| May 14, 2007 Edition |
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When an Army Tour Is ExtendedTime MagazineAryn Baker/Naray The call came in the middle of the night: Captains, lieutenants, the camp chaplain, all the senior officers were summoned to a meeting with Colonel Mike Howard, commander of forward operating base Naray, in Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan. Captain Todd Polk, stumbling from his tent in the bitter mountain cold, knew it was going to be bad news. "I thought it was going to be a major problem," he says. "Maybe another 9/11." While the subject of the meeting was nothing like the 2001 terrorist attacks, for the soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, 71st Calvary unit of the 10th Mountain Division, it may have similar consequences. Two days before the brigade was due to leave Afghanistan after its year-long stint - some units, in fact, were already in Kuwait awaiting flights home - Captain Polk and his team learned that their tour had been extended another four months. Later that morning, Polk sent an e-mail to friends and family back home: "Just so everyone hears it from me, the Secretary of Defense announced today we ... will be extended in Afghanistan for four more months. Everyone here is taking it pretty hard, but we will Soldier on." The experience of the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan may offer a glimpse of what is in store for the rest of America's thinly stretched army after the Pentagon announced, on April 11, that the standard Army deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq would now be 15 months rather than the previous 12-month stint. Soldiers deploying abroad have always had to contend with missing a child's birth, a sibling's wedding or a parent's death. They face fatigue and frustration no matter the duration of stay. Their spouses suffer at home, and marriages fall apart under the strain of separation. And the stress of deployment in a hostile combat zone has a corrosive effect on discipline. Three more months may not seem that long to a civilian, but to a soldier already on the ground, it's another 90 days in which a lot could go wrong. "It's like running a race," says Chaplain Doug Weaver, of the 3-71. "The longer it is, the more people fall out." Full Story |
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| PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES, EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS |
Know Thy EnemiesWho are we fighting, and who is supporting them?Weekly StandardDaveed Gartenstein-Ross SOMETIMES WHAT WE DON'T KNOW can indeed hurt us. This was the case in 2006, when reporters noticed significant fighting between Iraqi insurgent factions. This confused journalists and government analysts, but the prevailing attitude was that if the insurgents were fighting each other, at least they weren't fighting us. It turned out that the group that bore the brunt of this violence would later develop into the Anbar Salvation Front, which has proved to be one of our most important local allies in Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), was trying to wipe out this fledgling movement. If analysts better understood that situation, timely U.S. intervention could have thwarted Zarqawi and allowed the Anbar Salvation Front to make a difference on the ground sooner. Similarly, today a critically important debate is raging about whether the United States should set a timeframe for troop withdrawal. While most people seemingly have an opinion on the matter, it's difficult to figure out whether the situation is truly futile without understanding the various factions that we're fighting. Full Story French fries are back on the US menuThe TimesGerard Baker It felt especially good to be a Brit in Washington this week. The successor to George III was in town but, my goodness, how a couple of centuries of time's healing balm can take the sting out of the revolutionary grievance. At the British Embassy garden party, senior figures from the Bush Administration and ambitious members of Congress not lucky enough to snag an invitation to dinner at the White House elbowed their way past goggle-eyed Texans to get within curtsying distance of the Royal Presence. On morning TV shows presenters gushed more effusively about the Queen's general elegance and fine octagenarian fettle than any loyal subject could possibly manage. Outside Blair House, where the Queen was staying (yes, it really is called Blair House - one can only guess at the ironic smile on royal lips as she pondered events across the ocean) crowds waited for hours to catch a glimpse of the monarch. Tony Blair was finally immolated on the altar of his Atlanticism this week, but the reception given the Queen over here was a useful reminder that the bonds of Anglo-American friendship are easily old enough and strong enough to withstand a bungled war or two. Full Story A home - and a mom - for wounded warriorsReal Clear PoliticsJonathan Gurwitz The phone rings in the middle of the night. For the families of military personnel serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is the