Here are several recent Bloggers Roundtables:

Afghan Police Training and Mentoring

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard Hall, commander of 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, talked about his battalion's deployment to Afghanistan and their mission to train and mentor Afghan police forces on the bloggers roundtable.

Colonel Describes Progress With Afghan Army, Police

U.S. Army Col. Michael J. McMahon. Coalition trainers working to build Afghanistan's national army and police force have fielded 52 infantry battalions to date.

Brigade Leaves Iraq Region Secure, Revitalized

U.S. Army Col. Wayne W. Grigsby, Jr. Nearing the end of a 15-month deployment in Iraq's Madain Qada region, the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team has helped reduce violence.

Operations in Northern Iraq

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of Multinational Division North and 1st Armored Division, provided an update on operations in northern Iraq on the bloggers roundtable.

New York Guardsmen Support Task Force Phoenix in Afghanistan

U.S. Army Col. Brian K. Balfe. Members of a National Guard combat team from New York are training and mentoring Afghan national security forces.

Pilot of First Burma Relief Mission Describes Experience

U.S. Air Force Capt. Trevor Hall. The Air Force pilot who flew the first U.S. relief flight to Burma said he and his crew delivered 30,000 pounds of supplies to grateful citizens.

Business Executives for National Security (Full Transcript)

As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Washington, DC, Thursday, May 15, 2008.

Excerpt:

... Tonight, I'd like to discuss three elements of that support structure that I've made my top management priorities as Secretary of Defense -- areas where I've identified shortcomings and want to see fundamental institutional change before my time in office expires. Which if you're wondering, that's about 250 days, 14 hours, and 45 minutes from now.

My priorities are focused on better supporting our troops in combat and include:

- Sending more intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to Iraq and Afghanistan;

- Providing troops the best possible protection on dangerous roads in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

- Improving outpatient care and support for our wounded.

These are issues I take seriously -- and very personally.

Each goes directly to our profound, even sacred, obligation to do everything we can to support the men and women currently fighting on the front lines -- people like the four we recognized tonight - to see that they are successful on the battlefield and properly cared for at home. These needs require the Department to focus on the reality that we are in the midst of two wars and that what we can provide our soldiers and commanders three or four years hence isn't nearly as important as what we can provide them today or next month. In each case, there was some sort of leadership shortcoming:

- A lack of vision or sense of urgency;

- An unwillingness or hesitancy to upend assumptions and practices that have accumulated in a largely peacetime military establishment; and

- An assumption that the war would soon be over and therefore we shouldn't impinge on programs that produce the kinds of equipment and capabilities that probably would not be needed in today's combat.

A common mantra at Defense is that the rest of the government isn't at war. Well, a lesson I learned fairly early on was that important elements of the Defense Department weren't at war. Preoccupied with future capabilities and procurement programs, wedded to lumbering peacetime process and procedures, stuck in bureaucratic low-gear. The needs of those in combat too often were not addressed urgently or creatively...

Virginia Military Institute Commencement (Full Transcript)

As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M.Gates, Lexington, VA, Friday, May 16, 2008.

Excerpt:

... The VMI community mourns the recent loss, just last month, of Marine First Sergeant Luke Mercardante in Afghanistan. VMI alum said of this honorary "Brother Rat": "His legacy lives in his cadets and others who served with him, who are now taking the field across the globe."

In a national radio address in 1940, on the anniversary of VMI's founding, its most distinguished graduate, General George Marshall spoke of the Institute and the values it instills, he said: "Our graduates seldom amass great wealth, but just as seldom do they display weakness or indifference to their duties as citizens. They are trained to be soldiers, if there be need for soldiers . . . ; but what is far more important, they are trained to be good citizens."

Taking on the full mantle of citizenship through public service is not for the timid or the faint of heart, even without the dangers of combat or rigors of military life. In fact, public service can often seem like a burden...

If, in the 21st century, America is to continue to be a force for good in the world -- for freedom, justice, the rule of law, and the inherent value of each person; if America is to be, still, a beacon for all who are oppressed; if America is to exercise global leadership consistent with our better angels, then the most able and idealistic of today's young people must step forward and agree to serve their country with the same honor, and courage, and dignity that marked the service of the long line of patriots that came before them. Your country asks nothing more than that you live up to the values you have learned and lived in this place for these past four years. You owe yourself nothing less...

When these majors talk it's best to listen, with one or more combat deployments under their belt and as serious students of our craft, they more often than not cut to the quick in identifying what works, what is broken and what needs to be done.

Hopefully we'll hear much more from the Army iron majors with the recent decision by Lieutenant General William Caldwell, IV, Commanding General of the US Army Combined Arms Center, as excerpted from a recent CAC memorandum below:

Command and General Staff College faculty and students will begin blogging as part of their curriculum and writing requirements both within the .mil and public environments. In addition CAC subordinate organizations will begin to engage in the blogosphere in an effort to communicate the myriad of activities that CAC is accomplishing and help assist telling the Army's story to a wide and diverse audience.

LTG Caldwell's memo detailed the purpose of his directive as an essential part of CAC's responsibilities to provide information to the public and usher in a culture of change within the Army's officer leadership, development and education community as well as to support military operations - leaders within the Army need to understand the power of the internet and leverage as many communications means as possible to communicate what CAC is doing. You can visit the new CAC Blog here. And of course; faculty, staff and students at our PME schoolhouses have an open invitation to blog here at SWJ, contribute to the online magazine or spar with Council members at the SWC.

"At the same time, the IDF's doctrine was completely revised: concepts that were developed in the long years of low-intensity conflict with the Palestinians were replaced by simplified, classic warfare constructs. 'For years we have developed a language that no one understands,' said a senior IDF source. 'From now on there are no longer 'spectacles' or 'effects-based warfare'. There is the objective, the method and the required achievement."

Retired general Yossi Peled, who was one of the severe critics of the IDF's previous doctrine, told Jane's "The only effect I know in warfare is to kill the enemy."

Hat tip to Bill Aldridge.

An Army board headed by Gen. David H. Petraeus has selected several combat-tested counterinsurgency experts for promotion to the rank of brigadier general, sifting through more than 1,000 colonels to identify a handful of innovative leaders who will shape the future Army, according to current and former senior Army officers.

The choices suggest that the unusual decision to put the top U.S. officer in Iraq in charge of the promotions board has generated new thinking on the qualities of a successful Army officer -- and also deepened Petraeus's imprint on the Army. Petraeus, who spent nearly four of the past five years in Iraq and has seen many of the colonels in action there, faces confirmation hearings next week to take charge of Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia...

They include Special Forces Col. Ken Tovo, a veteran of multiple Iraq tours who recently led a Special Operations task force there; Col. H.R. McMaster, a senior Petraeus adviser known for leading a successful counterinsurgency effort in the Iraqi city of Tall Afar, and Col. Sean MacFarland, who created a network of patrol bases in Ramadi that helped curb violence in the capital of Anbar Province, according to the officers...

More:

Proper Promotions - Max Boot, Contentions

McMaster Promoted, Finally... - Abu Muqawama, Abu Muqawama

This is Promising News - David Betz, Kings of War

The New Generalship - Mark Safranski, ZenPundit