I don’t monitor the release of these publications on a daily basis as I used to do when doctrine was my job and only became aware of this one when the link arrived in an email last night. I haven’t read it in full yet as I need to first finish Roberto Rodrigez’ little orange book (I don’t think Chairman Mao need worry about the competition) American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and the Human Terrain, and Amanda Lennon’s Fourth Generation Valkyries. However I do have some initial thoughts based upon the foreword…

The  assessment  indicates  that  the  Army’s  current  vocabulary,  including  terms  such  as computer network operations (CNO), electronic warfare (EW), and information operations (IO) will  become  increasingly  inadequate.    To  address  these  challenges,  there  are  three  interrelated dimensions  of  full  spectrum  operations  (FSO),  each  with  its  own  set  of  causal  logic,  and requiring focused development of solutions:

•   The  first  dimension  is  the  psychological  contest  of  wills  against  implacable  foes, warring factions, criminal groups, and potential adversaries.

•   The  second  dimension  is  strategic  engagement,  which  involves  keeping  friends  at home, gaining allies abroad, and generating support or empathy for the mission.

•   The  third  dimension  is  the  cyber-electromagnetic  contest,  which  involves  gaining, maintaining, and exploiting a technological advantage.

My first thought is why has this been produced as a single service publication when information cuts across service and other organisational boundaries and barriers – can one safely assume that the other services and JFCOM will be producing its own slant on challenges and conflict in cyberspace?

Thought #2 is that the first two dimensions above are really nothing more than the day-to-day rhythm of the contemporary environment, and have been for decades. The third dimension strikes me as being a new environment much 90-100 years ago as the military came to grips with operations in the air. It’s about much much more than mere technological advantages – it’s about strategy and tactics, training and equipment, and, above all, an open-minded approach a la that of Guderian, Fuller, Mitchell and de Gaulle…

Deserts are good

Territorial Force Annual Camp, January 84, Tekapo Training Area

…even the little ones we have down here…and so I’m a little aggrieved at the information in this editorial at Get Frank – although the picture in the article is rather inaccurate – the MacKenzie Country really is brown…good solid Kiwi tussock country and also home to a training area of which I have many fond memories (time dulls the pain of blistered feet, sunburned faces and fingers cracked and dried digging in the rock-filled ground). The last thing it needs is to be ‘developed’ so a few more investors can make a quick buck and shufty it offshore…

Shaken not Stirred

Not happy to hear that the next Daniel Craig 007 has been put on hold due to troubles aboard the MGM mothership…

High Adventure

Having a crack at chili sardines tonight – aptly enough it’s Masterchef night – if there aren’t any updates for a while, then the experiment didn’t go well…

Ethos of a rat

That was a search that got someone here yesterday…”Oh“, I thought, “someone else doing a search on Michael Yon…” Follow his Facebook page…the guy just gets better and better…and is better entertainment than Shortland Street…

…he’s now decided that GEN McCrystal is mounting an information war against him – if so, he should remember who fired the first shots…

McChrystal’s crew has declared an information war on me. No complaints here. McChrystal’s attention is welcome. It indicates that my posts have hit steel further underlines that McChrystal is over his head. If McChrystal knew what he was doing, he would not be drawing attention to his staff. Will provide compelling evidence in due course. Some of the officers on McChrystal’s staff are my biggest helpers….

…he continues his vendetta against Canadian BGEN Daniel Menard for watching hockey, allegedly letting a key bridge be attacked, and now after BGEN Menard had an accidental discharge from his rifle at KAH…word on the street is he may have been trying to resolve Yon in a more direct manner! In typical Yon fashion, though, his accusations are riddled with errors: the incident did not occur aboard a US (or anyone else’s) helicopter nor was there any risk to VIPs who may or may not have been in the group…

A couple of interesting Canadians told me that Brigadier General Daniel Menard accidentally fired his rifle inside of an American helicopter. Sources said he nearly shot with automatic fire a high Canadian official at point-blank and hit the American helicopter while it was preparing to take off. The claim sounded wild, but I live on instincts and it sounded like it might have basis in fact. And so I began checking about a day ago.

I am intensely uncomfortable with this dishonest, incompetent general leading U.S. combat troops in a hot war. That Menard happens to be Canadian complicates matters. This is business for Secretary Gates. Today, I will write a letter to Secretary Gates and another to General Petraeus expressing my concerns as an American citizen.

…joining the anti-Yon conspiracy cabal is the milbloggers community none of whom have the credibility, knowledge or experience of Michael Yon…

Bottom line questions: How many milbloggers who were not on active duty (hence sent to the war as a troop) have spent more than a year in the wars? I know of zero. Does one exist? The milblogging community is largely a hurricane of hot air.

There are some good and responsible writers working milblogs but most of them are less accurate than the MSM they oppose.

Please name the top five milblogs — and one person from each — who has spent a year (less than 15% of the war) as a civilian journalist/writer inIraq/Afghanistan. Start with http://www.longwarjournal.org/ and Blackfive. People who are seriously tracking the war seriously don’t track these guys.

He also challenges The Guardian’s Alison Banville for daring to state “…the boast of “greater reality” attached to embedding is a falsehood which actually clouds the vision of anyone attempting to make sense of a conflict…” in Embedded war reporting cannot escape its own bias. It’s an interesting and on-target article and well worth reading…which is more than can be said for Yon’s latest series of diatribes against anyone who dares questions his Yonness…really, Mike, you make the information militia look soooo bad…

Really, I only bother with this guy because the shallowness and selfishness of his comments reminds me of me as a young lippy soldier with too much too say but then I grew up…although it was what one might call an ‘assisted’ growing up phase with a goodly chunk of the ‘assisting’ coming from the top soldiers of 8 Platoon, Charlie Company, 2/1 RNZIR in 1985…just realised that was a whole quarter of a century ago…I feel old now…

Heading Home – HEREKINO SAFARI – April 1985