forces. It raises significant issues about the appropriate role of the Department in these areas that will be heavily debated in the national security community in the coming years.

At the same time, this report shows the Department still has a lot of work ahead to reform its organization, budgets, and processes to execute this mission. The report makes only a small contribution to the difficult task of challenging the allocation of treasured turf and changing deeply held cultures within the Department which will be required to actually fulfill such a far reaching mission set.

I am reminded that the last time this task was seriously tackled, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, it took several years and the personal intervention of President Harry Truman to reach a workable consensus. I very much appreciate the work of Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates in kicking off a similar cycle of reevaluation of these issues in this report. As Congress anticipated when it established this review as a continuing requirement every four years, there remains much work to do.

The six Core Mission Areas addressed in the QRM are Homeland Defense and Civil Support (HD/CS), Deterrence Operations, Major Combat Operations (MCOs), Irregular Warfare; Military Support to Stabilization Security; Transition, and Reconstruction Operations; and Military Contribution to Cooperative Security.

Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review Report

Update:

Defense Department Releases Roles, Missions Review - AFPS

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Afghan Presidential Election Delayed - Dexter Filkens, New York Times

Afghan officials said Thursday that they had decided to postpone the country’s presidential election until August, saying they needed more time to prepare. But the decision, which appeared to contravene Afghanistan’s Constitution, raised questions about the legitimacy of what could be President Hamid Karzai’s final months in office.

But Afghanistan’s Constitution states that the president’s term expires on the equivalent of May 22 on the Roman calendar. Presidential elections, the Constitution says, must be held 30 to 60 days before the end of the term.

More at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Times, Associated Press and Voice of America.

Obama Taps a General as the Envoy to Kabul - Eric Schmitt, New York Times

The Obama administration has picked Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, a former top military commander in Afghanistan, to be the next United States ambassador to Kabul, an administration official said Thursday. Tapping a career Army officer who will soon retire from the service to fill one of the country’s most sensitive diplomatic jobs is a highly unusual choice.

But Afghanistan specialists say that General Eikenberry, who served in Afghanistan twice, including an 18-month command tour that ended in 2007, knows the players and issues there well. That is a valuable commodity in a year when the United States will send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan and the country will hold presidential elections.

More at The New York Times.

Call for More Afghan Troops - Mark Dodd, The Australian

The Australian Defence Force has enough spare capacity to boost its military contribution in Afghanistan, but any increase would be meaningless unless matched by other NATO nations, counter-ins