News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.
1. A City Under Siege: What the War Looks Like on Afghanistan’s Front Line
2. Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government
3. Pentagon Surveilling Americans Without a Warrant, Senator Reveals
4. The 2018 Strategy Is Unworkable. We Need a Fundamental Defense Rethink
5. We Should Not Underestimate China’s Military Ambitions
6. FDD | The United States Has a Data Broker Problem
7. Israel’s Iron Dome Advantage
8. Opinion | The United Nations doesn’t practice the democracy it preaches
9. One soldier’s missing pay could be sticking point for Army secretary nomination
10. The Military Revolt Against Joe Biden
11. Military Officers Should Stay Out of Politics
12. Big Cyberattacks Should Be Handled by Nations, Not Lawyers
13. Pandemic untamed in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan
14. Tokyo-based Ospreys with guns visible draw more complaints from anti-base group
15. As US pulls out of Afghanistan, China sees opportunities -- and potential for chaos
16. Senator ‘baffled’ by DoD testimony on sexual assault incident visibility at unit level
17. Army’s Cybersecurity ‘Greatly Concerns’ Wormuth After Pipeline Attack
18. How Should the US Respond to Provocations in the Grey Zone?
19. In this Army vs. Navy contest, the Army risks being sidelined by the Marines
20. Former CISA chief says Biden order on cybersecurity is "dramatic game change"
21. China tries online activists who saved censored coronavirus posts on Github
22. China Vows Retaliation Against Journalists Unless U.S. Relents
23. The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom
1. A City Under Siege: What the War Looks Like on Afghanistan’s Front Line
The New York Times · by Thomas Gibbons-Neff · May 13, 2021
Great reporting from Thomas Gibbons-Neff. He is giving us a front row seat while he chronicles the events of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the effects on our Afghan allies. He is writing the first draft of our last chapter in Afghanistan. Pay attention to his reporting.
2. Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government
The New York Times · by Mark Mazzetti · May 13, 2021
Another truth is stranger than fiction story. If someone presented this as a proposal for a screenplay or novel it would get rejected as too farfetched.
3. Pentagon Surveilling Americans Without a Warrant, Senator Reveals
Vice · by Joseph Cox
We are really seeing some interesting and unusual reporting of late.
4. The 2018 Strategy Is Unworkable. We Need a Fundamental Defense Rethink
defenseone.com · by Dave Oliver and Anand Toprani
What is missing from this discussion is the irregular warfare aspect of our National Defense Strategy. I would ask the authors if they think we need to keep, jettison, or change the irregular warfare elements of the NDS?
5. We Should Not Underestimate China’s Military Ambitions
thedispatch.com · by Bradley Bowman
Sun Tzu: "Never assume the enemy will not attack. Make yourself invincible."
Excerpts: “Some may dismiss such warnings, arguing that serious and systemic domestic political and economic challenges would dissuade the CCP from seeking military conflict with the United States. There are at least two major problems with such reasoning. First, history is riddled with examples in which nations stumble into conflicts they did not want. Second, the very domestic challenges some say reduce the relative power of Beijing and make the CCP less likely to seek military conflict with the United States may actually have the opposite effect. The CCP does not enjoy the credibility that comes from free and fair elections and instead relies significantly on a growing economy to retain the support of the Chinese people. A serious economic downturn in China, for example, might encourage the CCP to manufacture a military conflict with the United States to consolidate domestic power and shift the attention of the Chinese people away from the regime’s failings.
This analysis is not a call for “self-doubt,” and it does not seek to portray the Chinese military as 10 feet tall. Americans, indeed, should be confident in our ability to compete as free people against authoritarian adversaries—if we are willing to be honest about the nature and severity of the threat from China, assemble a bipartisan strategy to respond, and then muster sufficient defense resources.
That mixture of confidence, candor, and urgent action represents the best hope of protecting American interests and avoiding military conflict with China.
6. FDD | The United States Has a Data Broker Problem
fdd.org · by Trevor Logan · May 13, 2021
Conclusion: For too long, there has been a mismatch between the amount of data that U.S. citizens generate and the amount of effort the U.S. government and companies put into governing and securing that data. Congress and the Biden administration must act to prevent the transfer of data to U.S. adversaries.
7. Israel’s Iron Dome Advantage
WSJ · by The Editorial Board
Excerpts: “Iron Dome saves Israeli lives and property, but it also changes the propaganda calculus for Israel’s adversaries. The high rate of missile interceptions gives Israel’s leaders more flexibility in how they respond to the attacks.
Fewer Israeli casualties means there’s less political pressure for a full-scale invasion of Gaza or for indiscriminate air attacks that could kill civilians. Palestinian casualties are a propaganda coup for terrorists, and Israeli restraint saves lives and extends the window for its defense forces to act before they come under opportunistic condemnation from abroad.
