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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.

The Challenges of Reconstruction, Marine Progress
by SWJ Editors | Thu, 01/28/2010 - 10:54am | 0 comments
The Challenges of Reconstruction in Afghanistan - Judah Grunstein, World Politics Review.

With all eyes on London and the high-profile Afghanistan Conference, a quieter gathering that took place this week in Prague might have shed more light on the opportunities, challenges and uncertainty that lie ahead for the war-torn country.

The conference, co-sponsored by the Prague Security Studies Institute and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, brought together military and civilian practitioners of reconstruction and development work in Afghanistan, ostensibly to discuss the future of Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan. But the wide-ranging panel discussions also addressed the broader challenges of reconstruction, as well as the urgent need for overcoming them, if the effort to stabilize Afghanistan is to be successful.

PRTs emerged in Afghanistan in 2003 as an ad hoc response to the inherent security challenges presented by reconstruction work in an ongoing conflict zone. Made up of personnel from both civilian development agencies and the military, they represented the first efforts at interagency, whole-of-government stability operations upon which a counterinsurgency approach depends. Their ability to respond quickly to local needs by bypassing bureaucratic and chain-of-command bottlenecks soon led to wider applications. Now, as Mark Ward, special adviser on development to the chief of the U.N.'s Afghanistan mission, observed, with $1 billion in funding and roughly 30 teams operating in the country, the PRTs are collectively one of the biggest international aid donors to Afghanistan...

More at World Politics Review.

U.S. Marines Make Fragile Progress in Helmand - Balint Szlanko, World Politics Review.

Marine Capt. Scott Cuomo of Fox company, 2nd battalion, 2nd Marine regiment, must have felt very confident. How else to explain his climbing into an armorless Afghan army truck -- a coffin on four wheels -- next to Haji Abdullah Jan, the Afghan district governor, with only a few Afghan army soldiers for protection, to speed down empty dirt roads almost certainly mined by the Taliban?

But Cuomo's confidence is not misplaced. The men make it safely to their destination: a destroyed compound beside which the barren, twisted remains of three dead trees point grotesquely to the sky. The district governor, clearly moved, walks to the building. It is his house, which he is visiting for the first time in four years because of the war. Cuomo grins excitedly. The governor is home.

"This is a big success," Cuomo says. "It may be harder to quantify than counting the number of bad guys we have killed, but it is success."

Garmsir district lies in the southern-central part of Helmand, Afghanistan's most war-torn province and home to a massive, opium-fed insurgency. Since 2006, most of the district had been Taliban country. Forays by the British army, until recently the NATO nation in charge of Helmand, had never quite managed to dislodge the insurgents, in part because the British never had enough troops to hold and build the areas that they had cleared of insurgents...

More at World Politics Review.

Military Partnerships May Be Best Path to Peace
by SWJ Editors | Thu, 01/28/2010 - 5:18am | 3 comments
Military Partnerships May Be the Nation's Best Path to Peace - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal this week expressed a truth that military commanders know better than anyone: "A political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome," he told the Financial Times. The problem is getting to that political settlement in a way that the combatants find acceptable. This can take years, even decades. The United States is now in its ninth year of fighting Muslim extremists around the world. People sometimes wonder whether America has learned anything during this painful time, or whether we are condemned to keep digging deeper holes for ourselves. Certainly, we're still digging in Afghanistan, where McChrystal, the U.S. commander there, believes that an acceptable political settlement won't be possible unless we squeeze the Taliban harder. I think he's right about that.

But I sense there's a growing recognition, especially within the U.S. military, that America has to get out of the business of fighting expeditionary wars every time a new flash point erupts with al-Qaeda. The Pentagon has adopted this proxy strategy of training "friendly" countries (meaning ones that share with us the enemy of Islamic extremism) from North Africa to the Philippines. This "partnership" approach hasn't been articulated by the Obama administration as a formal strategy, and it doesn't get much media coverage. But it's worth a careful look, because it may offer the best path toward a world where the United States isn't always operating as an anti-terrorist Robocop...

More at The Washington Post.

Afghan Tribe Vows to Fight Taliban in Return for U.S. Aid
by SWJ Editors | Thu, 01/28/2010 - 3:14am | 11 comments
Afghan Tribe Vows to Fight Taliban in Return for U.S. Aid - Dexter Filkens, New York Times.

The leaders of one of the largest Pashtun tribes in a Taliban stronghold said Wednesday that they had agreed to support the American-backed government, battle insurgents and burn down the home of any Afghan who harbored Taliban guerrillas. Elders from the Shinwari tribe, which represents about 400,000 people in eastern Afghanistan, also pledged to send at least one military-age male in each family to the Afghan Army or the police in the event of a Taliban attack.

