Author: Tim J. Clark

Always the hunter …

New Training Hones Marines’ Visual Skills
(USA Today)…Jim Michaels, June 27, 2008, Pg. 10

Combat hunter program is ‘a great example of outside-the-box thinking to defeat an adaptive and wily enemy.’

Faced with an alarming increase in sniper attacks in Iraq, Marine commanders in late 2006 began looking for ways to turn the tables on an elusive enemy. Among the experts they consulted: a renowned African big game hunter and a former big city cop.

The result is the combat hunter program, an experiment in training Marines to fight insurgents by making the Marines as wily as the enemy they face. The training combines outdoor skills culled from hunting and tracking with the street smarts developed by police and Marines who grew up in cities.

"The motto we … try to instill in these guys is Marines are always the hunter, never the hunted," says Ivan Carter, the safari guide and hunter — born in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe — who helped the Marines develop the program.

Army FCS: Accelerated Delivery

High-Tech Combat Equipment Expedited For Use In Iraq, (Washington Post)…Donna Borak, Associated Press, June 27, 2008, Pg. D4

The Army will deliver some key technologies to ground forces in war zones three years ahead of schedule as part of its $160 billion combat modernization program led by Boeing and SAIC.

Senior Army officials said Thursday that changes to the Future Combat Systems program will expedite the use of high-tech equipment, including unmanned sensors and robotics, to infantry brigades fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan by 2011.

Army: Support for FCS Restructure

Gates Believes FCS Restructure ‘Deserves Support’
(InsideDefense.com)…Daniel Wasserbly, June 26, 2008

The Army today announced its new plan for fielding the first iteration of Future Combat Systems equipment to infantry brigade combat teams, garnering support from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

FCS is the Army’s premier modernization program — it encompasses various manned and unmanned platforms, sensors and battle-command and high-speed networking tools, which it will provide to soldiers through three technology insertions, or “spin outs.”

YouTube, War on Terror

Fight Terror With YouTube (New York Times)…Daniel Kimmage

AL QAEDA made its name in blood and pixels, with deadly attacks and an avalanche of electronic news media. Recent news articles depict an online terrorist juggernaut that has defied the best efforts by the United States government to counter it. While these articles are themselves a testimony to Al Qaeda’s media savvy, they don’t tell the whole story.

Military Power: Balance

Balance Of Forces, (Washington Times)…William Hawkins, June 26, 2008, Pg. 22

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the Air Force secretary and chief of staff earlier this month, he cited problems in the nuclear weapons program. Many suspect the firings were prompted by more systemic failures …

Provides the perspective on the need to balance immediate  with longer term needs.

“It is a matter of balance,” Mr. Gates told his audiences, “We must build out the Navy. We must modernize the Air Force, in particular the aging fighter and tanker fleet. And we must prepare the Army and Marine Corps for full-spectrum conflict.”

… America must be prepared for dealing with nations “discontented with their role in the international order and rising and resurgent powers whose future paths are uncertain,” diplomatic code for a rising China and a resurgent Russia.

China EMP Technology

Inside The Ring, China EMP arms, Washington Times, June 26, 2008 Pg. B1 By Bill Gertz

China’s significant military buildup includes strategic weapons designed to counter U.S. military advantages, including electric pulse weapons, a senior Pentagon official told Congress Wednesday.

James J. Shinn, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs also said during House testimony that China’s arms buildup is increasing the danger of a future conflict over Taiwan.

He disclosed that China’s military is working on exotic electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons that can devastate electronic systems using a burst of energy similar to that produced by a nuclear blast.

 The recent election of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan’s president and the renewal of China-Taiwan discussions “at least, appears to have reduced the threat and the probability of the use of force.”

Air Force Maj. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, vice director of the Joint Staff for strategic plans and policy, said he agreed with Mr. Shinn and warned that the increase in Chinese air defense and other war-fighting capabilities in the strait “make it militarily a more challenging area.”

Gen. Breedlove said it is hoped that increased military dialogue with China will diffuse the danger of “possible incidents across the strait.”

Iraq: Humiliation

OPINION: Taking Ownership Of Iraq?(New York Times)…Thomas L. Friedman, June 25, 2008

One of the first things I realized when visiting Iraq after the U.S. invasion was that the very fact that Iraqis did not liberate themselves, but had to be liberated by Americans, was a source of humiliation to them. It’s one reason they never threw flowers. When someone else has to liberate you in your own home, that is humiliating — and humiliation, I believe, is the single-most underestimated force in international relations, especially in the Middle East.

What seems to have happened in Iraq in the last few months is that the Iraqi mainstream has finally done some liberating of itself. With the help of the troop surge ordered by President Bush, the mainstream Sunni tribes have liberated themselves from the grip of Al Qaeda in their provinces. And the Shiite mainstream — represented by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Iraqi Army — liberated Basra, Amara and Sadr City in Baghdad from both Mahdi Army militiamen and pro-Iranian death squads.

We may one day look back on this as Iraq’s real war of liberation. The one we led five years ago didn’t count.

All-Volunteer Force: Challenges

All-Volunteer Army: An Ongoing Experiment
(USA Today)…Leonard Wong and Stephen Gerras, June 25, 2008, Pg. 9

In 1973, the military draft ended, and our nation began the experiment of manning an Army exclusively with volunteers. A decade later, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger proclaimed, “To all the American people, I would say that the experiment is over. We know that an all-volunteer force can succeed, and we know what it takes to make it succeed.” And yet, perhaps today we really don’t know all it takes to make the all-volunteer force succeed.

The real issue confronting today’s Army derives from three aversions held by Americans:

•We are skeptical of a sizable military. “The spirit of this country,” Thomas Jefferson noted, “is totally adverse to a large military force.”

•While many Americans yearn for some form of national service, few are eager to revisit the inequities of conscription.

•Americans have a low tolerance for long wars.

Retired lieutenant colonel Leonard Wong and retired colonel Stephen Gerras are faculty members at the Army War College. Their views are not necessarily those of the Army.