My War-ish Reading List

Inspired by others, here is my War-ish reading list:

Two Classics:

– The Art of War by Sun-Tzu

– The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

General Purpose-ish

– The American Threat: National Security and Foreign Policy By James L Payne

– The New Face of War: How War Will Be Fought in the 21st Century by Bruce D. Berkowitz

– How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War – from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror by Bevin Alexander

– Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization by John Robb

– The Pentagon’s New Map Thomas P.M. Barnett

– Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century by P. W. Singer

Maneuver Warfare / 3GW

– Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (A short intro to Maneuver Warfare – aka 3GW – thinking embedded in a fun to read Science Fiction novel)

4GW

– War Nerd by Gary Brecher (This is a  book mostly about 4GW by an insightful asshole)

– The Principles of War for the Information Age by Robert Leonhard

– Utility of Force by Rupert Smith

– The Sling and the Stone by  Thomas X. Hammes

Moving toward some 5GW thinking…

– Unrestricted Warfare by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui ( Forget the dumb criticism that this is anti-US book. This book broadens ones mind as to what conflict can be, is leads in to a key idea of 4GW and 5GW, that is the  Weaponization of things not thought to be Weapons)

– An Army of Davids by Glenn Reynolds (The emergence of Strategic Citizens)

– The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Brafman and Beckstrom

– Strategic Denial and Deception: The Twenty-First Century Challenge edited by Roy Godson and James Wirtz

– World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World by Christopher Andrew

– The Grand Jihad by Andrew McCarthy

Other/Related

– The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington

– Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: U.S. Covert Action and Counterintelligence by Roy Godson

– The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism by Hernando De Soto

– The Candy Bombers by Andrei Cherny

“We owe it to our veterans and to ourselves not to continue to blindly walk the path of the trajectory of 9/11, but to pause and reflect on what changes in the last ten years have been for the good and which require reassessment. Or repeal. To reassert ourselves, as Americans, as masters of our own destiny rather than reacting blindly to events while carelessly ceding more and more control over our lives and our livelihoods to the whims of others and a theatric quest for perfect security. America needs to regain the initiative, remember our strengths and do a much better job of minding the store at home.”

Zenpundit also gets it.

9/10/2001 and 9/11/2001

I don’t have anything to add to my old 9/10/2001 and 9/11/2001 posts.

My country – The USA – is a divided nation. USGOV and large parts of the public refuse to name our enemies. The enemy hasn’t been defeated – yet. The US Economy nosedive is harming US National Security. Our future capabilities and freedom of action are being reduced. I guess I did have something to add.

RIH BIn Laden!

His future awaits…

…so who is up next on the list?

Why did this CAIR guy start following me on Twitter?

So why did Ahmed Rehab start following me on twitter? It beats me.

Maybe I should follow him back to track the current thinking of America’s enemies?

His twitter profile says he is a leader in US-based anti-US/anti-West Muslim Brotherhood front CAIR.

The profile also says he is an “Egyptian American democracy activist”.

Ha! The Muslim Brotherhood (which is also a 5GWer) and Democracy do not go together.

What are his recent tweets? Two of them are about Al-Qada not existing (they are a fiction of the FBI/CIA):

Here’s the link or here.

LINK: My previous fun with CAIR.

“44 Ways to Advance Jihad”

Peak into the mind the enemy with Anwar al-Awlaki‘s “44 Ways to Advance Jihad“

“Why is it that the media keeps reminding us that we shouldn’t exaggerate the threat of a small group of radicals – but completely changes tact, when it comes to their own personal safety?”

Greg Gutfeld nailed it. They are the islamophobes.

9/11/2001

For now, I will just note my prior posts on  9/10/2001 and 9/11/2001. More to come later.

My angry jihadiwannabe commenter seems…confused

This comment cracks me up. Does the angry jihadiwannabe want to destroy me, or ask me out on a date?

Perhaps this is more his style:

Capturing My Thoughts: Influence Warfare and Afganistan – Have we lost?

