Off to Zhōngguó "The Middle Kingdom"

The above term for those Sino-linguistically challenged is China in Mandarin. Blogging the next three weeks will be a bit sporadic while my wife and I visit her parents in Beijing. I will attempt to post a few reports and photos during our visit.

One reminder! Please continue to support Soldier's Angels. Even though I am on Team Navy, most of the wounded in these two wars have been Army and Marines and truly need our support. So let's all continue to pitch in and help our wounded by providing funds to buy voice activated computers so they can get reconnected to the world we all share.

Important Reads of the Week

Operation Valor IT

Major Jim Gant, receiving Silver Star

Kopp-Etchells Effect

Top billing for outstanding reads of the week goes to Small Wars Journal for joining forces with Team Navy in raising money for OPERATION VALOR IT at Soldier's Angels. The support that Dave Dilegge, former Marine and editor of SWJ extended, is much appreciated. Read Dave's fine shout out: Now Hear This... And take the time to read the comments...

The important thing to keep in mind is that the money raised goes to provide voice activated computers and other equipment for America's wounded veterans. I urge all who pass this way to take the time to click the link and give what you can. Every little bit helps. If every person who visits this blog today, gave $5 dollars we would raise enough to buy one computer.

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Next up, Mark at Zenpundit has two posts that examine strategy in the area of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Strategy, Dilemmas and Choices and a guest post by Charles Cameron Guest Post: Speak the Languages, Know the Modes of Thought

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Steven Pressfield's It's The Tribes Stupid! continues to impress and inform with insightful posts. This series One Tribe At A Time #4: The Full Document at last! is well worth the time to download and study if you want some insight from someone who has walked the walk.

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Small Wars Journal, returns with this post by Bing West Finishing Firefights Difficult in Afghanistan

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And in a final note about the war, Michael Yon filed this sad dispatch,Great Britain Loses one of its Finest , just before passing along this inspiring news, Smithsonian Air&Space on Kopp-Etchells Effect

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This last read will raise your spirits and help to encourage you to go back and click on the Valor IT banner before leaving.

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions writes In Praise of Optimism. He begins.

In numerous posts about development and entrepreneurism, I have written about the optimistic nature of entrepreneurs. The Lebanese-born, American writer Khalil Gibran, once wrote: "The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose." I don't believe entrepreneurs are unaware of the thorns when they set out to establish a company. They nevertheless remain optimistic.

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The sad news coming out of Texas reminds us that this will be a long conflict. We as a nation and a people are reminded that we must remain steadfast in our belief in liberty and optimistic in our resolve to persevere.

UPDATE: When I sought a photo of Major Jim Gant, this post surfaced that proves the metal of this man. http://www.legion.org/vision/currentevents/2007/05/soldier_in_heroic_battle_to_re.html

The Navy's Essential Role in Our History

Enroute to North Africa 1942

Off Fox Green Beach June 6, 1944

Getting close-in June 6, 1944

Tsunami, 2004

USS Mercy, 2008

Dental clinic USS Mercy, 2008

This week marked the kickoff of Operation Valor IT at Soldier's Angels. Right now the Navy is bringing up the rear in the joint fundraising efforts of the service branches, Army, Marines and Air Force. I am going to devote this post by reminding all, of the essential role the Navy has played in not only supporting but protecting the other services in the wars of the last century.

Prior to the 20th century it was our Navy was the diplomatic mailed fist that ensured safe sea routes to our fledgling country. The Army was confined to the North American continent in a constabulary role confronting Native Americans and securing the borders. The Marines, served aboard our navy ships to provide security to the ships company and act as a segoing infantry to lead naval operations ashore.

The 20th Century saw our Army, and Marines being sent overseas, carried and protected by U.S. Navy ships. It is in this century that the role of the Navy as the essential service came into it's own.

When the U.S. Army struck back at the Axis in North Africa,Operation Torch it was the Navy led by Rear Admiral Henry K. Hewitt who safely carried the largest armada to date,(1942) across the Atlantic and successfully deposited the army on the shores of Morocco and Algeria.

Hewitt then went on to lead the navy in the invasion of Sicily, Italy and Southern France.

Meanwhile in the Pacific, the Navy was busy trying to stop Japanese advances. The sacrifices of the Asiatic Fleet Battle of Balikpapan (1942) and Battle of Sunda Strait bought time for the United States to reinforce Australia. Almost half the fleet of 40 vessels (19) were sunk in battle during this time.

During the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Marine Corps made history. But more sailors (5213), died protecting the beachhead during the campaign than Marines (1831). At Midway, the land based air assets proved ineffective against the oncoming Japanese forces. It was the Navy who turned the tide and stopped the advance of Japan.

