About SJPONeill

Retired(ish) and living on the side of a mountain. I love reading and writing, pottering around with DIY in the garden and the kitchen, watching movies and building models from plastic and paper...I have two awesome daughters, two awesome grand-daughters and two awesome big dogs...lots of awesomeness around me...

Facebook and Twitter strike a blow for democracy…

Posted on 13 February 2011 by SJPONeill

Egyptians celebrate on the streets after Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down from his position

…a title that’s about as catchy as Jay and Silent Bob Do The World…and with about the same level of connection with the real world…Facebook and Twitter did NOT overthrow the President of Egypt, nor were they much more than enablers for communication (until the Egyptian government turned the internet lights out anyway). A population taking to the streets to demand the removal/resignation of a leader is not that common but it’s also not THAT unusual…Anyone who thinks that the ‘power’ of social networks created an unstoppable critical mass is living in LaLaLand (L3) – that the demonstrations continued after the net was switched off is a good combat indicator here.

If the conditions are right and there are some suitably skilled organisers/agitators available, then mass demonstrations are pretty easy to orchestrate…there are plenty of examples of this across history even prior to the invention of the interweb…to focus too much on social networking software is to distract oneself from the more important topics of the networks themselves AND who is manipulating them.

That a Google executive was involved in this right from the start is indicative of some form of leadership, planning and organisation and NOT of the spontaneous mass uprising that many in the media would have us believe this transfer of leadership relied on. I can’t not say transfer of power because it is simply too early to determine where the real power will lie…I also wonder how many remember how Hosni Mubarak came to power and that his strong consistent hand has probably saved Eqypt from the Moslem Brotherhood of Really Bad People Out For Some Headlines and World Peace (or some such group)…noting that and the lack of any sort of succession plan, I wonder how Google defends its ‘Do No Harm’ motto if Egypt continues to unravel (think it’s run it’s course)?

Much as I’d like see see the recent event in Tunisia and Egypt as a triumph for the information militia, I just can’t see any proof that it was…the upside of the information militia for the most part remains collaborative discussion on the like of Small Wars Journal whose discussion board and blog continue to make my brain run marathons; the downside is the like of Michael Yon who continues to just not get it.

Yes, I am miffed (but not that surprised) that he can blatantly claim that he has only ever blocked/banned 14 people from his Facebook page when the number is well above that; and doubly miffed that my name doesn’t appear on the list of those blocked – I learned today that one should only consider oneself banned if one also ‘unlikes’ Mike on FB as well – preschool hairsplitting at its best. I’m not losing sleep over Mike’s antics – following his FB page is like watching a good soap: you keep watching just to see what inanity happens next – but it annoys me that his antics drag others in the information militia down with him…what force would ever want an embed (from anywhere) are reading Mike’s slurs on GEN McCrystal and BGEN Menard last year? Or after considering the damage he has done to the coalition by constantly attacking key members of coalition forces – who needs the Taliban when Mike’s on your side?\

The Yon saga has been laid out in three interesting threads here:

Overview of the Michael Yon Saga PDFs: [Overview of the Michael Yon Saga – Comments Overview of the Michael Yon Saga – Perspectives]

Banned by Yon! [PDF: Banned by Yon – Perspectives ]

Michael Yon Needs Money

I think the guy just needs some perspective in his diet and needs to get over being a 19 year old E-5 and look to what he is really good at (besides pissing people off and mudslinging) and get back to telling the human side of conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, and also offer an alternative perspective to events like Thailand’s recent Red Shirt troubles – when he was there: reporting from afar on Egypt does really cut the mustard…

On the topic of internet shutdowns, Wired has an interesting but pretty light article (PDF: US Has Secret Tools to Force Internet on Dictators _ WIRED) on the US’ apparent ability to turn it back on if it so desired – this concept is not really cutting edge. Yes, the delivery mechanisms will have a certain geeky appeal but the concept has its roots in the Voice of America broadcasts over the Iron Curtain and the Allied broadcasts into occupied Europe (you remember, Europe, the last time that everyone else had to come save you) during WW2. In Tom Clancy’s The Bear and The Dragon, Beijing after the US unleashed free (in every sense of the word) braodcasts into Chinese TV and radio systems, spurring a (you guessed it) population uprising.

