Most of the people that had no prior experience, let’s say the average Weatherman, if there is such a thing, they were sent to Cuba for training in Cuba. […] Grathwohl: I brought up the subject of what’s going to happen after we take over the government. You know, we become responsible for administrating, you know, 250 million people. And there was no answer. No one had given any thought to economics. How are you going to clothe and feed these people? The only thing that I could get was that they expected that the Cubans, the North Vietnamese, the Chinese and the Russians would all want to occupy different portions of the United States. They also believed that their immediate responsibility would be to protect against what they called the counter-revolution. And they felt that this counter-revolution could best be guarded against by creating and establishing re-education in the Southwest where we would take all of the people who needed to be re‑educated into the new way of thinking and teach them how things were going to be. I asked, “Well, what is going to happen to those people that we can’t re‑educate, that are die-hard capitalists?” And the reply was that they’d have to be eliminated and when I pursued this further, they estimated that they’d have to eliminate 25 million people in these re‑education centers. And when I say eliminate, I mean kill 25 million people. I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of whom have graduate degrees from Columbia and other well-known educational centers and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people and they were dead serious.
…a Federal raid on a California-based motorcycle club, the Mongols, on charges “ranging from murder and robbery to extortion, money laundering, gun trafficking and drug dealing.” The interesting twist is that the authorities are asking the courts to seize the IP of the biker club — specifically, their trademarked name “Mongols.” “Federal agents and police in seven states arrested more than 60 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang on Tuesday in a sweep that also targeted for the first time an outlaw group’s ‘intellectual property,’ prosecutors said. The arrests cap a three-year undercover investigation in which US agents posed as gang members and their girlfriends to infiltrate the group, even submitting to polygraph tests administered by the bikers … [T]he name ‘Mongols,’ which appears on the gang’s arm patch insignia, was trademarked by the group. The indictment seeks a court order outlawing further use of the name, which would allow any police officer ‘who sees a Mongol wearing this patch … to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back‘ …”
This is an interesting twist on getting Lawfare-y for Domestic COIN/4GW.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The United States on Thursday pushed NATO allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan’s thriving heroin trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the troubled international military mission.
A two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers comes amid an increase in violence that has created doubts about whether Western forces can win the war against the resurgent Taliban militants.
“If we have the opportunity to go after drug lords and drug laboratories and try and interrupt this flow of cash to the Taliban, that seems to me like a legitimate security endeavor,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the meeting. [AP Link]
The Afgan war is not a Counter-Narcotics war. The focus is on Al-Quada and their supporters (Taliban mostly).
The poppy business is on both sides.
US/NATO must focus on the goal: Defeating/Destroy/Degrading Al-Qada et al.
Taking on the Poppy farmers is a sure way to separate USA/NATO from the Afganistani people. That is not the way successful 4GW/COIN works.
Georgia and Ukraine should be integrated into the EuroCore.
European States have other ideas:
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization won’t give Georgia and Ukraine a road map to membership at a meeting later this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday. […] Mrs. Merkel’s rejection of a NATO track for Georgia and Ukraine, at a news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg, would effectively act as a veto. The Western military alliance operates by consensus. [Link]
The result is predictable:
Meanwhile, Kiev took a step away from the West and closer to Moscow, as Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced gas deals with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and voiced support for Russian accession to the World Trade Organization. [link].
If the west doesn’t want to bring the Ukraine (and Georgia) into the EuroCore, they will go elsewhere.
This is a dumb move by the EuroCore (the latest in a long line). It is still in the European leaders blood to appease aggression and act on fear of any risk (higher oil/gas prices).
Putin’s Russia depends upon Europe buying oil/gas just as much as Europe depends upon Russia selling it. To avoide any risk though, the EuroCore is willing to signal to the Ukraine and Georgia that they are not really wanted in the “proper” Europe.
The Russian leadership is proving to be quite good at the influence warfare game. That is not surprising considering their shared background.