In exchange for their support, American commanders agreed to channel $1 million in development projects directly to the tribal leaders and bypass the local Afghan government, which is widely seen as corrupt. "The Taliban have been trying to destroy our tribe, and they are taking money from us, and they are taking our sons to fight," said Malik Niaz, a Shinwari elder. "If they defy us now, we will defeat them." The pact appears to be the first in which an entire Pashtun tribe has declared war on Taliban insurgents...

More at The New York Times.

British Embassy: Reintegration, Reconciliation in Afghanistan
by SWJ Editors | Wed, 01/27/2010 - 1:49pm | 1 comment
Reintegration, Reconciliation: What Do We Mean? - Simon Shercliff, UK's First Secretary of Foreign Security and Policy, Washington, DC

After comments by Secretary Gates on his recent India/Pakistan trip, and by General McChrystal in the FT, the topic of the moment here in DC is reconciliation/reintegration. Regular readers will know that I have highlighted this issue often in the past. Discussion of reintegration and reconciliation, and indeed simple definition of the terms themselves, is fraught with sensitivity. But given that this discussion will clearly take up much of the London conference, it is important that we are as precise as we can be with the language.

This is my take on what we mean - and crucially what we don't mean - when we talk about these issues.

Some excerpts follow:

Reconciliation is the end game, and it needs the right conditions...

Which can be reached by a combination of military and civilian means -- pressure and incentives...

... one of which is reintegration...

And none of which is striking a power-sharing deal with the Taliban, or anyone who follows their practices...

Which means that reintegration, leading to reconciliation, will not catch everyone...

More at The UK in the USA.

Feeling the HEAT
by Robert Haddick | Tue, 01/26/2010 - 10:42am | 4 comments
The HEAT being in this case High-End Asymmetric Threats.

Two examples of HEAT in recent news.

First, writing in his column at Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin tabulated the ten worst Chinese cyber attacks on the United States, at least the ten worst known to the public. Making the list were attacks that penetrated and stole vast amounts of data from U.S. military laboratories, the State Department, NASA, the Naval War College, and the Joint Strike Fighter division of Lockheed Martin. Rogin specifically implicates the Chinese government in these attacks.

Today's New York Times featured an article on a cyber war game recently conducted by the U.S. government. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn led the exercise with the top unified commanders participating. According to the article, the exercise resulted in confusion and paralysis among the decision makers.

Another high-end asymmetric worry is the global positioning satellite network. Last week, General Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, the service responsible for operating the GPS system, advised the U.S. military to reduce its reliance on GPS. He said the system remains vulnerable and war planners and commanders should not expect it to function during a war. Schwartz's warnings come after many decades of proliferation of GPS receivers across the military, which now seem present on every airplane, ship, boat, vehicle, soldier, missile, and bomb.

To indicate to potential adversaries that they do not possess leverage over U.S. military operations in this regard, perhaps U.S. Joint Forces Command planners should organize large joint "no GPS" training exercises and invite outsiders to observe. But only after they are sure U.S. military forces could pull off such a thing.

War Plans, Taliban Reintegration
by SWJ Editors | Tue, 01/26/2010 - 6:03am | 2 comments
U.S. Envoy's Cables Show Concerns on Afghan War Plans - Eric Schmitt, New York Times.

The United States ambassador in Kabul warned his superiors here in November that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan "is not an adequate strategic partner" and "continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden," according to a classified cable that offers a much bleaker accounting of the risks of sending additional American troops to Afghanistan than was previously known.

The broad outlines of two cables from the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, became public within days after he sent them, and they were portrayed as having been the source of significant discussion in the White House, heightening tensions between diplomats and senior military officers, who supported an increase of 30,000 American troops.

But the full cables, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time just how strongly the current ambassador felt about the leadership of the Afghan government, the state of its military and the chances that a troop buildup would actually hurt the war effort by making the Karzai government too dependent on the United States...

More at The New York Times.

Britain, Japan to Help Reintegrate Taliban Foot Soldiers - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post.

Britain and Japan have agreed to head an international fund, expected to total up to $500 million over the next five years, as part of a broad plan to help lure Taliban fighters away from the insurgency with the promise of jobs, protection against retaliation, and the removal of their names from lists of U.S. and NATO targets.

Establishment of the fund will be announced Thursday at a high-level international conference on Afghanistan in London, according to U.S. and British officials. Representatives from nearly 70 nations, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will attend.

The fund will help support a proposal by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to be announced at the conference, to begin the reintegration of low-level fighters. Karzai will also outline his strategy for reconciliation with amenable insurgent leaders...

More at The Washington Post.

PRT Afghan Conference to be Live Streamed
by SWJ Editors | Mon, 01/25/2010 - 9:52pm | 1 comment
On Tuesday and Wednesday (Jan. 26-27), Radio Free Europe / Radio LIberty (RFE/RL) will provide live video streaming of the international conference, "Provincial Reconstruction Teams: Challenges of Reconstruction in Afghanistan." To view the live webstream, go to this link.