And there we are back where we started…the good old spontaneous uprising…when it all gets post-mortemed, I am fairly confident that the dead Germans will have played a strong hand in all of it…that is, that the popular interpretation of Clauswitz’ trinity will bear out: there will have been a leadership group, an action arm and, coming a very slow third (like always), ‘the people’, the poor old bloody people…Small Wars Journal has on its blog, a very robust discussion entitled A Populace-Centric Foreign Policy which talks about the role of ‘the people’ and how best to engage them…it was quite satisfying for a while (won’t last) to see some other contributors following my practice of parenthesising ‘the people’ as an indication that the word represent influence and power that doesn’t really exist…

[RDFs: A Populace-Centric Foreign Policy _ Small Wars Journal; A Populace-Centric Foreign Policy _ Comments 2; A Populace-Centric Foreign Policy _ Comments 1]

PS…when I post links to online discussions, it is with the faint hope that one or two readers might be bold enough to contribute their own thoughts to those discussions…Small Wars especially has not pretty impressive street cred in its active community (yeah, I know, they list Mike Yon as a author but no one’s perfect)…I recently read through some of the 65-odd pages of the ‘Introduce Yourself‘ thread and was humbled to see in whose presence I virtually walk…

And today at the rocket scientists club…

Posted on 11 February 2011 by SJPONeill

…Hamid Karzai says it is time foreign troops left his country because the troops are now “hindering progress.”

It's not a large picture as the vacuum between the ears causes a steady implosion of the head...

At the same club meeting, Oxfam said it is time the PRT’s got out because it is putting aid workers at risk as they are too often linked to the military. Yes, I am sure that is why they are being attacked and certainly not because they are soft unarmed targets from whom decent ransoms can be earned…or because the decreased military component of reconstruction teams means there is less of a local deterrent to errant bandits…news flash!! Afghanistan has been a dangerous place to visit or work for the last 31 years…

Mr Karzai’s comments are not the first time he has called for foreign troops to exit. He is under pressure at home from locals who want to control their own country. Now, there’s a surprise…surely not because they tire of a foreign force propping up what many Afghans consider a puppet government attempting to inflict central control over cultures that have always (well, since before Alexander’s Afghanistan Tour) been quite happy thank you very to do their own thing without so much as a nod towards any notions of central government…

There's the door...go on...leave!! I dare you, I DOUBLE-dare you...

“Afghanistan wants control of its own affairs by all means in the security sector. Whether Afghanistan is ready or not must not be a reason,” Karzai said. “The Afghans don’t want a European government, the Afghans don’t want an American government. . . . Afghans want an Afghan government.”

What is even more amazing than Karzai’s latest is that every contributing nation didn’t seize this exit strategy golden egg by the horns and fill the Afghan night with ripples of pops as as the vacuum left by each exiting force was filled by something else…

The spin on the exit strategy goes round and round, round and round...

Regardless, though, of when and how, ISAF depart Afghanistan, each contributing nation (yes, that include you EU folk too!) needs to ante up and accept responsibility for the cultural and social changes that it has supported in Afghanistan. Even assuming that the Karzai government or its ISAF-backed successor lasts beyond the first night of independence, it’s unlikely that it will last much past when the money runs out which will more likely be when the last suitcase packed full of dollars goes through the luggage check-in at Kabul International than when it is expended on running the country…and when the darkness comes, those nations and agencies that thought it was so ‘right’ to introduce democracy and free speech and equal rights and all that other good Western ideology need to step up to the plate and do right by the vulnerable people they left behind…

GEN Petraeus also looks to be gearing up for that day when the last helicopter lifts off the roof of an embassy…from the Financial Times via Michael Yon:

Petraeus defends plan to arm villagers

By Matthew Green in Kabul

Published: February 7 2011 18:42 | Last updated: February 7 2011 18:42

General David Petraeus, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, plans to triple a scheme that has armed thousands of village recruits, dismissing fears that the strategy could nurture a new generation of warlords. [Comment: the current warlords don’t seem to have a shortage of weapons now…]

