Why Social Media Matters

This exchange between an Army spouse (Identified as "Q") and President George W. Bush during a town hall meeting in West Virginia in March of 2006 will always stick in my mind.  Let's see if you can catch the one subtle sticking point.

Q This is my husband, who has returned from a 13-month tour in Tikrit.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes. Thank you. Welcome back. (Applause.)

Q His job while serving was as a broadcast journalist. And he has brought back several DVDs full of wonderful footage of reconstruction, of medical things going on. And I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, for a solution to this, because it seems that our major media networks don't want to portray the good. They just want to focus -- (applause) --

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, hold on a second.

Q They just want to focus on another car bomb, or they just want to focus on some more bloodshed, or they just want to focus on how they don't agree with you and what you're doing, when they don't even probably know how you're doing what you're doing anyway. But what can we do to get that footage on CNN, on FOX, to get it on headline news, to get it on the local news? Because you can send it to the news people -- and I'm sorry, I'm rambling -- like I have --

THE PRESIDENT: So was I, though, for an hour. (Laughter.)

Q -- can you use this, and it will just end up in a drawer, because it's good, it portrays the good. And if people could see that, if the American people could see it, there would never be another negative word about this conflict.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.) No, it -- that's why I come out and speak. I spoke in Cleveland, gave a press conference yesterday -- spoke in Cleveland Monday, press conference, here today. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing to try to make sure people can hear there's -- why I make decisions, and as best as I can, explain why I'm optimistic we can succeed.

One of the things that we've got to value is the fact that we do have a media, free media, that's able to do what they want to do. And I'm not going to -- you're asking me to say something in front of all the cameras here. (Laughter.) Help over there, will you? (Laughter.)

I just got to keep talking. And one of the -- there's word of mouth, there's blogs, there's Internet, there's all kinds of ways to communicate which is literally changing the way people are getting their information. And so if you're concerned, I would suggest that you reach out to some of the groups that are supporting the troops, that have got Internet sites, and just keep the word -- keep the word moving. And that's one way to deal with an issue without suppressing a free press.

Good words, for certain, but President Bush missed the mark on one subtle point.  He was indeed correct to note that, while Iraq wracked by horrific violence in 2006, countless US troops were working to bring some decency to the people of Iraq, despite the abhorrent conditions.  He was also correct in mentioning that a free press is a paramount value in our society.  Moreover, the President should also be credited for mentioning the value of blogs.

Yet, it's in the mention of blogs and the Internet that Mr. Bush missed a beat.  Undoubtedly, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of service members with such pictures and videos.  Unfortunately, even a broadcast journalist, depicted in the town hall meeting above, was unable to disseminate videos of reconstruction efforts to an larger audience.  Why?  Because the DoD had essentially shot itself in the foot, as the DoD's draconian anti-blogging policies virtually ensured that these images would never see the light of day.  Milbloggers such as Captain Matthew Gallagher, author of "Kaboom:  A Soldier's War Journal", were ordered to shut down their blogs, resulting in twenty-five Congressional inquiries.  (Shameless plug:  buy Matt's book, based on his blog)

Lt. General William Caldwell, then one of the military's top spokesmen in Iraq, was introduced to social media sites, such as Facebook and Youtube, by his younger staffers.  Circumventing the Defense Department's IT bureaucracy, Lt. Gen. Caldwell and his staff created one of the most popular Youtube channels in the world at the time, showcasing successful missions, and highlighting development and reconstruction projects.

It took bold, senior-level pioneers to make the medium work, helping to dispel the belief that "weak leaders" might use the DoD's anti-blogging policy to crush dissent.  Admiral James Stavridis was one of the first senior military officers to provide periodic dispatches during his travels about South and Central America, while serving as the Commander of US Southern Command.  General Martin Dempsey, tapped to be the next Army Chief of Staff, has also posted at Small Wars Journal extensively, soliciting ideas and advice from from SWJ's brilliant, albeit somewhat eclectic audience.  