The conference will run for two days, with Tuesday's proceedings being broadcast from 9:00 to 17:45 Central European Time (CET), and Wednesday's from 9:00 to 13:00 CET. The full conference program and participants list is available here.

PRT conference participants from RFE/RL include: Jeffrey Gedmin, President; John O'Sullivan, Chief Editor; Akbar Ayazi, Director of Radio Free Afghanistan (Radio Azadi) and Mohammed Amin Mudaquiq, RFE/RL's Kabul Bureau Chief. RFE/RL's Afghan service, known locally as Radio Azadi, is the most popular radio station in Afghanistan, with a weekly audience of 7.9 million people and a market share of about 50%.

Conference organizers say their goals are to contribute to a coherent Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) strategy in Afghanistan based on an assessment of their operations to date and to identify the challenges PRTs face. The conference also aims to increase awareness among policymakers, the media, and the broader public of the challenges and the critical importance of reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

Contested Commons
by SWJ Editors | Mon, 01/25/2010 - 5:21pm | 2 comments
Contested Commons: The Future of American Power in a Multipolar World - Abraham M. Denmark, Dr. James Mulvenon, Frank Hoffman, Lt Col Kelly Martin, USAF, Oliver Fritz, Eric Sterner, Dr. Greg Rattray, Chris Evans, Jason Healey, and Robert D. Kaplan; Center for a New American Security Report.

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released today a major report on American power in the sea, air, space and cyberspace: Contested Commons: The Future of American Power in a Multipolar World. The report, authored by CNAS Fellow Abraham M. Denmark and nine additional experts, advocates that the United States renew its commitment to the global commons by pursuing three mutually supporting objectives: build global regimes that preserve the openness of the commons; engage pivotal actors that have the will and ability to protect and sustain them; and develop the hard-power tools and capabilities necessary for the United States to defend the global commons.

Read the full report at CNAS.

The Post-COIN Era is Here
by SWJ Editors | Mon, 01/25/2010 - 4:23am | 3 comments
The Post-COIN Era is Here - Mark Safranski, Zenpundit

There has been, for years, an ongoing debate in the defense and national security community over the proper place of COIN doctrine in the repertoire of the United States military and in our national strategy. While a sizable number of serious scholars, strategists, journalists and officers have been deeply involved, the bitter discussion characterized as "COINdinista vs. Big War crowd" debate is epitomized by the exchanges between two antagonists, both lieutenant colonels with PhD's, John Nagl, a leading figure behind the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual and now president of the powerhouse think tank CNAS , and Gian Gentile, professor of history at West Point and COIN's most infamous arch-critic.

In terms of policy and influence, the COINdinistas ultimately carried the day. COIN advocates moved from a marginalized mafia of military intellectuals who in 2004 were just trying to get a hearing from an indifferent Rumsfeld Pentagon, to policy conquerors as the public's perceptions of the "Surge" in Iraq (masterminded by General David Petraeus, Dr. Frederick Kagan, General Jack Keane and a small number of collaborators) allowed the evolution of a COIN-centric, operationally oriented, "Kilcullen Doctrine" to emerge across two very different administrations. Critics like Colonel Gentile and Andrew Bacevich began to warn, along with dovish liberal pundits - and with some exaggeration - that COIN theory was acheiving a "cult" status that was usurping the time, money, talent and attention that the military should be devoting to traditional near peer rival threats. And furthermore, ominously, COIN fixation was threatening to cause the U.S. political class (especially Democrats) to be inclined to embark upon a host of half-baked, interventionist "crusades"in Third world quagmires...

More at Zenpundit.

Human Terrain Trailer
by SWJ Editors | Sun, 01/24/2010 - 8:40pm | 8 comments

From the MIME-NET information section on YouTube:

'Human Terrain' is two stories in one. The first exposes the U.S. effort to enlist the best and the brightest of American universities in a struggle for the hearts and minds of its enemies. Facing long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military adopts a controversial new program, 'Human Terrain Systems', to make cultural awareness a key element of its counterinsurgency strategy. Designed to embed social scientists with combat troops, the program swiftly comes under attack by academic critics who consider it misguided and unethical to gather intelligence and target potential enemies for the military. Gaining rare access to wargames in the Mojave Desert and training exercises at Quantico and Fort Leavenworth, 'Human Terrain' takes the viewer into the heart of the war machine and the shadowy collaboration between American academics and the armed services.

The other story is about a brilliant young scholar who leaves the university to join a Human Terrain team. After working as a humanitarian activist and winning a Marshall Scholarship to study at Oxford, Michael Bhatia returned to Brown University to conduct research on military cultural awareness. A year later, he left to embed as a Human Terrain member with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. On May 7, 2008, en route to mediate an intertribal dispute, his humvee hit a roadside bomb and Bhatia was killed along with two other soldiers.