8. Opinion | The United Nations doesn’t practice the democracy it preaches
The Washington Post · by Josh Rogin · May 13, 2021
Tough and important critique from Josh Rogin: “Even if Arora’s candidacy were unlikely to succeed, the least the U.N. could do is allow more candidates to participate, especially those from underrepresented groups. But as of now, the organization that’s supposed to represent the entire world in a democratic and equitable way is not even close to doing so inside its own house.
By rubber-stamping a second term for Guterres, the United Nations would be bypassing a free and fair democratic process and undermining its own supposed commitment to promote gender equality and youth inclusiveness. The depressing message this would send is that U.N. politics will remain with the old guard and that the U.N. will drift further away from the modernization and reforms it so badly needs.
9. One soldier’s missing pay could be sticking point for Army secretary nomination
armytimes.com · by Davis Winkie · May 13, 2021
Sounds like a TDY processing problem. I wonder if this is DTS issue. Imagine if every service member goes to their congressman for their DTS issues. Maybe DTS would be improved.
Excerpts: “We can’t have situations where we’re not paying our soldiers the money that they earn for ten months,” said Wormuth. “From my understanding…there isn’t a good reason why this happened.”
Cramer set a June 1 deadline for the soldier to receive his backpay, which Wormuth thinks the Army is on track to meet.
Cramer, though, won’t be convinced until the money is in the affected soldier’s bank account.
“That’s the answer that I’m looking for, and I trust you with it, but I don’t yet trust the Army. I might have eight months ago,” said the senator.
10. The Military Revolt Against Joe Biden
Foreign Policy · by Peter Feaver · May 12, 2021
It will be interesting to see how much influence these 120 GOFOs have. Certainly there are some factions within the partisan tribes and even within the active and retired military who will be emboldened by their letter.
11. Military Officers Should Stay Out of Politics
thebulwark.com · by Jim Golby · May 13, 2021
The subtitle says it all, Persuade with facts and logic, not rank.
12. Big Cyberattacks Should Be Handled by Nations, Not Lawyers
Bloomberg · by Noah Feldman · May 13, 2021
I have wondered if we should declare the internet and the cyber domain critical as a kind of national security infrastructure? It is now critical to every aspect of national security, commerce, and individual life. Should it be protected by some kind of national strategy?
13. Pandemic untamed in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan
asiatimes.com · by Andrew Salmon · May 14, 2021
Complacency kills?
... All three are lagging behind the norm for developing nations in terms of vaccination programs.
While the situation in the three countries is nowhere near as dire as in carnage-wracked India, matters are increasingly worrying for Japan – and the world – as it prepares to host the Olympics despite the ongoing failure of pandemic containment efforts.
14. Tokyo-based Ospreys with guns visible draw more complaints from anti-base group
One of the challenges of basing in Japan.
15. As US pulls out of Afghanistan, China sees opportunities -- and potential for chaos
CNN · by James Griffiths and Nectar Gan
The question is can China exploit any of these opportunities?
16. Senator ‘baffled’ by DoD testimony on sexual assault incident visibility at unit level
militarytimes.com · by Karen Jowers · May 13, 2021
A self-inflicted wound by Ms Van Winkle?
Van Winkle said Pentagon officials haven’t had a clear picture of what’s going on within units in terms of how sexual assault and harassment are being addressed.
“We’re looking at all aspects of these issues to shed light where we previously didn’t have visibility,” said Van Winkle, executive director of DoD’s Office of Force Resiliency, in her testimony before the subcommittee. If officials don’t have that visibility at the unit and installation level, Van Winkle said, “then we simply don’t have a good sense of whether our initiatives are getting to where they need to be.”
Gillibrand said she was “exasperated” by that statement, noting that commanders have had this authority at the unit level. “So for you to state there’s no visibility there, is an absurd statement. You have visibility because you have unit commanders,” she said.
“You’ve had testimony from survivors in the last eight years I’ve been working on this that when they are sexually harassed, 66 percent of the time it comes from their unit commander. So you’ve had plenty of visibility onto this issue. …
...
Gillibrand said the military has more data about these incidents than any district attorney’s office has, because the services conduct annual surveys, and have reporting requirements. “This is supposed to be something the command has taken seriously, with zero tolerance for the last decade,” she said.
“It’s not lack of visibility. It’s not lack of information,” she said.
“It’s lack of will.”
Gillibrand asked Van Winkle to “rework your testimony. What you’ve said here is unbelievable.”
17. Army’s Cybersecurity ‘Greatly Concerns’ Wormuth After Pipeline Attack
defenseone.com · by Caitlin M. Kenney
It is not just the Army that we must be concerned about.
Excerpts: “Wormuth told senators Thursday she agrees with the Army’s assessment that long-range precision fires are still the service’s top priority, not only because of their importance in the Indo-Pacific theater, but in Europe as well.
