PBI Comment: Tip of the hat to both the New York Times and the U.S. Army for this story. The dirty little secret behind this may be that much of Army doctrine has been written by contractors who know little, supervised by Training Officers far removed from the Mission Area being supported. This has been particularly troubling in the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) arena.
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Join the Army, where you can edit all that you can edit.
In July, in a sharp break from tradition, the Army began encouraging its personnel — from the privates to the generals — to go online and collaboratively rewrite seven of the field manuals that give instructions on all aspects of Army life.
Congress tasked the Department of Defense with ten specific OSINT-related tasks that to the best of our knowledge have never been acknowledged nor completed by DoD.
HAC DoD OSINT Tasks
Highlights of the missing ten tasks:
1) A plan for providing funds
2) A description of management now and as it could be improved
3) A description of tools, systems, centers, organizational entities amd procedures
4) A description of proven tradecraft including operational security
5) A description of OSINT fusion with other disciplines
6) A description of a training plan and guidance for DoD intelligence personnel
7) A plan to incorporate oversight of OSINT
8] A plan to incorporate the OSINT specialty int oall existing DoD personnel systems;
9) Aplan to utilize reserve personnel; and
10) A plan for the use of the Open Source Information System (OSIS).
I received this from a friend who didn't know that Mitch “Taco” Bell is the son of very good friends from my church. He is an airline pilot who was in the USMC reserves and several years ago volunteered to return to active duty and requested service in Iraq. He's got a great web site, the link to which he provides in his message, that is well worth looking at. I'm not sure who is the original sender of Mitch's message. Best, Jim
1. Mitch “Taco” Bell, our area Marines For Life Commander, gives his AARep/SitRep of the situation in Afghanistan. This is not some superficial product of a dilitante, but rather an insightful, unvarnished, and candid analysis that shows the military professionalism that exits in our field grade officer Corps.
These are some of my thoughts on Afghanistan. It's long, but if you think the others would like to read it, please pass it on or send the link www.thesandgram.com
Semper Fi,
Taco
Afghanistan?
“How do you fix a problem like Maria???”
The song from the Sound of Music reverberates in my head as I sit here thinking about the situation in Afghanistan. How do you fix a problem like Afghanistan? When I tell folks that I served in Kabul, I think the number one question asked of me is, “What do you think will happen in Afghanistan?” I hate to say that my reply isn’t always positive. Our job there, and in Iraq, has come at a great price for America and her allies, and I firmly believe there are still lots of bad guys there who need to be given the chance to meet their maker, but maybe we need to change how we do business. These are my personal insights on the war there, good, bad or indifferent. They do not reflect the opinions of the Marine Corps or the administration.
After appointing Gen. Stanley McChrystal the new commander in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave him two months to write an analysis of the situation there in yet another review of U.S. strategy. But after rumors leaked out that McChrystal would ask for another increase in U.S. troops, it appears that Gates decided he would not wait for McChrystal's finished report. On Aug. 2, he summoned McChrystal and his deputy, Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, to a hastily arranged meeting in Belgium which also included Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, NATO commander Admiral James Stavridis, McChrystal's direct boss Gen. David Petraeus, and under secretary of defense for policy Michele Flournoy.
On Aug. 5, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrellbriefed reporters on the results of the unusual Sunday meeting. According to Morrell, Gates instructed McChrystal to consider a few additional, and unspecified, issues in his report. Gates also instructed McChrystal to take more time, likely postponing the delivery of the report into September.
Finally, Morrell explained that McChrystal's report will not include any discussion or request for additional “resources” (meaning U.S. troops and money) for Afghanistan. If McChrystal wants to make such a request, Morrell said, he will do so separately and at a later time.
Climate change and reduced sea ice cover may result in opening up the Arctic to vastly increased resource development and commercial traffic. These trends will inevitably spark international conflicts and create a need for more military forces to provide security and protect interests in the Arctic region. This is bad news for the U.S. Navy, already hard-pressed by shrinking fleets and rising challenges elsewhere.
Robert Gates, a success under George Bush, seeks to do even better under Barack Obama
Napoleon, it is said, preferred a lucky general to a good one. Sitting in the E-ring of the cavernous Pentagon is a man who has shown himself to be both fortunate and skilful. These days the gossip among Washington’s national-security savants is whether the unassuming Robert Gates is, in fact, the best secretary of defence that America has ever had.
Perhaps so. Fate has been kind. Mr Gates is already unusual for being kept on as defence secretary by a new president entering the White House. Hired by George Bush in 2006 to salvage the war in Iraq, Mr Gates is trying to do the same in Afghanistan for Barack Obama. If anything he has become more influential, taking on not just Iraqi militias and the Taliban, but also a stubborn domestic foe: the “iron triangle” of armed services, defence industries and Congress that controls the Pentagon’s gargantuan military-spending programmes.
Artist's Home Page
+++++++Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment+++++++
The Economist is a thoughtful source. Click on the logo to read the rest of the piece. Click on the political cartoon to visit the artist's home page–we consider political cartoons to be “high art.” Click on the cartoon below to read the warnings Secretary Gates and all others have ignored for 20 years.
In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king [but only if the blind have hold of his hem]. Secretary Gates embodies an extraordinary combination of intellect, discipline, and savoir faire, but he has reached his limits. Absent a Whole of Government strategic initiative to get a grip on reality, scrub the budget of waste, and redirect all of America's policies, domestic as well as foreign, in harmonization with one another as well as reality, he will go down with the ship, which hit the iceberg under Clinton and sank under Bush. Obama is just bailing water from the piece still floating (one issue at a time) and pretending it is effective. America can still be saved, but not without Electoral Reform and a coincident commitment to creating a Smart Nation.
Senior American military officials Wednesday threw cold water on reports of an attempted coup d'etat in Qatar, nerve center for the U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Original Source
Arab Websites Report On Failed Coup Attempt In Qatar
Various Arab websites are reporting on the sudden firing of senior Qatari military officials after they staged a failed coup attempt.