Asking what happens when war becomes academic and academics go to war, the two stories merge in tragedy.

24 January News Items of Interest
by SWJ Editors | Sun, 01/24/2010 - 8:16am | 0 comments
Afghanistan / Pakistan

Karzai Urges West to Buy Off the Taliban - The Times

Afghan Parliamentary Elections Postponed - The Times

Afghanistan Delays Parliamentary Elections - Associated Press

Foot on Bomb, Marine Defies a Taliban Trap - New York Times

Two U.S. Soldiers Are Among 17 Afghan Deaths - New York Times

Roadside Bomb Kills Two U.S. Troops - Associated Press

Australian Weekend Warriors Facing Front Line in Afghanistan - The Australian

Gates Sees Fallout From Troubled Ties With Pakistan - New York Times

Militant Ambush Sparks Pakistan Gunfight - Associated Press

Militants Kill Six Pakistanis for Alleged Spying - Associated Press

More Guile Needed in the Afghan Game - The Times opinion

Iraq

Biden: U.S. Will Appeal Blackwater Case Dismissal - New York Times

Justice Department to Appeal Blackwater Dismissal - Washington Post

British Man Held for Fraud in Iraq Bomb Detectors - New York Times

Road back to Baghdad - Washington Post opinion

Haiti

More Than 150,000 Have Been Buried, Haiti Says - New York Times

Death Toll Growing at Port-au-Prince's Hotel Montana - Washington Post

With Plastic and Cardboard, Haitians Build - Christian Science Monitor

Haitians Tackle Aftermath Alone - The Times

What To Do About Haiti - Los Angeles Times editorial

American Capabilities and Vulnerabilities - Washington Times opinion

The Long War

Indian Hijack Plot Caused New U.K. Terror Alert - The Times

Bin Laden Takes Responsibility for Christmas Bomb Attempt - Los Angeles Times

'Bin Laden' Claims Christmas Day Bomb Plot - The Times

Details Emerge in Arrest of Christmas Day Bomb Suspect - Associated Press

Terrorists Take a Calculated Risk - Los Angeles Times opinion

Terror Warning: From Daft to Perplexing - The Times opinion

Islam's War Against Others - Washington Times opinion

Africa

Somali Pirates Will Die Before Releasing U.K. Couple - The Times

Americas

Venezuela: Tens of Thousands Protest Chavez's Rule - Associated Press

Venezuelan Cable Television Channel Taken Off Air - The Times

Cable Providers Dump Anti-Chávez TV Channel - Associated Press

Asia Pacific

In Japan, U.S. Losing Diplomatic Ground to China - New York Times

Future of Okinawa Base Strains Alliance - Washington Post

N. Korea Accuses Seoul of 'Open Declaration of War' - The Times

Middle East

Israel Poised to Challenge a U.N. Report on Gaza - New York Times

This Week at War: Help Haiti, But Quietly
by Robert Haddick | Fri, 01/22/2010 - 8:07pm | 6 comments
Here is the latest edition of my column at Foreign Policy:

Topics include:

1) The U.S. military should keep a low profile in Haiti,

2) With China in mind, Gates deepens the U.S. defense relationship with India.

The U.S. military should keep a low profile in Haiti

The U.S. military is now carrying out a wide-ranging relief mission in Haiti in response to the dreadful Jan. 12 earthquake that virtually destroyed Port-au-Prince and other built-up areas in the country. Because it has the manpower, ships, airplanes, organization, and the budget to rapidly move equipment, supplies, and people to anywhere in the world, it is no surprise that the Pentagon's is the first phone that rings whenever such a natural disaster strikes. Recent large-scale relief missions after the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan brought acclaim to the U.S. military and the U.S. government. U.S. policy officials struggling for the moral high ground were happy to pocket the "soft power" benefits of these relief missions.

The disaster in Haiti provides another opportunity for the Pentagon to show the world the humanitarian advantages of its logistical power. All five of the military services are contributing to the effort and the Pentagon has created a webpage to collect all of its Haiti stories, photos, and links. But be careful, counsels Gary Anderson, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and veteran of relief missions in Bangladesh and Somalia. In two essays written for Small Wars Journal, Anderson advises the U.S. military in Haiti to work only in support of the host government, to let the United Nations and non-governmental aid groups take the lead, and to generally take as low a profile as possible. Try to do too much, he warns, and the military relief effort will risk squandering any goodwill it might gain.

Click through to read more ...

