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SWJ Blog is a multi-author blog publishing news and commentary on the various goings on across the broad community of practice. We gladly accept guest posts from serious voices in the community.

One Tribe at a Time: The Way Forward

by SWJ Editors | Wed, 04/14/2010 - 5:07pm | 2 comments

Tribal engagement is the most viable option we have for changing the tide of the war in Afghanistan. Tribes, though weakened by decades of war and social unrest, remain the defining local organization in the rural areas of the east and south. This insurgency is about the Pashtuns. Pashtuns are waging the insurgency in the Pashtun tribal belt. The key to success in this very difficult and complex situation lies in the minds and the actions of the Pashtun tribesmen, not in the motivations of some foreign and Afghan officials who have far less invested in the war's outcome and are sitting in offices and ministries in Kabul and Kandahar protecting the "status quo."

The Pashtun tribes, with U.S. military assistance and on-the-ground presence, are the only force capable of pushing back the Taliban and providing the central government and Afghan security forces the time and space in which to assert greater stability. Seen in that light, contrary arguments that empowering the tribes would weaken the central government, interfere with the building of the Afghan Army and police, or prove too risky or unfeasible are short-sighted and reflect a failure to grasp the essential role of Pashtun tribes and tribal relationships in shaping the country's future.

At the same time, if we do not use this opportunity to give Pashtun tribes a voice in politics at the district, provincial and central levels of a reformed Afghan government, the long-term stability of the nation will be threatened. Borrowing a term from David Kilcullen at the Tribal Engagement Workshop, the real challenge may be the "catastrophic success" of tribes that are providing security but are not empowered politically.

A strategy of tribal engagement in the east and tribal-building in the south will play a vital role in determining whether Pashtun tribal influence becomes a force to help stabilize Afghanistan rather than another missed opportunity. Trained teams able to speak Pashtu and see things through the eyes of a tribesman are essential to building the enduring relationships with tribal leaders necessary to make this time-sensitive yet resource-efficient strategy succeed. The Pashtuns have a saying: "You can build anything, but you cannot rebuild trust once it is broken."

The Pashtun tribes want "people" not a plan or a process, a reality that has hit home as I've brushed up on my Pashtu over the last three months in preparation for deployment. The real question is -- are we —to give them that?

Jim Gant

One Tribe at a Time: The Way Forward (PDF)

Path for Stabilizing Afghanistan Through Economic Growth

by SWJ Editors | Tue, 04/13/2010 - 5:48pm | 1 comment

The Economic Imperative: Stabilizing Afghanistan through Economic Growth, by Center for a New American Security CEO Nathaniel Fick and Institute for State Effectiveness CEO Clare Lockhart, argues that U.S. and ISAF operations in the country currently have an "economic gap," and, while lack of attention to economic dimensions are numerable and justified, development is an imperative component to sustainable security and must be pursued.

"Harnessing the potential of the Afghan people to succeed on Afghan terms through Afghan institutions will reinforce stability as it spreads from areas cleared of insurgents, will give more Afghans a stake in the future of their country, and provides the only path to national self-sufficiency," write the authors.

The international community should also help catalyze a number of existing development initiatives that produce tangible benefits quickly for Afghans, including microfinance and public works programs, the National Solidarity Program, and OPIC-offered risk guarantees to potential investors, and:

- Revitalize the role of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

- Support the creation of a National Task Force for job development and training.

- Reaffirm the significance of Afghanistan's economic ministries.

- Create a global task force to identify gaps in strategy, financing mechanisms and to explore and set up additional financial instruments.

Download The Economic Imperative here.

Essential Background for the Nuclear Security Summit

by SWJ Editors | Mon, 04/12/2010 - 7:58pm | 0 comments

Here's a great resource from Harvard's Belfer Center providing the essential background -- a "list of key facts and figures about nuclear security and terrorists' attempts to acquire nuclear materials."

The True Fiasco Exposed by Wikileaks

by SWJ Editors | Sun, 04/11/2010 - 6:21pm | 8 comments

The True Fiasco Exposed by Wikileaks - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.

You are probably already familiar with the Wikileaks-edited video released April 5 of the 2007 airstrike in which a number of people were killed, including armed and unarmed men as well as two employees of the news agency Reuters. As of this writing, the initial instance of the edited version of the video titled "Collateral Murder" on YouTube is over 5 million views, not including reposts of the video by others using different YouTube accounts, and, according to The New York Times, "hundreds of times in television news reports." An unedited and not subtitled version upload by Wikileaks to YouTube, in contrast, has less 630,000, reflecting the lack of promotion of this version.