With violence in Afghanistan rising and Nato allies anxious to hand over to Afghan forces in 2014, Gen Petraeus wants to bolster security, in part by sending 12-man teams of US special forces to train locals. [Comment: that’s 2014 THIS century or in three years time; like, only one third of the time that we haven’t been able to sort Afghanisatn out in since November 2001]

Human rights groups and aid agencies have called for the plan to be scrapped, fearing it threatens to fuel conflicts and empower the kind of militia commanders who ravaged Afghanistan during years of civil war in the 1990s. The government of Hamid Karzai, the president, has also been wary of similar initiatives. [Comment: damn right it’s ‘wary’ – last thing Uncle Hamid wants is more people able to resist central government – it’s a bit of an ask to consider it ‘governance’.]

But Gen Petraeus said the scheme was vital in enlisting the support of locals.

“The idea is that these actually mobilise not just individuals, but communities,” he told the Financial Times. “Elders support it. The elders also police it to a degree.”

The plan has echoes of the approach Gen Petraeus adopted while commanding the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, where he encouraged the Awakening movement of Sunni tribes that helped curb violence.

But he said the Afghan Local Police – as the plan is known – would be a very different exercise. It aims to work with the government to reach often isolated areas where people wanted help to resist the Taliban.

To critics, the scheme represents a quick-fix solution adopted to meet political pressures for withdrawal in western capitals.

Since Gen Petraeus took command of international forces in Afghanistan in July, the programme has been started in 17 sites, with a total of more than 3,100 paid recruits, he said. The Nato-led force is awaiting Afghan government approval for more than 40 additional sites, and hopes to add another 4,500 men by spring, a US military official said.

The recruits, whose biometric data is recorded, are given a salary, registered weapons and khaki uniforms. Their primary role is to man checkpoints or patrol their home areas.

General Petraeus says the training is being conducted with the oversight of Afghan authorities, local government, police and elders. “They work for the district chief of police, not a local warlord or elder or power-broker,” he said.

Nato allies have launched a sucession of similar schemes with scant success, but US officials believe extra resources and closer collaboration with the government will deliver results. A similar programme, the Local Defence Initiative, ran into problems last year when it donated $1m to the Shinwari tribe in the eastern Nangahar Province, which became embroiled in a land dispute last year instead of fighting the Taliban, according to Oxfam.

ca. 1850 --- Afghan Soldier --- Image by © Christel Gerstenberg/CORBIS

Probably too little, too late…even though Jim Gant’s plane got diverted from Iraq to Afghanistan after Steven Pressfield published his excellent One Tribe At A Time paper, tribal engagement is s campaign that needed to have been continued and expanded from 2001 after the Northern ‘Alliance’ was used to gain an initial upper hand on Terry Taliban…

Well, that sux…

Posted on 9 February 2011 by SJPONeill

A lovely lady – Carla RIP…

It’s only February and I’m already writing another obituary for a friend, Carla Campagnuolo-Jolly, who passed away last night after a brief battle with cancer. Anybody who was involved with the JWID/CWID series in the last decade who have come across Carla and few who did would forget her. For us rural Kiwis , she was like The Nanny personified…words a mile a minute, straight shooting and direct, an unforgettable chest that always seemed to arrive a couple of minutes before the rest of her…I think my first contact with her was on one of the last JWIDs where she was a nasal voice on the phone telling me to get “…stuff sorted down there!” I couldn’t have been very good at getting it sorted because the next year she came down to NZ to see for herself what the problem was…JWIDs all tend to blur after a while…stuck in a big room fills of computers and screen trying to explain to some vendor why his prize app just doesn’t work for three weeks…but I still remember well the night we all went out to The Curry Club in Wellington for a night out…these things were always good for hosting…and we also had great people coming in from Australia and the States…

