Military News Highlights: January 20, 2011

Afghanistan turns to local defense groups

While US/NATO continue to apply OIF lessons learned to OEF (well at least COIN-centric surge “successes”, whatever that means). This latest gambit, to create Afghan local defense groups, in a country steeped with a history of warlordism, while Karzai increasingly appears that he will refuse to seat a legitimate Parliament, can and will lead to arming the populace just when racial/ethnic tensions are about to spill out into the street.

US/NATO views the ...

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Military News Highlights: January 19, 2011

Costly coalition plan to recruit thousands more Afghan forces draws concerns

The initial U.S. end strength goal of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) by October 2011 is approximately 300,000.  A new plan entails hiring an additional 73,000.  The bill to Uncle Sam is an additional $6 billion with unknown future budget outlays.  But before another shekel is spent, don’t you think we should gauge the quality of the current force and assess capabilities.  You know, take the training ...

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Military News Highlights: January 14, 2011

Vantage Point: The Challenges of Small-Unit Patrolling in Afghanistan

C.J. Cheevers from the New York Times has been a go-to 24/7 resource for the SFTT news project; CJ also recently published the definitive history of the Avtomat Kalashnikov this past year in “The Gun.”  his NYT blog is a new entry that he will update periodically that the SFTT news team directs your attention to.

The first video blog provides an upfront and personal look at an aero-medevac of ...

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Military News Hightlights: January 12, 2011

Bombs targeting Afghan intelligence service kill 6

How ironic that intelligence officials can be targeted so readily in Kabul by a suicide bomber.  That kind of intelligence is supposed to be secret. You know, the fact that there are intelligence service employees and a top intelligence official in a specific vehicle in downtown Kabul.  Coincidence?  Nah.  Inside information of a personnel manifest in a vehicle on a specific route at a certain time was passed along.  That’s pretty ...

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Military News Highlights: January 11, 2011

Is the tide turning in southern Afghanistan ?

Back in the fall of 2006, the Kagans, Frederick and Kimberly, from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), peddled the “surge” on a set of Power Point slides via General (Ret.) Jack Keane.  First to the Office of the Vice President, then to the President, then to the Pentagon, and then to CENTCOM, and finally to Congress – standard operating procedure back then.  The result?  The “surge” into Iraq and the “reversal ...

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Military News Highlights: January 10, 2011

Afghan insurgents match surge with more IEDs

The US surges 30,000 troops (plus 1,400 US Marines from the 26 MEU) to Afghanistan.  The Taliban threat surges thousands of roadside bombs and IED’s.  Quid pro quo.

But attributing a recent increase to “a mild winter” that has kept mountain passes open is simply ridiculous.

Another US/NATO servicemember was killed over the weekend by an IED…the grind continues.

U.S. wounded rate in Afghanistan soars

Key Highlights:

  • The number of U.S. ...
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Military News Highlights: January 4, 2011

U.S.-funded infrastructure deteriorates once under Afghan control, report says

Since 2001, the Commanders Emergency Relief Program (CERP) in Afghanistan has provided commanders quick and readily available resources to fund projects – to build schools, to build local government facilities, purchase generators, pave roads, etc.  And because Afghanistan is a target rich environment for CERP related projects given the effects of over 30 years of war and the lack of government capacity to provide services, CERP is sometimes the only ...

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Military News Highlights: December 30, 2010

Busy With Afghanistan, the U.S. Military Has No Time to Train for Big Wars

Clearly the US military, and especially our infantry-centric units, are on the “margins” when only one brigade combat team has been able to break away from COIN focused training this past decade and conduct full-spectrum operations type training necessary to maintain current and future US strategic interests.  Further, the capability to conduct forcible entry operations has atrophied and “takes practice, and we don’t get a ...

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Military News Highlights: December 29, 2010

Insurgents Set Aside Rivalries on Afghan Border

Four primary threat streams emanate from the Pakistan – the Mullar Omar Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqani network, the Hekmaktyer organization, and AQ.  For almost a decade these distinct groups have co-existed and operated exclusively with AQ parceling support from each.  It does not bode well when recent intelligence and battlefield evidence indicates that the threat has merged.  Regardless of the reason, be it recent US/NATO pressure creating battlefield syndicates  or ISI ...

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