This video represents the advantages and disadvantages of social media in that highly influential content is easily propagated for global consumption. The persistency provided by the Internet means it will always be available and easily repurposed. Further, this situation highlights the ability to suppress unwanted information, both by the propagandist (omission of information) and by the supporter (removing an adversarial perspective). Lastly, the official response to this video shows the Defense Department still has a long way to go in understanding and operating in this new global information environment.

This video is, on its face and in depth, inflammatory and goes well beyond investigative journalism and creating transparency. It has launched debates about the legality of the attacks and questions of whether war crimes were committed. The video, as edited, titled, and subtitled is disturbing. It will continue to get substantial use in debates over Iraq, the US military, and US foreign policy in general...

Much more at MountainRunner.

MilBlog Conference 2010

by Crispin Burke | Sun, 04/11/2010 - 8:09am | 1 comment

"There are people alive today as a direct result of what Milbloggers

do each and every day"

--Gary Cagle of

Team Rubicon.

Military bloggers gathered in Arlington, VA this weekend for the 5th

Annual Milblog Conference. The "Milbloggers" came from all walks of life:

from veterans, to journalists, charity workers, even Gary Trudeau, the author of

Doonesbury. The conference kicked off on Friday night with a panel

entitled "It's a Marathon, not a Sprint", which chronicled the early days of the

milblogosphere. Led by pioneers of milblogging, such as Matt "Blackfive"

Burden, Lt. Col. Mitchell Bell (The SandGram),

Julia Hayden (SGT Mom), and Juliette Ochieng

(Baldilocks),

the panelists shared anecdotes about their entry into the blogging world and the

role of blogging within their lives. For many in the audience, it was a chance

to finally meet the people behind the blogs they had been reading for years.

Click through to read more ...

COIN/SO/SFA SITREP, March 2010

by SWJ Editors | Sat, 04/10/2010 - 6:23pm | 0 comments

COIN/SO/SFA SITREP, March 2010 - US Army/US Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center

Director's Comments:

During the March 2010 Train the Trainer Course (T3C) at the COIN Training Center-Afghanistan (CTC-A) in Kabul, GEN McChrystal underscored to joint and multinational COIN trainers that his operational priority for ISAF is counterinsurgency, and that COIN is not merely a recommended technique -- it is a requirement. Receiving this COMISAF guidance firsthand were representatives from the USA/USMC COIN Center and Battle Command Training Program who will rapidly retransmit this guidance and additional insights to multiple training audiences preparing for deployment.

In support of COMISAF's population-centric approach to COIN, we recently engaged in a number of endeavors to include: continued training of the Human Terrain Teams that provide units with a deeper understanding of their operational environment; support to the Tribal Engagement Workshop sponsored by Small Wars Journal to better understand implications of tribal dynamics (report will soon be posted at http://smallwarsjournal.com); and participation in the Wilton Park's Winning Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan: Assessing the Effectiveness of Developmental Aid in COIN Operations, specifically focused on this complex and multi-dimensional challenge (Blog and Conference Report).

Would encourage your continued great feedback on COIN Center blogs on topics such as root causes and tribal engagement. Recent blog activity [Stabops ATTP blog link here] was so useful that it served as the catalyst for the Army to develop an on-line ATTP to address a crucial doctrinal gap in Stability Operations tactics, techniques, and procedures. Recommend you also review The Azimuth, a primer focused on preparing for COIN challenges.

During his recent orientation as Commander, Combined Arms Center (CAC), LTG Robert Caslen, stressed the imperative to ensure the Army is prepared both for this and the next fight and the need to ensure institutional pre-deployment training leads to the knowledge and skills required by our soldiers to conduct their operational missions. In that light, the COIN Center has been chartered to establish a CAC operational planning team (OPT) to increase focus on efforts to ensure doctrinal and training products reflect relevant lessons from operational application. We will keep you apprised on ongoing initiatives in this line of effort.

Thanks for your efforts in support of our troops,

Colonel Dan Roper

See full SITREP here

Our Condolences to the People of Poland

by SWJ Editors | Sat, 04/10/2010 - 10:09am | 8 comments

Our most sincere condolences to the people of Poland, a true and steady ally, on the untimely death of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, other members of the Polish delegation to Katyn, Russia, and to their families and friends.

