Bloody Thanksgiving Weekend

Jos, Nigeria Riots

Cartel Death Toll

Closed shops in Tijuana

The news from afar this Thanksgiving weekend has been dominated by the terror in the streets of Mumbai, India. An equally deadly clash occurred in Nigeria over of all things, election results. This story has been pushed off the front pages, by way of being just another fatal spasm in a failed state.

Small Wars Journal with it's excellent Daily Roundup of major stories, linked the following.

Deadly Clashes Break Out in Nigerian City - Associated Press

Hundreds Killed in Nigeria Over Election Results - Agence France-Presse

At Least 200 Die in Nigeria Clashes - Associated Press

Closer to home are these stories about out southern neighbor, Mexico and her deadly struggle with drug cartels.

The story, reported by Philip Sherwell in Tijuana, Mexico begins:

The four men in bulletproof vests, Kalashnikovs held casually at their sides, crossed the street to Tijuana's Crazy Banana pool hall so calmly that onlookers presumed they were undercover police officers – until they heard the gunfire and screams.

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Moments later, the men raced back out of the bar and sped off in a getaway car, leaving the once-popular pool hall with its thatched roof and yellow painted walls a bullet-ridden crime scene.

The five billiards players gunned down there were the some of the latest victims in a brutal drug turf war that has unleashed an orgy of killing along America's southern frontier.

The attack was one of dozens of recent incidents in the sprawling Mexican border city, where nearly 300 people have been killed since late-September – many mutilated, tortured and beheaded in gruesome terror tactics copied from Iraq's brutal conflict.

More....Drugs Turf War Turns Mexico's Tijuana into Death Zone - Daily Telegraph

And 750 miles to the east, this from BBC News.

A group of masked gunmen have killed eight people at a restaurant in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez.

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Police said the gunmen arrived at the restaurant in three cars, approached a group of people and opened fire.

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The city, across the frontier from El Paso in Texas, has seen spiralling violence this year, most of it connected with the drug industry

More.....Mexican Diners Killed by Gunmen - BBC News

Pay close attention, the death toll in Tijuana, in three months is almost 300 and the total for the year is 685. The national toll is over 4000, this places Mexico in the ranks of one of the most dangerous places in the world. All of this is taking place just a few miles south of San Diego. Not all the victims are rival drug gang members. hundreds of innocents have been killed in the crossfire.

The possibility of cross border migration of this violence is a reality. Several months ago, cartel members posing as police pulled off a hit in Phoenix. And in October, a young boy was kidnapped from his Las Vegas home by drug dealers posing as police, in an effort to intimidate a family member involved with drug smuggling.

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Events thousands of miles away impact all Americans. An Indian Pakistan Conflict endangers our troops in Afghanistan by threatening the supply chain and reducing what little border security that Pakistan is providing. Nigerian riots are not good for anyone, and ends up being ignored by most of the world as events in India and closer to home take precedent. Mexico is on our doorstep and deserves more attention to help their government in this fight to regain control of their country.

Mumbai Questions?

Mumbai Attackers

Mumbai Attacker

Mumbai First Responders

Mumbai First Responders

The photos above, were taken by a photographer who's story below reveals how the shock of such an attack paralyzed the police response.

From the London Independent, Jerome Taylor talks to the photographer whose picture went around the world.

'Armed police would not fire back. – I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera'

It is the photograph that has dominated the world's front pages, casting an astonishing light on the fresh-faced killers who brought terror to the heart of India's most vibrant city. Now The Independent can reveal how the astonishing picture came to be taken by a newspaper photographer who hid inside a train carriage as gunfire erupted all around him.

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In defense of the first responders, Webley revolvers and Lee-Enfield rifles against 'AK-47,s are no match in a stand up gunfight. I am also sure that the Mumbai police don't have the budget to allow for practice and qualifying for every officer, as most major cities require. Even the United States is not immune from being able to halt such sprees at their outset, "North Hollywood shootout" and Virginia Tech massacre.

In a related post, Zenpundit writes about Spree Terrorism and elicits several comments that scratch at the surface of the willingness of an organized band to kill indiscriminately.

Mark opens with these comments.

I lack sufficient depth and familiarity with the Indian political context to comment intelligently on the origins and ultimate aims of the shadowy Islamist group that carried out the Mumbai Massacre. I’d love to hear Olivier Roy speculate on the ideological aspect but in terms of organization, I’d bet heavily on a “modular” structure of transnational and indigenous personnel - a strategic alliance between groups or a hybrid operation.

And abu mugqawama set off a firestorm of comments with this short post.

It was "Gangsta Gangsta" at the top of the list, then I played my own s*** it went something like this

And a look at the Sunday headlines, as the postmortem of the Mumbai Massacre begins.

Mumbai Attacks: 300 Feared Dead as Full Horror of the Terrorist Attacks Emerges - Damien McElroy, Rahul Bedi and Andrew Alderson, Daily Telegraph

Indians Claim Terrorists Took Orders From Pakistan - Dean Nelson, The Times

India and Pakistan simmer over Mumbai attacks from Reuters

The Final Fight at the Taj from the New York Times

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UPDATES: From Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent comes this description of the relations between Pakistan and India.

Pavocavalry begins:

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Only fools think that peace can be established in between Pakistan and India.

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The roots of this conflict are deep.Roots which go back 1300 years in history.Broad stages of this process are as following:--

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Read more....THE FUTURE OF INDO PAK CONFLICT-A.H AMIN

The Prisim of The Mumbai Attacks

The precision planned para-military attacks that began in Mumbai two days ago continue as this post is being written. The events as they unfold are unique in their execution. Instead of planted bombs or coordinated suicide missions this attack has all the marks of a well planned mission designed to create as much chaos as possible by prolonging the attacks and leaving the police and security forces stymied in their first efforts to contain the mayhem. A secondary consequence has been the world's news organizations splashing images of a city of twenty million under siege from within.

India has endured hundreds of terrorist attacks in the past four years, the toll has been over 4000 souls lost since 2004. They have lost three leaders to assassinations in sixty years, the famed Mahatma Ghandi, Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister, and her son Rajiv Gandhi a former Prime Minster. As several of the post below will attest, keeping India connected to the global community is an important linch pin in South Asia.

Leading off, is this from Small Wars Journal who found the report by Bill Roggio at The Long War Journal How the Mumbai Attack Differs "as good as it can get from early accounts."

Equal billing, and hat tip to Mark at Zenpundit for this Mumbai Complex Terror Op.

From Tom Barnett, the long view of what this means for India's future role in the World.

On the motives in Mumbai

The post in full:

It couldn't get much clearer: the terrorists wanted to sever India's growing globalization ties in general and specifically those with the West. While India is no stranger to such terror (indeed, it can claim to have endured more experience in this regard than any other great power over the last quarter-century, with no other even coming close), these attacks seem to signal a new era for the nation: like a China, India becomes increasingly targeted for its role in embracing and spreading globalization. Thus its need to have a globally conscious and responsible military--meaning an end to the strategic myopia over Jammu & Kashmir.

If the upshot of these attacks is that India makes such a decision to recast its grand strategic vision so as to make it more commensurate with its expanding global economic presence, then this System Perturbation will have served its historic purpose--just not in the way its perpetrators imagined.

In that sense, the cruel realist in me says the timing could not have been better--on many levels.

The blog Kings of War from the Department of War Studies, King's College London offers this observation.

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is both a Pakistani connection and an LeT connection. I say both because this does not just appear to have been a question of LeT operatives training Indians for the operation or Pakistanis from one of the other groups taking part. It now seems LeT trained a number of actors and dispatched some of its own operatives as part of a 12 man fidayeen squad – if the Indian media has the number right – to take part in the attack. This information comes from the interrogation of one of the fidayee captured alive who, according to early reports, is named Ajmal Amir Kamal and hails from the Punjab in Pakistan.

For the whole post:

Some Answers… And a Few Burning Questions

And this:

Who is behind the Mumbai attacks?

And from Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent, hosted by pavocavalry, is this trio of posts.

Hindu violence -Hindu violence A look at internal violence that has racked India for almost all of it's sixty year history.

AN INCIDENT THAT CAN START A NEW INDO PAK WAR A short list of what might tinder a new INDO PAK War.

Geopolitical Consequences of the Bombay Attacks Pavocavlry posts this from Strafor.

UPDATE:

Terrorist Siege Has Ended, India Says -New York Times

MUMBAI, India — Indian commandos took control of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, the last nest of terrorist resistance, on Saturday morning, after a lengthy assault that left three terrorists dead and sections of the hotel in flames, the head of the commando unit said in a televised news conference.

Armed Teams Sowed Chaos With Precision- New York Times

MUMBAI, India — As Prasan Dhanur prepared his 13-foot boat on Wednesday evening for a hard night of fishing, he saw something strange.

A black inflatable lifeboat equipped with a brand new Yamaha outboard motor threaded its way among the small, wooden fishing boats at anchor and pulled up to the slum’s concrete pier.

Ten men, all apparently in their early 20s, jumped out. They stripped off orange windbreakers to reveal T-shirts and blue jeans. Then they began hoisting large, heavy backpacks out of the boat and onto their shoulders, each taking care to claim the pack assigned to him.

ARRH! AHOY MATIES WE HAVE A PLAN!

16th Century Pirate Attack

Incidents of Piracy, 2007

U.S. Navy Group

Earlier this week I wrote a post entitled Should We Hang Them From The Highest Yardarm in The Fleet?. I commented that the U.S. Navy needed to adjust it's forward thinking to encompass the changing dynamics of naval strategy in the 21st century. In my final comments I noted that I was no expert in naval strategy, proof of that statement is this post by Galrahn, the grand scribe of Information Dissemination, who in my opinion, understands naval strategy better than anyone outside the Navy.

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His post today, answers all who questioned why the U.S. Navy does not do what the Russians propose, MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia, which sent a warship to Somalia's coast to combat pirates, has asked the African country for carte blanche to use force in its territorial waters.

Galrahn in his wisdom, addresses the concerns voiced by some of his readers this way.

This has been an incredible week for the United States strategic goals for fighting piracy, indeed this might have been the best week the United States has had in its strategic goals of curbing piracy this year. I got about 50 emails from a number of folks highlighting various news articles regarding the actions off Somalia, and I thank everyone who sent an email, but if you an American observing events unfolding and thinking these events represent a bad thing, I hate to be the one to tell you but you are completely missing the point when it comes to the strategic goals of the United States. Every American should be fist pumping the good news, and should avoid being misled by the media spin.

....What do you mean you don't understand? If you read this blog for any reason at all, hopefully it is so you can see the big picture and that when big events occur, you can properly place context to the event in strategic terms towards our national goals. The US policy for Somali piracy is well articulated in the maritime strategy, and is working exactly as defined. The US Navy, and the DoD at large, does not define policy, the Navy's job is to enforce national policy.

The logic of our maritime strategy becomes clear. The U.S. by holding back, is using a little reverse psychology on the rest of the World, to encourage them to take part in policing the seas. The cost of the United States maintaining a 1000 ship fleet would break our treasury. But, using our ships as the primary kinetic energy sea control system and enlisting via diplomacy, other nations with an interest in maritime security, we will achieve one of our 21st century strategy goals.

Galrahan' s post:

Observing the Strategic Success of US Policy Towards Somali Piracy

And by good fortune, Thomas Barnett in his column this week addresses the piracy problem and throws his considerable strategic vision behind what Galrahn has written. Barnett's column was posted the same day as Galrahn's, showing how great minds can independently come to the same conclusion.

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Barnett opens with this observation:

When piracy threatens global commerce, great powers need to fight back --collectively.

Nothing better signals the lack of -- and thus opportunity for -- comprehensive maritime security cooperation among the world's great powers than their collective inability to stem piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf, not to mention the Straits of Malacca -- chokepoint for Asia's energy imports from the Middle East. Add it all up and we're talking $15 billion of losses every year.

And this about how a "thousand ship navy" can be had.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has long promoted a "thousand ship navy" that would render the world's oceans transparent and safe. Since we can barely afford the 200-odd ships we currently deploy, Mullen's vision necessarily encompasses all great-power navies. I constantly advocate a security dialogue with Iran, and there would be no better place to start than counter piracy.

For now, American naval cooperation with the world's cluster of rising great powers remains far below what it could be, reflecting the Pentagon's preference for planning against future "near peers." Today's global piracy shows this strategic reticence needs to end.

The column:

Barnett: Fight the pirates

And for a view from the other side. From Reuters, this report.

BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) – As dawn breaks over the Indian Ocean each morning, elders in Somali pirate bases sip strong coffee and clutch mobile phones to their ears, eager to hear the latest from the gunmen out at sea.

Have any more ships been hijacked or ransom talks concluded? Any news of the Western warships hunting them?

Ransoms bring wealth to Somali pirate bases

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Stepping back into my historian mode, piracy is as old as seafaring, and the need to control it is a measure of the financial pain endured before the trading partners affected will react. I am reminded of a passage in The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell. They have this to say about piracy in antiquity.

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Raiders need traders upon which to prey, then. But those raiders are also, in a stronger sense, part of the world of trade; they are not just parasites. Like the transfer of goods between aristocratic estates or like government requisitions, piracy is simply another form of redistribution in an economic environment where other markets are often scarce. Aristotle rightly listed piracy as a mode of production alongside the more usual forms, such as hunting, fishing and agriculture.

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Horden and Purcell's study of the history of the pre-industrial Mediterranean, is rich with examples of piracy and it's untended role in advancing trade and security. As they note, it was Pliny the Elder, who alleges that it was fear of pirates that encouraged winter sailing.

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The result of this latest round of piracy is leading to better cooperation between nations, that in turn leads to relationships that help to dissolve mistrust.

Vargas, China Style

Web page banner, Hu Ming

The Transparent Uniform by Hu Ming

Tiananmen Square, Hu Ming

Chairman Mao and his gang of renown would be rolling in their graves if they saw their beloved Army and demure womanhood being portrayed as shown above. The China based observer Shanghaiist blog introduced the artist this way.

Highly controversial (and tit-tilating) art works from 53 year old Beijing-born painter Hu Ming (呼鸣). Hu's parents were military doctors who had always hoped their daughter would some day become a great surgeon. During her days in high school when the Cultural Revolution was in full swing, Hu's time was all spent either drawing the portrait of Chairman Mao (after her teacher found out she loved painting) or studying the Little Red Book. Finding it all very boring, Hu begged her parents to let her join the army. They relented, and at age 15, Hu joined the People's Liberation Army, where she would serve another 20 years in various roles as a hospital broadcaster/announcer, a librarian, a projectionist, recreational club director, cultural secretary and nurse.

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The artist's profile explains that the time spent working in the hospital and being around withered and dead bodies caused Ms. Ming to hate the sight of an ill body. She began to paint only healthy voluptuous bodies to clear her mind of the images she worked with everyday.

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In the late 1980's she was able to travel to New Zealand to study English. The opportunity for freedom was at hand and she stayed on to open a studio, and eventually move to Australia in 1999.

Hu Ming reveals an Alberto Vargas like touch, as she captures the erotic essence of Chinese women, PLA style. She began offering her work in 1995. As one views her work over the years a pattern of boldness becomes apparent as she graduates to portraying women of the PLA in her erotica. Even borrowing a topic from her own past, by painting several young nurses practicing how to do injections on each other.

Link to the Shanghaiist post.

PLA-inspired erotica art

Take a break and visit her site.Hu Ming

A Flashback: War, A Social Science.

Thomas Barnett has this post Iraq victory approximation where he comments on an AFTER ACTION REPORT by General Barry R. McCaffrey USA (Ret) on his recent visit to Iraq and Kuwait.

Tom Begins:

The latest from McCaffrey on Iraq. Note that it's addressed to Col Michael Meese, son of Reagan's AG, who served famously in Petraeus' brain trust during the surge and now wields his considerable influence as a new thinker at West Point. He was kind enough to send me a copy of On Point II after our F2F there last spring.

I would urge everyone to read every word of General McCaffrey's report. He serves up an eagle eyed view of the current conditions in Iraq. His bullet point critque of what went wrong is a lesson for the ages, in how not to win the peace.

What I found intriguing about the report is that it is addressed to Colonel Michael Meese, Professor and Head Dept of Social Sciences United States Military Academy. Note, the Social Sciences Dept. In an earlier post, War, A Social Science? I commented on this question, first raised by Adam Elkus of Re Thinking Security , after reading about it in a post by Mark of Zenpundit calling attention to Adam's post The Study of War as A Social Science.

Even though the U.S. Military Academy has a Military history section in their history department, they seem to be taking a page from Clausewitz, that "War is an extension of politics" and seeing the study of war, as an Elkus writes.

.....it would be better to re-concieve the study of strategic affairs as a multi-disciplinary social science major combining sociology, international relations, philosophy, political science, cognitive science, economics, history, and "pure" military theory.

Adam further comments.

War as a social science akin to sociology or economics would bring empirical and quantitative rigor into the study of military history and affairs on the undergraduate level as well as a focus on the mechanics of war (tactics, operational art, strategy, and grand strategy) rarely seen outside of a Professional Military Education (PME).

Major learning institutions would do well to borrow this from the service academies.

Elkus writes that this would serve every viewpoint.

I see learning about strategy in itself as the key aim of such a curriculum--the goal would be to produce a student able to either apply his or her learnings in a think-tank or government, join the armed forces, come up with reasonable anti-war critiques as an activist, resolve conflict as a humanitarian, or apply strategy in the corporate world.

Anyway, just a few musings on a thought thread pulled by Barnett's post.

The Silk Road, Back to The Future

Zhang Qian, Silk Road Pathfinder

Kingdoms visited by Zhang Qian

Zhang being received by Emperor Wu, on his return.

Route under taken by Zhang

New Trade on and Old Route 2008

One of my favorite topics in history is the role that trade routes played in connecting developing civilizations together. The result of these connections has led to previously isolated people becoming able to exchange goods, agriculture, technology, and ideas. Yesterday, I read an article in Business Week that I was going to write about. This morning, I found that Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions had written an excellent post The New Silk Road, based on the same article I was reading.

Steve begins:

Business Week magazine recently published an "Emerging Market Report" that claims "historic bonds between the Middle East and Asia are being revitalized in a torrent of trade and investment in energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing" ["The New Silk Road," 18 November 2008 print edition]. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the development of the global economy. Even with oil prices hovering around $55/barrel, the national coffers of oil producing nations continue to fill and they are looking east to Asia (rather than to the West) for answers to the current recession. In effect, the article claims that the old silk road is being revitalized -- sort of.

The post is well stated, and supported excerpts from the Business Week article. It is worth reading.

As Steve notes:

The new silk road is likely to operate as long as the old one did. It's a virtual road that connects that connects wealth, resources, and opportunities. Companies that want to get in front of the money are going to have to travel that road and the sooner they get on it the better.

Putting my historian hat back on, I decided to offer some background to how the "Silk Road " a name first coined by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in the 1870's, came to be.

We know the origin of the founding of the silk road from the writings of Chinese historian,Sima Qian who wrote the Records of the Grand Historian while serving as a scribe for Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. I had written a post about Qian, The World's Most Dedicated Historian who gave up his testicles in order to continue his life's work.

But I digress, the hero of this story is a little known officer in the palace guard of the Emperor Wu. The emperor sought an envoy to travel west across Central Asia to make an alliance against the Xiongnu nomadic turkic tribes also know as the "Huns." The envoy, Zhang Qian went on a quest that lasted thirteen years, including being captured twice by the Xiongnu, before returning to make a report to the emperor. After escaping the first time, Zhang continued on his journey and visited several kingdoms in Central Asia. On the return journey to China, Zhang was again captured and talked his way out of being killed, by agreeing to remain in the court of the leader of the Xiongnu. He soon was able to make his escape and returned to China with tales of the great horses, their food, alfalfa, along with seeds for grapes and cucumbers.

Zhang Qian's story is perhaps the greatest unknown adventure story today. Westerners know of Marco Polo, William of Rubruck, even Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta, but almost no one has ever heard of Zhang Qian, the pathfinder of the Silk Road.

Zhang's detailed report stimulated Emperor Wu's interest in the goods that existed on the other side of the known world. Within a few years, other expeditions opened the route and lined it with military posts. The Xiongnu were pushed back, and trade flourished under the umbrella of security and the Silk Road linked the great empires of the 1st century Common Era spreading goods, ideas along with the negatives, like disease's Antonine Plague, that today's medical historians see as possibly contributing to the downfall of the Roman and Han Dynasties.

Over the centuries the route fell out of use as dynasties in the west and east fell. the road began to flourish again under the Tang Dynasty 618–907 and continued for the next several centuries to be the main conduit between East and West, only to again fall out of use with the rise of sail and European naval dominance.

For more on the Silk Road.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Imam Hashim Raza leads mourners in prayer during a funeral for Mohsin Naqvi at al-Fatima Islamic Center in Colonie, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 22, 2008. Naqvi was a Muslim, a native of Pakistan (he emigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was 8 years old and became a citizen at 16) and a U.S. Army officer. He was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol last week in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

A 50 caliber machine gun points out towards an Afghan village October 23, 2008 at the U.S. Army combat outpost Dallas in the Kunar Province of eastern Afghanistan. OP Dallas is located in the Korengal Valley, site of some of the heaviest combat between American forces and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. (John Moore/Getty Images)

U.S. Army Spc. Kyle Stephenson grimaces from the sound of outgoing shots during a firefight October 28, 2008 in the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan. American forces from 2nd Platoon Viper Company of the 1-26 Infantry had occupied a strategic mountaintop when they were fired upon by Taliban insurgents. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

Ghosts of Alexander a blog devoted to understanding Afghanistan and the long war that has engulfed them for a generation has this post. No Commentary Needed. The post is singular photo, the flag draped coffin show above. It says uncounted words about being an American, regardless of your origin, or religion.

Within that post is a link to the Boston Globe's The Big Picture online photo essays. The quality of the photos are remarkable and continue to prove "that a picture is worth a thousand words."

The photo essay on American forces in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley . The 31 photos capture the essence of being a soldier on the lines no seen since Vietnam.

More locally, these photos of the California wildfires (yet again) put you close enough to feel the flames.

And this journey, Peering into the micro world is brain fuel.

Visit The Big Picture for many more great photo essays.

Quick Mid-Week Reads

Top Read goes to Nicholas Kralev of the Washington Times for a report from the National Intelligence Council (NIC) due to be released tomorrow. The report predicts a less dominate role for the United States by 2025.

"The United States will remain the single most powerful country, although less dominant," according to a "working draft" of the document obtained by The Washington Times. "Shrinking economic and military capabilities may force the U.S. into a difficult set of tradeoffs between domestic and foreign-policy priorities."

And this prediction different from the last report issued in 2004:

One major difference between the two projections is that the new report for the first time makes the "assumption of a multipolar future."

In addition to China, India and Russia, "Indonesia, Turkey and a post-clerically run Iran - states that are predominantly Islamic, but which fall outside the Arab core - appear well-suited for growing international roles," it says.

Regarding energy the prediction is:

"We believe the most likely occurrence by 2025 is a technological breakthrough that will provide an alternative to oil and natural gas, but with implementation lagging because of the necessary infrastructure costs and need for longer replacement time."

They offer this about future political systems.

The report envisions widespread appeal of "state capitalism, a loose term to describe a system of economic management that gives a prominent role of the state."
"Rather than emulate Western models of political and economic development, more countries may be attracted to Russia's and China's alternative development models," it says.

The story ends on this note:

"In the worst case, this could result in interstate conflicts if government leaders deem assured access to energy resources, for example, to be essential for maintaining domestic stability and the survival of their regimes,"

Read the whole story here:
Panel Foresees Lesser US Role

UPDATE: The report released 11/20/08: Global Trends2025

And from Thomas Barnett, a collection of stories he found on yesterday's New York Times front page is a candidate for a time capsule defining our current times.
The perfect front page for this day and age.

From Small Wars Journal, this story ISAF Campaign Plan Summary by John Nagl, who says that the International Security Assistance Force truly understands the principles of counterinsurgency warfare.

Finally, a follow up on yesterdays post about piracy. India blows up pirate boat. Now for the rest of the World's navies to follow India's lead.

Should We Hang Them From The Highest Yardarm in The Fleet?

From the highest yardarm!

Blackbeard Redux?

Modern day Pirate

Somalia pirates, 2008

Narco Submarine, 2008

The latest bold capture of a Saudi super tanker 450 miles off the coast of Kenya may be the tanker that broke the camels back. News articles across the world lead with demands for the seas to be made secure. This year 33 ships have been hijacked off the coast of Somalia. Over 200 crew are still held hostage and nine have been killed during the hijackings. In the 17th and 18th century, countries interested in protecting their sea routes would capture the pirate vessels and hang those convicted of piracy. Today, if a sovereign nation dares to fire on a speedboat of armed men, they are subject to being accused of shooting up the Somalia Coast Guard, a non-existent entity.

The articles below speak volumes about the problem and in the case of one, point out other areas where the high seas must be protected.

Tanker Capture Raises Alarm over Somali Piracy Associated Press, by Lee Keath and Jennifer Quinn,

Ships Diverted after Saudi Oil Tanker Hijacked by Associated Press

Maritime Terrorism at Timesonline

And this article about another high seas problem.

We Must Defend our High Seas at Timesonline

The blogs have been crackling about this latest act of piracy. EagleOne who writes Eaglespeak a blog devoted to maritime security is one of the best sources for the latest in what is happening and what is being done to combat this scourge.

And as always Galrahn of Information Dissemination keeps all informed about the latest 5th Fleet Focus: Order of Battle

As you look over the list of ships, note those of the NATO Maritime Group 2 and those In Theater, who could be anywhere east of Africa. Out of those two groups, 8 are mine warfare ships and not on pirate patrol. How many of the U.S. 5th fleet are on this duty is not actually known, since they are respondsible for support of activities in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

If we begin to examine the role of our navy the past decade, several growing threats seem to be looming larger and larger. First, the pirates that operate offshore of failed states. Secondly the narco smugglers who are now resorting the subs to smuggle dope into the U.S. We have the finest blue water navy in the world, but our ability to combat these two threats seems to be of a secondary nature. We would rather plan for something like the War in the Pacific, than for the small wars at sea, we seem to be unable to stop.

I am no naval strategy expert, but it seems that one of the reasons that the Army changed, was learning the hard way in Vietnam and early in Iraq that you can not always plan for and fight today's threats with the formula used in the last war. Our navy has been riding the wave of total dominance of the seas since the collapse of the USSR. Today, we still worry about resurgence of those threats, while a nautical version of 4th generation warfare snuck up on us in small boats and blue plastic submarines carrying cocaine.

Come on Lads Let's "Jin the Cavalry" Today!

Holding the pass, Fort Apache

Combat Outpost Lowell, Afghanistan 2008

You can take this story and remove the date/line and the air support and it would be interchangeable with accounts of an outpost in hostile territory in the 18th or 19th century. The heraldry of the following unit was earned in our own American frontier. 4th Cavalry and Frontier Cavalry

This report from New York Times reporter, C. J. CHIVERS who reports from COMBAT OUTPOST LOWELL, Afghanistan.

The small stone castle, sandbagged and bristling with weapons and American soldiers, rises from a rock spur beside the Landai River. Mountains lean overhead.

Once a hunting lodge for Mohammad Zahir Shah, Afghanistan’s last king, the castle is home for a year for an American cavalry troop, an Afghan infantry company, a Navy corpsman and two American marines. In the deadly contest for Afghanistan’s borderlands, it plays what might seem a singularly unattractive role. The position lies exposed near the bottom of a natural amphitheater deep within territory out of government control.

Insurgents hide in caves surrounding it and in villages nearby, operating unhindered almost to the castle’s concertina wire and lobbing mortar shells toward it at will. The steep slopes facing the walls are littered with shattered boulders and trees blown to splinters by the artillery and airstrikes with which the soldiers have fought back.

Described by one officer as a "bullet sponge." the outpost in reality serves as a speedbump against infiltration by Taliban forces from the Pakistan tribal areas. They live a life more reminiscent of their fellow 4th Cavalry bunkies 130 years removed, who served in remote outposts guarding against Comanche and Apache raids in the old Southwest, or more recently a remote fire base in Vietnam forty years ago.

While the soldiers wait, their days are filled by the routines of life in a hostile land. Soldiers stand guard around the clock. Each soldier is allowed to sleep in brief shifts, in crowded bunk rooms shared with bed bugs, flies and mice, while other soldiers man the guns.

By day the soldiers burn garbage and the stinking waste accumulated in latrine barrels. In the summer, many of their mattresses were so badly infested with parasites that they burned them, too.

At night the soldiers douse the smoldering pile so its red glow does not guide the Taliban’s aim.

When I read this, flashbacks of burning shit, and the cry "incoming.\," singed my memory and I felt a kinship that only can be shared by those who have lived that experience... still fresh after forty years.

Resupply and troop rotation can come solely by helicopters, because the twisting dirt road to the castle has been made impassable for military vehicles by the destruction of two bridges — one that collapsed and another that was blown up by the Taliban. Barring an emergency, helicopters risk flying here only at night.

The comparison is too real and the mission vital to blocking the pass, until more reinforcements can be deployed to plug the gap.

Read the whole story.

GI’s in Remote Post Have Weary Job, Drawing Fire

Then take a moment to "Jin the cavary" as Sgt. Quincannon said in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

and spend a little time with the men of Outpost Lowell.

An Outpost in Afghanistan’s Borderland

After reading this article, I realized that this was the second time I had posted something about these brave souls. A Warning, a Blast, a Fight to Save an Afghan Life was linked in an earlier post, Course Adjustments and The Return of Optimism

COMBAT OUTPOST LOWELL, Afghanistan — Jamaludin, an aging Afghan cook, twisted and writhed on the green stretcher. Blood ran from his mouth and nose. Medics had cut away his clothes, revealing puncture holes where shrapnel from a Taliban mortar round had struck him minutes before.
Capt. Norberto A. Rodriguez, an American Army doctor, listened through a stethoscope as two Army medics and a Navy corpsman inventoried Jamaludin’s wounds. There were holes on his back, neck, buttocks, left leg and beside his right eye.

Let us hope that the men of the 4th Cavalry, and their Marine and Navy comrades make it home safely. To a man, they have earned our nation's gratitude.

Time Flies

I just realized that this blog is one year old. True to form, I am belated in marking this event. November 13, 2007 was the true birthday of this blog. It has been a rewarding experience that has opened lines of communication with people whom have become valued and trusted friends. People like Sean Meade webmaster for Thomas Barnett's blog and Brad B. of Potbangers Blog. who first encouraged me to begin a blog.

Over the past year others have become my mentors and friends whom have enriched my life with thought provoking conversation and posts. To them I want to say thank you for encouraging and accepting me in this exalted venue that, as I have written before, approaches an online version of Benjamin Franklin's Junto Society.

A special thanks to:

Mark of Zenpundit

Dan of tdaxp.com

Dave of Small Wars Journal

Fab of Fabius Maximus

Galrahn of Information Dissemination

Adam of Re Thinking Security and The AntiLibrary

Shawn of Asia Logistics wrap

The boys at Chicago Boyz

And Thomas Barnett on who's blog, I first began to comment and send stringer stories.

Re-posted below is my first post:

Today I join the ranks of others who have enlisted in this brave new world of blogging. It important to begin by explaining my background and reason for founding this blog.

My love of history was first ignited by my grandparents who were proud of their heritage in building this nation. Their complete collection of National Geographic Magazines became my window on the world and sparked a life long interest in history.

My first exposure to that world occurred in 1966 when after joining the Army I served in Vietnam. The experience for all it's brutality left me with a longing to study the effects of other wars. But the realities of having a family, led to a business career. Thirty years went by only to be interrupted again by war. The effect of 9/11 on my logistics business opened the door for me to return to school and pursue an advanced degree in U.S. history. Along the way I realized that our history can only be explained by understanding how World history shaped our own destiny.

This past spring I graduated with a Masters in history. In attaining this goal I have found a sense of redemption for the events that shaped my life back in 1966. Beginning in 1975, this country truly began to open it's doors to people from across the globe. The fall of South Vietnam and the addition of thousands of Vietnamese has been followed by millions of people from all over the world. The fabric of our nation is stronger with the inclusion of people who in the overwhelming majority are fulfilling our destiny of offering equal opportunity to all who come to our shores.

Blending American history and how it is connected to the shared history of people from across the globe has become my passion. I hope to spend the rest of my days offering my insight to the next generation.

Thanks to all who have visited and become regular readers. I am looking forward to this next year and the continued intersection of ideas that we are able to share.

Reads of the Week

Lt Col John Nagl, USA (ret)

Col. Gian Gentile, USA

Project Valor IT

Thomas PM Barnett

Niall Ferguson

The blogs this week was rich with several outstanding stories. There were so many that I decided to post links to some of the most interesting.

Small Wars Journal gets top billing for this exchange between two of the most eloquent pens to come out of the United State Army in generations. JFQ - Point - Counterpoint - SWJ Early Exclusive »

Equal top billing goes to Galrahn, of Information Dissemination for his support for this important cause. Supporting Valour-IT Day 5. This is an important effort and well worth supporting.

For those who appreciate Galrahn's insightful work in observing naval affairs, here is a heads up on an adventure he is undertaking.The Navy Wants You To See USS Freedom

Out across the Pacific, we hear from Shawn of Asia Logistics wrap who writes this about his, Expectations of an Obama Administration on Supply Chain.

He begins:

Unless an Obama administration plans to turn U.S. manufacturers into state-owned enterprises, its main impact will be via the regulations and legislation it plans to advocate and put into place. I'd like to frame my expectations in terms of the supply chain architectures that shape many of my analytical posts on supply chain management. For each architecture, I will discuss both my hopes and key concerns:

And this little post tying together two of my favorite observers of history and strategy, Thomas Barnett and Niall Ferguson. Tom's post Non-chimera Chimerica.

Now just to get these two on the same stage, with Martin Wolf. That would be the roundtable discussion of the century.

And rounding our this weeks recaps, this from Fabius Maximus.

Conservative reflections about America - starting to use their time in the wilderness to think

What the ----- People!

BAILOUT BOOGIE!

DEBT RELIEF?

BRITISH RETREAT FROM KABUL, 1842

The next three topics will give all who pay their bills, work hard for a living and have supported our efforts in Afghanistan, a sinking feeling.

Prolific and insightful blog friend Dan of tdaxp.com posted this about the pending bail-out being considered for the American auto industry. After reading this, one can understand why it costs about $2000 more to produce an car from the Big Three, than any of their foreign competitors.

GM + UAW: Not a winning combination

UPDATE: Thomas Barnett sounds off on the bailout. Why bailout Detroit?

And if that story doesn't make you feel sick, read on:

Dan writes about the mortage bailout and sets up the link with these words:

Do you have a mortgage you pay every month? Or were you saving up to make a big down payment.

Then you made the wrong decision.

Smart borrowers have simply stopped paying the mortgages, letting them (unlike you) qualify for bailouts from the federal government:

Have you been paying your mortgage? Then it sucks to be you

And for anyone who missed this! Here is a story about the latest brain f**** by whoever is in charge of logistics support for our military effort in Afhganistan.

Militants grab US military Humvees in ambush

U.S. military officials in Afghanistan did not have much detail about Monday's attack in northwestern Pakistan, but said the supply convoy was carrying at least two Humvees and numerous water tank trailers.

As many as 70 armed militants attacked two convoys within 30 minutes at the Khyber Pass, a mountain pass that links Pakistan and Afghanistan, local officials said. The pass is located in Khyber, one of seven semiautonomous tribal agencies along the Afghan border.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. John Redfield said he did not know how many transport trucks were stolen, but some reports said militants took as many as 13.

More at:

US Embarrassed as Taliban Steal Humvees

Taliban militants were driving around in captured US army Humvee armoured vehicles in Pakistan's tribal region close to the historic Khyber Pass last night after hijacking more than a dozen supply trucks travelling along the vital land route that supplies coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Anyone who can read would have been aware of the danger of traversing the Khyber Pass, and ensured proper security.

This from a story filed on August 31, 2008.

Using age-old guerrilla tactics, they hijack or destroy the ponderous lorries creeping up the narrow road and sell the contents in local bazaars to finance new raids.
A prominent, independent tribesman from the Khyber region, who cannot be named for his own safety, told The Sunday Telegraph that the Pakistani army was close to losing control of the pass.

Read more:

Taliban ambushes threaten Nato's vital logistics route into ...

And this report from July 2008.

Source: Reuters
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 9 (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked a Pakistani military supply convoy in a northwestern region near the Afghan border, killing four paramilitary soldiers and wounding four, a government official said on Wednesday.
The attack late on Tuesday was the first major assault on security forces in the Khyber region since they launched a sweep on June 28 to push back militants threatening the city of Peshawar.
The ambush was on a remote road linking two military outposts to the south of the Khyber Pass, through which fuel and other supplies are trucked to U.S. and other foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Reuters AlertNet - Four Pakistani troops killed in militant ambush

And this warning sign from another century.

Until the First Afghan War the Sirkar (the Indian colloquial name for the East India Company) had an overwhelming reputation for efficiency and good luck. The British were considered to be unconquerable and omnipotent. The Afghan War severely undermined this view. The retreat from Kabul in January 1842 and the annihilation of Elphinstone’s Kabul garrison dealt a mortal blow to British prestige in the East only rivaled by the fall of Singapore 100 years later.

First Afghan War-Kabul and Gandamak

And this:

In Afghanistan, Little Has Changed in 200 Years - Ben MacIntyre, Times

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And this post from pavocavalry of Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent.

Is it Khyber Agency’s turn now? -AIMAL KHAN-US POLICY-FATA-TRIBAL AREAS-AFGHANISTAN

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I have never seen the war in Iraq being a redux of Vietnam, but Afghanistan is turning out to be a horse of a different color.

If you make it this far, and have read every link. You are dismissed to either seek out a stiff libation, or a bottle of Pepto-Bismo to calm your stomach.