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BLACKFIVE (Free subscription) | 9 hours ago
Since we are hearing that surrender is on the table, we better take a look at what it would take to win. The Foreign Policy Initiative has a document exploding many of the myths about Gen. McChrystal's request for a fully-resourced Counterinsurgency strategy. During the time that President Obama has been mulling the way forward in Afghanistan, a number of politicians, advisors, and analysts have put...
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Military Times - News (Free subscription) | 14 hours ago
One of 2nd Lt. Peter Sprenger’s goals in life is to lead soldiers in the 75th Ranger Regiment. He eventually wants to command a battalion and even a brigade.His goals are not unusual for a young officer candidate who has already led men in combat, but Sprenger, 26, was not supposed to make it this far. On Nov. 19, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, he beat the odds — and the...
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Tampa Bay Online (Free subscription) | yesterday
Thirty-two American students were announced today as Rhodes Scholars, including two students who teach philosophy and poetry to inmates, three All-Americans in swimming and a U.S. Army second lieutenant mentored by Gen. David Petraeus.
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Snuffysmith's Blog (Free subscription) | yesterday
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/schell/single The Fifty-Year War By Jonathan Schell This article appeared in the November 30, 2009 edition of The Nation. I was about to write that there can be no military solution to the war in Afghanistan, only a political one. But I almost fainted with boredom and had to stop. Who, as President Obama lengthily ponders his decisions regarding the war, wants...
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Minstrel Boy (Free subscription) | yesterday
Odierno: No Major Iraq Troop Withdrawals Before April « The Washington Independent : "Buried at the end of a New York Times piece is this rather significant declaration from Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq: Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding general of United States forces, said Wednesday that he was still hopeful elections would be held on time, but he added that the...
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Count Us Out (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
The Army Times is reporting exclusively that an anonymous note threatening a massacre similar to the Nov. 5 attack at Fort Hood, Texas, was discovered Thursday — along with a box of 20 hollow-point bullets — in a motor pool area at Columbus’ Fort Benning. The discovery coincided with a visit from Gen. David Petraeus, commander [...]
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SWJ Blog (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Workshop Videos - Watch the presentations from the COIN Center's COIN Leaders Workshop held 27 - 29 October 2009. Includes a COIN Center overview, COIN doctrine, urban simulation, COIN lessons learned from OIF and OEF, the Soviet approach to COIN and border operations in Afghanistan, security architecture and COIN in Pakistan's tribal belt, why Pakistan is...
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BLACKFIVE (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
There is a good piece today in the Washington Post by David Gerson about the soup sandwich that the decision-avoiding process about Afghanistan has become. He discusses the leaks from pro and con sides re. a troop increase and points out a major problem for achieving success if he does send more forces. Military-civilian tensions are growing and have become reflected on the ground in Afghanistan. One...
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The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
As Kathryn noted , today Senator Fred Thompson declared, “It really doesn't matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby, how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the war has been lost .” That’s right, Senator Thompson has declared America’s defeat in Afghanistan. Read it here . I have a high regard for Senator Thompson, and greatly appreciated...
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War News Updates (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Understanding the Surge from ISW on Vimeo . From The Small Wars Journal: The Surge: the Untold Story is a 34 minute documentary produced by the Institute for the Study of War . This video documents the Iraq Surge as part of a population-centric counterinsurgency approach and features many of the top commanders and others responsible for its implementation - including GEN Jack Keane (Ret.), GEN David...
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Lawyers, Guns and Money (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
I endorse most of what Gian Gentile says here about the Vietnam War, especially in the context of this quote from George Herring: …the war could [not] have been ‘won’ in any meaningful sense at a moral or material cost most Americans deemed acceptable. Gentile is a pretty harsh critic of the COIN turn in the US Army, and is pushing back against some of the more aggressive claims...
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Books are my only friends (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
The Iraq books keep coming, despite the public's waning interest. The Fourth Star , subtitled Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the Army is a book with the Iraq war at its center, but it is quite a bit more. It follows the military careers of Generals Abizaid, Casey, Chiarelli and Petraeus, all of whom recently became four star generals, the highest rank in the Army (five star generals...
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Triablogue (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
I don’t have any firm opinions about what we should do in Afghanistan at this juncture. In favor of the surge, it’s supported by some very credible individuals (e.g. Robert Gates, Gen Petraeus, Gen McChrystal, the Joint Chiefs). On the other hand, you also have military pundits like Ralph Peters who think that strategy is ill-conceived. And I myself have never been sanguine about the prospects...
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Palestinian Pundit (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
An Important Report By Jon Elmer "MUWAQQAR, Jordan, Nov 17 (IPS) - In the bleak and seemingly endless desert expanse that unfolds east of Jordan's capital city, Amman, lies a crucial cog in the ambitious regional designs of the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East. Commonly known by its acronym JIPTC, the Jordan International Police Training Centre is ground-zero for the transformation of U.S.-allied...
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Talk about Newsnight (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
As the US and UK continue to debate how they might succeed in stabilising Afghanistan, most attention has focused on practicalities such as troop numbers, battling corruption, or improving the local police force. However, on Sunday the British Army rolled out its new blueprints for how UK forces might work to stabilise a foreign country and what steps the forces should take to do so. Some see a preoccupation...
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