Today, the military relies heavily on social media to tell its story.  Its pervasive presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube conveys the candor, bravery, and dedication of the US military and its allies to audiences all over the world.  And we owe it to the efforts of these senior-level officers, as well as the dozens of "boots-on-ground" milbloggers who defied the DoD's policies and turned this medium into a mainstream occurance.  Sure, there's going to be some guffaws, and maybe some Gaga, but it's a small price to pay for ensuring that our side of the story makes it to the public domain.

Addendum:  As one of the godfathers of military blogging, Greyhawk, is fond of saying, "When Milblogs are outlawed, only outlaws will have Milblogs".  Thank God for outlaws.      

Time for your annual "OPSEC" PowerPoint Class...

The US Army has created an official guide to online operational security (OPSEC, for short).  Looks like they're taking some cues from the world's greatest milbloggers:

With a guest appearence from Matt Gallagher, author of Kaboom, an excellent war memoir.

 
And, of course, featuring a quote from one of the pioneers of milblogging:  "Write as though Osama and your mama are reading".

Celebrity Day

Make sure you stop by the Great Satan's Girlfriend over the next few days to get a glimpse of some one-on-one interviews with, as GSGF puts it, "COIN rockstars".  First up is Major Mike Few.

I think George Lucas is going to sue someone...

By making allusions to Star Wars and Indiana Jones, both Tom Ricks and Spencer Ackerman tread into territory usually covered by, well, blogs like this. I don't know if I'm moving up in the world or if this is a sign of the coming Apocalypse.

• This is Why Robert Gates is Yoda--Spencer Ackerman, Washington Independent
• Gates vs. Congress: The Last Crusade--Tom Ricks, Foreign Policy

I think these posts deserve a dancing Lego Indiana Jones:

Misquote Madness

Recently, there's been debate over at Kings of War over a quote often attributed to the Greek historian Thucydides:

"The nation which draws too broad a distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools".

Both Captain Hyphen and I have mistakenly attributed this quote to Thucydides in recent posts. So has Congress. Fortunately, a KoW regular known as "Christopher" has corrected us, correctly noting that the quote comes from British author Sir William Francis Butler in  "Charles George Gordon". (You can see the quote in its original form on page 85 of the Google Books version)

It's also worth noting that the gang at On Violence has done us a great service, collecting some of the most notable military misquotes in one central location. Yet they're missing one notorious "quote behaving badly"; though it's not so much a misquote as it is a quote that's often taken out of context.

Most budding counterinsurgents are familiar with this line from T.E. Lawrence:

Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is.

As Lt. Col. Robert Bateman rightly notes, the quote has been grossly misapplied and poorly understood in recent years, particularly with regards to Iraq.  Journalist Robert Woodward describes General George Casey's misapplication of the Lawrence principle in his 2008 book "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008".

Casey had long concluded that one big problem with the war was the president himself. He later told a colleague in private that he had the impression that Bush reflected the "radical wing of the Republican Party that kept saying 'Lill the bastards! Kill the bastards! And you'll succeed." Since the beginning, the president had viewed the war in conventional terms, repeatedly asking how many of the various enemies had been captured or killed.

The real battle, Casey believed, was to preapre the Iraqis to protect and govern themselves. He often paraphrased British Lieutenant Colonel T.E. Lawrence, the early-20th-century innovative godfather of irregular warfare, known as Lawrence of Arabia: "Better they do it imperfectly with their own hands than you do it perfectly with your own". In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence had written, "For it is their war and their country, and your time here is limited".

Not only is the quote incomplete and somewhat inaccurate, but it also cites the wrong source. The quote doesn't come from Lawrence's masterpiece, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", but rather, from a list of twenty-seven recommendations to British advisors involved in the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918. As Lt. Col. Bateman notes, Seven Pillars is a much longer work.

(I particularly agree with Lt. Col. Bateman's assessment that, although the book is beautifully written, it nevertheless contains mind-numbing detail on the consistency of the rocks and geological strata located in the deserts of modern-day Jordan.  No wonder Lawrence of Arabia is nearly four hours long).

