The international military community
By Colin Clark on Friday, November 20th, 2009
President Obama will announce his new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan sooner or later. Given that the key decision — at least publicly — will be how many more troops to send to Afghanistan it seems propitious to consider the Bush administration’s decision to surge roughly 30,000 troops to Iraq. How it worked and why is the subject of a new film, “The Surge: The Untold Story.”
Posted in International, Land, Policy | No Comments »
By Greg Grant on Friday, November 20th, 2009
Two influential analysts told lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week that America’s strategic position in the world is eroding. America is losing its technological edge and is in deep financial trouble, while purchasing power is shifting from the West to Asia. Those trends cannot be undone, they warned, so the U.S. must adapt and seek greater cooperation with allies and establish “rules of the road” with potential rivals.
Posted in Air, Cyber Security, Intelligence, International, Land, Naval, Policy, Space | 8 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Counterinsurgency adviser David Kilcullen spoke last night at SAIS in Washington and said the Taliban have proven capable of adapting to smaller U.S. and NATO troop increases in the past and coming back stronger. That’s why he believes a “middle ground” approach that sends less troops than Gen. McChrystal wants is destined to fail. To knock the Taliban back and regain the initiative requires sending around 40,000 more troops, he said.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 7 Comments »
By Colin Clark on Monday, November 16th, 2009
When one of China’s top two military leaders visited America last month, the PLA launched an impressive and coordinated propaganda effort. The Chinese also have crafted an coordinated approach to using cyber warfare, melding it with signals intelligence, electronic warfare and precision guided weapons in a new strategy called Integrated Network Electronic Warfare (INEW). “This sort of multi-spectrum assault has potential implications that go well beyond the battlefield,” Larry Wortzel, a top China expert will tell Congress Tuesday.
Posted in Cyber Security, International, Policy | 20 Comments »
By Colin Clark on Monday, November 16th, 2009
A key part of the seemingly endless debate about Afghanistan and Pakistan — not to mention Iraq — has been just what forces are needed to succeed. Most analysts agree that mass — numbers of troops — is one key to success. Most thinktank analysts agree that a counterinsurgency (COIN) approach is best. Deploy close to the people and clear, hold, build. The part that doesn’t get a lot of attention in the public debate is just what it takes to do to the “clear” part. Read Doug MacGregor’s pungent comments on what he thinks the US needs to send.
Posted in Commentary, International, Land, Policy | 31 Comments »
By Colin Clark on Monday, November 16th, 2009
Now that the V-22s have landed in Afghanistan, it’s time to take a look at how they will be used. Robbin Laird, a defense consultant who works for the Marines — among other clients — got a chance to interview the flight crews of VMM-261, headed by Lt. Col. A. J. Bianca, about the concepts of operations they expected to follow. We’ve got links to the interviews, an interview with Laird and links to video of the V-22 teams undergoing deployment to Afghanistan and some of their training.
Posted in Air, International, Land, Naval | 23 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Friday, November 13th, 2009
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has created a new counter-IED task force to do what the current counter-IED task force, run by the Army, apparently isn’t doing, namely, counter-IEDs. Gates’ is clearly frustrated with the current counter-IED effort that he says is slow to come up with solutions, not rapidly adaptable to different IED tactics and bomb networks in Afghanistan and has too many separate initiatives underway that are not collaborating.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 15 Comments »
By Dean Cheng on Friday, November 13th, 2009
With President Obama heading to China as part of his sweep through Asia, it’s a good time to assess the recent and groundbreaking visit of Gen. Xu Caihou, the Chinese equivalent of the defense secretary to America. The Chinese put on a full-court propaganda press, filled with images of PLA troops helping the afflicted and laced with declarations of China’s peaceful intentions. We turned to Dean Cheng, one of the top analysts on the Chinese military who recently joined the right-wing Heritage Foundation, for his more independent assessment.
