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A Pentagon Trailblazer, Rethinking U.S. Defense - Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times.
Michèle A. Flournoy, one of the highest ranking women in the history of the Pentagon, did not have a childhood that would immediately suggest a future as a defense policy intellectual who is rethinking how America fights its wars.
Her mother was an actress and singer who performed at the Copacabana, the legendary New York nightclub, and was the understudy to Vivian Blaine in “Oklahoma” on Broadway. Her father was a cinematography director in television at Paramount Studios. She herself is a 1979 graduate of Beverly Hills High School who spent her summers playing, she said, “a lot of beach volleyball.”
But Ms. Flournoy, who went on to Harvard and then Balliol College at Oxford (“I majored in rowing”), has spent her entire professional life immersed in the theory and practice of war, from the arms control debate of the 1980s to the counterinsurgency doctrine of today...
More at The New York Times.
Continue on for today's Small Wars Journal news and opinion roundup...
Here is the latest edition of my column at Foreign Policy.
Topics include:
1. U.S. soldiers won't be back to Iraq,
2. Who in the government is "expeditionary" and who is irrelevant?
By Brig. Gen. Larry D. Nicholson, USMC
Today, nearly 4,000 U.S. Marines and Sailors of Task Force Leatherneck, partnered with Afghan National Security Forces and supported by Task Force Pegasus, the Combat Aviation Brigade of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, conducted a near-simultaneous heliborne and surface insert into the central and southern Helmand River valley. These efforts, combined with closely coordinated UK and Danish operations to our immediate north, will dramatically change and positively impact the security of the Afghan people living in this long-held Taliban heartland.
Our focus is now and will remain the Afghan people. We have worked closely with local Helmand government officials and many tribal and local leaders in the detailed planning of this major offensive. While the initial focus will be on security, the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) working with Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Coalition Forces will rapidly move to introduce the initial essential aspects of governance and economic development into these newly secured areas. These efforts will be focused upon providing immediate assistance to the population, and in setting the conditions for successful elections in August. Today’s operation is designed to separate and isolate the Taliban from the population who has long suffered the effects of their presence.
This large scale operation is not without risk to the many thousands of brave and dedicated Afghan and coalition troops participating. This operation is designed to boldly demonstrate to the Afghan people the determination and dedication of the Government and Coalition Forces in ridding the area of Taliban insurgents who prey upon the people. The Taliban offer no future, no hope, and we will work to provide immediate security gains to the local citizens of the Helmand River valley. What makes Operation Kanjar different from those that have occurred before is the massive size of the force introduced, the speed at which it will insert, and the fact that where we go, we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build, and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces.
Semper Fidelis,
Larry D. Nicholson
Commanding General, Task Force Leatherneck
Beginning with a Charge: Doug Stanton and the “Horse Soldiers” of Afghanistan
Thursday, 9 July 2009
6:00 PM CST (Presentation and Live Webcast)
Pritzker Military Library
Chicago, Illinois
Their mission was secret, and time was short. So in order to cross the steep mountain trails of Afghanistan, the U.S. Special Forces turned to some top-of-the-line military technology – from the 19th century.
On Thursday, July 9th, Doug Stanton will appear at the Pritzker Military Library to discuss his new book Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan. This event is free and open to the public. The presentation and live webcast will begin at 6:00 p.m., preceded by a reception for Library members at 5:00 p.m. It will also be recorded for later broadcast on WYCC-TV/Channel 20...
Enhancing the Security Cooperation Marine Air Ground Task Force to Satisfy the Needs of the Uncertain Global Security Environment
by Major Vincent A. Ciuccoli and Dr. David A. Anderson, Small Wars Journal
Enhancing the Security Cooperation MAGTF (Full PDF Article)
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) has developed the Security Cooperation Marine Air Ground Task Force (SC MAGTF) concept of force employment that will enable partner nations to foster stability in their respective regions. The USMC is prepared to be the solitary architect of this force; however the proposed employment of the SC MAGTF is a bold unilateral endeavor. A regionally focused security cooperation force is the ideal employment construct for the Department of Defense (DOD) but it must sufficiently integrate United States government agency capabilities and incorporate joint force multipliers. This paper analyzes the potential requirement for a specialized DOD security cooperation force and determines whether a joint and interagency venture will further enhance and legitimize the US Marine Corps’ current employment concept. The aim of this paper is to develop a significant contribution to the format of the SC MAGTF in order to ensure its success and permanent establishment within the regional civil-military arsenal.
