News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.
1. Secretary of Defense Statement on Senate Confirmation of Dr. Colin Kahl
2. The U.S. Built the Afghan Military Over 20 Years. Will it Last One More?
3. Biden’s Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl confirmed with GOP senators absent
4. The force is still too small, Army chief says, and Afghanistan withdrawal won’t really help
5. Switchblade: Era of the loitering drone has come
6. US Special Ops buys AeroVironment’s anti-armour Switchblade 600 loitering munition
7. FDD | Biden, Congress Should Defend Missile Sanctions Imposed on Iran
8. Navy SEALs to shift from counterterrorism to global threats
9. Readiness in the Balance: U.S. Military Preparedness Amid Growing Threats
10. Admiral (Retired) William H. McRaven, Former Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, and Nicholas Rasmussen, Former National Counterterrorism Center Director, Reflect on the Usama bin Ladin Raid
11. How to Turn the Tables on China? Use Their A2/AD Military Strategy Against Them
12. Twenty retired French generals call for MILITARY RULE in the country
13. Why Taiwan's Defense Strategy Calls for a Reassessment of Priorities
14. Biden Must Protect Women’s Rights After Afghanistan Withdrawal
15. REVEALED: The Scientists "Debunking" the Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Admit Being 'Collaborators' and Honorees of Chinese Communist Party.
16. Extremists Find a Financial Lifeline on Twitch
17. Uniting for Total Collapse: The January 6 Boost to Accelerationism
18. Biden Taps Frank Kendall To Be Air Force Secretary
19. Frosted Misery: A Navy SEAL in SERE School | SOF News
20. "Where's Your Tab" and other Sad Lieutenant Stories - The Company Leader
21. How China is stoking America’s racial tensions
22. China's people need the truth — America should help them get it
23. What the CIA Did (and Didn’t Do) in Soviet-Occupied Afghanistan
24. How Not to Win Allies and Influence Geopolitics
1. Secretary of Defense Statement on Senate Confirmation of Dr. Colin Kahl
We have a USD(P).
2. The U.S. Built the Afghan Military Over 20 Years. Will it Last One More?
The New York Times · by C. J. Chivers · April 28, 2021
More photos at the link. This is depressing.
3. Biden’s Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl confirmed with GOP senators absent
Defense News · by Joe Gould · April 27, 2021
4. The force is still too small, Army chief says, and Afghanistan withdrawal won’t really help
armytimes.com · by Kyle Rempfer · April 27, 2021
Excerpts: “The Army accounts for about 25 percent of the Defense Department’s budget and about 35 percent of the active-duty end strength of the department.
“But we’re over 50 percent of the current operating tempo of the Department of Defense,” Whitley said. “We’re two-thirds of the readiness demands and the readiness priorities for warfighting of the Department of Defense.”
“The Army cannot sustain that level of commitment and operating tempo and readiness for such a wide range of things in a declining budget environment — and that’s the simple math,” Whitley said.
The force is still too small, Army chief says, and Afghanistan withdrawal won’t really help
Ending the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan won’t be of much use to Army planners sweating the size of the force, as fiscal constraints loom large over the service in the coming years.
The Army’s end-strength growth, once expected to top 500,000 active-duty soldiers, has slowed to a crawl in recent years and currently sits at roughly 485,000 troops.
“This is the same size Army that we had on 9/11, and when I take a look at what the requirements are, when I take a look at what historically we needed, and now that we’re in a time of great power competition, I’m very, very concerned about the size of the Army,” Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville said during a Tuesday discussion at the Center for a New American Security.
Much of the strain on the Army’s size comes from the combatant commands, where soldiers make up the bulk of military personnel deployed across the world. But the impending withdrawal from Afghanistan, in U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility, won’t make much of a difference.
“The number of troops in Afghanistan is really not a significant amount,” McConville said when asked how the withdrawal would factor into end-strength woes.
Growing the Army also doesn’t appear to be happening in the current fiscal environment, unless the service cuts into readiness and modernization funding.
“The [Army] secretary and I both agree that we can’t do the things, as far as readiness and when it comes to modernization, if we were to grow the Army to the level that we think would reduce the stress of deployments for our troops,” McConville said. “What we’re trying to do is produce the best Army we can with the resources that we’re going to get.”
5. Switchblade: Era of the loitering drone has come
asiatimes.com · by Dave Makichuk · April 27, 2021
Conclusion: "Regardless, loitering munitions are likely to be fielded by more and more militaries in the 2020s given their versatility and effectiveness. This is only the beginning."
6. US Special Ops buys AeroVironment’s anti-armour Switchblade 600 loitering munition
flightglobal.com · by Garrett Reim · April 27, 2021
7. FDD | Biden, Congress Should Defend Missile Sanctions Imposed on Iran
fdd.org · by Richard Goldberg, Matthew Zweig, Behnam Ben Taleblu, Saeed Ghasseminejad
· April 27, 2021
The 14 page memo can be downloaded here:
8. Navy SEALs to shift from counterterrorism to global threats
AP · by Lolita C. Baldor
Excerpts: “Rear Adm. Hugh Howard, top commander for the SEALs, laid out his plans in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. He said the Navy’s special operations forces have been focused on counterterrorism operations but now must begin to evolve beyond those missions. For the past two decades, many have been fighting in the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan. Now they are focused on going back to sea.
That decision reflects the broader Pentagon strategy to prioritize China and Russia, which are rapidly growing their militaries and trying to expand their influence around the globe. U.S. defense leaders believe that two decades of war against militants and extremists have drained resources, causing America to lose ground against Moscow and Beijing.
9. Readiness in the Balance: U.S. Military Preparedness Amid Growing Threats
Video at this link.
Transcript is at this link.
10. Admiral (Retired) William H. McRaven, Former Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, and Nicholas Rasmussen, Former National Counterterrorism Center Director, Reflect on the Usama bin Ladin Raid
ctc.usma.edu · April 27, 2021
11. How to Turn the Tables on China? Use Their A2/AD Military Strategy Against Them
The National Interest · by James Holmes · April 27, 2021
Excerpts: “Meanwhile the Pentagon should fashion access- and area-denial strategies of its own. PLA and Chinese Communist Party thinkers and practitioners obsess over maritime access for a reason: access deniers along the island chain could cut China off from the trading world.
To channel Mahan, sealing the straits permitting passage through the island chain would be like cutting the roots of a plant. It would deny the Chinese merchant fleet and PLA Navy access to the oceanic thoroughfare on which they rely to ply their trades. China’s import and export traffic—crucial to its prosperity, and thus to fulfilling the China Dream—could shrivel and die.
Its geopolitical standing could wilt in the process.
A U.S. access-denial strategy, then, would impose a hard fate on China. Which is the point. Threatening fearful consequences could deter Beijing from aggression tomorrow morning, and the next. If Xi Jinping & Co. wake up and choose forbearance enough days in a row, who knows? China, Asia, and the world could learn to coexist over time.
Lions need not lie down with lambs. Uneasy peace will do. Rediscovering the pivotal role of access will illumine the way.
12. Twenty retired French generals call for MILITARY RULE in the country
Daily Mail · by Danyal Hussain, Ross Ibbetson, and Danyal Hussain · April 27, 2021
Now here is a civil-military relations issue.
13. Why Taiwan's Defense Strategy Calls for a Reassessment of Priorities
The National Interest · by James Holmes · April 28, 2021
Excerpts: “As a result, Taiwan’s maritime strategy risks falling behind the times even as strongman Xi and other communist chieftains rattle their sabers. The same could be said of Taipei’s air strategy, predicated on high-end fighters such as F-16s and F-35 stealth fighters. This at a time when airfields and other infrastructure are increasingly untenable in the face of PLA Rocket Force ballistic missiles and PLA Air Force combat aircraft. Aviators too are susceptible to memes.
Nor, I should say, am I picking on Taiwan here. A meme spread throughout the U.S. Navy a quarter-century ago maintaining, in effect, that naval history had ended with the demise of the Soviet Navy. We no longer had to prepare to battle peer fleets to rule the main. We let the skills and hardware for major sea fights atrophy—and are now scrambling to restore our fighting ability now that an age of great-power competition and strife is upon us. No one is immune to mind viruses.
To evaluate Taiwan’s defenses, ask whether Taipei is asking too much of the armed forces—and whether the armed forces are remaking themselves adequately to cope with today’s brave new world.
14. Biden Must Protect Women’s Rights After Afghanistan Withdrawal
defenseone.com · by Jacqueline Feldscher
I am not sure how POTUS could do this nor can I see how diplomats can handle the issue. (Of course I do not think the US military presence will protect their rights either). This is an Afghan problem.
15. REVEALED: The Scientists "Debunking" the Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Admit Being 'Collaborators' and Honorees of Chinese Communist Party.
thenationalpulse.com · April 27, 2021
16. Extremists Find a Financial Lifeline on Twitch
The New York Times · by Kellen Browning · April 27, 2021
Excerpts: “Joan Donovan, a Harvard University researcher who studies disinformation and online extremism, said streamers who rely on their audience’s generosity to fund themselves felt pressured to continue raising the stakes.
“The incentive to lie, cheat, steal, hoax and scam is very high when the cash is easy to acquire,” she said.
17. Uniting for Total Collapse: The January 6 Boost to Accelerationism
ctc.usma.edu · April 27, 2021
Conclusion: “January 6 represented an apotheosis for this new extreme far-right accelerationist network, just as it has become a moment of reckoning for the mainstream of society. The Capitol insurrection no doubt helped to inspire the Biden administration’s heightened concern over domestic extremism,43 just as it has sparked renewed energy among those conservatives determined to retake control of the Republican Party from Trump loyalists.44 But it has also become a source of renewed momentum and energy for the extreme far-right. It is a unifying symbol, an example of a victory that almost was and might still be. It has empowered and emboldened its admirers while offering an opportunity to exercise the common terrorist tactic of studying and learning from failed actions.45
It remains unclear whether the coalition that formed on January 6 will ultimately reflect a fleeting, one-time moment in the history of the extreme right or if it will be the first among many examples of unifying events that even temporarily bring together groups and individuals from across a fragmented ideological spectrum. More cross-national research would be useful to determine whether and how accelerationist networks are communicating across borders, taking inspiration from each other’s violent acts, and finding ways to align to bring down their own national systems through violent and insurrectionist action. Finally, the events of January 6 signaled increased engagement from women, who have historically been less engaged in violent action on the extremist fringe, in ways that deserve more attention and study. Ongoing research will likely benefit from an exploratory spirit, since it appears that this “ecumenical” extreme far-right is itself in a mode of discovery and experimentation, as consolidation remains the order of the day and collapse the dream for tomorrow. CTC
18. Biden Taps Frank Kendall To Be Air Force Secretary
defenseone.com · by Marcus Weisgerber
19. Frosted Misery: A Navy SEAL in SERE School | SOF News
sof.news · by SOF News · April 27, 2021
The US Army Special Forces SERE school at Fort Bragg (Camp MacKall) is the best school I attended in the Army.
20. "Where's Your Tab" and other Sad Lieutenant Stories - The Company Leader
companyleader.themilitaryleader.com · by Joo Chung · April 26, 2021
21. How China is stoking America’s racial tensions
There should be no doubt the Chinese are doing this. It is low hanging fruit and just too easy to do.
Excerpts: “Twitter, Facebook and YouTube do crack down on Chinese disinformation when it becomes impossible to ignore, as with COVID and Hong Kong, but their actions are inconsistent and patchy. Twitter and Facebook have now started labeling Chinese accounts as ‘state-affiliated’ but that has not dampened unease, even among Facebook’s own employees. Staff there are reportedly concerned the company is being used as a conduit for state propaganda, with a wave of sponsored posts of happy Uighurs, dancing, singing and generally thriving under Chinese rule.