In 2006, I let myself get talked into being the lead national evaluator for CWID 07 which sounded pretty good – more so since I’d just handed over the Centre for Army Lessons and had (I thought) some time on my hands – as it meant three trips to the US for the planning conferences in Virginia Beach with a payback of three weeks on-base for CWID and then a month ot complete the report…that was the easy bit – no one really quite got round to warning me about the CWID social schedule which, on top of her actual job, Carla managed…the rule always was, no matter how rough the night before, everyone was always on deck at 0800 for the next round of the conference…Carla’s mission was to make that as big a challenge as possible and the Wednesday night of each conference was always her piece de resistance, the Room Party. This started around seven and ended when it ended (most people had lost the ability to comprehend the concepts of time and muscular coordination well before midnight) – each involved a bewildering array of cocktails, shooters, things that looked like Popsicles but would put you on your back in about 30 seconds, and tons of pizza and snack food. In the morning (one ALWAYS prepared the next day;s clothing the night before!) it was wake around 0730, shower, dress, put on Homer Simpson glasses and back into the fray…

When Carla was diagnosed with cancer last year, I think many of us thought “…poor old cancer doesn’t know what it’s buying into here…” That Carla was a scrapper was never secret as anyone who ran afoul of her administratively at CWID would know and she fought this beast to the bitter end. No matter how she may have really been feeling after the operations and tubes and pills and illness, she always keep a brave face up. In fact, that’s probably why her passing has come as such a shock to so many: even during this last battle she was always so alive…

So today the thoughts of the Kiwi JWID/CWID team for the last decade are of Carla, and with Karl, Michael and Justin, her family and friends…

Edit Update

From Karl, writing on Carla’s page…we request that instead of flowers or other remembrances you send a donation in Carla’s name to:

1. Christian Healing Ministries
PO Box 9520
Jacksonville, Fl 32208
www.CHMgift.com

2. Capital Hospice
5656 Arlington Blvd
Suite 500
Falls Church Va 22042

Update 11 Feb 11

From Karl… I met with the Reverand that will preside over Carla’s service. The time, date and location are as follows:

Date: 18 February 2011
Time: 1200
Location: The Falls Church, 115 East Fairfax Street, Falls Church Va, the old historic church.

Masterchef Update

Posted on 8 February 2011 by SJPONeill

Serious advertising for NZ Masterchef 2011 has now kicked in…hopefully I’ll be able to schedule myself to follow it again this year – due to work commitments, I missed almost all of the last Aussie Masterchef except the final…

Meanwhile, here in the heartland, we continue to investigate buying a local cafe so that Carmen can live at home again and also do what she is so good at for a living…

In Colour Me Scared last year, I mentioned my foray into the scary world of combining chili and sardines – pretty safe really as chili, like tomato sauce, is a great ‘coverall’ for culinary not-quites…I hadn’t actually tried it again since then but late last night after a crap afternoon wresting with connectivity issues and losing the better part of a day’s productivity – and thus forgetting to take something out of the freezer to thaw – I gave it another shot… definitely a great but very simple and fast (longest thing is waiting for the rice to cook) meal for when you really don’t want to put yourself out…what’s left will be combined into a fried rice tonight…so is one less thing to worry about while I’m doing the home alone thing…

The big difference between home along last year and this year is that this year I actually have work to do and don’t quite so much have the luxury of time to spend in the kitchen experimenting…the absence of any fast foods in easy distance means that I still have to look after myself and plan ahead…my major culinary issue at the moment is what to do with so many damn eggs …

Secret Stash

Since we keep stealing, them the chickens have taken to concealing their eggs around their run…this one was buried beneath layer of blackberry and is a good week and a half to two weeks work for them…24+ eggs recovered here! Carmen took a bunch back up the road but, combined with what we had already, I’m really scratching for good simple egg recipes…had a great omelette on Friday night after I got back from a meeting with Hawkeye in Palmerston North that afternoon (and resisted the temptation to treat myself in Mr Models) that meet two key objectives: a. it took five eggs and b. it very neatly wiped out most of the leftover vegetables and venison left in the fridge…I can see scrambled eggs coming back onto the breakfast menu which will go nicely on a slab of freshly-made bread, followed up with muesli and homemade yoghurt (well out of the packet but just as good, if not, better than the prepackaged stuff)…just so long as I don’t become a creature of habit…

As you probably guessed, I having a bit of a no news day today – I’ve spent most of the day doing ASIC administration, psyching myself up to complete the draft doctrine review I had planned for yesterday…we’ve taken to using the NATO doctrine review template, which, although, involves more typing, promotes a far deeper review of a publication and which also provides the author feedback in a standard format that can be combined with similarly-formatted feedback from other reviewers…one of these days, I WILL complete that touch-typing programme…