As the U.S. ground forces battled their way back across the Pacific in a two pronged attack, it was the Navy who not only deposited the forces onshore, but blunted any attempt at counter-attack.

When the invasion of Europe became a reality, it was again the Navy that at the most critical time turned the tide of battle during the Normandy Landings when navy destroyers came in close to shore and provided direct fire to destroy German positions.

The efforts of the Navy were repeated again and again in the Pacific as they led and then held their positions to support the troops ashore. During the Battle of Okinawa , the United States lost 7,373 men killed and 32,056 wounded on land, while at sea, 5,000 were killed and 4,600 wounded with a loss of 36 ships from relentless air attacks.

Today, the current war in Afghanistan involves primarily our ground forces, with the Navy providing mostly a supporting role of essential air cover, medical aid and supply. But this doesn't mean that the United States Navy has been sitting back resting on it's laurels. They have continued to maintain the original role of maintaining security of the sea lanes and offshore protection while adding a new dimension of "soft power" to their toolbox like Navy Humanitarian Service Groups.

This century has seen it's share of natural disasters, like the Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 where the United State Navy led the efforts to bring aid to stricken millions. This past year has seen the Navy involved in humanitarian operations like the voyage of the USS Mercy Hospital ship to Southeast Asia last summer. http://mercycaptain.blogspot.com/.

More recently, the Navy responded across the Western Pacific providing aid to countries suffering from the effects of typhoons and earthquakes. Navy Supports Relief Efforts in Northern Mariana Islands, Military Provides Rescue, Humanitarian Support in Pacific, Marines, Sailors Bring Aid to Philippines.

As you finish reading this review of the role that the United State Navy has played in protecting our nation by being a stable force that can not only fight but lay down the gauntlet and offer a hand to a troubled world in time of need.

So in a take-off on the immortal words of Marine Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly, C'mon you sons-of-b's. Do you want to sit by and watch the Navy lose? Grab your credit card and join the fight!

Why I Joined the Navy

USS Zeilin AP-9

Burial at Sea, USS Zeilin Tarawa November 1943

Anyone who has followed this blog for a time will know that I served in the United States Army in my youth. My pride in that service moved me to dedicate the photo of my deployment to Vietnam as "The beginning of a quest to understand our world." For the past several weeks the link above that photo calls attention to the Operation Valor Fundraiser for Soldier's Angels. Looking closer you will notice that I am supporting the Navy in their effort to beat the Army in a competition to raise money for this excellent program. Although I still love the Army, I was moved to "join the Navy" as a way of honoring the service of my father Jay B. Wade, who served in the Navy from December 8, 1941 to October 1945 A Thanksgiving Tribute to my Dad and my brother Vince who followed our father down to the sea and proudly served aboard the Spruance-class destroyer USS Ingersoll in the 1980's. Vince so loves the Navy that he served for a three years as a live aboard caretaker on the USS Hornet museum ship. His fondest memories of our dad, is the day he came home in his "Cracker Jacks" and saw our father weep with pride.

My father saw a lot of combat as a gator sailor aboard the USS Zeilin AP-9 in five campaigns from Guadalcanal, the Aleutians, and back to Tarawa and Kwajalein. He was then sent home for leave and became a plank owner on the new Essex class carrier, USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) and participated in 15 air strikes against the Japanese home islands, the last being recalled on August 15, 1945 the day Japan surrendered. When he came home, the transition to civilian life took it's toll and before I was six he disappeared from my life. He returned to my life after I went searching for him and found that he had passed back in 1985, leaving a legacy of three long-lost brothers, two of which I have reconnected with. My brother Vince had the strongest memories of our father, and was able to relate the lost time and how much our father cherished his service in the Navy. The stories of what our father saw and experienced only came to Vince's ears after he returned home on emergency leave as our father lay dying. They talked and Vince learned about the sights and ghosts that our father saw in his dreams every night for the rest of his life. Our dad never wavered from his pride in that service and the memories of war that were burned into the mind of a young man in the last years of his teens.

So here I stand, ready to serve to honor the spirit of my father by supporting the United States Navy in this cause to raise money for our injured service people. The cause is every bit as important as the mission they were originally tasked to complete. I urge everyone to click on the Operation Valor widget and contribute however much you can to honor the sacrifices these fine people made for all of us.

Afghanistan, A Cause or A Curse?

