Posted 2:01 PM by extinct

You're a blockquote, Charlie Brown! Thanks, Jim Henley of Unqualified Offerings (see side of page), for the blockquote tag tip. Now if only there were an "edit and format tastefully and automatically" tag.

Posted 8:58 PM by extinct

INVADING IRAQ: UNCANNILY FULFILLING THE BIN-LADEN DOCTRINE

Jason Vest’s recent article in The Nation, whatever its political view, contained commentary from very credible mainstream military sources and critics on the state of our forces, and on the political doctrine under which the invasion of Iraq is supposed to happen. What is most scary is that it appears that our military status and political risks in invading Iraq match what can be called the “Bin-Laden doctrine“. Below I provide the terror master’s political military doctrine -- in his own words as expressed in his latest broadcast -- alongside the assessments of the knowledgable among our military critics, as Vest reports.

Bin-Laden’s assessments of our political-military weaknesses are disturbingly uncanny. An invasion of Iraq plays right into his hands for his aim of clash of civilizations. Invading Iraq is almost a textbook bin-Laden trap. (Which suggests the question: where is bin-Laden, Mr. President? He’s the guy we need to get first.)

Vest reports key military concerns in an Iraq takeover:

Officers ... have real concerns about anti-US backlashes or acts of terrorism down the road--not just against occupation forces in Iraq but against Americans all over the world.

The Bin-Laden doctrine cackles the correctness of their fears:

I also assure those true Muslims should act, incite and mobilise the nation in such great events, hot conditions, in order to break free from the slavery of these tyrannic and apostate regimes, which [are] enslaved by America....

We all know how hot he can create conditions.

Vest reports the widespread commitment required to hold Iraq and stop bin-Laden elsewhere:

These situations may require the dispatch of anything from small special operations detachments to scores of smaller expeditionary forces. ...

Bin-Laden confirms the long-term scope of conflict; he seems not to think Iraq will be over when we say its over:

Our mujaheddin brothers in Iraq....We advise about the importance of drawing the enemy into long, close and exhausting fighting ... in plains, farms, mountains and cities

And he is confident of it spreading to much of the world:

....Among regions ready for liberation are Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, the country of the two shrines (Saudi Arabia), Yemen and Pakistan.

Vest reports on real fears on systemic weakness in current US military doctrine and personnel in fighting bin-Ladenites:

A recent study by the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute discovered that more than half of enemy positions went undetected by the high-tech eyes in the sky. How could this happen? "The earth's surface remains an extremely complex environment with an abundance of natural and man-made cover and concealment" that--surprise!--can escape or counter all manner of high-tech detection.

Bin-Laden is hip to the limits of that precise weakness and how to exploit it:

We have recognised that one of the best, effective, and available means to devoid the aerial force of the crusading enemy of its content is by digging large numbers of trenches and camouflaging them in huge numbers....The American forces were bombing us with smart bombs, cluster bombs, and bombs which invade caves. B-52 aircraft were flying every two hours over our heads ... The modified Sinmo 13 aircrafts were bombing us daily ...If all the evil global powers were not capable of defeating one simple mile occupied by mujaheddin using very poor equipment, how can such evil powers triumph over the Islamic world? ...

Vest cites mainstream mlitary critic John Gentry, a retired Special Forces officer and veteran of East Asian and Bosnian operations, for the overemphasis on technology; technology, we might note, that has failed to kill or stop bin-Laden‘s small band:

Gentry points out that as the US military continues to spend money to make its systems and weapons more technology-dependent, the rest of the world will probably find cheap, low-tech ways to get inside this technologically driven decision cycle. This means that "opponents can take deception actions that lead US forces to waste scarce precision munitions on low-value targets.”

Bin-Laden is once again totally aware of the precise weaknesses:

Our mujaheddin brothers in Iraq, don't worry about ... their power and their smart bombs and laser ones. Such smart bombs have no use among the mountains, trenches, plains, and forests...The only way is haphazard bombing which depletes the enemy's ammunition and the enemy's money. ..Such a way will deplete all your enemy's reserves in a few months.

Curious, by the way, that our government has asked networks not to broadcast bin-Laden videos for fear they contained instructions, yet this broadcast contains the most specific and frighteningly accurate instructions, to date, directed at killing large numbers of our soldiers, and it was practically heralded by government officials.

