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Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! October 2, 2009 American AgoraBy GreyhawkApril 2009, the Milblgs Conference. During this panel we're (L-R Bill Roggio, Bill Nagle, and Andrew Exum, the guy in the corner is me) discussing how the strategy to be used during "the surge" in Iraq was presented in public military-related web sites (specifically in Small Wars Journal) as part of a campaign (see Kilcullen's contribution here) to "get the word out" regarding our intentions for Iraq - and whether any similar outreach efforts might be expected regarding Afghanistan. (All something of a follow-on to this discussion). To put this in its proper time frame, the conference was weeks after the first "Afghan troop surge" had been announced, but the ink was hardly dry on the administration's White Paper defining our approach to Af/Pak, and the announcement of General McKiernan's replacement by General McChrystal as commander of forces was over a month away. For those without video capability (or having trouble with the sound quality in that version) here's how that portion of the discussion concluded: Exum: We've got a strategy, we just don't have many good choices to operationalize it... Roggio: Yes... Me: There was a Bush-era document that was our "Path to Victory in Iraq" that laid out from the perspective from on high... the White Paper strikes me as a similar document to that - this is what we intend, these are our goals... You may have detected a note of skepticism in my voice regarding the existence of a solid strategy, if so I assure you I was experiencing it at the time - the White Paper was vague, or at least open to interpretation. In one regard that's exactly what guidance from that level should be. Likewise, it should be clear that no one would make any claim that national strategy should be determined in weblogs, military-related or not. The name I chose for that panel - The New Media Agora, reflected this: The Agora (Greek: Ἀγορά, Agorá) was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history (900s-700s BCE), free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. ...in short, a marketplace of ideas where such things are merely discussed, and certainly not a decision-making body. But since then, Exum himself (well-qualified for numerous reasons not including "has weblog") participated in General McChrystal's effort to operationalize that strategy - to bring it down to the next (boots-on-ground) level. In watching all that develop, many of my reservations about whether we had a strategy (and whether that strategy could be operationalized) diminished - at least to the point that when evaluating alternatives this one appeared to be the obvious next step to the goal. Given the unavoidable unknowns inherent in any plan, hindsight is the ultimate - and only - final arbiter of success. But beyond that, we were committed to this path - in fact we were well along it - and available time was a limiting factor. While all of that was part of the consideration, expedience aside the plan remains worthy on merits. So, like Andrew, I'm a bit surprised by much of what I read these days. And as someone with less of an investment in the issue I admire his restraint. The discussion is ongoing, of course. Nothing is decided. We may stick to the plan. If we're going to try something else for a few weeks then perhaps once we've heard about it we'll be able to embrace that for those weeks, too. Perhaps we'll even have time to try out something different after that. And if you detect a note of skepticism in my writing I assure you I'm experiencing it once again. Is there some lesson to be learned in all that? Certainly. A great reminder that no matter how hard you work, no matter what you think you know, and regardless of your experience or commitment - from time to time you'll run up against this sort of argument: ...and discover that maybe this was what it really meant all along: At least, this humble blogger begins to wonder if it might be so. Elsewhere in the Agora: Neptunus Lex:"So much for the moral high ground in President Obama's "war of necessity"". Jules Crittenden: "Good news first. Obama's actually met with his Afghan War commander. He managed to squeeze in a meeting with McChrystal on the tarmac at Copenhagen, while nursing his IOC hangover". (Hopefully the President wasn't in too bad of a mood.) Spencer Ackerman: "My fellow progressives can find reasons to criticize McChrystal, and I have no doubt they will. I will also find reason to criticize McChrystal. But it should be placed on the balance sheet that no serving military commander has ever gone this far..." (See also here and here.) Robert Haddick: "Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell made it clear that the objective of President Obama's Afghanistan policy - "to disrupt, dismantle and destroy al Qaeda" - remains unchanged. According to Morrell, what is currently open for discussion among Obama senior advisers is "whether or not counterinsurgency is still the preferred means of achieving that end."" Major Mehar Omar Khan: "No sane citizen of our world, let alone a Pakistani infantry officer who may soon end up being another name on an ever-growing list of the fallen soldiers in the war against terror, enjoys thinking about the painful possibility of our world's greatest military power and history's most inspiring nation retreating in the face of an onslaught by Kalashnikov-wielding bearded barbarians riding on the back of motorcycles, hungry horses and perspiring mules." That last might be the quote of the week. Many folks are talking a lot - but in spite of all that competition, I think that message from a guest in the American Agora is hard to top. Posted by Greyhawk / October 2, 2009 5:20 PM | Permalink TrackBackTrackBack URL: http://www.mudvillegazette.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/16766 2 CommentsLeave a comment |
July 19, 2010Dawn Patrol 07/19/2010 [Greyhawk]
Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our ongoing roundup of information on war and other topics - from the MilBlogs and other sources around the world.