Many also "cherry-pick" the quotation out of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual (FM 3-24), although the manual's authors did make an effort to place the quote in its proper context (See p. 39-40 of the PDF file or page 1-27 of the print version):

However, a key word in Lawrence’s advice is “tolerably.” If the host nation cannot perform tolerably, counterinsurgents supporting it may have to act. Experience, knowledge of the [area of operations], and cultural sensitivity are essential to deciding when such action is necessary.

During the early portions of the Iraq War, Iraqi security forces were not performing tolerably; they were actually contributing to the increase in sectarian violence. The Iraq Army often contained extremist Shia elements, and were part of the problem, not the solution. In this case, the US eventually took an active role in purging extremists from security forces, after months of letting the Iraqi Army try to correct their behavior "with their own hands". 

Lawrence's quote also alludes to the inherent difficulties for a third-party power in counterinsurgency. Despite the technological advances in the US military, local security forces are often better prepared to hunt insurgents in their own communities.  After all, they often know the insurgents far better than we do.

Focus: What other military-related quotations do you see taken out of context? Hop on over to On Violence and join the discussion.

They blocked Kings of War? You bastards!

Yes, much to my chagrin, I noticed that Big Brother has recently blocked access to Kings of War, a blog run by the War Studies Department of Kings' College in London.

As most of you are aware, KoW's regular authors include noted writers such as Thomas Rid (author of War 2.0: Irregular War in the Information Age), Dr. David Ucko (The New Counterinsurgency Era), Dr. Kenneth Payne, Dr. David Betz, and many others. The blog regularly features articles on strategy, counterinsurgency theory, defence policy, and the future of Great Britain's military. Without a doubt, it's one of the best milblogs for scholarly research--filled with all that great strategic theory and counterinsurgency doctrine that...we...ban...or something.

Truth be told, I don't know exactly what got them blacklisted. In fact, I can actually access far more risque sites at work--just check out the screenshot below. Note that I have tabs open for Small Wars Journal, Kings of War, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the Great Satan's Girlfriend. Only one of them is blocked (Kings of War), yet Youtube has videos of dancing stormtroopers and Great Satan's Girlfriend has pictures of two girls...erm...yeah.

Seriously, WTF? Fortunately, I can read KoW through my Google Reader feed. Hooray for bypassing asinine IT policies!

Focus: Are there any other bizarre website bans you've encountered recently on your workplace firewall?

Edit: KoW Reacts...

What I'm reading

Finally, I've gotten to Dr. Patrick Porter's "Military Orientalism: Eastern War through Western Eyes". After reading the first chapter, I've skipped ahead to his analysis on the 2006 Lebanon War, as I'm very curious to hear his analysis on that topic. I hadn't seen the war viewed through a sociological/anthropological lens before, so I think it will be quite fascinating.

One consistent theme I've noticed in Dr. Porter's work at Offshore Balancer is the debunking of cultural mythologies which have evolved around history and, in particular, war. As many of the historical interactions of East and West often fall into the realm of pseudo-myth (Lawrence of Arabia, Marco Polo, Ghengis Khan, etc), it should prove to be interesting to see what Dr. Porter has to say about them.

It begins...

Wired.com ran an article today discussing the US Army's monitoring of the blogosphere. This is interesting; the Army hires MPRI, a private contractor, to monitor the top military-related blogs and report on the "slant" of each article: balanced, critical, or supportive. Although I'm not too surprised that the Army rolls up and analyzes military blogs, I am surprised that PowerPoint metrics made their way into the rollup.

First of all, I'd like to say that Effects-Based Operations are dead.

Long live Effects-Based Operations.

Yes, just when you think that the military killed off EBO and its terminology, "Lines of Effort" once again made their way back into the common lexicon. Like much of EBO doctrine, LoE is one of those buzz-words we haphazardly apply with no real appreciation for its real definition (see the commentary on EBO buzzwords from the 2006 Lebanon war). Lines of Effort move towards some sort of defined end-state. Is there an end-state for media operations? Not to mention, the LoE the study group chose are baffling. Let's take a look at them:

We might need to look at our metrics again if "other" dominates 2/3 of the chart. (Are they really "strategic lines of effort") Then again, the report is in its infancy, and they're probably still learning what exactly we want to know about the blogosphere. In that case, it's forgivable.