“It’s the highest priority in my view because of the need to address the anti-access area denial challenges that we face in both Europe and Indo-Pacific. And given the quite sophisticated integrated air defenses that we’ll likely be facing, I think it behooves us to develop capabilities that allow us to strike targets from very long distances,” she said.
Air Force Gen. Timothy Ray, the leader of Air Force Global Strike Command, recently called the Army’s pursuit of this long-range weapon capability a “stupid idea,” expensive, and redundant, since the Air Force already has that capability.
However, Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in response that the Pentagon’s new joint warfighting concept emphasizes that every military service will need to be able to defeat an enemy’s long-range missiles.
“This means you want each service to bring those long-range fires; so, the joint warfighting concept succeeds if all of the force can apply fires wherever they happen to be, wherever the target is, whatever the lines of conflict, that is the joint warfighting concept,” Hyten told Defense One in April.
Research and analysis are still needed to determine whether the Army’s long-range fires will be economically feasible once the concept becomes reality, Hyten said.
18. How Should the US Respond to Provocations in the Grey Zone?
military.com · by Joseph V. Micallef · May 13, 2021
Wisely and decisively and in accordance with American values.
Excerpts: “The topic has garnered considerable attention and has been extensively discussed among military strategists.
Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov, the current chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia and first deputy defense minister, has written extensively on the utility of combining military, technological, informational, diplomatic, economic, cultural and other tactics for the purpose of achieving strategic goals. His comments were termed "The Gerasimov Doctrine," although whether this is actually an operational strategy of the Russian government remains hotly debated.
The Chinese version of hybrid warfare was outlined in a seminal book, published in 1999, by Cols. Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui called "Unrestricted Warfare: Two Air Force Senior Colonels on Scenarios for War and the Operational Art in an Era of Globalization." The book examines how China can overcome a technologically superior adversary by avoiding direct military confrontation and relying instead on a combination of legal means, termed "lawfare," as well as using economic, political, diplomatic and mass media tools to obtain leverage over an opponent and eliminate the need for direct military confrontation.
Closer to home, military theorist David Kilcullen, in his book "Dragons and Snakes: How The Rest learned to Fight the West," points out that Western dominance over a very particular, narrowly defined form of warfare forces adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies.
Kilcullen notes that state and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, with states adopting non-state techniques and non-state actors now able to access levels of precision and lethal weapon systems once available only to governments.
19. In this Army vs. Navy contest, the Army risks being sidelined by the Marines
Washington Examiner · by Jamie McIntyre · May 14, 2021
:-). The Marines are doing some great and innovative things but the Marine Corps is not the Army.
20. Former CISA chief says Biden order on cybersecurity is "dramatic game change"
CBS News · by Grace Segers
Professional national security practitioners such as Christopher Krebs can offer critical critiques and positive evaluations without partisan influence.
21. China tries online activists who saved censored coronavirus posts on Github
americanmilitarynews.com · by Radio Free Asia · May 14, 2021
The nature of the CCP.
22. China Vows Retaliation Against Journalists Unless U.S. Relents
Bloomberg · by Bloomberg News · May 14, 2021
I think we are making a mistake. We should allow Chinese journalists to report as journalists like all journalists in the US. We should not be afraid of their reporting. We should hold the moral high ground to allow freedom of the press even if it is abused by our adversaries. We can overcome their propaganda with superior messaging and by exposing their propaganda. But now we are in a position for us to do the right thing for our democratic principles we will appear to be giving in to the CCP's blackmail diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.
23. The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom
WSJ · by Sebastian Junger
A thought provoking essay from Sebastian Junger.
Excerpts: “For most of human history, freedom had to be at least suffered for, if not died for, and that raised its value to something almost sacred. In modern democracies, however, an ethos of public sacrifice is rarely needed because freedom and survival are more or less guaranteed. That is a great blessing of the modern era, but it also allows people to believe that any sacrifice at all—rationing water during a drought, for example—is a form of government tyranny. That’s no worse a form of tyranny than rationing water on a lifeboat. The idea that we can enjoy the benefits of society while owing nothing in return, not even a minor sacrifice, is literally infantile. Only children owe nothing.
To be fair, it’s hard to feel loyalty to a society that is so huge it hardly even knows we’re here and yet makes sure we are completely dependent on it. That’s not a strong bargaining position to be in. Wealth is supposed to liberate us from the dangers of dependency but quickly becomes a dependency in its own right. The wealthier we are, the higher our standard of living and the more we depend on society for our safety and comfort.
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“Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal”
-Jeane Kirkpatrick
“A society without the means to detect lies and theft soon squanders its liberty and freedom.”
- Chris Hedges
“Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression...”
- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty