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Archives de catégorie : General
More Video of David Kilcullen
George Packer, the New Yorker journalist who introduced me to David Kilcullen in 2006, wrote the 12 May on General David McKiernan’s sacking (which occured the day before), outlining the politics behind the change of commander in Afghanistan.
He also praises David Kilcullen’s book. There is a lot of promotion going on there, as he interviewed David Kilcullen the day before, (video there).
Mind you, Packer makes the same joke on ‘ze funny accent’ as the guy who interviewed David Kilcullen for Google.
Additionally, Packer praised another soldier-intellectual (his words), McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP (MLA) attorney Phillip Carter, often quoted at SWJ who stopped blogging in April, when he was apointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs.
While with MLA, Carter has written extensively on legal and military issues for a variety of publications including Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He has also been a leading advocate for veterans, and helped found the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, playing a central role in the organization’s efforts to fully fund veterans healthcare, increase funding for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injuries, and pass a new GI Bill. During the 2008 election, Carter served as a policy adviser to the Obama campaign, and later as the Obama-Biden campaign’s national veterans director.
Prior to joining MLA, Carter served as an officer in the United States Army, including nine years of active and reserve service with military police and civil affairs units. In 2005-06, he took a leave of absence from MLA to deploy to Iraq with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, where he served as an adviser to the Iraqi police [x]
U.S. soldiers joke that ISAF stands for « I saw Americans Fight. »
‘Caveats’ neuter NATO allies – Washington Times
Pity the new U.S. commander on the ground in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. He has to live with paralyzing caveats from timid allies.
Digital Homesteading
I was trying to describe Mikey Sklar’s (Holy Scrap Hot Springs) way of doing things for a long time. He came up with the term Digital Homesteading for a recent lecture at viva verde. Like it. Will it catch ?
Les chinois sont des gens difficiles à comprendre
A l’appui de cette assertion simpliste, l’analyse sur MilitaryBlog de l’affaire du porte-avions-chinois-sur-un-lac…
Inside CNAS, and other thoughts from an American conservative (magazine)
In The American Conservative (August 01, 2009 issue) D.C.-based freelance reporter Kelley Beaucar Vlahos gives a short, but well delivered, insight of the D.C. side of the US A’Stan COIN doctrine (Nagl, Kilcullen, Petraeus, CNAS et allii). Enjoy reading The American Conservative – One-Sided COIN
I tend to apreciate AmConMag. In papers previously posted on TAC’s website, you can read a certain Paul Robinson (author of a book on the history of Soviet economic and technical assistance to Afghanistan) quietly stating that We aren’t the first to try nation-building in Afghanistan and a review of the latest encyclical from the Holy Father, titled Benedict vs the Neocons, nonetheless…
David Kilcullen as an author
Youtube video of Devid Kilcullen discussing his latest book at authors@google, with interesting ideas such as « accidental guerilla ». Thanks Andrew Exum.
Also worth reading, from the abovementioned pair, is Death From Above, Outrage Down Below, published in the NYT. To read in conjunction with their Triage: The Next Twelve Months in Afghanistan and Pakistan (pdf).
Toutes les Brigades ne sont pas égales…
Jugez-en :
Arrêté du 4 mars 2008 portant modification de l’arrêté du 18 janvier 2001 relatif aux logements de représentation concédés à des autorités
(…)
Liste des autorités bénéficiant d’un logement de représentation
(…)
Général commandant la brigade du génie, gouverneur militaire de Strasbourg.
Général commandant la 4e brigade aéromobile, gouverneur militaire de Nancy.
Général commandant la 1re brigade mécanisée.
Général commandant la 11e brigade parachutiste.
Général commandant la 27e brigade d’infanterie de montagne.
Général commandant la 6e brigade légère blindée.
Général commandant la 2e brigade blindée.
(…)
[source]
I am monarch of all I survey
I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
William Cowper, ‘Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk‘ (1782), lines 1-4
They are not all Taliban
David Tate puts the difference between the different kind of bad guys in A’stan quite bluntly:
…the coalition are fighting two distinct insurgencies in Afghanistan. The first, that keeps those in Regional Command South busy, is certainly a primarily Pashtun-led insurgency that is nationalist and religiously based to an extreme. However, there are also drug dealers, foreigners and criminals also well represented.
In Regional Command East, not only are you dealing with Pashtun nationalists, but wahabbi extremists, islamic revolutionaries, timber barons, drug smuglers, al Qaeda operatives, nationalists, opportunists and, of course, Taliban.
Point is, there are dozens of groups with dozens of issues loosely operating together in a fluidity of rivalry, opportunity and convenience and they are NOT all Taliban [X]
And David to suggest we label the bad guys, all flavors of them, as AGF, for Anti Government Forces.