beginning of the nightmare. A loved one is gravely injured. With luck, the wounded go to a field hospital, then a combat hospital, then to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and, finally, to a military medical center in the United States. Among the more than 25,000 service members wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, nearly 2,900 have come to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Waiting for them is Judith Markelz. As the program manager of the Soldier and Family Assistance Center, she knows what challenges await them and their loved ones. While the wounded make the long journey from combat zone to treatment facility in the United States, their panicked families travel across the country to be with them. Parents and spouses hastily pack suitcases. They leave keys with neighbors and call employers - "I don't know when I'll be back." They come to a strange city. They see a son or daughter, husband or wife whose limbs have been blown off and skin has been burned away. Full Story |
| BREAKING NEWS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Leave well enough aloneExisting laws give Guantanamo detainees all the rights they need.USA Today Op-edDavid B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey President Bush should resist the Democrats' efforts to amend the 2006 Military Commissions Act. That law struck an appropriate balance between the due process interests of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the equally important rights of American civilians, who are their primary targets. The 2006 law, along with the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act, acknowledged that Guantanamo-detained enemy combatants are not ordinary criminal defendants and are not entitled to trial in the civilian courts, or to the version of habeas corpus review, available to such defendants. These principles had been clearly established until the Supreme Court's decisions in Rasul v. Bush (2004) and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) misread the existing statutes and granted new rights to captured enemy combatants. With the military commissions and detainee treatment acts, Congress returned to the traditional system with important modifications that do, indeed, guarantee the detainees judicial review. Full Story Anbar RisingA status update on the provinceThe Fourth RailBill Roggio The formation of the Sahawah Al Anbar, or Anbar Awakening, the grouping of Anbari tribes and former insurgents opposed to al Qaeda's Taliban like rule, traces back to last year, when al Qaeda in Iraq conducted its campaign of murder and intimidation throughout Anbar province. Sheik Abdul Sattar Al-Rishawi and his allies among the tribes and anti al Qaeda insurgent groups began forming alliances in the spring and summer of 2006. In September, the groups established the Jazeera Council in Ramadi, and began working more closely with Coalition forces to begin securing neighborhoods in Ramadi. The Sahawah Al Anbar, which followed the success of the Jazeera Council, was formed in October. The Awakening provided the disparate groups with a political platform, and began to work closely with the Coalition and establishing ties with the Iraqi government. "Sheikh Sattar is authentic to his culture, supports the tribal system in the confines of democracy, and despises al Qaeda in Iraq," said Colonel John A. Koenig (USMC), the head of the II Marine Expeditionary Force G-5 (Governance and Economics), in a recent interview. Sheikh Sattar is also described as both a nationalist and a friend of America. "In Sattar's office, there are two flags - one is Iraqi, the other American." Sattar, according to Col Koenig and other sources in the military and intelligence establishment, wants to build a nationalist, non secular party. Full Story Are We Sure About the MRAP?Defense TechWell it looks like the first spasm of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle orders has been launched, with the Pentagon inking a - get this - $481 million contract for 1,000 vehicles this week. That's a half a billion dollars for 300 of the 15-ton Cougar Cat-1 (MRAP-MRUV) vehicles and 700 of the 16-ton Cat-2 (MRAP-JEERV) behemoths - all going to Force Protection Industries, Inc. Excuse me for being the skunk at the picnic, but I'm skeptical of the value of these purchases. The MRAP is not a tactical vehicle. It is a specialized armored truck designed primarily for protecting EOD units and their gear from explosions while diffusing bombs or mines. The Marine Corps' top gear buyer, Brig. Gen. Mike Brogan, admitted last month the MRAP was viewed by the Corps as a "boutique vehicle" for certain specialties. They asked for a limited quantity of these vehicles in the 2008 budget and 2007 wartime funding request based on that view. Full Story The case for strikes against IranChristian Science MonitorLouis Rene Beres Iran's latest defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency says it all: Further diplomacy has no chance of stopping Iran's nuclear program. Neither will UN sanctions have any effect. Unless there is a timely defensive first strike at