Targeted Assassinations in the War Against Al Qaeda
by SWJ Editors | Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:19pm | 10 comments
There's a very nice piece in today's Diane Rehm Show on Targeted Assassinations in the War Against Al Qaeda. Discussion includes the application of the law of war to the CIA's use of drones and the "trust us, it's good" response to requests for disclosure of the legal analysis behind the policy decision and quality assurances in targeting & approval processes. James Kitfield, one of the guests, has written a two-part story for the National Journal called Predators. Wanted: Dead and Are Drone Strikes Murder? are available to subscribers only; I am currently struggling with their cumbersome free trial. Hina Shamsi and Paul Pillar are the other two guests.
Retaining Talent
by SWJ Editors | Thu, 01/21/2010 - 4:12am | 8 comments
Towards a U.S. Army Officer Corps Strategy for Success: Retaining Talent - Colonel Casey Wardynski, Major David S. Lyle, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Michael J. Colarusso, U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.

Over the last 3 decades, dramatic labor market changes and well-intentioned but uninformed policies have created significant officer talent flight. Poor retention engenders substantial risk for the Army as it directly affects accessions, development, and employment of talent. The Army cannot make thoughtful policy decisions if its officer talent pipeline continues to leak at current rates. Since the Army cannot insulate itself from labor market forces as it tries to retain talent, the retention component of its officer strategy must rest upon sound market principles. It must be continuously resourced, executed, measured, and adjusted across time and budget cycles. Absent these steps, systemic policy, and decisionmaking failures will continue to confound Army efforts to create a talent-focused officer corps strategy.

More at the Strategic Studies Institute.

Reconciliation Critical; Few Trained Aid Partners; New Wave of Warlords
by SWJ Editors | Wed, 01/20/2010 - 7:13am | 0 comments
Gates: Afghan Reconciliation Efforts Critical - Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration offered cautious support for the Afghan government's new outreach effort to the Taliban, expressing hope that lower level militants would reconcile with Kabul even if senior leaders continued fighting. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, at the start of an official visit to India, told reporters that the U.S. welcomed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's new efforts to persuade Taliban militants to lay down their weapons in exchange for jobs, education and security guarantees for themselves and their families. Mr. Gates said that he believed such reconciliation efforts would ultimately be "critical" to ending the long and increasingly bloody Afghan war.

But the defense chief cautioned that top Taliban leaders like Mullah Omar would be unlikely to participate in peace talks with the Afghan central government unless the U.S. and its allies reclaimed the battlefield momentum in Afghanistan. "I'd be very surprised to see a reconciliation with Mullah Omar," Mr. Gates told reporters during the flight here. "It's our view that until the Taliban leadership sees a change in the momentum and begins to see that they are not going to win, the likelihood of reconciliation at senior levels is not terribly great." The comments came just two days after the Karzai government said it was finalizing a major new initiative aimed at convincing large numbers of Taliban fighters to renounce violence and agree to work with - or at least tolerate - the Afghan central government...

More at The Wall Street Journal.

U.S. Aid Workers Find Few Trained Afghan Partners - Keith B. Richburg. Washington Post.

Alongside the thousands of additional U.S. troops, civilian aid workers are surging into Afghanistan to help refurbish schools, open rural health clinics, build irrigation systems, vaccinate livestock and provide fertilizer to farmers. But like their military counterparts, the civilian technicians are finding the lack of trained Afghan partners their most difficult challenge. The problem is particularly acute in the remote rural areas, where the Afghan government's presence is virtually nonexistent. "We're trying to create a centralized government where there's no history of it," said Lindy Cameron, the British head of the multinational provincial reconstruction team in Helmand. "The biggest challenge is the capacity of the Afghan government."

The point was illustrated during a recent day trip to Helmand by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who was in Afghanistan to see how USDA expertise and technical assistance could help farmers boost production in the country's leading agricultural province. Vilsack learned how U.S. aid and agricultural officials had vaccinated more than a million animals, provided seed and fertilizer to 10,000 farmers and distributed thousands of tons of feed for livestock. But when he traveled to Nawa, bringing along Helmand's governor and the agriculture minister from Kabul, he also came face to face with the Afghan government's limitations. Only two Agriculture Ministry officials were working here, and neither lived in the district. They had no office, no equipment, no cellphone - not even a bicycle...

More at The Washington Post.

New Wave of Warlords Bedevils U.S. - Matthew Rosenberg, Wall Street Journal.

In his teen years, Sirajuddin Haqqani was known among friends as a dandy. He cared more about the look of his thick black hair than the battles his father, a mujahideen warlord in the 1980s, was waging with Russia for control of Afghanistan. The younger Mr. Haqqani is still a stylish sort, say those who know him. But now, approaching middle age and ensconced as the battlefield leader of his father's militant army, he has become ruthless in his own pursuit of an Afghanistan free from foreign influence. This time the enemy is the U.S. and its allies.

From outposts along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, his Haqqani network is waging a campaign that has made the Afghan insurgency deadlier. He has widened the use of suicide attacks, which became a Taliban mainstay only in the past few years. U.S. officials believe his forces carried out the dramatic Monday gun, grenade and suicide-bomb attack in Kabul on Afghan government ministries and a luxury hotel. The assault claimed five victims plus seven attackers. Mr. Haqqani also aided the Dec. 30 attack by an al Qaeda operative that killed seven Central Intelligence Agency agents and contractors at a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan, say militant commanders. And he orchestrated last year's assault on a United Nations guesthouse that killed five U.N. staffers, along with other attacks in the capital...

More at The Wall Street Journal.

A Certain Trumpet
by SWJ Editors | Sun, 01/17/2010 - 11:07am | 1 comment
A Certain Trumpet - Major General Ed Scholes, USA (Ret.), Veterans of Special Forces

... If anyone or any organization/agency conducts an objective critique of this nation's military strategy, advice, influence and actions/inactions over the past five decades, this recommendation by General Taylor reference the Joint Chiefs of Staff might assume significant relevance. Let there be no confusion; in this paper I am discussing actions and organizational structure at the highest levels and not the actions of those in the field. Our troops, unit leaders, and our military families have responded, and continue to respond, to our nation's requirements with such courage, stamina, and professional abilities that have exceeded all historical standards of selfless service to this nation. Their assigned mission(s) have been accomplished beyond any measure that could reasonably be expected during this past decade of fighting a somewhat different type of warfare with difficult limitations, and against forces without nation state affiliation. Readers are advised also that the points raised and the questions poised are not done so to attack personally those in position of authority at the time but to bring to the surface issues that could possibly provide better and safer operations for the future, for the benefit of those in the field.

The operational relationships between the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff and our growing organization of combatant commands, deemed necessary to carry out the operational aspects of our national strategy, needs serious study. In the implementation of our national strategy this past decade, one must ask what was the advice of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the responsible combatant commander when it was decided to only use Special Forces and CIA teams with the warlords and tribal leaders in Afghanistan to defeat the Al Qaeda and Taliban, without the support of conventional forces to at least block the egress routes, to kill or capture the enemy irregular forces, and prevent their escape to Pakistan. The Special Forces, CIA and Afghanistan forces accomplished their missions extremely well, but one of the first principles taught irregular forces is, "when victory is not possible -- live to fight another day". They did and they are! ...

More at Veterans of Special Forces.

The Green Beret Who Could Win the War in Afghanistan
by SWJ Editors | Sun, 01/17/2010 - 5:59am | 46 comments
Jim Gant, the Green Beret Who Could Win the War in Afghanistan - Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post opinion.

It was the spring of 2003, and Capt. Jim Gant and his Special Forces team had just fought their way out of an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan's Konar province when they heard there was trouble in the nearby village of Mangwel. There, Gant had a conversation with a tribal chief - a chance encounter that would redefine his mission in Afghanistan and that, more than six years later, could help salvage the faltering U.S. war effort...

... In recent months, Gant, now a major, has won praise at the highest levels for his effort to radically deepen the U.S. military's involvement with Afghan tribes -- and is being sent back to Afghanistan to do just that. His 45-page paper, "One Tribe at a Time," published online last fall and circulating widely within the U.S. military, the Pentagon and Congress, lays out a strategy focused on empowering Afghanistan's ancient tribal system. Gant believes that with the central government still weak and corrupt, the tribes are the only enduring source of local authority and security in the country.

"We will be totally unable to protect the 'civilians' in the rural areas of Afghanistan until we partner with the tribes for the long haul," Gant wrote. A decorated war veteran and Pashto speaker with multiple tours in Afghanistan, Gant had been assigned by the Army to deploy to Iraq in November. But with senior military and civilian leaders - including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; and Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command - expressing support for Gant's views, he was ordered instead to return to Afghanistan later this year to work on tribal issues...

More at The Washington Post.

Poor Schooling Slows Anti-terrorism Effort in Pakistan
by SWJ Editors | Sun, 01/17/2010 - 4:50am | 3 comments
Poor Schooling Slows Anti-terrorism Effort in Pakistan - Griff Witte, Washington Post.

With a curriculum that glorifies violence in the name of Islam and ignores basic history, science and math, Pakistan's public education system has become a major barrier to U.S. efforts to defeat extremist groups here, U.S. and Pakistani officials say. Western officials tend to blame Islamic schools, known as madrassas, for their role as feeders to militant groups, but Pakistani education experts say the root of the problem is the public schools in a nation in which half of adults cannot sign their own name. The United States is hoping an infusion of cash - part of a $7.5 billion civilian aid package - will begin to change that, and in the process alter the widespread perception that Washington's only interest in Pakistan is in bolstering its military.

But according to education reform advocates here, any effort to improve the system faces the reality of intense institutional pressure to keep the schools exactly the way they are. They say that for different reasons, the most powerful forces in Pakistan, including the army, the religious establishment and the feudal landlords who dominate civilian politics, have worked against improving an education system that for decades has been in marked decline...

More at The Washington Post.

Haiti: What We're Getting Into
by SWJ Editors | Sat, 01/16/2010 - 7:24am | 0 comments
Haiti: What We're Getting Into - Tim Sullivan, AEI's Center for Defense Studies (CDS).

In the weeks ahead, the Center for Defense Studies will be producing a series of backgrounders on the U.S. military's relief mission in Haiti. To view the first of these "Issue Alerts," which outlines the U.S. forces deployed the Haiti and the unexpected challenges they may face there, click here.

More at CDS.

This Week at War: Google has more guts than the U.S. Government
by Robert Haddick | Fri, 01/15/2010 - 8:16pm | 7 comments
Here is the latest edition of my column at Foreign Policy:

Topics include:

1) Google goes where the U.S. government has feared to tread,

2) Computers must take over counter-terrorism analysis.

Google goes where the U.S. government has feared to tread

In a dramatic statement posted on the company's official blog this week, Google sparked a confrontation with the Chinese government that will likely end with the company exiting the Chinese market. Google's statement all but accuses the Chinese government of "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure." The Chinese government has long been suspected of directly performing, or facilitating proxies to perform, a wide range of cyberwarfare activities. Google's forceful response against the Chinese government has gone further than the U.S. government, a daily large-scale victim of cyberattacks, has ever gone. The Pentagon's forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review will likely feature discussions concerning "high-end asymmetric threats" such as cyberwarfare; but ironically it is a private company that is taking action against the Chinese government, a leading high- end asymmetric threat. Finally, Google's decision to likely abandon China could reveal a major crack in China's authoritarian model for economic growth and development.

Google stated that the attacks targeted at least 20 other large companies and the email accounts used by prominent Chinese human rights activists. The company did not directly accuse the Chinese government of these attacks, but its response indicates that it believes the Chinese government is responsible. If Google thought the culprits were lone-wolf Chinese computer hobbyists or cybercriminals, one would think that their response would have called on the Chinese government to police lawless behavior. In this case, it has obviously concluded that it is the government itself that is lawless.

Google has shown the courage to name the villain and accept the consequences for doing so. This is more than the U.S. government has ever done, in spite of many years of regular cyberattacks from China and Russia.

Click through to read more ...

U.S. Approves Training to Expand Afghan Army
by SWJ Editors | Fri, 01/15/2010 - 6:10am | 0 comments
U.S. Approves Training to Expand Afghan Army - Rod Nordland, New York Times.

The Pentagon has authorized a substantial increase in the number of Afghan security forces it plans to train by next year, in time for President Obama's deadline for United States combat forces to begin withdrawing from the country, military officials said Thursday. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber struck a marketplace in southern Afghanistan and killed 20 people, including children, and NATO officials reported that 23 soldiers had died so far this year. The new training goals would increase the size of the Afghan Army from its present 102,400 personnel to 171,600 by October 2011, according to Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the American officer who leads NATO's training mission in Afghanistan.

Addressing a group of Afghan National Army cadets on Thursday, General Caldwell said the Pentagon had made the decision to increase its training commitments at a meeting the night before in Washington. "The coalition forces want to grow the Afghan forces," General Caldwell told the cadets, in response to a question from one about whether the coalition should not give more responsibility to Afghan forces. "We want to do just what you're saying," he answered. "We are here as guests of Afghanistan. We want to support your army to take control." ...

More at The New York Times.

The State of State
by SWJ Editors | Wed, 01/13/2010 - 4:02pm | 0 comments
The State of State: A Proposal for Reorganization at Foggy Bottom - Matt Armstrong, Progressive Fix.

The past decade has seen the U.S. government expand its activities around the globe in response to complex and stateless threats. In the face of these challenges, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, and members of Congress have all called for increasing the resources and capabilities of the State Department to roll back what Gates has termed the "creeping militarization" of foreign policy. But efforts at reform are hindered by an institutional structure rooted in a 19th-century view of the world.

The days of traditional diplomacy conducted behind closed doors are over. The democratization of information and means of destruction makes a kid with a keyboard potentially more dangerous than an F-22. Addressing poverty, pandemics, resource security, and terrorism requires multilateral and dynamic partnerships with governments and publics. But the State Department has yet to adapt to the new context of global engagement. The diverse threats that confront the U.S. and our allies cannot be managed through a country-centric approach. For State to be effective and relevant, it needs to evolve and become both a Department of State and Non-State.

Currently, State's structure impedes its efforts to develop coherent responses to pressing threats. The vesting of authority in U.S. embassies too often complicates interagency and pan-regional coordination and inhibits the effective request for and distribution of resources. No less significant, the structure also implicitly empowers the Defense Department's regionally focused combatant commands, like Central Command, as alternatives to the State Department. Compounded by years of managerial neglect, and a lack of long-term vision, strategic planning, and budgeting, the State Department requires high-level patches and workarounds to do its job adequately.