"The Polish president and his wife were killed in a plane crash this morning, according to Russian officials. President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were on board a flight which crashed at 10.56 Moscow time (0656 GMT) near Smolensk airport. Russian media is reporting that all 132 passengers were killed. The Kaczynski's were travelling with several senior government figures on a trip to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn forest massacre, in which thousands of Poles were executed by Soviet secret police."

-- The Times

"The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, DC wishes to inform that the book of condolence is open the Embassy's premises on April 10 (Saturday) from 12pm to 6pm, April 11 (Sunday) from 10am to 5pm, and from Monday to Friday from 10am to 6 pm."

-- Embassy of Poland, U.S.

Polish President Dies in Plane Crash - Krakow Post

President Lech Kaczy&nacute;ski Dead in Plane Crash - Warsaw Business Journal

Polish President Killed in Plane Crash - Voice of America

President of Poland Killed in Plane Crash in Russia - New York Times

Polish President is Killed in Plane Crash in Russia - Washington Post

Polish President, Others Killed in Plane Crash - Wall Street Journal

Polish President Killed in Plane Crash - The Times

Crash Kills Polish President - New Poland Express

Polish President Dies in Plane Crash - BBC News

Polish Tragedy in Smolensk - Krakow Post

Full List of Plane Crash Victims Issued - Warsaw Business Journal

Leaders Express Sorrow at Polish President's Death - Associated Press

Week of Mourning Announced in Poland - RIA Novosti

Poland Mourns President - Voice of America

Polish Citizens Mourn Plane Crash Victims - BBC News

Biography of Polish President Lech Kaczynski - RIA Novosti

Biography of Poland's Lech Kaczynski - CNN News

The Embassy of the Republic of Poland - U.S. Embassy

This Week at War: Learning to Love Crazy Karzai

by Robert Haddick | Fri, 04/09/2010 - 9:24pm | 2 comments

Here is the latest edition of my column at Foreign Policy:

Topics include:

1) Great news -- Karzai is acting crazy,

2) The yin and yang of the Nuclear Posture Review.

Great news -- Karzai is acting crazy

In last week's column, I discussed an anti-American outburst Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently delivered to lunch guests at his palace. After a phone call to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to smooth things over, Karzai almost immediately opened fire again, renewing his complaints about Western interference in Afghanistan's affairs. This tirade concluded with a threat to join the Taliban if foreign interference did not stop. The colorful Peter Galbraith, the former deputy U.N. envoy to Afghanistan (who was fired from that position for his open quarrels with Karzai and his boss) questioned Karzai's "mental stability" and hinted Karzai might be under the influence of drugs. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley dismissed Galbraith's claim and again attempted to get relations with Karzai back on track. But we should not be surprised by another eruption from the Afghan president.

U.S. officials should be pleased that Karzai is rebranding himself as an anti-Western nationalist. Successful counterinsurgency requires a local partner who is legitimate and credible with the indigenous population. If Karzai has concluded that this attempt at rebranding is necessary to increase his legitimacy, especially among Pashtuns, the U.S. government should not object.

Obviously a rebranded Karzai is insufficient for success. The numerous shortcomings of Karzai and the central government in Kabul will not be repaired by this ploy. More troubling is the collateral damage Karzai's attempt at rebranding could inflict. The president's new hostility could damage the morale of U.S. soldiers, who will wonder why they should risk their lives for an erratic America-basher. Karzai's revised marketing strategy could also spoil U.S. political support for the military campaign and boost the Taliban's recruiting.

But there is more to Karzai's rebranding than boosting the current counterinsurgency campaign. He also has to start making plans for how to get by in a post-American Afghanistan.

Click through to read more ...

The Burdens of War

by SWJ Editors | Fri, 04/09/2010 - 9:34am | 6 comments

Defending the All-volunteer Force: A Rejoinder to Lt. Col. Paul Yingling - Dr. Curtis Gilroy, Armed Forces Journal.

In his article, "The Founders' Wisdom," in the January issue of Armed Forces Journal, Lt. Col. Paul Yingling argues that the "U.S. should ... abandon the all-volunteer military and return to our historic reliance on citizen soldiers and conscription to wage protracted war." He offers several reasons in support of his argument. First, a conscripted force of citizen soldiers would ensure that the burdens of war are felt equally in every community in America. Second, a conscripted force would provide the means to expand the Army to the sufficient size to meet its commitments. Third, such a force would enable the military to be more discriminating than a volunteer military in selecting those with the skills and attributes most required to fight today's wars. Finally, he believes a conscripted force would be less expensive. I respectfully disagree and will address each point in turn in four sections that follow.