Posted in Commentary, International, Policy | 45 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Influential Australian counterinsurgency adviser, David Kilcullen, says the Obama administration risks a Suez style disaster if it fails to deploy the troop numbers requested by Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The deep divisions within the administration and the long delay in answering McChrystal’s plea for more troops has created deep concerns among NATO allies and has presented an exploitable opportunity for the Taliban, Kilcullen tells Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
Posted in International, Land, Policy, Uncategorized | 20 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Thursday, November 12th, 2009
The American battle for Sadr City in 2008 and the Israeli war in Gaza later that year are being held up as models for future fights against irregular opponents. We take a look at some of the key lessons learned from both operations as well as an important factor that may limit where they can be replicated.
Posted in Intelligence, International, Land, Policy | 3 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Updated: New “Gates Option” said to be Pentagon’s preferred choice.
Conflicting reports continue to come from the Pentagon and the White House as to whether Obama will give McChrystal his requested reinforcemnts. We take a look at where things stand nearly two months after McChrystal requested more troops.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 12 Comments »
By Colin Clark on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
The man at the pointy end of the spear of missile defense and of nuclear weapons warned today that the US must carefully weigh any increase in missile defense — particularly on the West Coast — to avoid triggering a “destabilizing” reaction by the Peoples Republic of China. “We have to be cautious about missile defense…[which] can be destabilizing if you are not careful,” said Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of Strategic Command and one of the military’s brightest brains. When the US places anti-ballistic missile assets on the West Coast, “What does it make the Chinese think…?” he asked.
Posted in Intelligence, International, Policy, Space | 70 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Monday, November 9th, 2009
A report by GAO cites enemy initiated attacks in Afghanistan as a useful metric showing a deterioriating security situation there. Yet, increased contact with the Taliban results from more troops moving into more areas and aggressively patrolling. It raises the question of what metrics should be used to measure progress in guerrilla wars.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 6 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Friday, November 6th, 2009
Supporters of an escalation in Afghanistan argue that only a troop intensive counterinsurgency there can prevent a spillover of the fighting into neighboring Pakistan, a much more strategically vital country. CSIS’s Rick Nelson warns that an expanded offensive in Afghanistan risks pushing more militants into Pakistan, worsening stability there and ultimately hindering efforts to eliminate Al Qaeda.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 17 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Frustration over the Obama administration’s delay in sending more troops to Afghanistan is mounting among the hawkish set inside Washington. At an AEI conference yesterday, some of the same folks who had a hand in promoting the Iraq surge back in 2006 called for an even bigger troop surge in Afghanistan, warning that any delays risks certain defeat.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 6 Comments »
By Colin Clark on Thursday, November 5th, 2009
“I believe that the US at the moment does not have the political will, nor the public understanding and commitment to do what is necessary in Afghanistan.” Those are the words of Muqtedar Khan, director of the University of Delaware’s Islamic studies program, testifying Monday morning before the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 6 Comments »
By Colin Clark on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
In what appears to mark a major shift in Chinese military and arms control strategy, the head of the PRC’s air force has said in an official interview that military operations in space are an “historical inevitability.” General Xu Qiliang said that, “As far as the revolution in military affairs is concerned, the competition between military forces is moving towards outer space… this is a historical inevitability and a development that cannot be turned back.”
Posted in Air, Intelligence, International, Policy, Space | 27 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Two Australian military thinkers take a crack at the tough nut that is Hezbollah like hybrid enemies and come up with a manuever concept that seeks to restore striking power to the offensive. They envision swarms of small teams to probe and infiltrate a defender coupled to precision strike and superfast kill chains.
Posted in International, Land, Policy | 19 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Reports indicate that the Obama administration will adopt a “hybrid” strategy in Afghanistan, with the vast majority of troops providing security in urban centers while drone strikes and raids would be used to check the Taliban in remote areas. The danger of such an approach is that once rural villages are ceded to insurgent control, they may never be recaptured as the Taliban expands its shadow government.
Posted in International, Policy | 25 Comments »
By Greg Grant on Friday, October 30th, 2009
A number of experts now say the U.S. should abandon its “top down” strategy of building an Afghan national army. Better is a “bottom up” approach that arms and pays local tribes to fight the Taliban alongside U.S. special forces.
Posted in International, Policy | 27 Comments »