State's ineffectiveness has created voids filled by other agencies, notably the Pentagon. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has also sought to move in on the space left by State. USDA in late 2009 asked that funds be transferred from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and State Department for projects in Afghanistan. Such a move would further dilute State's efficacy, sow confusion, and widen gaps between requirements and actions in foreign policy...

Much more at Progressive Fix.

Generals Should be Guided by Truth, Not Politics
by SWJ Editors | Wed, 01/13/2010 - 6:52am | 2 comments
Generals Should be Guided by Truth, Not Politics - Lawrence J. Korb, Washington Post opinion.

In his Dec. 27 column, ["An admiral who found the center," op-ed], David Ignatius distorts the proper role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He glosses over Adm. Mike Mullen's professional failures, particularly on Afghanistan and his handling of the firing of Gen. David McKiernan. Ignatius is wrong to argue that any military officer, especially a member of the Joint Chiefs, is supposed to find the center of the political spectrum. An officer has a responsibility to give the president and Congress his or her best military advice, whether that is embraced by the right or the left, whether it is popular or unpopular...

What about Mullen? In late 2007, when Congress asked him about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, Mullen shrugged it off. "In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must," he told the House Armed Services Committee. Was that his professional opinion, or was it the policy of President George W. Bush, who gave short shrift to Afghanistan because of his obsession with Iraq? Is that what the combatant commanders were telling him? The answer is no...

More at The Washington Post.

What Can Robert Gates Achieve in Extra Year at Pentagon?
by SWJ Editors | Tue, 01/12/2010 - 6:06am | 3 comments
What Can Robert Gates Achieve in Extra Year at Pentagon? - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates's decision to stay on another year allows him to cement many of the policy and budgetary moves that have been the hallmarks of his tenure. Mr. Gates, the only holdover from the Bush administration and an acknowledged Republican, has emerged in the Obama White House as one of the most respected senior advisers. He has long portrayed himself as a reluctant leader —to serve only as long as the president wishes it. But he has also been eager to make a lasting mark on defense policy. Now, having announced that he will stay on for "at least" another year, he may be in a position to secure his reputation as a reformer. "His influence will continue to grow," says Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. "A lot of the programs and initiatives that he has been pushing will take some time to implement, and the longer he stays around, the better his chances are for them to take hold."

Gates will also be able to oversee the new strategy in Afghanistan of which he was a chief architect, as well the drawdown of forces in Iraq. But his tenure is having a broader reach. Gates has attempted to steer the Pentagon away from expensive programs that are less relevant to today's wars. He was largely successful in canceling or slowing programs that he deemed irrelevant, most notably the F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighter, which was cast as an outdated technology more suitable for a conventional war than for tracking terrorists. The question is whether Gates will simply steward the reforms he put in place last year or seek to expand them. Mr. Harrison believes he will go further...

More at The Christian Science Monitor.

Can Intelligence Be Intelligent?
by SWJ Editors | Tue, 01/12/2010 - 5:46am | 2 comments
Can Intelligence Be Intelligent? - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal opinion.

'Intelligence," Daniel Patrick Moynihan once observed, "is not to be confused with intelligence." To read two recent analyses of U.S. intelligence failures is to be reminded of the truth of that statement, albeit in very different ways. Exhibit A is last week's unclassified White House memo on the attempted bombing of Flight 253 over the skies of Detroit. Though billed by National Security Adviser Jim Jones as a bombshell in its own right, the memo reads more like the bureaucratic equivalent of the old doctor joke about the operation succeeding and the patient dying. The counterterrorism system, it tells us, works extremely well and the people who staff it are top-notch. No doubt. It just happens that in this one case, this same terrific system failed comprehensively at the most elementary levels.

For contrast - and intellectual relief - turn to an unsparing new report on the U.S. military's intelligence operations in Afghanistan. "Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. intelligence community is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy," it begins. "U.S. intelligence officers and analysts can do little but shrug in response to high level decision-makers seeking the knowledge, analysis, and information they need to wage successful counterinsurgency." That's not happy talk, particularly given that it comes from the man who now runs the Army's intelligence efforts in the country, Major General Michael T. Flynn. But Gen. Flynn, along with co-authors Paul Batchelor of the Defense Intelligence Agency and Marine Captain (and former Journal reporter) Matt Pottinger, are just getting warmed up. Current intel products, they write, "tell ground units little they do not already know." The intelligence community is "strangely oblivious of how little its analytical products, as they now exist, actually influence commanders." There is little by way of personal accountability: "Except in rare cases, ineffective intel officers are allowed to stick around...

More at The Wall Street Journal.

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