pertinent elements of Iran's expanding nuclear infrastructures, it will acquire nuclear weapons. The consequences would be intolerable and unprecedented. A nuclear Iran would not resemble any other nuclear power. There could be no stable "balance of terror" involving that Islamic Republic. Unlike nuclear threats of the cold war, which were governed by mutual assumptions of rationality and mutual assured destruction, a world with a nuclear-armed Iran could explode at any moment. Although it might still seem reasonable to suggest a postponement of preemption until Iran were more openly nuclear, the collateral costs of any such delay could be unendurable. Full Story No Better Friend?Our allies in Iraq will pay a heavy price if we leave. And so will we.Weekly StandardDaveed Gartenstein-Ross AS THE DEBATE HEATS UP about whether the United States should set a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, little attention has focused on the effect such a move would have on America's allies in that country. The world has not forgotten America's abandonment of the South Vietnamese and later the Kurds, and our allies must now fear that another abandonment is in the offing. One reason the United States is short on friends throughout the world is that we haven't stood by our allies in the past. The consequence of another hasty retreat must be considered: our reputation will suffer and those who aligned with us in Iraq will pay a heavy price. The debate over withdrawal comes as America's allies are making important progress. The media has finally begun to notice the Anbar Salvation Front, a collection of Sunni tribesmen, Iraqi nationalists, ex-Baathists, and others who are united by the common goal of driving al Qaeda from their country. Based in the Anbar province, which was long an al Qaeda stronghold, the Anbar Salvation Front is led by Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, a charismatic tribal leader who has seen many of his family members killed by al Qaeda. Full Story |
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New Terror: Cells With No Links to Al QaedaNewsweekMichael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball The men who gathered inside the small Bronx apartment were tense, and they chatted nervously before the ceremony. The participants, among them a New York City musician and an emergency-room doctor from Florida, had allegedly gathered to meet a "brother" from Canada who called himself Ali. The brother had come with a message-from "Sheik Osama." "You are in the belly of the enemy," the man from Canada warned, and cautioned his audience to be careful whom they spoke to. "The oppressors are everywhere." Once it was clear they all understood, the jazz musician bent to his knees, clutched the visitor's hand and took a solemn oath. He pledged to be "one of Islam's soldiers ... on the road to jihad." The doctor allegedly did the same. Then they each embraced the oath giver, the final step in Al Qaeda's sacred initiation ritual. Full Story How the CIA Failed AmericaWashington Post Op-edRichard N. Perle George Tenet sets the stage in his memoir by recalling a conversation he claims to have had with me on Sept. 12, 2001: "As I walked beneath the awning that leads to the West Wing[, I] saw Richard Perle exiting the building just as I was about to enter. . . . Perle turned to me and said, 'Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility.' I looked back at Perle and thought: Who has [he] been meeting with in the White House so early in the morning on today of all days?" But I was in Europe on Sept. 12, 2001, unable to get a return flight to Washington, and I did not tell Tenet that Iraq was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, not then, not ever. That should have been the end of the story: a faulty recollection, perhaps attributing to me something he may have heard elsewhere, an honest mistake. So I was surprised when, having been made aware of his error, Tenet reasserted his claim, saying: "So I may have been off on the day, but I'm not off on what he said and what he believed." Full Story What We Got Right in IraqWashington PostL. Paul Bremer Once conventional wisdom congeals, even facts can't shake it loose. These days, everyone "knows" that the Coalition Provisional Authority made two disastrous decisions at the beginning of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: to vengefully drive members of the Baath Party from public life and to recklessly disband the Iraqi army. The most recent example is former CIA chief George J. Tenet, whose new memoir pillories me for those decisions (even though I don't recall his ever objecting to either call during our numerous conversations in my 14 months leading the CPA). Similar charges are unquestioningly repeated in books and articles. Looking for a neat, simple explanation for our current problems in Iraq, pundits argue that these two steps alienated the formerly ruling Sunnis, created a pool of angry rebels-in-waiting and sparked the insurgency that's raging today. The conventional wisdom is as firm here as it gets. It's also dead wrong. Like most Americans, I am disappointed by the difficulties the nation has encountered after our quick 2003 victory over Saddam Hussein. But the U.S.