Anyway....

Vest notes that quality and morale of ground fighting forces and officers have decreased markedly over the past few years.

Maj. Donald Vandergriff, author of last year's critical personnel and doctrinal study The Path to Victory,[says personnel policy for midlevel officers] essentially amounts to "bribing people to stay, buying their loyalty, patriotism and moral strength to go in harm's way, based on the dehumanizing assumption that our officers and NCOs are mindless, undifferentiated, replaceable cogs in a machine."

Gentry’s critique also warns of the underreliance on strong human training and attention:

Gentry ... draws attention to the recent Defense Department planning document Joint Vision 2020. ... “[It]'s the epitome of simple arrogance.... [Technology] has little applicability ...sensors cannot identify human motives, measure human emotions, quantify the coherence of human organizations, or assess the importance of the data they gather. ...[Troops] must acquire adequate background knowledge and understanding of their areas of responsibility before they deploy in order to be able to convert the incremental bits that their sensors give them into useful information."

Bin Laden too felt that human ability was lacking in the force he faced.

We recognised after fighting and defending ourselves from the American enemy that it depends on its fighting mainly in psychological war for the huge propaganda machine it has, and it also depends on the heavy air bombing. America uses these two in order to hide its soldiers' weaknesses....Despite ... heavy shelling [at Tora Bora],... they (American soldiers) turned back carrying their killed and injured soldiers. The American troops couldn't dare to invade our bases, which indicates ... the false myths they spread concerning their military capabilities.

One need not agree with his baiting invective against the character of our soldiers or accept the wrongfulness and failure of our fight against him to realize that he has hit correctly upon weaknesses in tactical training, weaknesses that can used as here to improve enemy morale. The proof is in the facts. He is, after all, apparently still alive and free and troublemaking.


Vest notes that critics see that hi-tech emphasis in the military, along with supply and training problems, can backfire, especially in an urban setting:

For a military that, in the context of Iraq and beyond, is likely to face urban warfare and subsequent low-intensity conflict in cities and mountains sans adequate training, wonder weapons, and networked surveillance/communications systems may not only be lacking; they could even be exploitable weaknesses.

Bin-Laden is frighteningly and directly hip again about where to hit:

The enemy fears the most the town fights and street fights. Such fighting would cause the enemy huge losses of souls.

Vest finds alot of officers uncomfortable with our plans for a post-invasion Iraq:

While the Iraqi people may initially respond to the deposing of Saddam Hussein and his clique with euphoria, many officers do not expect a quick or easy transition to anything resembling stability or democracy; indeed, some who have made a close study of the region anticipate "spheres of simultaneous civil conflict all over Iraq," as one put it, that will tax resources as well as US public opinion.

Those fears might prove correct, as a gruesome bin-Laden doctrine sits in cheerful ambush for our ill-advised Iraq adventure:

So Muslims in general and Iraq in particular must pull up your pants legs for jihad against this unjust campaign [against Iraq].

But what should happen in the event of an American victory? Bin-Laden’s setback? Hardly, bin-Laden is unfazed, even eager, and plans a South Lebanon/West Bank for American GIs, as he addresses Iraqis and others who will follow him:

You should also keep the ammunitions and weapons, as it is an obligatory mission. We stress the importance of martyrdom operations against the enemy, these attacks that have scared Americans and Israelis like never before.

Indeed prior experience shows we have no clear policy on how to govern others wisely. And that may earn bin-Laden the recruits he needs for a barbaric insurgency in Iraq and elsewhere. Vest reports:

A high-ranking British officer who did a tour with NATO [says], "All the US written orders and briefings I got treated the whole of Bosnia as bandit country...with the end result being, the GIs on the ground treated it like the Wild West with Indians behind every bush; their weapons were always at the ready, even when they talked to the natives, which was a very antagonistic stance. If anything ...the locals in areas under US control viewed the GIs as imperial occupiers....”

