ARSTRAT IO Newsletter v12 no 04
Table of Contents & Link to Other IO Newsletters Below the Line
Reference: IO Newsletter Vol 12 No 4
IO NewsletterDefDog: Allah’s Divisions – Culturally Stupid Americans
Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency, Military
We few, we happy few, who actually get it. The opposite of the SOF motto that you cannot mass produce special forces, is that you WILL mass produce culturally-stupid conventional forces. This is on the leadership — straight-leg Army flags have no clue and don't want to have a clue.
Cultural Cluelessness Threatens U.S. Commando Strategy
David Axe
WIRED, 27 February 2012
In one sense, the U.S.-led coalition has itself to blame for the riots and killings that have raged across Afghanistan in the wake of last week’s accidental burning of the Koran by American forces. Too many U.S. troops habitually disrespect their Afghan trainees, according to some of the elite forces who head up those training sessions. And those small, tactical acts of cultural stupidity can lead to a strategic moment, like the one we’re having now.
The ongoing disrespect can fuel smoldering resentment among Afghans that is compounded by the Afghans’ underlying discomfort with the decade-long foreign occupation of their country. The mishandling of the Koran was like a match on that explosive tinder.
According to members of a U.S. Special Forces “A Team” based in Laghman province, American trainers there inadvertently mistreat the Afghans with rough touching, mock insults and and a dearth of positive reinforcement. During my recent visit to Langhman, one Special Forces officer hurried to intervene when some Army National Guard soldiers wandered into an Afghan cemetery — another big no-no. “I’ve seen too many guys disrespecting their Afghans,” one Special Forces weapons sergeant says.
The accidental burning of the Koran represents was even more thoughtless … and reflects an almost willful ignorance of Afghan sensitivities. “How after 11 years here is there no system in place for properly disposing of religious [documents]?” asks one sergeant attached to a Special Forces unit based in Kabul. “It’s just fucking stupid.”
NIGHTWATCH: Syria is About Sunni-Shi’ite Divide
Cultural Intelligence, IO ImpotencySyria-Qatar: Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani said he thinks Qatar should do whatever is necessary to support the opposition in Syria, even if it means giving them weapons. Al-Thani made the remarks while visiting Norway to meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
Comment: Al Thani's remarks match those of the Saudi Foreign Minister. They reinforce that the hypothesis that the fight in Syria is between Sunnis and Shiites more than anything else. It has nothing to do with western notions of democracy.
See Also:
Reference: Buried No Longer – Confronting America’s Water Infrastructure Challenge
12 Water, Government
Water Infrastructure Cost Report
Phi Beta Iota: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has never really “managed” anything. They blew off the “M” forever in the 1970's and became a budget chop shop unable to render intelligence with integrity to the Executive. At the same time, the Cabinet departments are focused on protecting budget share for their stakeholders (the recipients of the taxpayer's revenue, not the taxpayer's themselves), and neither they, nor the US Intelligence Community now costing us $80 billion a year, are capable of doing responsible analytics in the national interest. The lack of intelligence (decision-support) with (holistic) integrity across all organizations is the central challenge of our time.
See Also:
Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both
Marcus Aurelius: Blurred Line Between Espionage and Truth – Prosecution of US Truth-Tellers Rampant + Secrecy RECAP
Uncategorized
What does it say about a country when a) half of its defense and intelligence program is arguably fraud, waste, and abuse; and b) the only people charged with espionage are the whistle-blowers that are invariably truthful about this same fraud, waste, and abuse?
Blurred Line Between Espionage and Truth
David Carr
New York Times, 26 February 2012
EXTRACT:
The Espionage Act, enacted back in 1917 to punish those who gave aid to our enemies, was used three times in all the prior administrations to bring cases against government officials accused of providing classified information to the media. It has been used six times since the current president took office.
Setting aside the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst who is accused of stealing thousands of secret documents, the majority of the recent prosecutions seem to have everything to do with administrative secrecy and very little to do with national security.
See Also:
Chuck Spinney: When Lies for a Cause Destroy Science
Academia, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government
Why It Is Time to Clean the Augean Stables of Climate Science
by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch, 27 February 2012
(Note: This differs slightly from the original because I have corrected a few typos and grammatical errors and added one short clarifying string of words in [ ]'s.)
On 24 February, the Scientific American carried a revealing blog by John Horgan entitled, Should Global-Warming Activists Lie to Defend Their Cause? Horgan is the Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He analyzes his question in the context of a discussion he held in a freshman humanities class. The subject was the morality of Dr. Peter Gleick’s use of identity theft to steal documents from the Heartland Institute. Horgan is a promoter of the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW), and he is clearly at pains to rationalize the implications of Gleick’s caper. Included in Gleick’s distribution was a forged document, although Gleick denies any connection to its fabrication. Of particular interest to this essay is Horgan’s last sentence, because it unintentionally places the politicization of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) debate into sharp relief.
Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: When Lies for a Cause Destroy Science”
Mini-Me: Wyoming Planning for US/Federal Collapse
01 Agriculture, 05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, 12 Water, Collective Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, Strategy
Sad as the comment might be, this makes sense. Every state should do doing similar planning. The next major collapse is scheduled for 2013-2014. The next step up would be regional (nine nations) planning boards for agriculture, energy, food, and water. This summer may be the last calm period for some time.
Wyoming House advances doomsday bill
Jeremy Pelzer
Star-Tribune, 24 February 2012
CHEYENNE — State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States.
House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government.
The task force would look at the feasibility of
Wyoming issuing its own alternative currency, if needed. And House members approved an amendment Friday by state Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, to have the task force also examine conditions under which Wyoming would need to implement its own military draft, raise a standing army, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. David Miller, R-Riverton, has said he doesn’t anticipate any major crises hitting America anytime soon. But with the national debt exceeding $15 trillion and protest movements growing around the country, Miller said Wyoming — which has a comparatively good economy and sound state finances — needs to make sure it’s protected should any unexpected emergency hit the U.S.
Several House members spoke in favor of the legislation, saying there was no harm in preparing for the worst.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in this room today what would come up here and say that this country is in good shape, that the world is stable and in good shape — because that is clearly not the case,” state Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, said. “To put your head in the sand and think that nothing bad’s going to happen, and that we have no obligation to the citizens of the state of Wyoming to at least have the discussion, is not healthy.”
Wyoming’s Department of Homeland Security already has a statewide crisis management plan, but it doesn’t cover what the state should do in the event of an extreme nationwide political or economic collapse. In recent years, lawmakers in at least six states have introduced legislation to create a state currency, all unsuccessfully.
The task force would include state lawmakers, the director of the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security, the Wyoming attorney general and the Wyoming National Guard’s adjutant general, among others.
The bill must pass two more House votes before it would head to the Senate for consideration. The original bill appropriated $32,000 for the task force, though the Joint Appropriations Committee slashed that number in half earlier this week.
University of Wyoming political science professor Jim King said the potential for a complete unraveling of the U.S. government and economy is “astronomically remote” in the foreseeable future.
But King noted that the federal government set up a Continuity of Government Commission in 2002, of which former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, R-Wyo., was co-chairman. However, King said he didn’t know of any states that had established a similar board.