Enhancing the Security Cooperation MAGTF (Full PDF Article)
Continue reading "Enhancing the Security Cooperation MAGTF" »
Not So Fast, Amigas y Amigos
by Colonel Robert Killebrew, Small Wars Journal
Not So Fast, Amigas y Amigos (Full PDF Article)
The United States has always had mixed feelings about our relationship with Central America, so when the Honduran Army sent President Manuel Zelaya packing last week, we joined with a chorus of regional leaders, including Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, in condemning the soldier’s putsch.
But now that we’ve exercised our moral indignation, we ought to step back and take a deep breath. As reports continue to come in, it appears that it was Zelaya, not the army, that was most egregiously breaking the law. The president was apparently involved in his own takeover, against the courts and Honduran Congress, and was about to stage a Chavez-style “referendum” on ballots printed in Venezuela and looted from an army warehouse where they were being safeguarded. The army’s move was legitimized by the Honduran Supreme Court and applauded by the Congress, which has appointed a stand-in president until regular elections this November.
Certainly we deplore military coups, just as we deplore sin. But in the tangled web of Central American politics, Honduras has long been the U.S.’ most staunch ally. Among the four states from Nicaragua north, it has tried hardest to convert from a military-run banana republic to a constitutional democracy and, until just the other day, with some success. It supported U.S. trainers in the Salvadoran civil war. It houses an American military joint task force. At our request, Honduran soldiers fought in Iraq. So while the verdict must be that military takeovers are bad, surely in this case there are extenuating circumstances for a faithful ally, particularly since the bottom-line issue seems to have been the survival of its constitutional form of government.
Via e-mail from David Sobyra, Acting Director, Center for Complex Operations (CCO) - the latest issue of the CCO Newsletter.
... There are two items in particular that I would like to bring to your attention. First, the CCO is launching a new journal of complex operations, called PRISM. You can find more information about it, along with a call for papers, on the front page of the newsletter. If you would like to subscribe to PRISM, please sign up here: (Select "CCO Prism Journal Distribution List" in the first box). The second item is our call for proposals for the second round of our Complex Operations Case Study Series, as we are currently finishing up our very successful first round in this series. These are just two of the many exciting initiatives we are working on at the CCO.
This edition of the newsletter also includes an announcement from LTG William Caldwell, Commanding General of the US Army's Combined Arms Center on the release of FM 3-07.1 Security Force Assistance, an update on recent events sponsored by the CCO, and interview with former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and a "Save the Date" announcement for our 2nd Annual Conference, to be held the afternoon of 28 July at Lincoln Hall Auditorium at the National Defense University. The invitation and agenda for this event will be forthcoming, and we expect to have a number of interesting speakers.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your colleagues who may not have heard of the CCO and who might be interested in our activities and, as always, we appreciate any feedback...
Continue reading "Center for Complex Operations (CCO) June Newsletter" »
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If you’ve ever read an Army manual and thought you could make it better if only the Army would give you a chance, your moment has arrived.”
For the first time, the Army is using wikis to update its doctrine. The pilot program—Army Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (ATTP)—converts the contents of field manuals into a wiki format and posts them online. Anyone with an AKO account can edit the manuals by submitting changes in the wiki system. ATTP is a pilot program with seven manuals:
FMI 3-04.155 Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations
FM 3-07.20 Modular Brigade Augmented for Security Force Assistance
FM 3-21.9 The SBCT Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad
FM 3-09.15 Site Exploitation
FM 3-97.11 Cold Weather Operations
FM 5-19 Composite Risk Management
FM 6.01-1 Knowledge Management Section
The software powering ATTP is the same software Wikipedia employs. Users can submit changes, review changes proposed by others, search documents and view previous versions of the field manuals. By converting manuals into wikis, the Army hopes to make doctrine a living document and reduce the traditional three to five year period it takes to staff and write field manuals. This system will allow lessons learned in the field to become an immediate part of doctrine, with rapid dissemination. More than 200 manuals are slated to be converted into ATTPs.