Regardless of one's opinion of the management and progress of the war on terrorism, and contrary to the view of Yingling, the all-volunteer force has been an amazing success. The U.S. is fighting a protracted war with a volunteer military, and has sustained combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan for more than eight years while continuing to meet ongoing obligations around the globe. Even when unemployment rates were near-record lows in 2007, straining recruiting, the military still had tens of thousands of young men and women on waiting lists to join. In fiscal 2009, all four services, both the active and reserve components, met or exceeded their numerical recruiting goals, as well as their recruit quality standards in terms of education and aptitude. Retention also remained high - in many cases, one's tour of duty in a combat zone actually increased the likelihood of staying in the military...

More at Armed Forces Journal.

Whose Burden? - Lt. Col Paul Yingling, Armed Forces Journal.

While I appreciate Curtis Gilroy's spirited defense of the all-volunteer force, his article misrepresents or avoids many of my arguments. In the interest of fostering a more candid dialogue, I would like to pose the following questions:

The Defense Department supports its claim that the armed forces represent American society by grouping into the "top quintile" both middle-income families and multibillionaires. The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans owns 38 percent of our country's wealth and wields a commensurate degree of political influence. However, DoD does not track the degree to which these most-privileged Americans serve in our armed forces. Why not?

Gilroy claims that "the services have been very successful in quickly adjusting end strength to changing requirements and wartime needs." Why is the Army unable to meet its goal of providing two years of dwell time between yearlong deployments?

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have dramatically increased the demands on "strategic corporals" - junior enlisted personnel who make tactical decisions with strategic consequences. Between 2001 and 2007, the percentage of high school graduates enlisting in the Army dropped from 90 percent to 79 percent. Given the increased demands of the battlefield, shouldn't DoD have raised enlistment standards between 2001 and 2007? If not, why not? ...

More at Armed Forces Journal.

Curing Afghanistan, and More...

by SWJ Editors | Thu, 04/08/2010 - 10:40am | 4 comments

Curing Afghanistan - Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell IV and Captain (USN) Mark R. Hagerott, Foreign Policy.

The battle for Marja in southern Afghanistan and the coming campaign in Kandahar are important, but victory on these battlefields will not win the war, though they will help set the conditions for success. It will take a comprehensive, holistic effort to bring stability to Afghanistan.

Drawing on our experience as institution builders, and after spending six months on the ground in Afghanistan, we would like to offer a different way to think about diagnosing this country's ills -- and finding the appropriate cures. In the course of our duties, we have helped build the Afghan army, police, air corps, educational institutions, military hospitals, logistics, and the bureaucracies of defense and interior. Rather than describing Afghanistan with the language of war and battles, we have come to think of the country as an ailing patient -- in many ways analogous to a weakened person under attack by an aggressive infection.

To extend this analogy further, to rebuild the country's long-term health, Afghan and coalition leaders must address the ailment at three levels: curing the body, mind, and spirit of the nation. This means rebuilding the body of physical infrastructure and physical security; restoring the mind of governmental and educational institutions; and reinvigorating the spirit of civil leadership and traditional, tolerant Islam...

Much more at Foreign Policy.

And also at Foreign Policy:

The New Rules of War - John Arquilla

The visionary who first saw the age of "netwar" coming warns that the U.S. military is getting it wrong all over again. Here's his plan to make conflict cheaper, smaller, and smarter.

Planet War - Kayvan Farzaneh, Andrew Swift and Peter Williams

From the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgiences in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it's often innocent civilians who suffer the most.

Africa's Forever Wars - Jeffrey Gettleman

Why the continent's conflicts never end.

In Praise of Aerial Bombing - Edward Luttwak

Why terror from the skies still works.

Let Europe Be Europe - Andrew J. Bacevich

Why the United States must withdraw from NATO.

Think Again: China's Military - Drew Thompson

It's not time to panic. Yet.

The Shooting War - Foreign Policy

An exclusive collection of work by the world's most acclaimed conflict photographers.

Karzai Makes a Bad Partner

by SWJ Editors | Thu, 04/08/2010 - 3:34am | 1 comment

Why Hamid Karzai Makes a Bad Partner for the U.S. - Peter W. Galbraith, Washington Post opinion.

President Obama will soon have 100,000 troops fighting a counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan. Their success depends on having a credible Afghan partner. Unfortunately, Obama's partner is Hamid Karzai.