Not quite

I mentioned in My Fellow Americans that I had first met Martyn Dunne while working on a number of Army clothing and personal equipment projects; one of these was reviewing the camouflage pattern then in use, especially the colours (of which there had been 17 distinct variations since it was first introduced)…needless to say, our testing and evaluation wasn’t as dedicated as this…talk about taking your work home with you…

Still…I guess if you’re looking at optimising for urban combat…

My fellow Americans…

Posted on 8 February 2011 by SJPONeill

Many great addresses have begun with those words but few more memorable than those spoken on August 11, 1984…My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.

The 40th President of the United States

100 years ago today, Mrs Reagan had a baby boy she named Ronald Wilson…who became an actor most remembered for playing with a monkey…and a President who brought an Empire to its knees…The 80s were an interesting time…little leadership had been shown anywhere in the 70s and, really, it looked like the whole planet was going down the gurgler…Iran had toppled, the Russians looked like they were heading in that direction via Afghanistan, the Domino Theory looked like it was alive and well in Southern Africa and the Soviet Bear kept leering at Western Europe…post-Vietnam America, who we most looked to for leadership and support appeared weak and disorganised, apparently bent on returning to the isolationist days of the 30s…

War was a real and present threat…the IRA was in full howl and in 1981 terrorists seized the Iranian Embassy in London; Maggie Thatcher had to sort out Argentina in 1982; in 1983, America faced terrorist in Beirut and destabilisation in Grenada, and Russia thought it was OK to shoot-down civilian airliners; in 1985, it was still OK to use your air force (Navy in this case) to force down another nation’s airliner because you wanted to have a word with a terrorist on board; we all wondered if that nutjob Ghaddafi was going to spin out and take us all with him – and in January 1986, we thought he might have done it when Challenger exploded. It’s odd but my clearest memory of that morning is not of televised debris trails over Florida but of peeling potatoes…I was on Infantry Corps Training at the time and maybe we were in the kitchen at Balmoral Camp – or maybe that was a few months later when the US Navy gave the Libyans so lessons in dissimilar air combat…

But all through those years, there was this calm force that never seemed to get angry or upset but who stayed his course…who stared the Russians down and set the scene for Saddam’s first serious trouncing, who led his nation out of the morass of the 70s (The 70s Show only shows the good stuff) and laid the path for the next two decades…I have no idea who Reagan’s domestic policies were like of how he fared as a leader internally – the he was re-elected in 1984 is probably a clue – but as a world leader, he excelled…

He gets results

I missed the media release but ‘He gets results’ was the title of the email sent to me to let me know…and indeed he does…Martyn Dunne is straight shooter and straight talker who expects the same from those around which, I believe, some may find a tad disconcerting…I first met him when he was a colonel and I was a lowly juniuor officer running projects to develop and introduce new clothing and personal equipment for soldiers in the mid-90s – projects in which he took a personal interest. I always found him very direct and confident in his views but also willing to listen to and discuss (with some vigour!) contrary points of view but not once did I ever know of him abusing any advantage in rank…I was pleased to see him promoted to Brigadier as our senior representative in Peter Cosgrove’s INTERFET headquarters and only 18 months later, attain Major-General as the commander-designate for the new joint headquarters. Here, not only did he have to get a new headquarters up and running while commanding operations from domestic activities through East Timor and Bougaineville to Bosnia and Afghanistan, but also had to merge into a team, three previously-separate environmental commands that had a long history of not working and playing together particularly well…

Three years later, with that task a success, at a point where other generals might be eying up the golf course, he became Comptroller and Chief Executive of the Customs Service, again successfully leading and reinventing that service, for the last six years. And now, when the bach and golf course might be beckoning again, he has accepted another challenge in the diplomatic realm as High Commissioner to Australia…look out, Aussies, there’s a new marshal coming to town…