-led coalition was absolutely right to strip away the apparatus of a particularly odious tyranny. Hussein modeled his regime after Adolf Hitler's, which controlled the German people with two main instruments: the Nazi Party and the Reich's security services. We had no choice but to rid Iraq of the country's equivalent organizations to give it any chance at a brighter future. Full Story Does America Need A Bigger Military?NewsweekJohn Barry There are the dead and wounded, then there are the damaged. The longer a soldier stays in Iraq, the more combat he or she sees, the greater the stress, the higher the psychological toll. Just over a quarter of the U.S. soldiers and Marines enduring a second tour in Iraq showed signs of mental illness (versus 17 percent of those on their first deployment), according to the latest survey by the Army's Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT). The team found, in its survey last fall, a clear linkage between time in combat and alcoholism, marital troubles and suicide. A disturbingly high 10 percent admitted mistreating Iraqi civilians or wantonly damaging their property. Soldiers who screened positive for mental-health problems were twice as likely to admit to abusing Iraqis as those screening clear. What's the answer? According to psychologists on the team, more time at home between deployments, what the Army calls "dwell" time. Ideally, recommends the MHAT report, soldiers would deploy for six months, then spend 18 to 36 months at home. Full Story U.S. Examines Iraq Battlefield EthicsTime MagazineA new Pentagon survey of troops in Iraq found that only 40 percent of Marines and 55 percent of Army soldiers would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian. In the first internal military study of battlefield ethics in Iraq, officials said Friday they also found that only a third of Marines and roughly half of soldiers said they believed that noncombatants should be treated with dignity. The study also found that long and repeated deployments were increasing troop mental health problems. And it showed that more than 40 percent of Marines and soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the lives of troops. The study was the fourth since 2003. Previous studies were more generally aimed at assessing the mental health and well-being of forces deployed in the war. In the latest study, a mental health team visited Iraq last fall and surveyed troops, health care providers and chaplains. Full Story |
| TACTICAL TRAINING & INTELLIGENCE RESOURCES FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Mirror Image Training: Training to Combat TerrorismMirror Image is a tactical and strategic training course developed and owned by the Terrorism Research Center. TRC instructors have trained hundreds of military personnel that are subsequently deployed to active combat operations, as well as large numbers of first responders, law enforcement, and security professionals. Mirror Image is an intensive one-week classroom and field-training program, designed to realistically simulate terrorist recruiting, training techniques, and operational tactics. During the course, participants will receive insight into the mindset and rationale of the terrorist through hands-on experience with the methods and means terrorist employ, education about terrorist ideologies and the cultural dimensions that influence their decision making process. Military, law enforcement, intelligence, and security professionals will, in turn, be able to see themselves as the terrorists see them and understand the weaknesses in their own environment that the terrorists will seek to exploit, and which all too often they miss. Armed with these insights participants will leave the course better able to anticipate, prevent and respond to multiple terrorist threats. May 20-25, 2007: Blackwater Training Center, Moyock, NC A detailed brochure may be downloaded at: www.terrorism.com Questions on TRC training, please contact Betty O'Hearns-Hines, Training Coordinator for the Terrorism Research Center. Email: betty@terrorism.com Phone: (727)360-4302 voice or (727)409-1754 The Responder Knowledge Base: An Invaluable Guide for Emergency RespondersThe administrative details of emergency response are taxing on our nation's law enforcement, firefighter, and EMS personnel. Time is lost mulling over the details of responder equipment, government grants, recommended training, etc...The Responder Knowledge Base (RKB) was created to help relieve this logistical burden. Funded by the Department of Homeland security through the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, the mission of this free service is "To provide Emergency Responders, purchasers, and planners with a trusted, integrated, on-line source of information on products, standards, certifications, grants, and other equipment-related information." In collaboration with the InterAgency Board (IAB) and subject matter experts, the RKB has established an online "first-stop" for responders, collating information from sources