In the eight years since the Bush administration helped install Karzai as president after the fall of the Taliban, he has run a government so ineffective that Afghans deride him as being no more than the mayor of Kabul and so corrupt that his country ranks 179th on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, just ahead of last-place Somalia, which has no government at all.

Afghanistan held a presidential election last August just as Obama was ramping up U.S. support for the war. Although funded by the United States and other Western countries and supported by the United Nations, the elections were massively fraudulent. Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) - which, despite its name, is appointed by and answers to Karzai - oversaw massive vote-rigging in which at least one-third of Karzai's tally, more than 1 million votes, was fake. A separate, independently appointed Electoral Complaints Commission eventually tossed out enough Karzai votes to force a second round of balloting, but the IEC ensured that the voting procedures were even more prone to fraud than those applied to the first round. Karzai's main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, rightly chose not to participate in the second round...

Much more at The Washington Post.

Spring COIN Symposium and COIN Center Webcast

by SWJ Editors | Thu, 04/08/2010 - 2:38am | 0 comments

The US Army/USMC Counterinsurgency Center is pleased to host Associate Professor Daryl Youngman, Kansas State University, for a COIN Center Webcast from 1000 CST, (1100 EST), (1500 ZULU) on Thursday, 15 April 2010. Assoc. Prof. Youngman's briefing The Utility of Academic Partnerships in COIN Training will focus on the benefits of utilizing university cultural assets in COIN training.

Those interested in attending may view the meeting on-line here and participate via Defense Connect Online (DCO) as a guest. Remote attendees will be able to ask questions and view the slides through the software.

Also, a reminder that registration for the Spring COIN Symposium, 11-13 May 2010, hosted at Fort Leavenworth, KS, is open at this link. The theme of the symposium is - Counterinsurgency Operations in Afghanistan: An Azimuth Check. The agenda can be found here and guest speaker biographies here. Lodging information can be found here.

It's legal -- an open range for U.S. killer drones

by Robert Haddick | Wed, 04/07/2010 - 12:35pm | 10 comments

The Central Intelligence Agency now has legal permission to kill Anwar al-Aulaqi, a United States citizen. An article from today's Washington Post explains:

Because he is a U.S. citizen, adding Aulaqi to the CIA list required special approval from the White House, officials said. The move means that Aulaqi would be considered a legitimate target not only for a military strike carried out by U.S. and Yemeni forces, but also for lethal CIA operations.

(I'm confused by the phrase "special approval from the White House." Being a building and an inanimate object, I did not know that the White House was capable of giving out approvals. I will assume this means that President Obama gave this approval -- why couldn't the author say this?)

In a recent "This Week at War" column, I asked the following questions about America's use of killer drones:

Specifically, if it is legal for the CIA to employ Predator drones in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, what about remote reaches of Asia, Africa, Latin America, or the high seas? Can the United States shoot at any sorts of criminal suspects and not just al Qaeda suspects or their allies? What if the target is a U.S. citizen? Why is it legal for drones with missiles to do what an overseas FBI agent with a pistol cannot? Does any suspect deemed "too difficult to apprehend" become legally eligible for a Hellfire missile instead?

Speaking for the U.S. government, Harold Koh, recently a law school dean and now legal adviser to the U.S. State Department, explained why states, including the United States, have very broad authorities to kill people they conclude are threats. Summarizing his conclusions on this issue (see the "Use of Force" section of his speech), Koh says the U.S. government's legal authority to shoot missiles at people comes from 1) the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) against al Qaeda personnel and their supporters that Congress passed in late September 2001, and 2) a state's inherent right of self-defense, which authorizes lethal force against all other belligerents anywhere at any time.

What makes someone a belligerent? According to Koh, it is someone who is part of a group that is in armed conflict with a state. Any limitations on the state's employment of firepower? According to Koh, the state's use of force must aim at military objectives and the incidental damage of the attack must not be excessive in relation to the military objective.

Applying Koh's reasoning, it seems as if it the U.S. government could legally answer "yes" to all of the questions I posed above, as long as the government could show the person was part of a group that was in some way hostile to the U.S. Koh sums it up this way:

Some have argued that the use of lethal force against specific individuals fails to provide adequate process and thus constitutes unlawful extrajudicial killing. But a state that is engaged in an armed conflict or in legitimate self-defense is not required to provide targets with legal process before the state may use lethal force.

Still, some nagging questions remain:

1) Does this authority only apply outside U.S. territory or could it apply inside the U.S.?