Afghanistan, like the physical mass of her landscape, continues to defy the best intentions of military forces arrayed within her artificial borders to wrest a people who for the past 2500 years have chosen to live by a code dictated by conditions of tribal custom kept safe from intrusions by the geographic characteristics of a desolate landlocked society cutoff from outside influence. The challenge of trying to impose Western style democracy in the span of less than a decade is meeting with a resistance that first confounded the Bush Adminstration and continues to suck the Obama Presidency into it's moral and ethical quicksand.

The central question is Afthanistan a cause worth pursuing, or a curse that will continue to eat at the fabric of resolve until America and their allies quit leaving a vacumn for the Taliban to return? Will quiting become an example to others who see profit in the strategic defeat of the great powers. Can America singlehandedly manhandle 28 million people, 15 million of which are under 30, into the modern world without destroying the tribal culture. These questions have kept the midnight oil burning in Washington for over two months and right along side, the soft glow of monitors have reflected the thought of experts from all corners of the spectrum.

I am no expert and will not pontificate on what we should do or not do. It troubles me as someone who willingly fought for a cause that at the time seemed just, will again see thousands of American and families from many nations, stand over their childrens graves and wonder what hath their nation done to waste their childs life.

In a continuing effort to inform, I offer the following posts that reflect the breadth of this issue.
First from the field>Michael Yon who up until a short time ago was embedded with the 2 Rifles of the British Army in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The British became sensitive to Michael's honest reporting and ended his embed. He wrote this troubling post.

In 2008, I was trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal preparing for a return to Afghanistan. A message came from a British officer suggesting to end the trip and get to Afghanistan. Something was up, and I didn’t bother to ask what. Days of walking were needed to reach the nearest road. After several flights, I landed in Kandahar and eventually Helmand Province at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. The top-secret mission was Oqab Tsuka, involving thousands of ISAF troops who were to deliver turbines to the Kajaki Dam to spearhead a major electrification project. The difficult mission was a great success. That was 2008. During my 2009 embed with British forces, just downstream from Kajaki Dam, it became clear that the initial success had eroded into abject failure. And then the British kicked me out of the embed, for reasons still unclear, giving me time to look further into the Kajaki electrification failure.

READ MORE: Afghanistan: Electrification Effort Loses Spark

To illustrate that all is not lost, we turn to the United States Marines and this measurement of progress that prove the Marines the most innovative of our forces, have made since being deployed to the same Helmand Province that Michael Yon reported about above. It is heartening that the Marines are again proving as they did in Vietnam with their Combined Action Program (CAP) that success means getting up close and knowing the people you are tasked to protect.

There’s No Substitute for Troops on the Ground by Max Boot, New York Times Opinion

“I hope people who say this war is unwinnable see stories like this. This is what winning in a counterinsurgency looks like.” Lt. Col. William F. McCollough, commander of the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, is walking me around the center of Nawa, a poor, rural district in southern Afghanistan’s strategically vital Helmand River Valley. His Marines, who now number more than 1,000, arrived in June to clear out the Taliban stronghold. Two weeks of hard fighting killed two Marines and wounded 70 more but drove out the insurgents. Since then the colonel’s men, working with 400 Afghan soldiers and 100 policemen, have established a “security bubble” around Nawa. Colonel McCollough recalls that when they first arrived the bazaar was mostly shuttered and the streets empty. “This town was strangled by the Taliban,” he says. “Anyone who was still here was beaten, taxed or intimidated.”

Small Wars Journal sponsored this essay by Dr. Tony Corn. Toward a Kilcullen-Biden Plan?

At this particular juncture, the U.S. simply cannot afford a 500 billion dollar open-ended escalation. Nor can it opt for an incremental (“middle road”) strategy which would fail to create the psychological effects required in both the West and Afghanistan.

A temporary 40,000 surge is doable, but only if the core of the Obama strategy is a “Kilcullen-Biden” plan combining convocation of a loya jirga domestically with a regionalization of the Afghan question diplomatically. Let’s go massive for a limited time, and “clear, hold, and build” as much as we can. If it does not work, a regional negotiation provides ample cover for a drawdown.

Rounding out this weeks discussion is this post from It's The Tribes Stupid! where Steve Pressfield continues his interview with Afghan tribal leader, Chief Zazai. Here a little taste of this informative interview.

Welcome back, Chief Zazai, after last week’s break in our ongoing, multi-part interview. As you know, we took that space last week to post an open letter to Gens. Jones, Petraeus, McChrystal and Adm. Mullen, alerting them to your formation of a Tribal Police Force in the Zazi Valley and asking for help in aligning that force with the American troops (10th Mountain Division) whose Area of Operations (AO) includes your district. Respect for confidentiality prevents me from publishing particulars, but I’m happy to say that we got an immediate response and that it was just what we hoped for. The top U.S. commanders are listening. More on that as it develops– and as confidentiality permits. Now back to our talk!