Something fishy

A couple of littlies

I got this long but interesting article from Dean @ Travels With Shiloh‘s Facebook page a week or so ago (it’s been sitting open in browser ever since as I don’t have a good system of ‘post-it-ing’ interesting links I come across). There are some comments at the end of the article but they are only worth ignoring. The reason this article struck a chord with me is that it is a great article of the sort of things that we never really think to much about until it’s all too late and, in this case, the fish are all gone…

Harking back to one of my frequent soapboxes, that of countering irregular activity, the stripping of non-renewable (well, not quickly) fishing grounds is happening now. As a destabilising activity (I like destabilising better than irregular), the rape of East African fisheries is a direct catalyst for the Somalia pirate problem that is keeping a number of navies off the streets at the moment. In our neck of the woods, we are constantly aware of various nations attempting to curry short-term favour with Pacific Island nations in return for fishing rights, or sometimes, maybe just a blind eye from time to time. Even domestically, it is illegal to list trout on a commercial menu here because it is pretty obvious that this would lead to a gutting of our trouteries in about six months…it’s fine to catch a trout the old-fashioned way and take it to a restuarant to be prepared and most of them, especially in this region, will do a bang-up job of it.

A few years back, we had a doer-upper bach in Purakanui – beautiful spot but really too far away for us to use or even do any work on some rather sadly we let it go…at low tide, most of the inlet would empty out and you could dig up cockles on the sand bar exposed…the legal limit is something like 40 per person but some weekends we could see greedy and unscrupulous restaurateurs come out from Dunedin and plough up the whole bar for cockles – they would bring out babies so as to beef up the limit they could take away i.e. 40 x the number of people in each group regardless of age…the legislation is too weak to cover this abuse…and it’s not hard to see that this one will end in tears as well…

Purakanui - you can stay overnight (via Bookabach) in the red and white cottage in the upper right - highly recommended!

Wry humour

These have also been sitting on my browser for the last few days…

Julian Assange claims success in free release of information…oh…uh-oh…it’s not meant to work like this…not when it’s about me...just goes to show how trivial ever aspect of this issue is…

and how to fail Bombmaking 101…probably way more to this story than Wired knows but these days it almost counts as a War on terror feel-good story…some of the coments are quite revealing too…

Fill your hand, you sunnovabitch!!!

Posted on 2 February 2011 by SJPONeill

johnwaynetruegrit

The Jeff Bridges’ version of True Grit opens here tomorrow…coincidentally, I only watched the original John Wayne version from 1969 on the weekend and commented to Carmen the other night that so much of the lines in the trailers for the remake were word-for-word from the original, I wondered if there was going to be much different about the new version other than Rooster gets to wear his patch on the other eye this time round…

So, imagine my surprise to read in today’s DomPost that “…where Wayne played Cogburn as a one-dimensional veteran gunslinger, the original Rooster of the novel (brilliantly rendered by Jeff Bridges in the Coen’s version) is drunken, half-blind, smelly and deeply flawed…” Furthermore, this amazing bad and inaccurate review, in this nation’s second largest daily, isn’t even by a Kiwi – it’s some loser called Ben Macintyre who writes for something called The Times…my recollection of John Wayne’s performance, only days old, is exactly of “…drunken, half-blind, smelly and deeply flawed…”

Dean’s comments yesterday notwithstanding – and they do apply more to general soldiery than to the specifics of those in sensitive roles – I really worry if that bumper sticker actually has a broader application beyond the intel community into the general information community. I’m reading Dean Koontz’ Cold Fire this week and parts of that also struck a similar chord with me as the reporter lead in the story laments to demise of good old fashioned ‘honest’ reporting in favour of what sells – and that was written in 1991…

I’m on base for the next couple of days and was able to catch the big TV in the bar free tonight and take it over to keep up with Coro – waiting to see how, not when, Molly and Kev’s little affair gets blown – but was reading today’s paper in the ad breaks. Maybe it was just a slow news day but I was disappointed at how superficial many of the items were…we don’t get a paper delivered at home and, really, why would we bother if all it’s going to be good for is starting the fire and wrapping the frozens when we go away…

I find now that I get greater stimulus from the non-professionals on the internet; in fact, I would have to say that Michael Yon’s Facebook page, when he isn’t whining about milkooks, or general officers who have (apparently) slighted him, offers a very good range of cues; as do the Facebook pages for the USN’s Information Dominance Corp and Marine Corps Gazette; Small Wars Journal and Travels with Shiloh…

I wonder whether the maturity of the information age also means the demise of the true professional reporter in favour of info-marketeers who tailor their stories to specific markets (as opposed to audiences), and the rise of the information militia as the new voice of the ‘news’…?

