dagblog - Comments for "The Unrestricted Warriors"

Just restricted by the

artappraiser — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 07:43:21 +0000

Just restricted by the civilian government:

Elite Military Forces Are Denied in Bid for Expansion
By Eric Schmitt, New York Times, June 4/5, 2012

Congress and the State Department rejected a request from Adm. William H. McRaven, the leader of Special Operations Command, for new authority to train foreign security forces.

WASHINGTON — In late April, the military’s Special Operations Command presented the State Department and Congress with an urgent request for new authority to train and equip security forces in places like Yemen and Kenya.

The request, which included seeking approval to train foreign internal security forces that had been off-limits to the American military, was the latest effort by the command’s top officer, Adm. William H. McRaven, to make it easier for his elite forces to respond faster to emerging threats and better enable allies to counter the same dangers [....]

Given the command’s influence in shaping American strategy toward extremism, the proposal seemed to have momentum [....]

... in a rare rebuke to the admiral and his command, powerful House and Senate officials as well as the State Department, and ultimately the deputy cabinet-level aides who met at the White House on the issue on May 7, rejected the changes. They sent the admiral and his lawyers back to the drawing board with orders to use security assistance programs already in place, particularly one created last year by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the defense secretary at the time, Robert M. Gates, for just these types of issues [....]

There are others who have

Purpleslog — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:35:59 +0000

In reply to The Unrestricted Warriors

There are others who have moved on past Lind's 5GW ideas. As a start:

http://www.dreaming5gw.com/

https://arherring.wordpress.com/the-xgw-framework/

https://arherring.wordpress.com/?s=5gw

TDAXP's

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=site%3Atdaxp.com+5gw&ie=utf-8&oe=u...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Handbook-of-5GW-ebook/dp/B003VPX206/ref=sr_1_1...

http://zenpundit.com/?cat=16

https://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/5gw-operation-notes-who-what...

Companies Jockey for Share of

Donal — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 11:22:28 +0000

In reply to The Unrestricted Warriors

Companies Jockey for Share of Special Operations Market

TAMPA, Fla.At the annual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, companies large and small are looking to cash in on the increased profile of U.S. Special Operations Command.

The president has said a new defense strategy will put an emphasis on special operations, which grows in Obama's five-year budget proposal while the rest of the Defense Department shrinks. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton even delivered a keynote speech at the conference this year, which saw attendance by representatives from more than 90 other countries. What does all of this mean for the companies exhibiting on the show floor? A couple of industry representatives simply rubbed their fingers together to signify “money.”

You have to go where the money is,” said Steve Graves, vice president of sales and marketing for Acumentrics, a small business that is marketing a new rugged uninterruptible power supply for troops on the move. "Everything is getting cut except special ops. Look at how we fight. You don't need an Abrams tank to drop eight guys out of a helicopter.”

Just ran across these 3 at

artappraiser — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 07:02:31 +0000

In reply to The Unrestricted Warriors

Just ran across these 3 at Asia Times:

The golden age of special operations
By Andrew Bacevich, May 31, 2012

We are now officially in the age of special operations forces, the secret military that's been growing for years. Special operations soldiers have a distinct mentality, they have privileged status that provides them with maximum autonomy while insulating them from the vagaries of politics, budgetary or otherwise, and they wage a very special kind of war.

and

A drone-eat-drone world
By Nick Turse, June 1, 2012

Barely a decade after America's drone wars began, the unmanned hunter-killers are set to fill the global skies, with initial dreams of technological perfection giving way to the reality that as their use soars, so will the number of dead civilians on the ground. But drone warfare is here to stay, and will escalate as other nation's acquire more remotely controlled weaponized hardware.

(This is the final chapter of the newly released book Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050 published by Dispatch Books, a venture by TomDispatch.)....

and

Obama and the generals
By Brian M Downing, June 1, 2012

Long-held mistrust between the United States' military and Democrat administrations has deepened following President Barack Obama's defiant decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. As US military culture increasingly aligns with political conservatism, Obama is starting to view costly ventures such as the failed Afghan counter-insurgency program as evidence of his generals' folly.

Why would a civilian cop or a

chucktrotter — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 05:55:32 +0000

In reply to And our military is saturated

Why would a civilian cop or a mercenary give up their freedom to kill at ten times the salary to become a grunt in the armed forces? At one time, the UCMJ had meaning and the military had an honorable influence...Alas - no more!

Every single time I think

Richard Day — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 02:09:46 +0000

In reply to The Unrestricted Warriors

Every single time I think about this I come to one conclusion:

IT'S A HARD RAIN GONNA FALL

The book, Art of War, is

moat — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:49:48 +0000

In reply to Sun Tzu (more accurately

The book, Art of War, is focused entirely on the problems of "Empire" and assumes that there are people who are responsible for what happens to this Empire who can make either good or stupid decisions. The lessons it offers regarding conflict is certainly a portable feast and can be applied to many different situations. But to say that it only concerns itself obliquely with matters of Nations and the fortunes of States is just wrong.

Another source of political

moat — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:42:48 +0000

In reply to The Unrestricted Warriors

Another source of political instability is the collapse of the space between overt and covert conflict.

During the most recent Iraq war (using the word "last" is too optimistic), there were agency turf wars where DOD fought against CIA who fought against the people at State, who fought amongst themselves, etcetera. The Rumsfeld crowd mostly won those battles and now that guy's vision of a unified Executive branch has become the new normal.

While much can and has been said about the hypocrisy, inefficiency, and corruption that has resulted from keeping these functions of our Nation/State as separate bureaucratic fiefs, the system of sovereign nations depends upon devices that limit the totality of war. Limiting the scope of aggression in order to maintain the appearance of lawfulness is better than abandoning such niceties and simply hoisting the Jolly Roger.

Dismantling institutions in order to carry out this or that operation more quickly is a short sided view of our circumstances and a misunderstanding of power and the advantages of having a lot of it.

And our military is saturated

Donal — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 23:40:49 +0000

In reply to IHMO, our law enforcement is

And our military is saturated with contractors, both ex-military and civilian.

It should have been obvious

Donal — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 23:38:28 +0000

In reply to Sun Tzu (more accurately

It should have been obvious that Lind focuses on nation-states, not Sun Tzu, but I have made it more so.