2) Any limitation on "the White House's" discretion to define what constitutes a hostile group and who is associated with such a group?

3) What happens when (not if) other states, NGOs, and international bodies disagree with the U.S. government's legal reasoning? Will future former Obama administration officials risk arrest for war crimes when they travel outside the U.S., a risk that presumably hangs over the heads of some former Bush administration officials?

How to Save Afghanistan From Karzai

by SWJ Editors | Wed, 04/07/2010 - 12:32pm | 3 comments

How to Save Afghanistan From Karzai - Bing West, New York Times opinion.

... The coalition is pursuing a political-military strategy based on three tasks. First, "clear" the guerrillas from populated areas. Second, "hold" the areas with Afghan forces. Third, "build" responsible governance and development to gain the loyalty of the population for the government in Kabul. To accomplish this, the coalition military has deployed reconstruction teams to 25 provinces. We may call this a counterinsurgency program, but it's really nation-building.

The problem with building a new and better Afghanistan is that, above the local level, President Karzai has long held the levers of political power by controlling provincial finances and leadership appointments, including those of police chiefs. Regardless of the coalition's success at the district level, an obdurate and erratic Mr. Karzai is an obstacle to progress...

More at The New York Times.

Is WikiLeaks a Security Threat?

by SWJ Editors | Wed, 04/07/2010 - 8:46am | 10 comments

Video of Iraqi Journalists' Killings: Is WikiLeaks a Security Threat? - Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor.

A 2008 report by the U.S. Army suggests that WikiLeaks, which on Tuesday published a video that shows U.S. forces apparently killing two Iraqi journalists, could be a threat to national security. The website has released sensitive information in the past, the report notes.

The U.S. military has been warily watching for several years the group that released on Monday a graphic video showing a US helicopter apparently killing two Iraqi journalists from Reuters in a Baghdad suburb in 2007.

WikiLeaks.org, the organization in question, is a small nonprofit dedicated to publishing classified information from around the world. In 2008, a classified report from the Army Counterintelligence Center judged that WikiLeaks "represents a potential force protection, counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC) and information security (INFOSEC) threat to the U.S. Army." ...

More at The Christian Science Monitor and:

Leaked Video Shows U.S. Attack in Iraq that Allegedly Killed Journalists - VOA

Video Shows U.S. Killing of Reuters Employees - New York Times

Leaked Footage Shows Iraq Journalists Killed by U.S. Gunships - The Times

Military Shooting of Reuters Men Online - The Australian

Calls for Inquiry into Attack on Iraqi Civilians - Daily Telegraph

Iraqi Journalists Want Probe of Taped U.S. Shooting - Associated Press

Iraq Video Brings Notice to a Web Site - New York Times

'Collateral Murder' in Baghdad Anything But - Weekly Standard

N.Y. Times, Weekly Standard Join in a Falsehood - Salon

Why "COIN for Aviators" is so Important - Wings Over Iraq

U.S. Army Killings in Iraq: Collateral Murder? - Captain's Journal

The Wikileaks Video - Blackfive

Discuss at Small Wars Council - SWC discussion thread

The Azimuth: COIN Edition

by SWJ Editors | Tue, 04/06/2010 - 10:59pm | 0 comments

The Azimuth is the official training bulletin of the Army National Guard (ARNG). It is prepared and published by the Battle Command Training Center at Fort Leavenworth. April's edition is devoted to counterinsurgency and can be found here; it's a very large pdf file so be patient.

From the ARNG Training Chief, Colonel Robert A, Moore:

The Army National Guard Training Division (NGB-ART) is pleased to link The Azimuth "training message" with that of the U.S. Army / USMC Counterinsurgency (COIN) Center, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to communicate new and emerging information in the conduct of COIN.

As we enter our ninth year of being at war, we are still fully engaged in an operational environment characterized by population centricity, religious and tribal fundamentalism, and zealots of political power...a COIN environment. We are often over-tasked and under-resourced, deployed into harm's way when only a few months separate when we were last there, and challenged to be trained when sufficient training time is not available...yet we still prevail. Army National Guard (ARNG) units have performed, and continue to perform, magnificently, both in this environment and support at home to civil authorities and response to domestic emergencies. Still, the myriad tasks are arduous and delicately balanced against available resources. Our current environment is what it is, and we must embrace it with ingenuity, eagerness, and professional resolve.

Tom Ricks: Interview with Petraeus, Dinner with Casey

by SWJ Editors | Tue, 04/06/2010 - 9:45pm | 0 comments

The Best Defense interview: Petraeus on not running for president, pirates, President Obama & 'The Blind Side'.