What a trap Iraq will prove if that is the attitude going in, and it is likely to be as we are still in a psychological post- 9/11 “payback” mind-set. And Iraq is wildly unpredictable even by Yugoslav standards. If the precedent the British officer provides continues, how many Iraqis and others will fall prey to bin-Laden’s siren-song and become GI-killing “martyrs” for his clash of civilizations doctrine of endless war? He gives them a pre-fab articulated grievance that our behavior may not fail to overcome:

We are following with utmost concern the Crusaders' preparations to occupy the former capital of Islam (Baghdad), loot the fortunes of the Muslims and install a puppet regime on you that follows its masters in Washington...

Well, it's one thing to walk unknowingly into an ambush but it appears we are going in, eyes knowingly wide shut.

PS -- BTW, have you got this bin-Laden guy yet, Mr. President? I campaigned for you, ya know.

Posted 4:51 PM by extinct

Green-Eyed At West Point? In an otherwise interesting and useful article at the Nation, the following sentence appears: "[T]here's a smaller group {of military people} that believes political leaders, instead of really addressing problems and resource issues, are going to go out and empire-grab and disguise it as something else so we can feed a warped version of the American dream, in which we continue to consume more resources and produce more waste, rather than really struggle with what it takes to keep the American dream viable and inspirational in a world of 6 billion people." Isn't it convenient that these dissenters exactly mouth Green rhetoric and that the Nation has found them? While I am not surprised to hear of Empire skeptics in the military (thank God), this sounds a little bit wishful-thinkingish.

Posted 5:45 PM by extinct

INAUGURAL RIBBON-CUTTING POST


PRODUCT PLACEMENT BLOGGING. I inaugurate my long-delayed blog by introducing to bloggery what may be a new concept, yet one designed to address the great blogger uber-complaint: the complete absence of money in blogging. For many bloggers this absence of income extends to their non-blog life.

Now, conventional advertisement is a problem because it is distracting, especially in the form of pop-up ads. So I submit the new concept for the benefit of all. A means of non-distracting income generation from web-log scrivening:

Product Placement Blogging!

Many have heard of the practice of consumer product manufacturers paying to have their product displayed or mentioned in a movie or on TV: movie shots of Times Square with the famous Coke sign flashing, or scenes where a pack of cigarettes is suddenly pulled out, label hugely legible. It’s called product placement.

So why can’t we import this into cyberia? (Perhaps it is already being done and I don’t know it yet.)

Think of it, marketers out there, the entire blogworld, the infinite Internet, being reminded again and again of your product as the denizens of geekdom pop off on a pet dismal subject:

“The need to act came to me while sipping a ___{your beverage product here!}___ at my computer table, wondering how soon I could start up my ____{your brand vehicle here!}___ in order to go down to the protest .”

“I have often wondered about the separation of church and state. While dining the other day at __{your eatery here!}___ I began to oppose faith-based charities and their funding. Many good books like {your book here!}__ explaining why you should oppose it too can be found at __{your Greek mythology-South American waterway-inspired non-sequitur URL here!}__.com.”

“Poetry has never been the same since Keats. The other day I took a trip to London, having bought my tickets through ___{your on-line travel discount service here!}___.”

Bloggers themselves can get incestuously into the game:

“Boy, that Glenn Reynolds {or your blog here!} really can make a point. Even when I disagree I see why they call him Instapundit {or your own clever blog name here!}.”

Even causes and special interests can chip in to product placement blogging:

“The country is going to hell! In a handbasket! And they have brought us to this. They won’t give up until we’re all screwed. Yes, it’s all because of the __{insert your hated group here}.”

Each reference would of course include a link to the product or service’s website, or any other site where the product, service, or cause can be purchased or funded.

But that mention and link will only come for a steep price, of course. Measured in hard dollars, and soft integrity.

Done.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ABOUT ME. Oh, the obligatory “about me”.

About me are some clothes, a desk, and a pile of books. (For specific mention of the designers/authors, manufacturers may email me with bids.)

Which anyway all reminds of an old “guy line” -- try it, it usually works ... if one or both of you are in a severely altered state of consciousness:

Guy to Gal: You know what I like about you?

Gal: What?

Guy: My arms. {throw arms around her}

She’ll think it’s so cute that by the time she recovers you’re already there.

Or you’ll get kicked in the crotch and sued for sexual harassment (do NOT try on employees), but at least you tried, man, and face it, that’s all that counts.

Done.

Posted 9:23 PM by extinct

Still trying to figure this out.