 |  |
| Monthly Archives | [-] |
Prev|List|Random|Next |
Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on war and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world.
Always updating - refresh for updates.
Answer To A Comment On "RC South" -- [Old Blue/Afghan Quest - in Afghanistan]
One of the comments on the last post, "RC South," brought me to realize that the ASCOPE/PMESII crosswalk needs some explanation...
The ASCOPE/PMESII crosswalk is a combination of two sets of information that are found in the FM 3-24. The manual doesn't link them per se, but alludes to the linkage. What the Counterinsurgency Training Center - Afghanistan has done is create a crosswalk so that critical elements of information are not ignored when gathering information about the specific area of operations (AO)...
When Humvees Still Aren't Big Enough -- [Lt Gorman/A Handful of Dust - in Afghanistan]
...Since the MRAP is a hulking monstrosity with a very high center of gravity, it's not exactly an ideal fit for rugged terrain or the cramped city streets of Afghanistan. The M-ATV is its smaller, slightly less gigantic cousin that is meant to be more geared towards off-road than the MRAP which was designed with flat Iraq in mind.
Having worked with the new M-ATVs I can say they have some distinct advantages as well as some drawbacks...
Ralph Peters, Special Operations and the Perils of Secrecy -- [The Quatto Zone - in Afghanistan]
The latest exercise in Karzai-bashing from media curmudgeon Ralph Peters is an interesting case study in confusing cause with effect. As usual, you can ignore Peters's assertions. President Karzai really doesn't want to stop night raids by special operations forces, and SOF activity in Afghanistan actually has increased dramatically under the leadership of the "conventionally minded generals and Are-we-there-yet? pols" that Peters derides. What you should pay attention to is Peters's anonymous source within the SOF community and that source's intent...
$1 trillion USD of.......oh, screw it. -- [Knights of Afghanistan - in Afghanistan]
ISAF military operations, corruption in the government, strategic planning by the Obama administration, the weaknesses of current counter-insurgency theory, and all sorts of other Afghanistan-centered topics generate a predictable response in the blogosphere. Often the commentary is juvenile, hyperbolic or just plain wrong, but generally it barely rises beyond the level of nitpicking among COIN specialists or partisan hackery. There's often an undertone of negativity and defeatism, as the old saying about "bad news selling more papers" applies just as accurately to blog traffic, but no single article usually creates quite the firestorm that seems to have ignited over this article in the NY Times...
A Trillion Dollars -- [Free Range International - in Afghanistan]
Yesterday the New York Times reported a stunner which was that the United States has discovered 1 Trillion dollars in untapped mineral wealth in Afghanistan. That news would seem to be a potential game changer and I went out this afternoon to downtown Jalalabad to conduct a couple man on the street interviews with local Afghans...
Picture Of The Day - 20 JUN 2010 - "Fathers Day" -- [FaST Surgeon - in Afghanistan]
..Suffice it to say that it was as good as any neighborhood BBQ that I've ever attended (minus the beer). Thank you T&J! .. and thanks to the grill masters... the food was awesome...
Lost Boys: Father's Day Post -- [Rajiv Srinivasan - in Afghanistan]
...But every now and then, a ray of good fortune shines upon us, and the explosion we hear is not a planned enemy attack but a failed attempt at one. IED emplacement is a dangerous business. Thankfully for us, sometimes the enemy blows himself up, taking both another Talib and another IED off the streets.
Last week, three Pakistani men were planting an IED when such an explosion occurred...
Undisciplined Afghans endanger Marjah Marines -- [Dan Lamothe/Marine Corps Times - in Afghanistan]
...Marines aren't universally down on the ability of Afghan security forces, who are partnered with each Marine unit in Helmand province. Some say they have met good Afghan soldiers who fight with courage, take pride in their work and are proficient with weapons ranging from the 5.56mm M249 squad automatic weapon to rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
But the general consensus from rank and file infantrymen is that for every good ANA soldier, there are at least five or six who are lazy, incompetent or both.
"They're not willing to do the job it takes to defend their country," said Lance Cpl. Lucas McGary, a rifleman with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. "They're so worthless that their worthlessness doesn't faze anyone anymore."
Such frustration is fostered by incidents that span a variety of categories...
Afghan forces' apathy starts to wear on U.S. platoon in Kandahar -- [Washington Post/Ernesto Londoño - in Afghanistan]
As a 31-year-old platoon leader in the military police, Rathmann arrived in Kandahar nearly a year ago, bracing himself and his unit for pitched battles against shadowy bands of Taliban fighters. Instead, their war has become a slog. With a larger American offensive postponed, firefights have been few and far between. Instead, the Americans have been battling more vexing enemies...
Afghanistan Strategy Focuses on Civilian Effort -- [NY Times/Rod Nordland - in Afghanistan]
The commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, insisted that there never was a planned offensive. "The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said. Instead, he said, "we have certainly talked about a military uplift, but there has been no military use of the term offensive."
Whatever it is called, it is not happening this month...
Soldiers race against political clock in Afghanistan -- [BBC]
As the US military dramatically increases its numbers in Afghanistan there are real fears among British and US soldiers that they may have been given an impossible mission...
