Public Intelligence Blog – Page 3853 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

2009/08/232009/08/23

Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags Words from the front line: the bloody truth of Helmand – by a combat soldier

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Military

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The past eight weeks have been the army's worst time in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion eight years ago. Here, in his brutally frank diaries of life on the front line, a serving soldier records the bitter toll of death, and his anger and frustration at the lack of military and political support Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday 23 August 2009.

EXTRACTS as Highlighted by Chuck Spinney:

We need better weapons. Every one of the SA80s stopped firing after one round (weapons were cleaned and oiled just as we were trained) but these weapons are a load of shit.

The chiefs should be pressing for a better weapons system. And why don't the army have more sniffer dogs? Would be finding IEDs [improvised explosive devices] a lot easier with a furry friend running about and a lot more lives would be saved. Since I've been here, haven't seen one dog. Told might have to go back to Camp Bastion because of injury.

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2009/08/222009/08/26

Journal: MILNET Flags Fighting Global Warming With CIA?

10 Security, Earth Intelligence, Government

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Full Story Online

Some say security fears are counterproductive

By Bryan Bender

WASHINGTON – Melting ice caps. Drought. Spreading disease. US defense planners view global climate change as a national security threat because it could create millions of new refugees and intensify conflicts over resources.

. . . . . . .

A new debate is unfolding over whether linking climate change too closely with security planning will create a self-fulfilling prophecy, running the risk that the United States will rely too heavily on its armed forces to deal with global problems.

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2009/08/222009/09/07

Journal: MILNET Flags Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops

02 Diplomacy, 10 Security, Military

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Despite Surge in U.S. Deployments, More Civilians Are Posted in War Zone; Reliance Echoes the Controversy in Iraq

Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2009, Pg. 6, By August Cole

Even as U.S. troops surge to new highs in Afghanistan they are outnumbered by military contractors working alongside them, according to a Defense Departm! ent census due to be distributed to Congress — illustrating how hard it is for the U.S. to wean itself from the large numbers of war-zone contractors that proved controversial in Iraq.

The number of military contractors in Afghanistan rose to almost 74,000 by June 30, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground at that point. As the military force in Afghanistan grows further, to a planned 68,000 by the end of the year, the Defense Department expects the ranks of contractors to increase more.

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2009/08/222009/08/22

Journal: MILNET Flags Doing The Bidding Of Organised Crime

02 Diplomacy, Peace Intelligence

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In the name of beating the Taliban, the West is sticking with allies who are anything but the good guys, reports Paul McGeough.

Buried in the wastes of south Afghanistan, Oruzgan is a lost-cause province often invoked as a decorative footnote, because it is the birthplace of Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban.

. . . . . . .

As home to the bulk of Australian forces in Afghanistan, Oruzgan also has become the military parking-lot in which Canberra spins its wheels, at the edge of a nation-building black hole consuming hundreds of billions of dollars coughed up by the international community.

Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment: USG, in name of USA, is still “best pals” with 42 of th 44 dictators on the planet. Click on Ambassador Mark Palmer's photograph to access his utterly honest book, Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025, and his presentation to OSS '04.

Ambassador Palmer has INTEGRITY. Without it, no foreign policy will succeed, and will continue to waste national blood, treasure, and spirit.

2009/08/212011/05/04

Review: On the Psychology of Military Incompetence

5 Star, Complexity & Catastrophe, Corruption, Culture, Research, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Force Structure (Military), Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Threats (Emerging & Perennial)

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Norman Dixon

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely a Core Reference, August 21, 2009

I am so very glad to see this book at least available from some sellers in second-hand form. I still have my orginal hard cover from 1976 and took it down from my military shelf to appreciate it once more. I urge the publisher to re-print this book, and I would be deeply honored to be asked to write a foreword to the next edition. Norman Dixon has made a signal contribution that will long out-live all of us.

Although I despise Amazon for pre-emptorily deleting over 350 of my shared images to get rid of 12 copies of Bush-Obama sharing a face, I think so highly of this book that I have taken the time to scan and load my own original book cover. You can find all of my uncensored work at the Public Intelligence Blog.

This is nothing less than an essential reference in the leadership arena, and particularly in the national security arena. The author is a deeply original speaker of truth to power, and his work on the characteristics of incompetence, his chart on the role of “bull,” his discussions of the reactions to criticisms, the concept of “efficiency” in the armed forces, and his examination of both the kinds of relationships and the interplay among the authoritarian personality and “group-think” are all very very important.

Most of our military officers (in the USA) have for decades forgotten that they swear an Oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and instead they translate that oath into blind obedience to the chian of command, no matter how illegal, idiotic, or illogical those orders might be.

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2009/08/212009/08/21

Journal: Tom Atlee Needs Your Help

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Methods & Process, Policy, Reform

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Tom Atlee is the single most important person responsible for introducing Robert Steele to the emerging concepts of Public Intelligence and Collective Intelligence. Apart from all the books (Smart Mobs, Here Comes Everybody, Groundswell, Army of Davids , Here Comes Everybody, etcetera), it is Tom Atlee who has been the catalyst for convergence across all the issue areas. He is to People what Paul Ray is to polling. Tom is the god-father of the American Public Renaissance, and if we do ultimately take back the power and restore sanity to the Republic and the federal government that is a SERVICE, nothing more, it will be because Tom Atlee was himself. Please support him. Below are a number of headlines from his latest effort to raise funds for the Co-Intelligence Institute. Tom Atlee personifies the center of gravity for America the Good. Please donate as little or as much as you are inspired to give to this national hero.

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2009/08/212009/09/06

Journal: Afghanistan = Viet-Nam, National Security Council Remains “Like a Moron”

05 Civil War, 10 Security, Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

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Saigon 2009

Afghanistan is today's Vietnam.

No question mark needed.

BY THOMAS H. JOHNSON, M. CHRIS MASON

AUGUST 20, 2009

For those who say that comparing the current war in Afghanistan to the Vietnam War is taking things too far, here's a reality check: It's not taking things far enough. From the origins of these North-South conflicts to the role of insurgents and the pointlessness of this week's Afghan presidential elections, it's impossible to ignore the similarities between these wars. The places and faces may have changed but the enemy is old and familiar. The sooner the United States recognizes this, the sooner it can stop making the same mistakes in Afghanistan.

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Full Story Online Some say security fears are counterproductive

Full Story Online

Some say security fears are counterproductive