I do find the "hot topics" graph amusing, though:

If they really knew milbloggers, the chart might look more like this:

However, they do (surprisingly) provide some thoughtful analysis of the current state of the milblogosphere. Many of the metrics they use should be refined over time. As they get to know the milblogosphere, they'll also start finding articles from the smaller milblogs as well--Kings of War, Ink Spots, you name it.

Yet, I still think that Karaka Pend and Dave Dilegge, after reflecting upon the study, came up with the best observation ever:

Karaka Pend: I wonder if the analysis of their analysis on [Danger Room] and [Small Wars Journal] and so forth will show up in next week's "Other LoE"? That would be meta to the max.

Dave Dilegge: Hmm, interesting thought, if enough blogs pick up on it - or at least the ones they follow - how could they not?

Thoughts?

By the way...

If you haven't checked out this essay on the Tribal Engagement Workshop (hosted by the Small Wars Foundation), you should. As a bonus, it features noted milbloggers Andrew Exum (Abu Muqawama) and Jason Fritz (Gunslinger from Ink Spots).

Am I obliged to weigh in on the Michael Yon issue?

I really don't know enough to weigh in on the controversy surrounding military blogger Michael Yon. I will, however, propose that the upcoming saga be henceforth referred to as "The Yon and the Restless". It's about at that level...

Milblog Conference 2010: The Wrap-up

(You can read the highlights of the conference at Small Wars Journal)

Awesome weekend in our nation’s capital. After checking in to the hotel, my first stop was a little office near the National Theater on Pennsylvania Avenue—the Center for a New American Security. It was more than simply a social call (although I did grab a massive Guinness afterwards); I had a great conversation with Commander Herb Carmen regarding the use of airpower in counterinsurgency, a topic all the more important after the events of this past week. It was a fascinating discussion, and reiterated many of the salient points brought up in a recent blog post at Abu Muqawama.

One of the most interesting things we discussed was the theme of “cultural communication” between members of the different military services. Indeed, one commenter at Abu Muqawama mentioned that any counterinsurgency class for aviators had to be designed for a more, shall we say, ADD crowd, and there’s a great deal of truth to this. In general, military aviators tend to be a very visually-oriented group, which prefers to get much of its information from pictures.

(For example, take a look at a book of instrument approach procedures. Older books will have written text describing the missed approach procedure, for example, it will literally say something to the effect of “Climb to 2,000 feet, then execute a climbing left turn to 4,000 feet to intercept the ART VORTAC”. Newer approach procedures, on the other hand, simply have a series of pictures in the missed approach diagram—an arrow straight ahead pointing at the number “2000”, then a left arrow to the number “4000”, and so forth.)

I also had a chance to meet Andrew Exum, and we chatted briefly about his recent blog post on airpower in counterinsurgency. Ex grabbed a Moleskine notebook (I believe he prefers the full-sized "squared" version) and read a few notes he took during a meeting with General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan (presumably during his trip last summer). Gen. McChrystal had said that even if airpower is used to kill insurgents and produce a tactical victory, it must always be weighed against the probability of collateral damage and the propaganda victory it might give the enemy. This was reflected in one of General McChrystal’s first acts upon taking command in Afghanistan—curtailing the use of airpower. It’s a risky move, for certain, and will require greater effort on the parts of both ground troops and aviators to better coordinate combined arms operations. But the risk of losing the battle for the minds of the Afghan is far too great—we must adapt.

After a great visit with the CNAS crew, it was off to the Milblog conference. I was quite amazed—when I told people I was attending a conference for milbloggers, most thought it was going to look like a Star Trek convention. Far from it. The event was attended by Admiral J.C. Harvey, Gary Trudeau (of Doonesbury), Jamie McIntyre, and featured a recorded message from General David Petraeus, who thanked milbloggers for their contributions.