READ MORE: Interview with a Tribal Chief #4: Warlords and Taliban

This week will bring more news and comment along with the solemn knock, followed by the mournful cry as another family learns that their son or daughter has fallen in the dusty gravel of far off Afghanistan. I learned first hand that war is every bit as exciting as Patton described, and as hellish as Sherman penned. For many in Afghanistan, the lure of conflict is a rite of manhood, exploited and provoked by both sides who seek to impose their own brand of governance on a people who have lived for centuries as if they were the only people on the earth. The answer lies somewhere far down the road, alas, a road strewn with the corpses.

Week in Review-Best Reads

Human Mind

Zenpundit

Clinton and Obama, Eye to Eye?

There were an exceptional number of posts this week that deserve consideration for top billing. So in order to be fair, I will say that they all will share that title.

To get our cognitive juices flowing we first turn to Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions who offers this insightful post. He begins by writing:

I'm fascinated by the workings of the human mind. Most people recognize that men and women use different thought processes, which is why Dr. John Gray was able to write a bestselling book entitled Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Thought processes are different for individuals as well as for genders. Mathematicians think differently than social scientists. Musicians think differently mechanics. Those of us who have never suffered from a mental illness can't really understand how some people can hear voices and see hallucinations.

Scientists continue to make discoveries about how the mind works. Yet even with all of the new discoveries, the mind remains pretty much a mystery. Learning more about our minds is important. After all, the thought is father to the act. In a world fighting crime, corruption, sexual perversion, and terrorism, the key to changing unacceptable acts may be understanding the thoughts that inspire them. In this post, I'm going to review a few recent articles I've collected about how we think and act. Let's begin with those impish little thoughts that can lead to bad behavior ["Why the Imp in Your Brain Gets Out," by Benedict Carey, New York Times, 7 July 2009].

Steve continues on, highlighting several articles that examine the latest in what science has learned about the human mind. A very worthwhile read for all interested in learning a bit about what rests between our ears.

Read more: More About Our Amazing Minds

After that bit of "brain food" we turn to Steven Pressfield of It's The Tribes Stupid! for tips on how to defeat the sinister roadblock Resistance, which has strangled more creative thoughts in the human mind, than all the murders in history.

If you’ve read The War of Art, you know that the thematic core of the book is the concept of Resistance. Resistance with a capital R, which the book defines as “an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”

Read more: Writing Wednesdays #12: Self-Talk and Self-Sabotage

Now that we have sharpened the understanding of our minds and steeled ourselves to defeat resistance, we are ready for some thought provoking posts that examine two parallel tracks; America's diplomatic and military future as they relate to the continued security of our nation.

Mark of Zenpundit penned this next piece that has garnered deserved recognition around the blogpsphere. Mark dubbed this a "quick "think" post," but after reading, I think you will find it to be anything but that. It offers real insight and sounds a warning that SOS Clinton, or more importantly, the Congress must act to save the office from becoming irrelevant, since it seems that the POTUS is not fully tuned into correcting this problem as long as his rivals (The Clinton's) reside in that office.

A quick ‘think” post.

It is generally a bad sign for a SECSTATE so early in an administration to have to come out and deny that they have been marginalized by the White House, as Secretary Clinton felt compelld to do the other day. The denial itself serves as confirmation of the fact.

It is tempting to write this off as another example of traditional, politically-motivated, battles between White House staffers, determined to protect the authority of the POTUS over foreign policy and the bureaucracy at State. We have seen this struggle in the past with Al Haig, Cyrus Vance, William Rogers, Cordell Hull, Robert Lansing and other SECSTATEs who sooner or later found themselves sidelined and excluded from key foreign policy decisions by the president. However, this is not just a case of Obama insiders distrusting and attempting to “box in” the Clintons as political rivals, by using other high profile players ( though that has been done to Clinton).

Read more: The Incredible Shrinking State Department must Evolve or Die
Related posts: Featured at the Atlantic Council

In this post, from Thomas Barnett from his weekly column in the War Room at Esquire. Barnett, voices obvious flustration at the attention span of the Amerian public during these critical times. Something that Ted Turner, founder of CNN has called the "pervert of the day" focus of the news media. Barnett's first sentence says it all.

Now that we know the damn kid was sleeping in his attic, can we return to Topic A? As in Afghanistan (and, lest anyone in the administration forget, Pakistan), for which Vice President Biden has been getting a lot of attention: Arianna Huffington is calling for his head, Newsweek is hailing him as a soothsayer, and most of America is wondering when the hell President Obama's going to make up his mind on "his war."