I did find a couple of interesting titbits in the Dompost:

The capital of Afghanistan,Kabul, was rocketed by rebels – in 1993. It’s quite strange to think of a time where it was necessary to state that Kabul was the capital of Afghanistan.
And also on this day in 1944, NZ pilot Irving Smith led Mosquito bombers in a pinpoint raid on Amiens prison to save condemned prisoners. If nothing else, a timely reminder that airpower is more than just running a flying bus service and providing direct support to the troops on the ground.
In 1848, Mexico ends a US invasion by ceding Texas, New Mexico and California to the US. If Mexico does get a handle on the cartel wars soon, I wonder what they have to trade-off against the next US invasion..?
In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoumeini becomes the de facto leader of Iran and the place has gone steadily downhill since. While Europe and the US get all antsy about Iran’s nuclear programme (but not Pakistan’s), the biggest risk offered by Iran to regional instability comes from its increasingly dissatisfied youth. The best thing that the US and NATO could do is invite Iran into Afghanistan, get it committed (entangled) by both its own rhetoric and the tarbaby mess that is Afghanistan; and then step back and watch it all unravel…Iran, that is – Afghanistan does need anyone’s help top unravel…just install an unpopular (in every sense of the word) leader and retire to a safe distance….

Surely not?

Posted on 1 February 2011 by SJPONeill

Just saw this item on Michael Yon’s Facebook page…you can read the actual article on Wired. I have to admit that I find this an excellent source of hints for places to look and issues to consider…

It would be quite scary to think that our intelligence apparatus weren’t being filled by our best and brightest but then there was this bumper sticker I saw…

In all seriousness, if we’re fighting in an environment where information rules, surely it is critical that we resource the mechanisms that process and analyse our information accordingly…?

Reading between the lines in the article, it sounds as though there is quite a bit of tap-dancing and backstepping going on – and that all the checks and balances one would assume at that level weren’t so much no in place but simply weren’t being followed…it’s all a bit difficult…

Do you ever wonder…

Posted on 27 January 2011 by SJPONeill

…how things come about?

If you’ve ever wondered how all twelve colonies in Battlestar Galactica squeeze into a single system, here’s an explanation…

…or…

…how hard work and dedication might pay off? I’ve just seen a quick note welcoming Massey University’s Josh Wineera (Interbella et al) to membership of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP). The CSCAP website hasn’t been updated yet with the new membership but I imagine there may be some Rommel? Gunner Who? moments coming up the first time Josh takes a seat at the (pretty high-powered) table…always nice to see a mate doing well…

I’m back in the office this week and because I haven’t had remote access in to the network, have a mountain of issues to clear before I head home tomorrow – this has eaten into blog productivity time quite a bit but I have a couple of items on the boil for next week. in the meantime, I found this in an interesting discussion over at Small Wars Council on battlespace ‘ownership’. Inter-service jabs and rivalries aside, there are some interesting insights here:

Rules of Combat

USMC

1. Bring a weapon. Preferably, bring at least two. Bring all of your friends who have weapons. Bring their friends who have weapons.

2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.

3. Only hits count. Close doesn’t count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.

4. If your shooting stance is good, you’re probably not moving fast enough, nor using cover correctly.

5. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are preferred.)

6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a big weapon and a friend with a big weapon.

7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of calibre, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived and who didn’t.

8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.

9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting is more dependent on “pucker factor” than the inherent accuracy of the weapon.

10. Use a weapon that works EVERY TIME. “All skill is in vain when an Angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket.”

11. Someday someone may kill you with your own weapon, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

12. In combat, there are no rules, always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

13. Have a plan.

14. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won’t work.

15. Use cover or concealment as much as possible. The visible target should be in FRONT of YOUR weapon.

16. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.

17. Don’t drop your guard.

18. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees.

19. Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them).

20. Decide to be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.

21. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.

22. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.

23. Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

24. Your number one Option for Personal Security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

25. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with a “.4.”

Army

1. See USMC Rules for combat

2. Add 60 to 90 days

3. Hope the Marines already destroyed all meaningful resistance

Navy

1. Spend three weeks getting somewhere

2. Adopt an aggressive offshore posture

3. Send in the Marines

4. Drink Coffee

5. Bring back the Marines

Air Force

1. Kiss the spouse good-bye

2. Drive to the flight line

3. Fly to target area, drop bombs, fly back.

4. Pop in at the club for a couple with the guys

5. Go home, BBQ some burgers and drink some more beer

A damn good husband and dad and man lost to this world!

Posted on 24 January 2011 by SJPONeill

Lieutenant Mark Sydney, as he was at the time of his 2007 MNZM.

This is WHAT HAPPENS when dumb arses drink and drive at speed in shit weather!!!! This comment, the title of this post and others in a similar vein on Facebook this weekend, announced the sad and very untimely death of former soldier, Mark Sydney. Mark was killed in the smash that took two other lives near Waihi Beach on Friday night…

TWO teenagers and a community hero were killed in a horror car crash on Friday night, which police said left a mangled scene like a “war zone”.

I’ve known Mark since we were on the same NBC Instructor’s Course a good fifteen or sixteen years ago…he was always up for a bit of mischief (must be part of the MP takes one to catch one thing!!) and could always see the brighter side of any situation…to think that such a guy could get taken out by some teenage yoyo who couldn’t drive just beggars belief…the citation from his Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 is typical of him…

…Mark Sydney commanded a Liaison and Observation Team in the Western Republic of Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from September 2005 to April 2006.

His role involved enabling liaison, conciliation and positive interaction between three ethnic groups that were at war only 10 years ago. He established a programme of lectures for young people on drug use, to counter criminal elements who were preying on Bosnian youth.

Through his energetic and engaging manner, professional focus, and diplomacy, he quickly gained the trust of the population and aided progress in the region…

RIP, buddy…

Well done, that man!!

Posted on 18 January 2011 by SJPONeill

Strangely, I picked this up from Michael Yon and not the local media…

!cid_0de301e8-80d0-4ac3-b6b3-22e6635e1ced

(Photo by U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Joshua Treadwell)

Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), awarded the Meritorious Service Medal to New Zealand Army Lt. Col. Chris J. Parsons, during a ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 13. NZ Ambassador to Afghanistan Neville Reilly attended the ceremony. The Meritorious Service Medal is the highest US decoration that can be awarded to an officer who is not a general for exceptional contribution to the ISAF mission. Under Parsons’ command, NZ Army 1st SAS significantly hindered the insurgents’ ability to reconstitute and conduct actions against Coalition Forces, resulting in increased security for the people of Afghanistan. Parsons returns to New Zealand after a four month tour in Afghanistan.

The head of the New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan has been recognised by the United States with its top honour for foreign officers.

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Parsons was presented with the Defense Meritorious Service Medal last week in Kabul.

New Zealand Defence Minister Wayne Mapp says it’s testament to Lieutenant Colonel Parsons’ leadership and also recognition of the work the entire SAS unit is doing in the Afghan capital.

Dr Mapp says each time he meets top American servicepeople they remark on the professionalism of the SAS unit.

He says the award is given for exceptional leadership over a sustained period of time.

Dr Mapp says it is the third time during his tenure as Defence Minister that the medal has been awarded to a New Zealander.

It’s good to see a Kiwi recognised at any time but even better when it’s a mate from wayback…I first met Chris in 1995 when I was commissioned over the space of a weekend and inflicted on Headquarters Support Command and the Trentham Officers Mess…it wasn’t long before he’d led a group of us through a blizzard to the top of the snow-clad mountain for a formal dinner…because we could…

…and because the sun was so bright, everyone wore their special sunglasses…

Leadership has always been one of Chris’ (many) strong suites and I count myself very fortunate not only to know him as a friend but to have worked for and with him in a number of other appointments…

Well done, mate…

Edit: updated with image of award ceremony and Stuff caption…