One of the most interesting conversations I had during the conference was with Lt. Col. Mitchell Bell, who runs “The SandGram”. Lt. Col. Bell began milblogging in 2005, during a deployment to Western Iraq. His blog featured amusing anecdotes from his time in Iraq. I found that we both had a similar experience with blogging while deployed—we both felt that any day, we were going to get called into the commander’s office and explain exactly why we were operating a blog. I also kind of wonder what went through Greyhawk’s mind when the official MultiNational Corps-Iraq screensaver featured a screen shot of the Mudville Gazette emblazoned with the words “Bloggers—are you violating OPSEC (Operational Security)?”.

Lt. Col. Bell also echoed a sentiment from the “View from the Top” panel, which mentioned that the milblogosphere was self-policing. Indeed, senior milbloggers will frequently keep more junior milbloggers in line, dissuading them from gripes against individuals in the chain of command, and posts which violate OPSEC.

I also ran into a good sidebar conversation between Commander Salamander (US Naval Institute) and Jamie McIntyre. CDR Salamander mentioned that a number of milbloggers (including yours truly) had received media inquiries from the BBC regarding the “Collateral Murder” video, as the military’s public affairs units were completely unwilling to discuss the video at all. During the panel, McIntyre noted that it was the milbloggers--not the mainstream media nor WikiLeaks--which provided the best analysis of the video.

But it was Robert Cagle—one of the directors of Team Rubicon, a volunteer emergency medical response team—who provided the best quote of the weekend. Shortly after the Haitian Earthquake, Team Rubicon received literally millions of dollars in donations, allowing them to fly a team of dozens of medical specialists to Haiti in order to provide medical care to the victims of the tragic quake which killed nearly 200,000 people. He told me a heart-wrenching story of a nine-month old girl whose legs were infected with gangrene, and had not seen medical care for twelve days. Although the girl survived, the doctors were forced to amputate the legs. Cagle said that we in the Western world have no idea what it is like to go for so long without life-savin emergency medical care.

Cagle remarked “there are people literally alive today based on the work that milbloggers do each and every day”.

One final highlight: I got to meet Matt Gallagher--author of Kaboom--and received my very own advance copy of his book. At a first glance, the book is great, as Gallagher juxtaposes poetic descriptions of the landscape with cynical anecdotes about Army bureaucracy. In one section of the book, he even uses an appropriate T.E. Lawrence quotation that's not one of the oft-cliched ones. As the Navy would say, Bravo Zulu.

Edit #1: Probably the most recognizable attendee was Greyhawk, who's an excellent speaker, and has some positively awesome stories and experiences. If you ever get the chance to meet him, invite him over for a beer (or three).

Milblog Conference 2010

There are literally people alive today as a result of what you in the milblog community do every single day.

Of all the words which will be spoken at the Milblog Conference this weekend, I doubt any will top these words from Gary Cagle, one of the heads of Team Rubicon. (This is even more amazing when you consider that General David H. Petraeus recorded a short video and Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury is in the audience)

More to follow.

Thanks

Thanks again to Commander Herb Carmen and Andrew Exum for tackling the topic of COIN for the aviation community. Most aviators haven't had quite the experience that our ground brethren have undergone in the past decade, something which I feel is to our detriment.

The thread's amusing because it gives "ground-pounders" a glimpse of the aviation mentality, one which is characterized by a short attention span. This, of course, is what makes "COIN for Aviators" that much more difficult, in that years worth of counterinsurgency research winds up being compressed into a 45 minute presentation. But hey, any little bit helps.

Links of the Weekend

Had a great weekend zipping around the Adirondack mountains in my open-topped Jeep. I needed to do this, as a complete absence of snow--even from the tops of the Adirondack Mountains--is unheard of for early April. In fact, it's not uncommon for kids in the Fort Drum area to search for Easter eggs in the snow.