[Gen Petraeus], whose success in Iraq produces reverence on Capitol Hill, had already described his approval of the president's withdrawal timetable as "qualified".
From a man who chooses his words as carefully as Napoleon might have done his fighting ground, this sent a clear enough signal...
Yet the Obama surge will only provide a window of maximum troop strength for just eight or nine months.
No wonder some officers use the phrase "mission impossible"...
White House: Afghan pullout will start in 2011 -- [AP/Military Times]
The Obama administration reaffirmed Sunday that it will begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan next summer, despite reservations among top generals that absolute deadlines are a mistake...
US, Afghan forces kill 38 Haqqani Network fighters in Khost -- [Bill Roggio/Long War Journal]
The battle began Friday night in the Musa Khel district in Khost province, along the border with neighboring Paktia province, and near the border with Pakistan, and continued into today. US and Afghan forces were conducting an operation in the district when more than 200 Haqqani Network fighters attacked...
At least 33 killed in bomb attacks across Iraq -- [AP/Military Times]
The explosion capped a week in which about 100 people were killed in bombings and shootings nationwide, including at least 26 who died in a commando-style assault against the central bank in Baghdad on June 13. An al-Qaida in Iraq front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it targeted the institution responsible for funneling "oil money and the stolen wealth of Muslims" to the West.
Baghdad Nights Glitter, Behind Shatterproof Glass -- [Anthony Shadid/NY Times]
A slew of new restaurants have opened in the capital this year, from Tomorrow and Tool al-Lail to Toast and City Chief, offering a respite for a city spectacularly bereft of nighttime destinations. All have evolved to the conditions of contemporary Baghdad, a city that teases with hints of the ordinary but remains a barricaded warren of blast walls and barbed wire. Namely, nearly all boast of having thick shatterproof glass...
Turkey's PM Erdogan vows to 'annihilate' PKK rebels -- [BBC]
...Rebels killed nine soldiers in a raid on an outpost near the Iraqi border early on Saturday, in the deadliest attack against the Turkish military since April 2009, when nine soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb that was blamed on the PKK.
Later on Saturday, two soldiers were killed in a mine explosion while attempting to capture rebels near the border.
As well as responding with helicopter attacks, Turkey launched air raids on PKK positions inside Iraqi territory...
25 Saudi Guantanamo Prisoners Return to Militancy -- [Reuters/NY Times]
Around 25 former detainees from Guantanamo Bay camp returned to militancy after going through a rehabilitation program for al Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi security official said on Saturday...
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, has put the returned prisoners along with other al Qaeda suspects through a rehabilitation program which includes religious re-education by clerics and financial help to start a new life.
...Around 11 Saudis from Guantanamo have gone to Yemen, an operating base for al Qaeda, while others have been jailed again or killed after attending the program, said Abdulrahman al-Hadlaq, Director General of the General Administration for Intellectual Security overseeing the rehabilitation.
Jack Nicklaus donates design for VA course -- [AP/Military Times]
THWACK! The white ball soars into the sunny Northwest sky, past lush evergreens and lands about 150 yards down the driving range.
Dudek's drive -- specifically the dedication and promise for renewal it represents -- is why Nicklaus is here outside Tacoma. The golf great is donating his expertise to design what will perhaps be the most appreciated course he'll ever build.
Nicklaus is helping combat veterans by redesigning and expanding the American Lake Veterans Golf Course. It's going to be a one-of-a-kind, 18-hole layout geared specifically for disabled golfers...
9-month deployments, 3 years of dwell favored -- [Army Times]
The Army wants to reduce combat zone deployments to nine months and increase dwell time to three years, Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, told Army Times.
"We're actively studying right now the timing and the possibilities of going to nine-month deployments as a standard," Casey said in an exclusive interview...
Victory for WikiLeaks in Iceland's Parliament -- [NY Times The Lede blog]
At 4 a.m. on Thursday, at the end of an all-night session, Iceland's Parliament, the Althing, voted unanimously in favor of a package of legislation aimed at making the country a haven for freedom of expression by offering legal protection to whistle-blower Web sites like WikiLeaks, which helped to craft the proposal...
Korea, War Without End, Casts a Long Shadow -- [AP/NY Times]
Distant thunder rattled the windows as Hong Il-sik, 14-year-old schoolboy, awoke that Sunday. It was the sound of artillery fire, the morning of June 25, 1950, the dawn of a war that never ended.
Looking back, ''I couldn't even have imagined that -- 60 years,'' says the gray-haired ex-university president.
Gen. Paik Sun-yup, on the contrary, is unsurprised by the endurance of Korea's endless standoff.
Knowing the enemy, North Korea's communists, ''we sensed back in the 1950s it could be a very long conflict,'' the sturdy 90-year-old Paik, a legendary Korean War commander, told a visitor to his memento-filled office above Seoul's War Memorial, the huge museum he helped build.
The war without end began that long-ago Sunday when North Korea invaded the south to try to reunify the nation, a liberated Japanese colony sliced in two in 1945 by the U.S. and Soviet victors of World War II...
(Need more? Dawn Patrols Archives are here.)