The ATTP program is a collaborative effort among several Combined Arms Center subordinate organizations: Battle Command Knowledge System, the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate and personnel at Fort Huachuca implemented the program in less than two weeks. During the 90-day trial period, site managers will refine their own TTPs for running this kind of collaborative endeavor.
After receiving comments on the manuals, site managers and subject matter experts will review the comments and adjudicate them with existing content and other suggestions. This manner of continuously updated field manuals will ensure doctrine creation is an all-embracing, grassroots effort that serves the needs of our Soldiers more effectively.
Where does this effort fit within big Army? In an interview last fall, GEN Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, spoke about using technology to communicate more effectively and share information.
“We have to find a way to flatten our organizations and pass information faster than we’ve ever passed it before. Take advantage of these tools. There’s a natural tendency not to. There’s a natural tendency to go back to our hierarchical nature, our bureaucratic ways.”
In other words, by participating and supporting ATTP, you are helping drive institutional change within our Army. By embracing technology, the Army can save money, break down barriers, streamline processes and build a bright future.
To access ATTP click here or sign into AKO, click on the “Self Service” tab, select “My Doctrine” and find “ATTP Pilot” on the left hand side of the page.
Please contribute to our Army’s store of knowledge and share your insights through ATTP. This is a great opportunity to flatten traditional Army hierarchy and leverage technology to benefit Soldiers who are deployed or training to deploy.
Frontier 6 is Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV, Commanding General of the Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, the command that oversees the Command and General Staff College and 17 other schools, centers, and training programs located throughout the United States. The Combined Arms Center is also responsible for: development of the Army's doctrinal manuals, training of the Army's commissioned and noncommissioned officers, oversight of major collective training exercises, integration of battle command systems and concepts, and supervision of the Army's Center for the collection and dissemination of lessons learned.
Continue reading "Want to Change Army Doctrine? Do Something!" »
US Marines Launch Major Operation in Afghanistan - Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post. Thousands of US Marines descended upon the volatile Helmand River valley in helicopters and armored convoys early Thursday morning, mounting an operation that represents the first large-scale test of the US military's new counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. The operation will involve about 4,000 troops from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which was dispatched to Afghanistan earlier this year by President Obama to combat a growing Taliban insurgency in Helmand and other southern provinces. The Marines, along with an Army brigade that is scheduled to arrive later this summer, plan to push into pockets of the country where NATO forces have not had a presence. In many of those areas, the Taliban have evicted local police and government officials, and taken power. Once Marine units arrive in their designated towns and villages, they have been instructed to build and live in small outposts among the local population. The brigade's commander, Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, said his Marines will focus their efforts on protecting civilians from the Taliban, and on restoring Afghan government services, instead of a series of hunt-and-kill missions against the insurgents.
US Marines Try to Retake Afghan Valley From Taliban - Richard A. Oppel, Jr., New York Times. Almost 4,000 United States Marines, backed by helicopter gunships, pushed into the volatile Helmand River valley in southwestern Afghanistan early Thursday morning to try to take back the region from Taliban fighters whose control of poppy harvests and opium smuggling in Helmand provides major financing for the Afghan insurgency. The Marine Expeditionary Brigade leading the operation represents a large number of the 21,000 additional troops that President Obama ordered to Afghanistan earlier this year amid rising violence and the Taliban’s increasing domination in much of the country. The operation is described as the first major push in southern Afghanistan by the newly bolstered American force. Helmand is one of the deadliest provinces in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have practiced sleek, hit-and-run guerrilla warfare against the British forces based there.
US Launches South Afghan Offensive - Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. The US military launched a major operation in southern Afghanistan, an early test of the Obama administration's new strategy for beating back the resurgent Taliban and stabilizing the country in advance of this summer's presidential elections. Operation Khanjar, or "strike of the sword," began shortly after 1 a.m. local time when close to 4,000 Marines, backed by about 700 Afghan security personnel, moved by air and ground into villages in the Helmand River Valley, a major opium-producing region and Taliban stronghold. US commanders said the forces would build an array of small patrol bases designed to forge closer ties with local people and better protect them from militants, borrowing an approach used in Iraq that is central to the administration's new counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan. The troops hope to root out pockets of Taliban fighters and find and destroy insurgent weapons caches, a US officer in Kabul said. The troops will also seek to interdict opium shipments and persuade local farmers to plant alternative crops, such as wheat, he said.