Here was my comment at Zenpundit (spelling corrected):

This is a mess thought. I suspect the USGOV is now looking at how to declare a “mission complete” and just get out. I don’t think the political leadership class of the US has the will to see this through or to have done what need to be done to win this. They want no errors, no causalities no upset press folks. I suspect deep down, most of Obama’s National Security team does really want the US to have a victory (the US is the bad guy and needs to lose).

Re-reading the RS article…have the Taliban really convinced the Afghanis that the 9/11 attacks were really an attempt to counter an upcoming US invasion? If so…then the Afghanis will see the US as the invader and the Taliban/al-Qaeda types as the scrappy underdogs fighting back against the superpower like the ant-Soviet forces. That means the Afghani people want the US to lose (along of course with the anti-west leftist elements in the West). The US has lost the influence war once again. I don’t see how that loss can reversed. We had the moral high ground. We blew it. They beat us at it.

If the influence war has been lost, then the 4GW/COIN has been lost (there is no chance that US will bring over whelming firepower/3gw/hama-style-4GW to bear to achieve victory for the US political class doesn’t have the will for that for the most part

It is the Taliban/Al-Qada who are now just waiting for the US to realize it and leave. Victory is in their  grasp. They just need to strategically wait us out and keep up some pressure while avoiding any major destruction events.

This sucks for the US. This is a good day for the bad guys.

“What is Lawfare?”

Here is a site on a topic that is of much interest to me – The Lawfare Project:

What is Lawfare?

Lawfare: The Use of the Law as a Weapon of War

Lawfare denotes the use of the law as a weapon of war, or more specifically, the abuse of the law and legal systems for strategic political or military ends.

The Lawfare Project’s concentration is on the negative manipulation of laws to achieve a purpose other than, or contrary to that for which those laws were originally enacted.

The scope of the Lawfare Project’s focus is on lawfare as it is used (via the Western legal system, nationally and internationally) to:

   1. Thwart free speech about issues of national security and public concern,
   2. De-legitimize the sovereignty of democratic states, and
   3. Frustrate the ability of democracies to defend themselves against terrorism.

The primary goals of the Lawfare Project are: (i) To raise awareness about the phenomenon (and specific instances) of lawfare assuring the subject matter receive the credibility and immediacy that it warrants, (ii) facilitate (legal and non-legal) responses to the perversion and misapplication of international & national human rights law, (iii) identify and mobilize human and institutional resources, and (iv) bring diverse and interested parties together in a common forum to discuss the threat.

Lawfare’s central issues:

    * What legal limits should be placed on those who fight the war against terrorism and what rights should be granted to the terrorists we are fighting?
    *What role, if any, does international law play in the determination of a sovereign state’s ability to act within and without its territory?
    *Where does the power of a state end and the power of an international court or tribunal begin?
    *What consists of incitement to immediate violence and what is legitimate criticism of religion? Should hate speech be outlawed?
    *When an international tribunal displays political or other bias in its deliberations, is the state’s sovereign control abrogated?
    *Does the Universal Jurisdiction trend go against our national security interests? If Universal Jurisdiction is a concept that should be retained, what limits should be applied?
    *From where do courts in Spain and the Netherlands derive the authority to unilaterally grant themselves universal jurisdiction and the power to adjudicate over other nation-states?
    *To what extent must classified material be released to protect the rights of terrorists that allege torture? Where should terrorists and unlawful combatants be tried and imprisoned and under what law? Must the “underwear bomber” be read his Miranda rights?
    *Should a United Nations voting bloc comprised largely of undemocratic member states dictate international human rights norms?
    *What is the source of the bias evident in many human rights reports and in certain tribunals?