With that said, I'm just now catching up on a few of the great links that came up over the last few days. The high points range from articles about General Petraeus to blog entries about Lady Gaga. A brief rundown:

• Sayyid Qutb can take a ride on a disco stick.

Andrew Exum (Abu Muqawama), made a few interesting remarks in response to an article by Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal. Exum echoed Stephens' sentiments that the Islamic resentment towards the Western world--and the United States in particular--is not entirely motivated by American policies in areas such as Palestine. Rather, much of the anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world, according to Exum, is a backlash against globalization and seemingly-omnipresent Western culture.

That means Lady Gaga and Her Royal Hotness Megan Fox.

Others remain skeptical. At Foreign Policy Online, Thomas Hegghammer noted that, while some anti-American attitudes in the Muslim world are a response to western "decadence", support for terrorist organizations is not linked to American culture. Rather, says Hegghammer, al-Qaeda's recruitment tends to swell during periods of perceived injustice in Palestine, as does violence directed against Americans. (Foreign Policy's Daniel Drezner also weighs in on the issue). Indeed, they attack us for our foreign policy, not for our disco sticks.

Of course, the real expert on this issue is none other than the Great Satan's Girlfriend, whose amusing combination of valley-girl talk, foreign policy, military analysis, and pictures of chicks has given her just as many web hits from the sexually frustrated denziens of Middle Eastern countries as they have from the staff at the Washington Post. (Yes, much like that song from the Cardigans, GSGF is a site that we all look at, yet never admit to.)

The GSGF responds to the Wall Street Journal:

"The American girl knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs and she shows all this and does not hide it."

Direct Hit! Fire For Effect!

• General Petraeus in Vanity Fair.

The first I heard of Mark Bowden's (Black Hawk Down, Killing Pablo) Vanity Fair article on General Petraeus came in the form of several blog posts bashing the vignette (Attackerman, Ink Spots). Spencer Ackerman not only notes that much of Bowden's vignette seems ripped from Tom Ricks' The Gamble, but that Bowden fills much of the narrative with "sycophantic prose", crossing the line from journalism into legend-writing.

Granted, General Petraeus is quite an amazing person, and many of his exploits are the stuff of legend. He survived a bullet wound to the chest, only to leave the hospital a few days later, knocking out fifty push-ups on his way out the door. He also helped bring a wounded soldier out of a coma by shouting "Currahee", the cry of the 101st Airborne Division. Spencer Ackerman also readily admits to lauding his achievements. I'm certainly no better. In fact, I might have unintentionally contributed to the Petraeus mystique.

I've been getting quite a few visitors arriving from Mother Jones, specifically from an article by Nick Baumann. Baumann references a blog entry I wrote last summer, when General Petraeus was visiting my particular corner of the world: Contingency Operating Base Speicher, near Tikrit, Iraq. A few of us received word that the General's itinerary would take him through the dining facility (in typical military fashion, abbreviated "D-FAC"), and we positioned ourselves near the door to catch a glimpse of him. However, our informant seemed to not know the difference between a "D-FAC" and "D-Main" (the division headquarters, also at COB Speicher), where General Petraeus would actually be visiting. You can read the story in its entirety, but to make a long story short, we spent much of our time waiting for General Petraeus by re-wording all the Chuck Norris facts into General Petraeus facts.

Now it looks like someone actually did make a website of General Petraeus facts. Five hundred years ago, I'm certain students will think that Chuck Norris and General Petraeus single-handedly defended America from the ever-present zombie menace (Probably something like this).