US Launches Major Offensive Against Taliban - The Times. Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed into an Afghan river valley by helicopter and land early today, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency with an assault deep into Taliban territory. Operation Khanjar, which the Marines call simply "the decisive op", is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region. In swiftly seizing the valley, commanders hope to accomplish within hours what NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and by doing so turn the tide of a stale-mated war in time for an Afghan presidential election on August 20. "Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan said in a statement.
US Marines Launch Assault in Afghanistan - Reuters. US Marines launched a helicopter assault early on Thursday in the lower Helmand river valley in southern Afghanistan, spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier said. A Reuters correspondent in the valley saw flares in the sky over the town of Nawa, south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. The valley of irrigated wheat and opium fields along the Helmand river is largely in the hands of Taliban fighters who have resisted British-led NATO forces for years. The United States has sent 8,500 Marines to Helmand province in the last two months, the largest wave of a massive buildup of forces that will see the number of US troops in Afghanistan rise from 32,000 at the beginning of this year to 68,000 by year's end. President Barack Obama has declared the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan to be the main security threat facing the United States.
Major Military Operation Under Way in Afghanistan - Fisnik Abrashi and Lara Jakes, Associated Press. Thousands of US Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops moved into Taliban-infested villages with armor and helicopters Wednesday evening in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's revamped strategy to stabilize Afghanistan. The offensive in the once-forgotten war was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the southern part of the country. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested Helmand River Valley before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election. Dubbed Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," the military push was described by officials as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase. British forces last week led similar missions to fight and clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar provinces. "Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement. Southern Afghanistan is a Taliban stronghold but also a region where Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen. The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections and expects the total number of US forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008, but still half of much as are now in Iraq.
US Opens 'Major Afghan Offensive' - BBC News. The United States army says it has launched a major offensive against the Taliban in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. The US military says about 4,000 marines as well as 650 Afghan troops are involved, supported by Nato planes. Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said the operation was different from previous ones because of the "massive size of the force" and its speed. Officers on the ground said it was the largest Marine offensive since Vietnam. The operation began when units moved into the Helmand river valley in the early hours of Thursday. Helicopters and heavy transport vehicles carried out the advance, with NATO planes providing air cover.
US Launches 'Major Operation' in Afghanistan - CNN News. US troops have launched a "major operation" against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, US military officials announced in Afghanistan early Thursday. About 4,000 Americans, mostly from the Marines, and 650 Afghan soldiers and police launched Operation Khanjar - "strike of the sword" - in the Helmand River valley, the US command in Kabul announced. The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it follows a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said. It is also the first big move since US Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official said the size and scope of the new operation are "very significant." "It's not common for forces to operate at the brigade level," the official said. "In fact, they often only conduct missions at the platoon level. And they're going into the most troubled area of Afghanistan." Helmand Province, where much of the fighting is taking place, has been a hotbed of Taliban violence in recent months. At least 25 US and British troops have been killed there in 2009. The defense official said the operation is a "tangible indication" of the new approach that McChrystal - a former chief of the Pentagon's special operations command - is bringing to the nearly eight-year war.
US Marines Storm South in Major Afghan Offensive - Ben Sheppard, Agence France-Presse. US Marines launched a massive offensive into the Taliban heartlands of southern Afghanistan early on Thursday as President Barack Obama's new war plan swung into action. Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword) involved nearly 4,000 US forces as well as 650 Afghan police and soldiers, the Marine Expeditionary Brigade said, announcing the pre-dawn launch of the drive in southern Helmand province. Deploying about 50 aircraft, the air and land assault was to push troops into insurgent strongholds in what officers said was the biggest offensive airlift by the Marines since Vietnam. "What makes Operation Khanjar different from those that have occurred before is the massive size of the force introduced, the speed at which it will insert," MEB commander Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said in a statement. Troops would hold areas they take until they could transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces, said Nicholson. It was the Marines' first major operation since they deployed over the past few months to reinforce the international effort against the Taliban, leading an insurgency that has seen record attacks this year and controlling several areas.