once scattered though numerous cumbersome databases. Content includes the DHS Authorized Equipment List, the IAB Standardized Equipment List, nearly 4,000 products, operational suitability testing for hundreds of products, the results of the DHS radiation detector testing, a decontamination efficacy matrix, Lessons Learned and Information Sharing documents, Homeland Security Grant Program information, responder training, and more. The ability to "Ask an Expert" on the RKB provides responders with a reliable resource for all responder-related questions. Additionally, the ability of RKB users to provide offline "User Opinions" helps further increase the utility of the RKB. With its vast content and sophisticated integration scheme, the RKB succeeds in helping responders answer all their equipment related needs.Please register with the RKB at www.rkb.mipt.org View the IAB website at www.iab.gov | |
| FRANKS REVIEW |
Tactical Equipment EvaluationLeupold Golden Ring BinocularsI was once taught that 80% of all information we gather to make decisions comes to us through our eyes. The other 20% comes in through our other senses. But there is a limit to what we can see: we can't see through objects or identify objects that are too far away. Enter that technology called binoculars. Long before there were binoculars there were monoculars and we can all remember the popular telescope we've seen in so many pirate movies. Today's binoculars are to the monoculars of old what today's submarine periscopes are to the pirate telescope. The technology is so radically different we have a hard time making comparisons. This week we're going to take a look at the Leupold Golden Ring Binoculars and how they help increase the valuable data we need for that 80% of the decision we make.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/evals/other/leupoldbinos.htm Recreational Equipment Review"Bulletproof" by Thomas GravesAny book that features a drug smuggling aircraft getting destroyed in the first chapter has to be good, right? Thomas Graves' "Bulletproof" caught my interest right away. By the time I had finished the first chapter I wanted to know more about the author and did something as simple as checking out the last page in the book where the "About The Author" information was. Hmmm... an American who has lived in several other countries and currently resides in South Africa. He might know a little bit about international business and how things work in different countries. That was the thought process I had as I started reading Chapter Two.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/recevals/recreading/bulletproof.htm r/t
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| CHAPLAINS CORNER |
COURAGE... FEAR...Courage is not the absence of fear... but rather the judgment (conscious decision) that something (or someone) else is more important than (being controlled by) fear. (Parenthesis mine - DRS)-Ambrose Redmoon This week has brought me much discussion on the subject of fear. There are two kinds of fear. One kind of fear is instinctual... It is built into us and all in the animal kingdom... It is often called the fight-or-flight syndrome. If a bird flies into a window glass that it cannot see and knocks itself senseless, it falls to the ground and lies there until the stun wears off. If you go and pick up the stunned bird it will just be there in your hand and relaxed until the stun wears off... As it regains its senses it will become agitated and seek to escape from this condition that it has been instinctually warned that is dangerous. The heart speeds up... Respiration speeds up... The senses are sharpened... And unless restrained it will immediately fly away. That is instinctual. Humans have that to some degree from instinct... And to another degree from training and/or experience. In my young years I was afraid of all spiders and all reptiles, especially snakes. I inherited this fear from my father. He was deathly afraid of both. He was so afraid of spiders that he would shoot large ones found in the woods while logging with a shotgun... and he would kill all snakes, lizards and turtles. This was a learned fear either from someone else or because of some experience. Because he was so adamant about this fear he caused me to take it on also. I overcame this fear of spiders and reptiles by study and research. I found that each of these species had very useful purposes and they attacked humans only when they they were frightened or endangered themselves. I learned not to kill them unless they became an actual imminent danger to me. The fear of the spiders went away. The fear of reptiles went away except for snakes. I learned to tolerate snakes and to respect them. I also learned that they were used in the Bible to represent spiritual evil... but the underlying fear persisted until I gained spiritual maturity. Now I do not fear them and I still tolerate them and respect them. The snake and I can live in peace as long as the snake does not threaten me. Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2007/article/051407chaplain.htm
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