To round-out the weekly update:

• Attackerman on Matt Gallagher's new war novel, "Kaboom". (A must-read for those frustrated with Army bureaucracy)
• Themistocles' Shade reminds us that the regular baseball season begins, linking to the best baseball movie of all time: The Naked Gun.
• And, finally, thanks to the US Naval Institute for allaying some of the hysteria surrounding "swarming" tactics (though I disagree), as well as giving us the following picture:

South Park to take on Blackwater/Xe

You might remember this article from the Washington Independent's Spencer Ackerman regarding Blackwater/Xe's latest shenanigans in Afghanistan:

Blackwater personnel appear to have gone to exceptional lengths to obtain weapons from U.S. military weapons storehouses intended for use by the Afghan police...Blackwater on at least two occasions acquired hundreds of rifles and pistols from a U.S. military facility near Kabul called 22 Bunkers by the military and Pol-e Charki by the Afghans. Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of all U.S. military forces in the Middle East and South Asia, wrote to the committee to explain that “there is no current or past written policy, order, directive, or instruction that allows U.S. Military contractors or subcontractors in Afghanistan to use weapons stored at 22 Bunkers"...

....On one of those occasions, in September 2008, Chief Warrant Officer Greg Sailer, who worked at 22 Bunkers and is a friend of a Blackwater officer working in Afghanistan, signed over more than 200 AK-47s to an individual identified as “Eric Cartman” or possibly “Carjman” from Blackwater’s Counter Narcotics Training Unit. A Blackwater lawyer told committee staff that no one by those names has ever been employed by the company.

It gets even better when you check out a blog entry from Ackerman posted last night, where he recounted his experience sitting in on the Senate Armed Services Committee's investigation of Blackwater/Xe. How Spencer kept a straight face while asking this question is beyond me.

[Michigan Senator Carl] Levin gave some brief remarks introducing his findings but didn’t mention Cartman. I raised my hand and asked him if Blackwater actually used the name of a ‘South Park’ character to sign for the guns. Levin, bless him, appeared to be unfamiliar with ‘South Park,’ a sign that the universe works as it is supposed to. His staffers suppressed grins and calmly pointed out that no one with the name ‘Eric Cartman’ has ever worked for Blackwater, and I was free to draw my own conclusions.

I thought the world couldn't be any more surreal, but I was wrong. Spencer also goes on to inform us that art will be imitating life tonight as South Park tackles Blackwater/Xe. Comedy Central released this 10-second clip:

There are few things in life that actually make me speechless. Thanks to the Internet, though, I seem to be discovering them on a routine basis. Tune in tonight at 10 PM Eastern/9 PM Central on Comedy Central.

Great blog from down south...

If you like reading about helicopters, you need to check out a site called "Voo Tatico", which is Portuguese for "Tactical Flight". It's run by an Army officer by the name of Marcus, who serves in the Brazilian military; a military which received high praise from the former commander of US Southern Command, Admiral James Stavridis.

Marcus has an affinity for rotary-wing aircraft, air assault tactics, and flight simulators. His blog has a great layout, excellent pictures, and awesome articles. Just run the site through Google Translate, and the English translation comes out perfectly.

Read along at the site or follow along at Facebook...

Updating the Blogroll

It's been a few months since I last updated my blogroll. Recent additions include:

• On Park Street
• More Badass than Sasha Gray
• In Their Boots
• Committee of Public Safety
• USO Girls
• The Offshore Balancer
• inFormation

And I'm spent...

Blogging, 10th Mountain Division Style...

There are few jobs where your boss actually invites you to post on his blog, but I do, in fact have such a job. That's because the commander of the 10th Mountain Division runs a great blog at TaskForceMountain.com, and requests that Soldiers "sound off" on a variety of different issues, from preventing drinking and driving, to offering better opportunities for single Soldiers, or finding ways to boost morale.

Today, he let the floodgates open. He asked our opinions about the proposed repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

The thread is getting interesting. There appears to be a 50/50 split based on anecdotal evidence in the thread. What appears to trouble some Soldiers is that they apparently have issues showering or using the bathroom with gay Soldiers, demanding that there be a--and I'm not making this up--separate bathroom and shower facility for gay people.

(Admin note: unlike most message boards, the most recent replies are at the top and the old ones are at the bottom)

I've been somewhat quiet on this issue, but I'll say that I really don't mind gay people in the military. In fact, I'm in favor of it for two big reasons:

1.) Gay couples don't run the risk of pregnancy like straight couples do. This is a huge plus, trust me.

