My friend and CCISS colleague Tom Quiggan just wrote an excellent piece at GlobalBrief called The LTTE is targeting Canada. While Tom focuses on the LTTE or Tamil Tigers and, in particular, the October 16th seizure of the Ocean Lady,...

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In House Report 111-166 - NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) has directed "the Secretary of Defense to conduct an independent assessment of the Human Terrain System, and submit to the congressional...

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We just had a very interesting briefing on a “new” teaching method which might best be described as a case study method via virtual reality. As with many case study methods, this presented the “facts” of a real world situation....

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The briefing on the TRADOC Campaign Plan, centering around Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN), has created the most discussion to date. Listening to the questions and comments, I was struck by several observations. One early point that was made was that the principles underlying ARFORGEN were not clearly communicated while the model was. There are, to my mind, several observations that can be drawn both from that process – communicate the model but not the principles – and from the questions / comments.

First off, ARFORGEN is a radical change from previous forms of force generation. In many ways, from what I can see of it, it is moving towards, although certainly not reaching, an Information Age style of force generation (e.g. the right person in the right place at the right time), at least in principle. The model, however, appears to have been presented more in the genre and forms of an Industrial Age style of force generation (office based, standardized training). This form and genre is not surprising given the hierarchical organizational form of the US Army. In fact, it is organizationally imperative that that form and genre be used in order to tie it in with the political and economic resources (i.e. sell it in DC).

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There is a curious quality that overcomes the mind during a visit to sacred space. Today, I rode along on the staff ride at Gettysburg and saw that quality of mind slowly come into being as we moved from site to site on the battlefield. The manifestation that arose was not one of what lessons can we learn from the battle and campaign but, rather, one of what questions should we ask.

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Lynddie England and Free Speech

Originally posted at In Harmonium

Yesterday, Friday August 14th, was to have seen a talk given by Lynndie England at the Library of Congress on her new biography Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World. The talk, however, sparked a very strong reaction from Morris Davis, a veteran and employee of the Library of Congress that was posted at the SWJ Blog here.

The post itself is in the genre of “Shocked and Appalled” style, letter to the Editor. Davis notes that:

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