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.

UPDATED: Shooter Cried “Allahu Akbar — God Is great — Before Firing. Questions Arising About Possible Militant Views.

Tragedy has struck Fort Hood, the kind that will weigh on the minds of Americans for months, and be remembered for years. At least 12 people were killed and 31 wounded in a pair of shootings Thursday at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas, the Army says. Some late reports indicate the shooter was an Army psychiatrist who was about to be deployed.

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.

“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.

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.

OSD is sponsoring tests of a new system designed to defeat RPG warheads, called TRAPS, it deploys airbags around a vehicle that neutralize incoming warheads. TRAPS manufacturer Textron says the system has proven succssful in recent live fire tests.

During the days of the Cold War, intelligence analysts tracked Soviet missile deployments and launches, as well as mass maneuvers, using the technological wonders of change detection, the arcane art of looking at satellite and U-2 photos to see what had moved where and how fast they were moving. Now Northrop Grumman is developing a fast, broad-area radar that may give analysts better tools to work with.

As President Obama stood on the verge of deciding how many troops to send to Afghanistan and what broad strategy to pursue, three top Democrats declared themselves opposed to sending large numbers of combat troops. Sen. Carl Levin took the middle road and proposed following the “British model” in Afghanistan, which includes intensified training, mentoring and partnering with Afghan security forces, with a modest commitment of additional troops, more helicopters, drones and mine resistant vehicles.

A senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, wants to take money from the Defense Department and use it to bulk up the anemic US Agency for International Development.
Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee and a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday morning that […]

In a rare public appearance, Gen. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China’s Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, came to Washington and told an audience that his country remains a “developing country and would not, could not threaten developed countries.” In fact, the PRC seeks “accommodation, not confrontation.”

There are enough soldiers and Marines to maintain planned force levels in Iraq and provide enough troops for any potential “surge” of forces to Afghanistan, “whatever the president decides,” said VADM James Winnefeld, director for strategic plans and policy on the Joint Staff. While the long term health of the ground forces could be impacted by the need to simultaneously boost troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are still plenty of troops to pull it off.

Troops in Afghanistan are “screaming” for the 120mm round, according to Maj. Jeffrey Hilt, from PEO Mortars. Frequent skirmishes with Taliban fighters, along with restrictive rules of engagement, put a primacy on immediate, accurate fire support and Afghanistan’s notoriously bad weather means the Air Force often can’t get close air support exactly where it’s needed. We spoke to him about Army efforts to speed a 120mm GPS mortar round to Afghanistan.

The Pentagon created a team one month ago and sent it to Iraq and Afghanistan to figure out how to achieve the Holy Grail of intelligence sharing, one network architecture that shares intelligence from every satellite, UAV and plane and gets it to everyone on the ground and in the air who needs it.

The Army’s new combat vehicle: modular design that is readily upgradable and can be reconfigured for different combat modes; survivable on IED strewn battlefields; lethal enough for a high-intensity conventional fight, yet permits soldiers to operate with precision in wars amongst the people; affordable and durable enough to stay in service for decades.

The military is a poor substitute for civilian expertise when it comes to the complicated task of rebuilding war torn nations, said a group of Army officers at the service’s Command and General Staff College. That job is one for the civilian experts at State and USAID. Problem is, these officers said, the government isn’t willing to provide the needed funds to pay for that expertise.

With the Senate likely to vote next week on the defense authorization bill, concern is growing that one or more senators may filibuster the bill to make clear their displeasure or unease with hate crimes legislation that was attached to the bill.

Three of Washington’s top experts on the Afghanistan-Pakistan troubles appeared before the House Armed Services Committee and appeared as divided as the rest of the country is on just what to do next.

One of the most powerful defense lawmakers, a Democratic senator, came out clearly today in support of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for a significant increase in troops for Afghanistan. “At this time, I believe General McChrystal’s assessment of the current situation and his conclusions, including his assessment that coalition forces must have more daily contact with the people of Afghanistan, is correct and is what is needed if we are to achieve security and stability in Afghanistan,“said Sen. Daniel Inouye.

Editor’s note: As the debate over America’s future course in Afghanistan roils the policy waters of Washington, noted military historian and professor at the Marine Corps University, Mark Moyar, argues in the following commentary that neither the population nor the enemy are the true center of gravity in a counter-insurgency. Leadership is the “critical variable” in these complex conflicts, Moyar argues.

Shipping an army to Iraq was the easy part; getting all essential U.S. military equipment out of the country may prove more difficult. The single highway from Iraq to Kuwait and the limited capacity of vehicle wash racks at Kuwaiti ports are major constraints to how fast thousands of vehicles and thousands of tons of equipment can be moved from Iraq, according to CBO.