... Americans are, I think, up to speed on the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq and, to a lesser degree perhaps, with respect to Iran. Areas that I think have been less noticed include: Pakistani operations to combat the Pakistani Taliban (though, to be fair, they have received more attention recently); efforts by the United States and countries in the region to help Yemen deal with AQAP and a variety of political, economic, and social challenges; efforts to establish the Regional Security Architecture in the CENTCOM AOR; initiatives by U.S. forces, together with NATO, EU, and other partners to combat piracy; and the regional effort to counter Al Qaeda and other trans-national extremists...

My dinner with Gen. George Casey: girding for a long war, and more.

... He indicated he believes that President Obama is going to be a war president, like it or not. "We believe this is a long-term ideological struggle," that "this enemy is not going to quit," and that existing global trends are "like to exacerbate" the situation. "We are in for a decade or more of persistent conflict."

He thinks future warfare will resemble the fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon in 2006, in which "a non-state actor has the instruments of state power." That means, he said, that the organizing principle for training and educating the force must be "versatility." ...

Winning 'Hearts and Minds' in Afghanistan

by SWJ Editors | Tue, 04/06/2010 - 12:47pm | 0 comments

Winning 'Hearts and Minds' in Afghanistan: Assessing the Effectiveness of Development Aid in COIN Operations

Report on Wilton Park Conference 1022: Thursday 11 -- Sunday 14 March 2010

Organized in partnership with the Feinstein International Center, Tufts University,

with support from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), the Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence, the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Very Good People, Doing Great Things...

by Dave Dilegge | Mon, 04/05/2010 - 5:54pm | 0 comments

Innocents at Risk:

Innocents at Risk is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded to fight child exploitation and human trafficking. Our mission is to educate citizens about the horrific global and local problem of human trafficking and work to prevent it. In order to increase the visibility of the severity of the issue, Innocents at Risk established partnerships with the Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Custom Border Patrol and the D.C. Task Force. We work with a vast number of non-government organizations and service providers.

Human Trafficking is 21st century slavery. It is happening throughout the world in every country and across the United States in every major city and small town. According to the Department of State, every year over 2,000,000 men, women and children are taken, trafficked and thrown into this cruel world of slavery. Traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to obtain their victims.

Read letters from the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Luis CdeBaca from the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report.

Visit and support Innocents at Risk.

First Line of Defense

Flight Attendants Are First Line of Defense Against Human Trafficking - Elizabeth Lee, Voice of America.

Flight attendants at a large U.S. airline are training other flight attendants to recognize signs of human trafficking on international and domestic flights. The flight attendant leading the program says it's possible to catch traffickers in the act, saving the lives of women and children trapped in the net For a moment in time, strangers from around the world come together as travelers.

It's also a moment when American Airlines flight attendant Sandra Fiorini can save a life. "We had an 18-year-old boy and he had a brand new day-old baby, umbilical cord everything was still there, day-old baby. He's going on a six hour flight, no wife. He has two diapers stuck in his pockets and one bottle," she describes.

Fiorini sees scenrios like that on a regular basis when she is on one of her international flights. She says after 39 years on the job, it's not difficult to recognize a suspected case of human trafficking. "Most of us are parents. When you see an instance that's not right and a red flag is raised, especially when there is children involved, you're more in tune with what's happening," she said. Fiorini had tried to report suspicious activity to the police but they never responded. Two years ago, it all changed when Fiorini met Deborah Sigmund, founder of the organization Innocents At Risk.

"It's enslavement. We're talking about modern day slavery," Sigmund said. Innocents At Risk provided Fiorini with brochures detailing the signs of human trafficking. There's also a phone number to report a suspected case. "Before you couldn't call anyone," Fiorini said. "The local authorities would not respond to you. So now when you do call this hotline number, someone does respond." Law enforcement will be waiting at the gate if a flight attendant reports something suspicious. Innocents At Risk created a video showing why it's important for law enforcement to respond. The organization says women, girls and even boys are being sold into sexual slavery...

More at Voice of America.

Empowering Local Village Elders and Women in Afghanistan

by SWJ Editors | Mon, 04/05/2010 - 4:37pm | 0 comments

Via e-mail:

Empowering Local Village Elders and Women in Afghanistan

Please join us to hear a detailed presentation by Claire Russo, a former U.S. Marine officer, as she discusses her efforts in RC-East to improve local dispute resolution by empowering local village elders. She will also discuss the role of Female Engagement Teams in Afghanistan as part of the counterinsurgency effort.

Guest Speaker:

Claire Russo

ISW Contributor

Former U.S. Marine officer

When:

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

0845 - 0900

Registration and light breakfast

0900 -- 1030

Presentation by Claire Russo

Where:

Institute for the Study of War

Rooftop conference room

1616 P St NW (entrance)

Washington, DC 20036

RSVP:

[email protected]

(202) 293-5550

The Kandahar Gambit

by SWJ Editors | Mon, 04/05/2010 - 5:25am | 1 comment

The Kandahar Gambit - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times opinion.

... But the real source of tension was the battle that was about to begin. Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, has been advertised as the target of a major U.S.-led offensive this summer. The operation will aim to break the back of the Taliban on its own turf. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the offensive "the cornerstone of our surge effort and the key to shifting the momentum" in the 9-year-old war - as important to the Afghan struggle, he said, as pacifying Baghdad was to Iraq.

In fact, the offensive has already begun with a "soft launch" of U.S. special operations raids to kill or capture suspected Taliban leaders, answered by Taliban assassinations of police officials and a string of suicide bombings. In June, about 10,000 fresh U.S. troops will arrive, part of President Obama's Afghan surge of 30,000, to launch major operations in the province...

More at The Los Angeles Times.

Petraeus for President

by SWJ Editors | Sun, 04/04/2010 - 5:38pm | 7 comments

David Petraeus for President: Run General, Run - Toby Harnden, Daily Telegraph.

... In this toxic climate, perhaps the only public institution that has increased in prestige in recent years is the American military. Its officers are looked upon, as General George Patton once noted, as "the modern representatives of the demi-gods and heroes of antiquity".

Where better to look for Obama's successor, therefore, than in the uniformed ranks? Not since 1952, when a certain Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War, was elected President, have the chances of a military man winning the White House been more propitious.

Within those ranks, no one stands out like General David Petraeus, head of United States Central Command, leader of 230,000 troops and commander of United States forces in two wars. Having masterminded the Iraq surge, the stunning military gambit that seized victory from the jaws of defeat, he is now directing an equally daunting undertaking in Afghanistan....

More at The Daily Telegraph.

SWJ in the News

by SWJ Editors | Sun, 04/04/2010 - 1:11pm | 0 comments

Via our Wikipedia entry find linked Small Wars Journal in the News. Links to "mainstream" publications that have cited, written about, or otherwise indulged Small Wars Journal.

Hurting U.S. Efforts to Win Minds in Marja

by SWJ Editors | Sun, 04/04/2010 - 6:56am | 3 comments

Hurting U.S. Efforts to Win Minds, Taliban Disrupt Pay - Richard A. Oppel, Jr., New York Times.

Since their offensive here in February, the Marines have flooded Marja with hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. The tactic aims to win over wary residents by paying them compensation for property damage or putting to work men who would otherwise look to the Taliban for support.

The approach helped turn the tide of insurgency in Iraq. But in Marja, where the Taliban seem to know everything - and most of the time it is impossible to even tell who they are - they have already found ways to thwart the strategy in many places, including killing or beating some who take the Marines' money, or pocketing it themselves.

Just a few weeks since the start of the operation here, the Taliban have "reseized control and the momentum in a lot of ways" in northern Marja, Maj. James Coffman, civil affairs leader for the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, said in an interview in late March. "We have to change tactics to get the locals back on our side." ...

More at The New York Times.

Afghanistan: Devising a Political Strategy and Exit

by SWJ Editors | Sun, 04/04/2010 - 6:24am | 0 comments

How to Use Afghan Culture to Devise a Political Strategy, and Exit - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion.

If U.S. military commanders are right, here's how the path out of Afghanistan begins: Several dozen weathered Pashtun farmers are sitting on carpets under a makeshift tent. It's 45 days after U.S. Marines and Afghan troops have swept into this Taliban stronghold, and now the town's elders are gathered in a shura.

A tribal leader named Haji Abdul Salam presents a long list of grievances: schools, clinics, roads, money to replace the opium poppy crop that's blooming in the fields. An Afghan district governor named Gulab Mangal makes generous promises of assistance; hovering in the background are U.S. military and civilian officials who will pay the bills.

This is how conflicts end in Afghanistan: The Afghans talk out their grievances and eventually reach a deal. Money is exchanged and honor restored. Fighting often continues in the background, but most people go home until the next conflict begins...

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