Blog Posts

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

Topics include:

1) Nuclear arms control will stop with New START

2) Can the Air Force save its Asian bases?

Nuclear arms control will stop with New START

This week, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) angered the White House when he resisted a ratification vote during Congress's lame duck session on the New START treaty with Russia. Ratification of the treaty is one of President Barack Obama's highest foreign-policy priorities. A debate and vote on the treaty will now very likely have to wait until the next Congress, which will include six additional Republican senators, making the likelihood of passage even lower. Obama is witnessing the paradox of arms control: to get New START ratified, Obama will have to become a hawk on strategic nuclear modernization and missile defense. Instead of being a stepping stone to a nuclear-free world, New START is, ironically, likely to make both the United State and Russia ever more reliant on nuclear weapons.

Obama and his advisors had placed all their money on persuading Kyl, the senator other Republicans look to on arms control, to support quick ratification. If Kyl supported the treaty, the Obama team figured, enough Senate Republicans would follow to get the 67 required votes. Kyl has now declared that there is insufficient time in the lame-duck session to properly consider the issue.

Obama attempted to purchase ratification votes during the lame-duck session by promising to add $4.1 billion in spending on nuclear-weapons maintenance, research, and support. With a vote now likely delayed until next year, Republican senators will pocket that commitment and then increase their demands. With their increased leverage, Kyl and his colleagues may require specific commitments from Obama on a new nuclear-capable, long-range bomber aircraft and specific funding for the next generation of ballistic-missile submarines.

GOP senators are also likely to require more clarity from Obama on his plans for missile defense.

Click through to read more ...

Continue on for a series of rephrasings of this famous quote.

The COIN Center is co-sponsoring a Counterinsurgency Conference in London on 8-9 December. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and United Kingdom COIN Centre are hosting the event with the US COIN Center, USMC IW Center, ISAF COIN Advisory and Assistance Team (CAAT), and ISAF COIN Training Center-Afghanistan. The purpose is to provide a forum for ISAF contributing nations to discuss key tactical COIN insights in the Afghanistan theatre of operations.

The conference will highlight the application of counterinsurgency fundamentals to company level operations. Speakers include LF Gen Nick Parker, Commander-in-Chief, UK Land Forces; Ms. Emma Sky, advisor to US Forces, Iraq; Dr. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon, Univ of Arkansas; Dr. Dan Marston, CGSC COIN Chair; COL Michael Howard, former commander, 4/25 IBCT and Office of SACEUR, SHAPE; and others.

The conference is free but seating is limited. Contact [email protected] for reservations(include name, service and rank (if applicable), organization, and email address). Additional information, to include lodging and location details available at COIN.ARMY.MIL. Final agenda and speaker bios available at the RUSI web-site soon.

Two stories from today's New York Times illustrate the focus the two commanders are placing on attrition tactics. In a holiday fund-raising message aimed at international supporters, Omar described his attrition strategy against NATO forces, by which he hopes to do to the United States what in the 1980s the mujahedeen were thought to have done to the Soviet Union. On the other side, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other administration officials defended Petraeus's use of nighttime special forces raids against the Taliban chain of command and support network. As reported in the New York Times, such raiding, "in turn, puts pressure on senior Taliban leaders operating in the safe havens of Pakistan, according to a strategy outlined by General Petraeus, who hopes they may be forced to the bargaining table."

Which side will crack first? Congressman Buck McKeon, the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, vows it will not be the United States.

Click through to read more ...

Much more of Twain's biography and his thoughts on counterinsurgency at NPR.

From today's STAND-TO!:

Links:

White House MOH Ceremony - Live Coverage

Medal of Honor Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta

Congressional Medal of Honor Society

U.S. Army's Medal of Honor Website

Militant Islamist Renunciations from Egyptian Prisons:

An Ideological Challenge to al-Qaida

by Commander Youssef Aboul-Enein, MSC, USN

Grand abstractions such as Islamophobia or the classifying of all Islam as the

problem may be satisfying for some think-tanks, commentators, or blog sites, however

in the real world of countering violent Islamist ideology such abstractions are

of no real worth.  Among the questions being asked among Muslim Arab intellectuals

fighting militant Islamists are: Is al-Qaida generally and its deputy leader Ayman

al-Zawahiri specifically, isolated ideologically among Islamist and militant Islamist

groups?  If so, what narrative will Zawahiri produce to maintain al-Qaida's

relevance among militant Islamist groups?  In a 2010 book by a former Gamaa

Islamiyah (Islamic Group) operative Abdel-Moeim Moneeb, the jihadist revisionism

and renunciation of violence by Egypt's militant groups is collected in a single

volume.....