Still, the Chinese embassy in Washington is having to do without its Twitter account, which was suspended in January after diplomats responded to evidence of forced sterilizations with a tweet claiming Uighur women had been ‘emancipated’ from extremism and were no longer ‘baby-making machines’. It was typical of China’s approach to try to whitewash an atrocity by appealing to feminism. In this case they misjudged their audience and overstepped the mark.
In targeting identity politics, China is stoking the most difficult and divisive issues in America. The absurd part is that Xi Jinping’s rule is built on an increasingly virulent ethnic nationalism. This fuels the CCP’s combative stances internationally — see, for instance, China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi unashamedly berating secretary of state Antony Blinken for America’s record on human rights.
At home, meanwhile, the Communist party crushes human rights and regards any cultural and religious difference as a threat. This is what drives the appalling repression in Xinjiang, where the party is seeking to neuter Uighur culture and subjugate it to the Han Chinese. China’s Communist leadership is no position to lecture anybody about racism. Yet they do.
22. China's people need the truth — America should help them get it
The Hill · by Joseph Bosco, opinion contributor · April 27, 2021
I would argue the US is the only country in the world that has the ability to get the truth to all oppressed people through VOA, RFE/RL, RFA, etc.
23. What the CIA Did (and Didn’t Do) in Soviet-Occupied Afghanistan
newlinesmag.com · by Emran Feroz · April 26, 2021
Some history for consideration.
24. How Not to Win Allies and Influence Geopolitics
Foreign Affairs · by Audrye Wong · April 27, 2021
But we should be exploiting these issues for our own information and influence campaign. Let's expose the Chinese strategy.
Excerpts: “This is not to say that Beijing’s attempts at economic statecraft should be written off. With the BRI, China is learning from its missteps. It has announced that it will curb “irrational” BRI investments, crack down on Chinese investors’ illegal activities abroad, and establish a new agency to coordinate foreign aid. At the BRI’s international forum in 2019, Chinese leaders went beyond their usual bland “win-win” rhetoric and for the first time emphasized mantras of quality infrastructure, zero corruption, and ample transparency. At the same summit, China’s central bank and finance ministry also announced new financing criteria that would take into account recipient countries’ existing debt loads.
On the flip side, growing illiberalism globally may give China more opportunities to gain influence in subversive ways. Particularly in countries teetering on the brink of authoritarianism, carrots that buy off corrupt elites could not only help them maintain their hold on power but also do long-term damage to political institutions. China could thus entrench authoritarianism—even if it is not actively trying to export autocracy. As a preventive measure, the United States and its partners can strengthen accountability institutions in recipient countries and provide technical expertise to help them negotiate with China. But framing the issue as a U.S.-led club of democracies competing against China’s authoritarian camp is almost certain to alienate many of those countries, which would prefer to avoid choosing between two rival powers.
In the end, China’s rapidly expanding overseas economic presence, particularly when accompanied by subversion and coercion, may exacerbate strategic fears across the globe. Chinese officials may still think that economic development naturally promotes goodwill and gratitude among recipients, but there is good reason to believe that they are wrong. China, it turns out, cannot count on automatically converting its growing economic clout into a new geopolitical reality.
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“Since 1945 there has been no Third World War. The development of nuclear weapons may prevent such a catastrophe. In the two World Wars words were one of a variety of weapons in the armory of the belligerent powers. In future, because of the advent of nuclear weapons, words may be the only arms which the super-powers can employ without risking annihilation.”
- Charles Roetter, The Art of Psychological Warfare, 1914-1945
“Discussion of psychological warfare remains controversial because reexamination of its record leads in short order to a heretical conclusion: The role of the United States in world affairs during our lifetimes has often been rapacious, destructive, tolerant of genocide, and willing to sacrifice countless people in the pursuit of a chimera of security that has grown ever more remote. Rethinking psychological warfare's role in communication studies, in turn, requires reconsideration of where contemporary Western ideology comes from, whose interests it serves, and the role that social scientists play in its propagation. Such discussions have always upset those who are content with the present order of things. For the rest of us, though, they permit a glimmer of hope.”
- Christopher Simpson, Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960
“The biggest wars are the wars of thought."
The Oldest Soldier
- Fritz Leiber, Night Monsters