As I detailed here last week, it's a dangerous path for Obama to tread somewhere between "all-in" (Stanley McChrystal's method of controversy, with more troops, more nation-building, and more counterinsurgency) and "strategic disengagement" (Biden's weapon of choice, with more drones, more nation-leaving, and a refocusing on counterterrorism). On the one hand, I can almost see why the president would side with his veep: By essentially shifting "the good war" from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Obama purportedly saves money, lives, and support from an increasingly frustrated electorate.

Barnett ends his column by noting that if President Obama sides with Biden that he must turn to the very person he has been trying to marginalize to save our bacon.

So if Obama rallies behind Biden's somewhat precious definition of the "great game," he better be ready to dispatch Hillary Clinton pronto to a host of great-power capitals — not those of our NATO allies, but to those of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states (Moscow, Beijing, and the "observers" in New Delhi and Tehran) — to determine the price they'll be willing to pay to make this enduring problem go away for good. By that point, of course, Al Qaeda will already be back in the saddle in Kabul.

Read more:Why Joe Biden's War Plan Spells the Rebirth of Al Qaeda

And finally, from Michael Yon this piece he wrote back in December 2008 and just published this week.
Afghan Lunacy

WTF! Didn't They Ever Watch Fort Apache?

Climatic scene, Fort Apache, 1948

Under fire in Afghanistan

Taking fire from above, in the mountains of Afghanistan

120 MM mortar position, somewhere in Afghanistan

The climatic scene in John Ford's Fort Apache, part of his famous cavalry trilogy, shows Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday, played by Henry Fonda and his command group about to be overrun after riding into a box canyon, surrounded by high cliffs. Last Saturday Oct 3 2009, a similar battle was fought at COP Keating, in the Nuristan area of Northeast Afghanistan. The news that eight members of Bravo Troop, 3/61st Cavalry, 4th ID, were killed in action during the attack which almost overran their small outpost was noted, and washed over in the wake of news of Obama's failed attempt to influence the Olympic Committee to chose Chicago for the 2016 games.

Tom Ricks Foreign Policy Blog gets a major h/t for posting this account of the battle as told by someone who heard the battle as it unfolded.

Here are the facts, without revealing sensitive information. I feel compelled to write this because I heard some very fine, brave Americans fought for their very lives Saturday, 03 OCT 09. They fought magnificently.

Eight of them made the Ultimate Sacrifice. I don't know their names, only their call signs. Though it may have been smaller in scale, and shorter in duration, their battle was no less heroic than the exploits of their ancestors, in places like LZ Xray or Fire Base Ripcord in Vietnam. I want people to know that there are still some GREAT Americans who serve in the US Army, fighting for Freedom, who will probably never be given the due they deserve. I don't know ALL the facts, only what I overheard on the satellite radio.

Read the whole account.

The battle of COP Keating: an earwitness account

One of the comments on Ricks blog, said that. " A freshly hatched Lieutenant could probably have sited an outpost better than the over promoted incompetent that sited COP Keating." How true, hence my reference to the above noted scene from Fort Apache.

I want to give credit where it is due, to the blogs that were on top of this story. The American Legion's Burnpit gets credit for getting out front with this story and how to help the 56, who survived this battle and lost every personal item. Be sure to check out the two embedded videos and the links to other blogger's accounts, as well as a link to donate to the 56 survivors.

Read more:American Legion's Burnpit

In my own humble way I want to pause and acknowledge those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country.

Members of B troop, 3/61 Cav.

Staff Sgt. Vernon W. Martin, 25, Savannah, Georgia

Spec. Stephan L. Mace, 21, Lovettsville, Virginia

Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson, 21, Reno, Nevada

Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos, 27, Tucson, Arizona

Sgt. Joshua M. Hardt, 24, Applegate, California

Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk, 30, South Portland, Maine

Sgt. Michael P. Scusa, 22, Villas, New Jersey

Spec. Christopher T. Griffin, 24, Kincheloe, Michigan

As I read these names and realize that squandering the lives of our bravest by ill conceived positioning of our bases is beyond comprehension. As one commenter had noted. "In the Navy if a captain even runs his ship aground, he is court martialed and beached." In the Army it seems that as after the Battle of the Wanat last year, and countless other tactical blunders, a blizzard of ass covering is the SOP. The parents of those men above as well as every parent who buries their son or daughter from this war must be asking God the same question, was it worth my child's life?

A day ago I posted a Book Review: Your Hero And Mine, Scott. I reflect that years from now, someone elses's family member will discover a lost cache of letters, describing another life cut short by bad tactics and a the failure to follow a sound strategy.