2.) The list of countries which allow gays in the military includes Australia, Israel, and most of NATO, including Canada and Britain. The list of countries that don't permit gays in the military includes countries like Cuba, China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, North Korea and Serbia. You know which countries I like better? I thought so.

Some of the concerns are actually quite interesting, primarily revolving around the benefits conferred upon married couples which may or may not apply to a gay couple, depending whether or not their state recognizes gay marriage. I also wonder if two dudes can simply move out of the barracks and start getting paid more just by claiming that they're gay. Granted, I doubt many guys would actually take that route, but it's an interesting "what if".

Anyway, the thread's well worth reading to get the opinions of Soldiers in the field. The opinons are as diverse as the Army is...

Small Wars Journal Journal

(Adam Elkus also tipped me off to this one)

I'm kind of a relative newcomer to the Small Wars Journal empire, so I've always kind of wondered what the difference between the Small Wars Journal Blog and the Small Wars "Journal" was. As it turns out, SWJ used to be an actual Adobe PDF-style magazine, with collections of articles assembled and printed quarterly. However, in recent years, the blog format seems to have worked well enough to publish great articles and news roundups, so it looks as if they stuck with that.

Well, the PDF-style magazine is back. I don't know if this is called Small Wars Journal Journal or what, but it's pretty good. If you don't have the time to read every article SWJ publishes in-depth, this looks like it provides a decent roundup. (No Lady Gaga pictures on the cover? Jeez, guys!)

By the way, this might also be a good time to mention that you may want to consider donating some money to the Small Wars Foundation, clicking on the ads, or purchasing something from Amazon through the link on their site. Seriously, Dave Dilegge, Bill Nagle and the gang are just looking to make enough money to pay for all the bandwidth we keep sucking up, so help them out. :)

PS--Yeah, speaking of Lady Gaga, I had to throw out that copy of Rolling Stone magazine with the SWJ guys in it before I went through US Customs on the way back from Iraq. As it turns out, US Customs doesn't want porn coming back into the US. Or something like that. It really doesn't make sense that we'd prevent porn from coming back into the country from whence it was undoubtedly made, but that's the military for you sometimes. Verily, I realized I had to ditch the Lady Gaga magazine. Well, it was either that or convince Customs that, yes, she's covered in transparent bubbles and that I'm only reading it because I'm into military blogging. Yeah, I didn't want to risk the letter of reprimand, so into the trash it went.

The New Counterinsurgency Era: Day One

I decided to read Dr. David Ucko's "The New Counterinsurgency Era" a little bit backwards. Why? Well, looking through the book, I noticed that a certain Army Aviator's article in Small Wars Journal is used as a reference in Dr. Ucko's book.

Wait, does this mean I'm credible? :)

In all seriousness, I found out that I'm quoted in a portion of Dr. Ucko's book which dealt with the US military's professional educational programs and their reluctance to embrace counterinsurgency. This is certainly one of my greatest concerns. Indeed, Major Neil "Cavguy" Smith weighed in on the issue recently at SWJ, noting that, particularly for junior officers, the level of COIN training can be hit-or-miss, depending on the institution.

Dr. Ucko refers to some research by a number of military experts which document the total number of hours spent on topics related to conventional war-related topics versus those related to counterinsurgency. Although, as he remarks in the endnotes, such studies can be somewhat problematic.

Although I have some issues with the metrics involved, I certainly agree that my professional military education thus far has largely concentrated on conventional war. While I agree that we can't assume that the conventional battlefield will go away--such thinking was a fatal flaw and contributed to the IDF's failure in Lebanon in 2006--we need to focus primarily on counterinsurgency for the time being. The reasoning is simple--we're in the middle of two insurgencies. When these wars wind down, we can then discuss how we re-balance our military. But for now, let's focus on the wars we're actually involved in...

Overall, I have to admit that there's excellent research and plenty of salient points in this book thus far. If you like reading about the US military's other "Transformation"--that from a conventional war fighting force to a counterinsurgency force--you'll really like this book.