Case examples of Lawfare:

    *Al Qaeda manuals that instruct captured militants to file claims of torture in order to reposition themselves as victims in the eyes of the law and media.
    *Attempts by terrorist entities such as Hamas to impede the free movement of democratic state officials and achieve legitimacy by hiring lawyers and instituting “human rights” litigation abroad.
    *Efforts at the United Nations to exclude attacks on civilians from any international definition of the crime of terrorism, so long as the civilians are citizens of what is termed an “occupying power.”
    *Predatory defamation and “hate speech” lawsuits filed against anyone who speaks publicly about radical Islam, terrorism and its sources of financing.
    *Unilateral determinations of local/national courts to exert universal jurisdiction over heads of states, charging war crimes, including efforts to charge Israeli and US government officials with war crimes in the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Spain.
    *The International Court of Justice’s ruling on the legality of Israel’s security barrier, which pointedly ignored the fact that the barrier contributed to a sharp decline in terrorism attacks, and when it was unclear whether the court had jurisdiction to consider the issue in the first place.
    *The lack of legal accountability demanded of theocratic states that recruit their own children as suicide bombers and child soldiers.
    * The resurgence of international and national blasphemy laws (at the United Nations and in Europe.)

Check it out.

“Everybody Draws Mohammed Day”

I don’t have the artistic ability to offer an original contribution to “Everybody Draws Mohammed Day“, but out of solidarity let me…

…display this…

…and link to the historical images at the Mohammed Image Archive.

My short plan for the War in Afghanistan:

Here’s my short plan (started here) for the War in Afghanistan (as opposed to Obama’s Surge and run plan):

0) Bring up the combat force Level
1) Employ 3-D Maneuver to kick the Ass of enemy formations and strongholds that dare to exist
2) Deep Predator strikes based on Sigint and Humint
3) Full Spectrum Influence Warfare to make Taliban/Al-Qada appear as: silly, weak, ridiculous, evil, non-Islamic, tools of the Iranians, boy-lovers, goat-lovers, tools of the Chinese, of high mortality, hypocritical
4) SysAdmin work to clean up the place and train the Afgani Army and Police
5) Influence Warfare to keep the USA/West domestic opposition at bay: Perhaps lots of photos, videos, and audio of Taliban/Al-Qada attrocities and positive first person Afghan accounts
6) Repeat steps 1 through 5 until victory

Influence Warfare (using ridicule) Example: “How to Make a Butt Bomb: Al Qaeda Training Video”

(from The People’s Cube h/t PoliticalWarfare.org)

I hope there is an version of this being made into Arabic/Farsi/Etc and being plastered to Mideast video sites.

(old found draft post) Ralph Peters: “the complexity of counterterror operations comes down to three essential requirements”

Dec 4, 2008 @ 10:17

I am not sure why I didn’t post it. I guess I didn’t feel like going to how to do a counter-terror/counter-4GW 5GW. I should come back to this idea.

—

In the NY Post:

All the complexity of counterterror operations comes down to three essential requirements: Superb intelligence, ruthless determination and tremendous patience.

Intelligence helps you find the enemies you need to kill; determination means you kill them – and patience means accepting that even a successful fight will take decades, if not generations.

Sounds right to me.

So, do we have “Superb intelligence”. I have no idea. It is at least “good” I would venture (and expect given the budget size).

Do we have “ruthless determination”? I don’t think – at least much of the political class doesn’t (or most the US  population).

Lastly, Does the US have “tremendous patience”. I would say no, for sure no way. The US did not have the patience in the Cold War. It took a 5GW to set much of the US cold war response on automatic.

I guess we need a Long War 5GW.

9/11

I will just note my prior posts on  9/10/2001 and 9/11/2001.

Maybe I will write more in a few days.

“Forensic Theology” & “Mahdism In The News”

Guest poster Charles Cameron writes at Zenpundit:

Why is eschatological or apocalyptic rhetoric significant?

It is an accelerant. Simply put, it is a force-multiplier, acting on morale via the sphere of religion, by providing divine sanction for violence — zeal with a deadline.

Oh boy. Fun fun fun! Read it all. Sigh.

Iranian People – Freedom Step by Step

Found via Twitter – http://twitter.com/NYkrinDC/status/2327590329

The people will have to get freedom for themselves by themselves. They must wear out the tyrants. They must endure tragedy and atrocity. They can bring over the fence-sitters by morally defeating the fascists, showing grace and persistence with cleverness, shaming-and-embracing the fence sitters This won’t be easy but they can do it. Freedom lovers around the world are with them, but the hard work is on these future free Iranians. They have started to free their minds and a free future can follow.

Free Iran?