Marine General Takes Fight To The Taliban - Tom Bowman, National Public Radio. The leader of some 4,000 Marines who descended early Thursday morning on the Helmand River valley in southern Afghanistan is Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, a veteran of Iraq who was seriously wounded there five years ago. Commanding general of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Nicholson has one of those lived-in faces - creased and craggy, like a boxer's or a veteran beat cop. And he has the scars of a Marine who survived battle. It was Sept. 14, 2004, a day Nicholson remembers clearly in Iraq's Anbar province. The war was not going well.
Q&A: The New US Strategy in Afghanistan - Jonathon Burch, Reuters. Concrete signs of Washington's new strategy for Afghanistan are taking shape with the final elements of some 8,500 US Marines arriving in southern Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold, to bolster over-stretched British forces. The Marines launched a helicopter assault early on Thursday in the lower Helmand river valley, with nearly 4,000 Marines and US sailors and about 650 Afghan troops and police involved. The Marines are the biggest single wave of an additional 17,000 extra US troops and 4,000 more to train Afghan forces ordered by President Barack Obama. US forces will reach 68,000 by year-end, more than double the 32,000 at the end of 2008. Former special operations chief General Stanley McChrystal has meanwhile taken command of the present 90,000 US and NATO troops with the Pentagon saying it is time for "fresh thinking." Following are questions and answers about the new strategy and the main areas McChrystal wants to address.
Continue reading "US Marines Launch Major Operation in Afghanistan - "Largest Since Vietnam"" »
DoD Announces New Defense Policy Board Members
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates today announced the following new members to the Defense Policy Board: Gen. (Ret) Larry Welch, former Air Force chief of staff ; Stephen Biddle, Council on Foreign Relations; Richard Danzig, former secretary of the Navy; Robert Gallucci, former assistant secretary of state; Chuck Hagel, former senator from Nebraska; Robert D. Kaplan, Center for a New American Security; Andrew Krepinevich, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; Rudy deLeon, former deputy secretary of defense; John Nagl, Center for a New American Security; Sarah Sewall, Harvard University; Wendy Sherman, former special advisor to the President.
These members join the following returning members: John Hamre, chairman; Harold Brown; Adm. (Ret) Vern Clark; J.D. Crouch; Fred Ikle; Gen. (Ret) Jack Keane; Henry Kissinger; Dave McCurdy; Frank Miller; William Perry; James Schlesinger; Marin Strmecki; Vin Weber; Gen. (Ret) Pete Pace.
The Defense Policy Board provides the secretary, deputy secretary and under secretary for policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning matters of defense policy.
Continue reading "DoD Announces New Defense Policy Board Members" »
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Call in the Cavalry! - Patrick Devenny, Foreign Policy.
As American troops in Afghanistan seek to rebuild a flagging campaign, they might do well to read up on the lessons of another troubled Afghan project, the Anglo-Afghan Wars -- and specifically, the lessons of one Captain Charles Trower, a British cavalry officer who deployed to India in the 1830s. His 1845 memoir, Hints on Irregular Cavalry, says pretty much all there is to say about one of the most complicated problems in Afghanistan today: the training and oversight of local defense forces.
Last October, the Los Angeles Times reported that Pentagon leaders had authorized American commanders in Afghanistan to aggressively mobilize and mentor village-based self-defense forces. Made up largely of Pashtun tribesmen and recruited through tribal leaders, such units are expected to provide security in areas where Afghan government forces have failed to stem Taliban encroachment. This shift in strategy is not surprising given the success of similar initiatives in Iraq and the growth of the insurgency across southern Afghanistan. Results of the late 2008 decision are now seeping into the press: American reporters recently covered the graduation and deployment of 80 members of the Afghan Public Protection force, otherwise known as "Guardians." But the fielding of these units entails great risks: lack of government oversight and empowerment of warlords, just to state the obvious...
Much more at Foreign Policy.
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