Always updating - refresh for updates.
AFGHANISTANProspects for stability in Musa Qala: challenges and possible solutions -- [Bill Ardolino /Long War Journal - in Afghanistan] Exploding Culverts -- [Kandahar Diary - in Afghanistan] Arbaki -- [Free Range International - in Afghanistan] Weather -- [A Major's Perspective - in Afghanistan] Fête Nationale -- [Field Notes: One Soldier's Perspective - in Afghanistan] Goodbye "FaST" Food (and good riddance) -- [FaST Surgeon - in Afghanistan] IRAQOn The Iran, Iraq Border -- [J.D. Johannes - in Iraq] WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISMSenators Look For Smoking Gun In BP-Lockerbie Link -- [AP] No Link Between BP And Lockerbie Release: UK Envoy -- [NPR news blog] UK's Cameron: Releasing Lockerbie Bomber Was Wrong -- [AP] U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLDAs Cameron and Obama Meet, BP Will Be Top Issue -- [NY Times] Afghanistan tops agenda for British PM's visit -- [Washington Times] WELCOME HOMEHomecoming -- [Rajiv Srinivasan - home from Afghanistan] STRATEGY & TACTICSISAF, SCR Address Military ROE and Tactical Directives -- [ISAF] SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYRaytheon's pain gun finally gets deployed in Afghanistan (update: recalled) -- [Engadget] Pain Ray Recalled From Afghanistan -- [Noah Shachtman/Danger Room] The Active Denial System: the weapon that's a hot topic -- [The Telegraph (UK)] World's Fastest Helicopter Boosts Battle Against Insurgents -- [ISAF]
POLITICSIs it time for a real GI Jane? -- [CNN] HUMOR/SATIRE(Need more? Dawn Patrols Archives are here.) Iraq, Afghanistan, War, Terrorism, Military, Politics, Media, MilBlogs, dawn patrol Mudville |
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
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Ur comments section hates me :)
Where do my comments go? Srsly?
Oh, well. As to the last quote, the most interesting thing to me was the commenter 'omar' who showed up in the comments section at SWJ and kind of implied, snarkily, that the new strategy proposed by Maj Khan could easily be 'infiltrated' by the ISI, or used toward Pakistani interests. Standard India-Pakistan paranoia, or a legitimate concern?
I don't know about any of that, specifically, but the exhange (the article and the snarky comment) underscored, to me, the tensions on the subcontinent. It was a bit amusing to see the more polite and measured SWJ comments, and then the one I pointed to above. It's a tough part of the world, all right, everyone's got an agenda, but this particular crowd would know that better than anyone else, wouldn't it?
Sorry - comments have been a problem I've been putting off tackling since the last software upgrade. Once they're entered, processing is slow. I've got to get under the hood on that. At the same time, another software upgrade awaits.
As to motive, I don't think anyone's immune to charges of hidden agenda. The best inoculation one can have against that is apply familiarity with the agendas of the various players to knowledge of topic based on personal experience and sort things from there.
As for the quote, I don't care what the motive is behind the source, that's a good quote. :)