11/18/2020 News & Commentary – National Security
News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs
1. The Need to Compete on Multiple Battlegrounds: An Interview with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster
2. China versus Democracy
3. DOD Announces Rare Earth Element Awards to Strengthen Domestic Industrial Base
4. How to Save Kabul From Saigon’s Fate
5. Learn By Losing: Give AI To OPFOR First
6. More than 200 systems infected by new Chinese APT ‘FunnyDream’
7. Scoop: The State Department to release Kennan-style paper on China
8. Hate Crimes in U.S. Rose to Highest Level in More Than a Decade in 2019
9. Regime Realism and Chinese Grand Strategy
10. Trump Fires Official Who Disputed Baseless Claims of Election Fraud
11. The 3 elements of Trump’s foreign policy Biden should keep
12. How “Mercenaries at Sea” Could Help the U.S. Navy Defeat Russia and China
13. Pentagon Plan Calls for Pulling All Troops from Somalia
14. Transforming The U.S. Military For The 21st Century
1. The Need to Compete on Multiple Battlegrounds: An Interview with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster
Small Wars Journal· November 17, 2020
2. China versus Democracy
National Review Online · by Michael Auslin · November 17, 2020
A handbook for democracies.
Excerpt: “The great question facing the free world is how to deal with the PRC in this new era of competition. One answer is provided in a new “handbook” for democracies, published this week by the Halifax International Security Forum (HFX) to coincide with its annual conference. The handbook, entitled “China Vs. Democracy: The Greatest Game,” is a primer on how the PRC threatens the open global society that is the source for most of its own wealth and power (full disclosure: I am the senior advisor for Asia at HFX, and was part of the team that produced the handbook). Divided into chapters that look at the CCP’s oppression inside China, influence campaigns against democracies, the battle over global economic domination, the race for technological supremacy, and the military competition that may determine war or peace, the handbook is one of the first comprehensive attempts to chart the broad China challenge.”
3. DOD Announces Rare Earth Element Awards to Strengthen Domestic Industrial Base
We need to fix the rare earth element challenge. This would seem to be one area of great Power Competition.
Excerpt: ‘MP Materials, who owns the largest rare earth element mining operation outside of China, has been awarded a DPA Title III technology investment agreement to establish domestic processing capabilities for light rare earth elements (LREE). LREEs are critical to numerous defense and commercial applications, including petroleum refining, glass additives, and magnets used in electric vehicle drivetrain motors and precision-guided munitions. Upon successful completion of this project, MP Materials will refine its current mixed rare earth concentrate production, which represents approximately 12 percent of global rare earth oxide content, into separated rare earth products at its site in Mountain Pass, California.”
4. How to Save Kabul From Saigon’s Fate
WSJ · by Bing West
Excerpts:
“In 1972 the U.S. signed a peace treaty that left thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers in South Vietnam. A few years later, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon as the world watched on TV. Respect for American resolve plummeted at home and abroad.”
“The Taliban share Islamist roots with terrorists who pursue murder on a global scale. A total U.S. withdrawal would lead to a resurgence of terror plots, no longer in danger of disruption. Instead, the U.S. should continue what it is doing: keep military presence low and lethality high, and tolerate a messy government in Kabul. With modest expense and low casualties, the benefits of withdrawal can’t justify the costs.”
5. Learn By Losing: Give AI To OPFOR First
breakingdefense.com · by Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The subtitle says it all.
6. More than 200 systems infected by new Chinese APT ‘FunnyDream’
ZDNet · by Catalin Cimpanu
Excerpt: “The malware infections are part of a widespread cyber-espionage campaign carried out by a group named FunnyDream, according to a new report published today by security firm Bitdefender.”
7. Scoop: The State Department to release Kennan-style paper on China
Axios · by Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
Could be a potentially historical document. Or will it be dead on arrival? Or will this document provide long term continuity and perhaps the basis for a new “NSC 68” that can transcend administrations?
The 74 page document can be downloaded here listing the 10 “key tasks”.
8. Hate Crimes in U.S. Rose to Highest Level in More Than a Decade in 2019
The New York Times · by Tim Arango · November 16, 2020
This data should make us all sad and ashamed.
9. Regime Realism and Chinese Grand Strategy, by Hal Brands, AEI November 2020
The 9-page document can be downloaded here.
10. Trump Fires Official Who Disputed Baseless Claims of Election Fraud
The New York Times · by David E. Sanger · November 18, 2020
Hmmm….
11. The 3 elements of Trump’s foreign policy Biden should keep
Vox · by Alex Ward · November 17, 2020Good advice.
The 3:
Lesson 1: Don’t be afraid to question foreign policy shibboleths
Lesson 2: Consider how foreign policy decisions will impact Americans at home
Lesson 3: Prioritize bringing American hostages home
12. How “Mercenaries at Sea” Could Help the U.S. Navy Defeat Russia and China
The National Interest · by Peter Suciu · November 17, 2020
Does history rhyme?
13. Pentagon Plan Calls for Pulling All Troops from Somalia
military.com · by John Vandiver · November 17, 2020
While everyone focuses on Afghanistan and Iraq, there is this…
14. Transforming The U.S. Military For The 21st Century
Forbes · by Daniel Araya · November 17, 2020
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“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
– William Shakespeare
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
-Marcus Tullius Cicero (42B.C)
“This is a political war and it calls for discrimination in killing. The best weapon for killing would be a knife, but I’m afraid we can’t do it that way. The worst is an airplane. The next worst is artillery. Barring a knife, the best is a rifle – you know who you’re killing.”
– John Paul Vann