The ideas from URW haven’t quite made there way into 4GW/5GW…there is a lot of richness in the its ideas. There is more in URW then is in Lind’s 4GW. So, does that make URW a better source for 4GW, or just for how states might fight 4GW? There is a lot of 5GW-ish stuff in there to. Maybe URW concept should be distilled and and treat as a separate category in XGW.
I leaning toward the 4GW category being shorthanded as “Full Spectrum Conflict” with the ‘Weaponization of things not thought to be weapons” being key.
Maybe it is best in XGW to treat URW as an additional generation between 4GW and 5GW though.
John Poole‘s Dragon Days is mostly about 4GW and a little bit about what I call 5GW (aka SecretWar).
The Interesting points to me where:
– US light infantry should add criminal investigative techniques
– US light infantry should all add real SERE capability so they don’t need 2GW-ish bombardment (with its 4GW blowback) if they get into a fix.
– China seems to be the PuppetMaster behind lots of the conflict and enemies the US is facing – so China is sort of engaged in a non-kinetic 4GW and maybe a 5GW (though he doesn’t use that term) against the US
– Poole thinks that the release of the book Unrestricted Warfare was a deception operation to get the US focused on hi-tech warfare (which makes me think he really didn’t read it)
– First-rate first-person war reporting
– An account of what is going on tactically in Iraq
– A partial handbook on COIN/4GW and the importance of the non-kinetic activities
I highly recommend it. The PurpleDad is getting my copy.
Six days after the Iraqi government launched Operation Knights’ Charge in Basrah against the Mahdi Army and other Iranian-backed Shia terror groups, Muqtada al Sadr, the Leader of the Mahdi Army, has called for his fighters to lay down their weapons and cooperate with Iraqi security forces. Sadr’s call for an end to the fighting comes as his Mahdi Army has taken serious losses since the operation began.
[…]
From March 25-29 the Mahdi Army had an average of 71 of its fighters killed per day. Sixty-nine fighters have been captured per day, and another 160 have been reported wounded per day during the fighting. The US and Iraqi military never came close to inflicting casualties at such a high rate during the height of major combat operations against al Qaeda in Iraq during the summer and fall of 2007.
If I had only my local newspaper and broadcast news, I would have been under the impression that Sadr was kicking ass and decisively winning.
Except, now he has announced that his side has lost. Thanks American Media once again for nothing. Hey – cheer up American Media…you might still be able to create a Tet Offensive of your own yet!
The best argument for the Nagl Advisory Corps plan is how it offers the prospect of preventing large-scale U.S. COIN missions from becoming necessary in the future. By making it a regular practice for small U.S. advisor teams to work in all four corners of the globe, assisting allies with peacetime foreign internal defense preparation (so-called “Phase Zero operations”), the U.S. can prevent crises from happening in the first place. LTC Nagl’s Advisory Corps and its associated schoolhouse would ensure that these Phase Zero advisory efforts would be performed by well-trained and highly-prepared teams, employing best-practices tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Hidden Unities notes a shameful combination of action/inaction by the USGOV:
Earlier this month, Iraq war vet Owen West wrote a blistering piece in the NY Post condemning the State Department for betraying through pure bureaucratic ineptitude the Iraqi interpreters who have sought asylum in the United States.
[…]
Anti-American forces in Iraq and elsewhere would be wise to broadcast far and wide the utter contempt Bush and Condi Rice have for their “Iraqi” friends. They’re certainly sending a crystal clear message to those of us in America who have a sense of decency and honor.
Here is his plan:
Congress should immediately pass legislation* authorizing ground commanders to make asylum arrangements for interpreters. Sens. McCain, Clinton and Obama should be the leading sponsors in the Senate to forestall a likely presidential veto attempt and ensure there is no party-line voting on what is a strictly non-partisan emergency and ensure it passes with a veto-proof tally.
My thoughts (comments left at that blog):
The combination of action/inaction by USGOV on this is shameful and truly counter-productive.
If the USA is going to be doing COIN around the world on-and-off for the next generation, a good working relationship with friendly locals will be needed.
The current USGOV action/inactions should give an future friendly local a big pause before helping the USGOV.
“Congress should immediately pass legislation* authorizing ground commanders to make asylum arrangements for interpreters.”.