Good luck to them. I wish them success.

“CIA interrogators waterboarded an Al Qaeda prisoner 183 times, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memo, and another prisoner 83 times, the New York Times reported on Monday.”

Cry me a River. Not.

US Marines + South Park + Saadam = Awesomeness!

Found via Slashdot:

During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan.
[…]
“I have it on pretty good information from the marines on detail in Iraq that they showed Saddam the movie.

“Over and over again – which is a pretty funny thought.
[Source: Telegraph]

The US Army put the cherry on this pile of Awesomness:

Stone, 37, said both he and Parker, 39, were most proud of the signed Saddam photo, given to them by the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division.

He said: “We’re very proud of our signed Saddam picture and what it means. Its one of our biggest highlights.

The location of a future hard target in the Long War is…

…here.

Congrats My Fellow Americans! Rejoice! The War on Terror is over!

How about that!

The Long War /GWOT must have been one because it it no longer exists. The terrorist threat (really the threat to American way from the Global Islamofascist Movement with assistance from the hardcore Leftists enablers and useless idiots such as Transnational Progressives).

While it is true, that the US may face a few man-made disasters and need to undertake some overseas contingency operations, with the War on Terror over , President Obama and Veep Biden have ended the terrorist threats facing the United States.

With our Brave New President, we can own up to our past sins, and make things right.

I confident that the efforts of the Obama Administration will continue to lead to doubleplusgood outcomes for my country!

Update: Maybe I should have waited one more day for this post.

“Excellent. Okay, question one… Are you or have you ever been a member of the Taliban?”

Mike Baker speculates on where VP Biden got his numbers:

Date: 24 February 2009

Call Center Employee: Redacted

Subject: Call #4, Call recipient: Commander Mullah Omar and wife Judy

Audio Transcript

Dialing… ringtone… connection established:

“Yes?”

“Yes, good morning… is this Mr or Mrs Commander Mullah Omar?”

“Who is this?”

“Hi there, I’m calling from the Spenkman Center for Research and Policy. How are you today?”

“How did you get my number?”

“Super, glad to hear that. Would you have a few minutes to answer some survey questions?”

“What do you want?”

“Excellent. Okay, question one… Are you or have you ever been a member of the Taliban?”

“I will track you down like an infidel dog…”

“Okay, well, I just have yes or no as options for the first question.”

“Fine, yes.”

“Right, moving on then. Question two… would you describe yourself as a) incorrigible, b) pensive, c) moody or d) cash strapped.”

“You know, I gotta’ go with a) incorrigible.”

“Are you sure?”

“Uh, yeah, definitely a). Gozzar upstairs in 12B is always telling me to lighten up… chill out he says. What a tool.”

“Fine. Question three… fill in the blank with the most appropriate answer; Most of my Taliban colleagues are in it for the blank. Would the answer be a) excitement, b) money, c) babes or d) excellent benefits package.”

“Well… lemme’ see… that’s a good one… I’m gonna’ say b) money, although we just got dental so the benefits are a close second.”

“Alright then, last question; In your opinion, where is Osama Bin Laden currently located?”

“What?”

“Never mind, just a little call center humor… seriously, last question; What percentage of your colleagues would you describe as unfocused and lacking in jihadi fervor?”

“Huh… I gotta’ say they all seem pretty committed. We had 100 per cent attendance at last night’s build-your-own-bomb-belt seminar, and that’s even with the American Idol results show on the telly. Honestly, I ain’t so crazy with that fourth judge.”

“Any guess for the percentage?”

“That Paula Abdul though… what a looker, I’d sure like to cover her up with a nice burka… you remember the music video with that cartoon cat? Boy could she move…”

“Shall I put you down for 25 percent?”

“What? Sure, whatever… any chance you know Paula Abdul? Now there’s a reason to give up jihad. You think she’s married?”

“Thank you again sir for taking the time to answer our questions. Have a super day.”

End Call.

Heh.

Seriously, Biden is an embarrassment and a joke. Obama signaled amateurism in selecting him as the VP Running mate. We have at least 4 more years of this fool.

“It’s their country – surge them”

Read it here.