by

This Veteran's Day was special for me. It was my first real vacation in years. I surprised my girlfriend, Sarah, with a trip to Asheville for her birthday. As we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the autumn churned a mixture of brown, orange, green, and yellow as the trees dropped their leaves in preparation for the coming winter- the cycle of life, death before the renewal of spring. Throughout the extended weekend, we hiked the mountains, rested along the French Broad River, and enjoyed a weekend surrounded in nature and partaking in rich foods- the seasoned lamb wrapped in grape leaves, the grilled marinated bison, the Asheville burrito, and the shrimp and grits. On Sunday, we attended church to give thanks for the blessings in our life, remember those that sacrificed so much for our nation, and pray that we could continue to devote our lives in a manner of something towards sacrifice and self-less service. Inevitably, we had to head back to the real world- her life as a journalist in a non-profit striving to provide social justice for the poor and my oath to uphold the Constitution and implement our Foreign Policy.

Major James Michael Few is an active duty Armor officer with various command and staff positions in multiple tours to Iraq. Currently, he is the Editor of Small Wars Journal.

My Notes: For a complete story on SSG Giunta's Medal of Honor, read the New York Times account of "In One Moment in Afghanistan, Heroism and Heartbreak."

Register, it's free, and then peruse the first edition:

The End of a Strategy-free Decision Making Environment? - John Mackinlay

Targeted Killings Work - A.E. Stahl and William F. Owen

Israel's Strategy (or Lack of) Towards Iran's Forward Rocket Deployments in Lebanon and Gaza - Ron Tira

Lynchpin: The U.S.-ROK Alliance after the Cheonan - Abraham M. Denmark and Zachary M. Hosford

Strategic Culture: A Look at Europe - Jonathan Dowdall

An excerpt from the "about" page:

Again, check it out.

Via Amazon: From the earliest days of his thirty-four-year military career, Victor "Brute" Krulak displayed a remarkable facility for applying creative ways of fighting to the Marine Corps. He went on daring spy missions, was badly wounded, pioneered the use of amphibious vehicles, and masterminded the invasion of Okinawa. In Korea, he was a combat hero and invented the use of helicopters in warfare. In Vietnam, he developed a holistic strategy in stark contrast to the Army's "Search and Destroy" methods-but when he stood up to LBJ to protest, he was punished. And yet it can be argued that all of his these accomplishments pale in comparison to what he did after World War II and again after Korea: Krulak almost single-handedly stopped the U.S. government from abolishing the Marine Corps.

The report's recommendations include:

Pakistan

* "To further enhance Pakistan's stability, the United States should maintain current levels of economic and technical assistance to help military and civilian leaders reconstruct and establish control over areas hard-hit by the flood, including those contested by militant forces." The Task Force recommends "continued and expanded training, equipment, and facilities for police, paramilitaries, and the army."

* "To reinforce U.S.-Pakistan ties and contribute to Pakistan's economic stability in the aftermath of an overwhelming natural disaster, the Obama administration should prioritize—and the Congress should enact—an agreement that would grant preferential market access to Pakistani textiles."

* "As it cultivates a closer partnership with Islamabad...the United States still needs to seek a shift in Pakistani strategic calculations about the use of militancy as a foreign policy tool. Washington should continue to make clear to Islamabad that at a basic level, U.S. partnership and assistance depend upon action against LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba], the Afghan Taliban, especially the Haqqani network, and related international terror groups."

Afghanistan

* "In Afghanistan, core American security aims can best be achieved at a lower cost if the United States manages to shift a greater burden to Afghan partners," explains the Task Force. "The United States should encourage an initiative with three complementary elements: political reform, national reconciliation, and regional diplomacy."

* "Political reforms should aim to grant a greater voice to a broader range of Afghan interests," states the Task Force. "Rather than leaving the reconciliation process to [Afghan] President Karzai and his narrow support base, Washington should participate fully in guiding a broad-based, inclusive process, bearing in mind that a rapid breakthrough at the negotiating table is unlikely. Afghan reform and reconciliation should then be supported by a regional diplomatic accord brokered by the United States."

* "To foster Afghanistan's viability as a security partner, the United States must continue to build cost-effective Afghan security forces appropriate to the capabilities necessary to protect the population. This will require more army and police trainers, as well as an expansion of community-based stabilization forces."

* "Afghanistan needs a self-sustaining foundation for generating jobs and revenue that will reduce dependence on international assistance. To meet this need, the United States should encourage private sector investment in Afghanistan's considerable mineral and energy resources, its agricultural sector, and in the infrastructure needed to expand trans-Afghan trade."

U.S. Strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Van Morrison

The Doors