Yes!
Hmmm…maybe this can be spun into a $200,000 earmark for each congressional district?
Cringley is a documenter/pundit of computer geeks and their world. He does calls them “nerds” though which shows he does not have a full understanding and is apart from them.
There is a technology war coming. Actually it is already here but most of us haven’t yet notice. It is a war not about technology but because of technology, a war over how we as a culture embrace technology. It is a war that threatens venerable institutions and, to a certain extent, threatens what many people think of as their very way of life. It is a war that will ultimately and inevitably change us all, no going back. The early battles are being fought in our schools. And I already know who the winners will be.
[…]
Here, buried in my sixth paragraph, is the most important nugget: we’ve reached the point in our (disparate) cultural adaptation to computing and communication technology that the younger technical generations are so empowered they are impatient and ready to jettison institutions most of the rest of us tend to think of as essential, central, even immortal. They are ready to dump our schools.
Note the part I bolded again:
…younger technical generations are so empowered they are impatient and ready to jettison institutions most of the rest of us tend to think of
as essential, central, even immortal.
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.
I won’t tag anybody since I am about month behind on this, but here is my result otherwise:
The violent dispersal of public prayer services in Baaren led to local citizens taking over the town and government forces taking it back by aerial bombardment and ground assault. In 1995, the province experienced sabotage of railroad tacks and oil fields. The following year, approximately 5,000 Uighurs were arrested after a series of attacks on Chinese interests.
The book is partially on what I would call 5GW or near-5GW, 4GW tactical forces (as light infantry based on SERE coupled with criminal investigation capability).
I found a reference at SlashDot to something called Wikileaks which says:
Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact. Our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by all types of people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.
[…]
Today, with authoritarian governments in power around much of the world, increasing authoritarian tendencies in democratic governments, and increasing amounts of power vested in unaccountable corporations, the need for openness and transparency is greater than ever.
[…]
Wikileaks reduces the risks of truth tellers and improves the analysis and dissemination of leaked documents.
Wikileaks provides simple and straightforward means for anonymous and untraceable leaking of documents.
[…]
In an important sense, Wikileaks is the first intelligence agency of the people. Better principled and less parochial than any governmental intelligence agency, it is able to be more accurate and relevant. It has no commercial or national interests at heart; its only interest is the revelation of the truth. Unlike the covert activities of state intelligence agencies, Wikileaks relies upon the power of overt fact to enable and empower citizens to bring feared and corrupt governments and corporations to justice.
[…]
We propose that authoritarian governments, oppressive institutions and corrupt corporations should be subject to the pressure, not merely of international diplomacy, freedom of information laws or even periodic elections, but of something far stronger — the consciences of the people within them.
[…]
Wikileaks is not a front for the CIA, MI6, FSB or any other agency. Quite the opposite actually. It’s a global group of people with long standing dedication to the idea of improved transparency in institutions, especially government. We think better transparency is at the heart of less corruption and better democracies. By definition spy agencies want to hide information. We want to get it out to the public.
The site claims to be neutral, yet the front page seem to be mostly anti-USA stuff (content and word choice).
The game takes place during the Third Crusade, in the year 1191. The player assumes the role of Altaïr (الطائر, Arabic, “The Flying One”), a member of the Hashshashin sect (the original “assassins”), whose objective is to slay the nine historical figures who are propagating the Crusades. As the player finds and kills these targets, their conspiracy is unveiled. The player will be able to travel through three cities: Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus.
I can’t imagine that if there were computer game set during WW2 that we would have had games produced and distributed openly in America featuring Japanese or German “heroes” killing Allied soldiers and leaders.
I find this game – this subtle piece of pro-Islam propaganda and a pro-Islam psyop to be disgusting.
Its import should to the US should be denied and the company Ubisoft sanctioned.
I am a US Citizen living in Milwaukee WI. I have interests in IT, information security, CyberWar, national security, fifth generation warfare (5GW), history, public policy, entrepreneurship, economics, pop culture and the future.
PurpleSlog - The Future Will Be Kludged 