Tag Archives: Information Militia

Knowing…

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…me, knowing you…it’s the best we can do…

Thanks, ABBA….it’s all about knowing when to do something and more importantly sometimes, when not too…

This idea for this post came from observing so many of the comments made in the immediate aftermatch of the February 22 earthquake and that we’re starting to hear again from Japan…it was reinforced again by the Daily Post question last week When is it better to be sorry that safe? As posts go, I’d rate it as less than average – if all you have to do to meet a Daily Post obligation is ask a question, I’d be in like Flynn but I think that any post worth its electrons needs to be a little more substantive than that…

Knowing… in her blog piece Three Times You Have To Speak Nilofer Merchant argues that there are three times (in bold print) when we ought to speak up:

When it will improve the results of the group.

When it gives others permission to speak their truth.

When the costs of silence are too high.

But her key point is hidden away in her summary text “…knowing when to speak is an art, and like any art, requires skill….” Conversely, knowing when to shut the hell up is equally as much a skill that requires practice…

Yeah, whatever, Mike...

 

A more pertinent observation from a more professional organisation...

Not really picking on Mike Yon this time…it’s just that he happened to launching off when I first started to draft this…what actually got me going on the subject was rather vocal comments from a number of sources regarding the Civil Defence effort in Christchurch in the immediate aftermath of the Feb 22 quake…calling for reviews and investigations and labelling staff as incompetent is simply not productive when responding to the most major natural disaster ever to hit the nation. There is a time for all hands to the pump to just get things done and another for later introspection and review…

In a similar vein, are all those second-guessers and self-appointed experts who, possibly with the best of intentions, promulgate such guff as the discredited Triangle of Life technique to save oneself during an earthquake or those who, like at Pike River, state it would have better to rush into collapsed buildings to try to rescue trapped and injured people. The harsh truth is that there is bugger-all to support such ideas and plenty to prove that they are more likely to hinder than help. Like we say it the doctrine world, it’s all about ‘applying with judgement’ and not just charging in – or applying by rote…thinking thinking thinking….

No doubt there are some major issues appearing in, not just Civil Defence, but most agencies involved in the recovery effort as they adjust from the initial response to the long haul of recovery and clean up…now is the time to start collecting the raw OIL (observations, issues and lessons) across the entire response force to identify what we did that we shouldn’t have done and what we didn’t do that we should have done…it’ll be interesting to see how a government-level lessons learned project might emerge from this…

//

As you can see this was a post that was started and never quite polished off…I’m still a bit behind the 8 ball on this one as well but completing ‘Knowing’ also meets another WordPress Daily Post challenge – even if it was from last Friday – Go to your drafts folder and finish an old post…I have to say that the Daily/Weekly Post challenges are great motivators to keep up the momentum…I get an idea and launch into a draft but then either get distracted or want to polish just a little bit more before publishing that it never really gets done…as it says in today’s daily challenge, “…Writing is therapeutic…” Yes, it is and although I now have more writing tools, I don’t write as much…ten years ago I had a good half dozen scripts bubbling away, was prolific in a number of online forums and was writing reviews and papers on a range of subjects. Today, the ideas are still there but the delivery mechanism seems to be jammed on ‘Start’ and locked out of ‘Develop’ and ‘Complete’…all I can say is that I’m working on it…

An interview with me

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Best Friends

One of the suggestions in the WordPress Daily/Weekly Post challenge is to Conduct an interview for your blog, with some tips and a suggested question list on SuccessBlogNet. I have a short but slowly evolving list of potential interviewees and I’m thinking of maybe making this a periodic feature…first up, though, I thought I’d interview me to see what it feels like…

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Brought up in a small town in South Island of New Zealand; long time military career…really…most of its in the ‘about me’ tab just up there ^…

Why is there a picture of two dogs at the top of the post?

I always like to have at least one picture in every post, usually at the top. That’s Lulu and Kirk, my two helpers when I work from home…

How you first got involved in with blogging?

Just bumbled into it…have spent a lot of time over the years since the internet became really accessible here around 96 or 97 on discussion boards but hadn’t really spent much time in the blogosphere until 2009…my biggest inspirations were the blog used by the COIN Center at Fort Leavenworth, Travels with Shiloh (link just over there on the right), and Peter Hodge’s much-missed The Strategist (sadly Peter pulled the pin on this when he went overseas last year). Since I found WordPress, it’s really just been a trial and error fumbling-in-the-dark process…

What do you find most challenging about blogging about your topic?

Having the time to write…it was OK late 09 and early 10 when I took a sabbatical from full-time work and could devote 2-3 hours a day to researching and writing mini-essays but once I returned to work mid-10, I have had to work really hard to maintain an output. Of course, to a certain extent that is self-inflicted as I am still a bit of a blog fuddy-duddy and keep forgetting that I can draft and pre-schedule posts instead of writing them live…the ability of Windows Live Writer to draft posts offline is slowly getting me more organised in this area…

Tell me about some of the people you’ve met while working on your blog?

I’ve ‘met’ a bunch of people through the blog as brief contacts…I’m not much good at keeping in touch unless I have something to say…Dean and Peter mentioned above would be the two main long-term connections I have maintained since starting to blog – until Peter broke up the team by putting real world before blog! Just kidding! But of those I have ‘met’ briefly most have only added to my positive experiences of the blogosphere – the exceptions really being a few minor acolytes of Mike Yon who break out the torches and pitchforks every time someone offers a differing opinion to his…

How would (someone) describe your blogging style?

Structured…I probably think too much about what I’m writing instead of just emoting directly into the blog and that does really slow me down (not always a bad thing!) – I still feel like I should be writing as for an essay or formal paper and that’s NOT what this form of communicating is really about…

What do you do when you aren’t working on your blog?

What my wife tells me to do!!! As above, the blog takes a back seat to work although there are some logical cross-overs in the COIN/Irregular Activity area. When I work more from home in the summer, there is a ton of (mostly self-inflicted) work to do around the house and when the weather’s nice, blogging also takes a back seat to that – I’d love to do more after dark but after a day’s working (work work) online AND some solid hours working outside, I’m pretty shagged…last night I didn’t even make it through Bones and work up on the couch around 1pm…fortunately it’s a very comfortable and large couch so no back pains or anything…

Are you a full time blogger? How did you get into blogging and why?

Define ‘fulltime’…does blogging rule my life or is it my number one activity…nope. I’m aiming at one decent (yeah, define ‘decent’) post a week (the WordPress post a week challenge is a great catalyst) and normally make that. Decent = a substantial proportion of my own thoughts/work not just a bunch of pictures or borrowed material. If I could, I like to write a 1500-2000 word post twice a week…

What networking do you do that you feel helps your blogging business?

Hmmm…trick question? For me, blogging’s not a business although I occasionally use it to promote business’ that I think are worthy of attention, and those I am connected with like Hawkeye UAV and FX Bikes…am a bit of a sucker for cool Kiwi entrepreneurs…to promote the blog, I have the url in my signature in places as diverse as Paper Modelers and Small Wars Journal, in my email signature block, and also most places where I might offer up some comment from time to time. I don’t actively promote the blog other than through those means and being aware of key words that the searchbots like…my biggest ‘hits’ days have been through searches for Masterchef, quadding my hit rate for over a week when Masterchef 2011 kicked off here…

How do you keep coming up with material/content for your blog? Many people struggle with coming up with different articles/posts and they only have one blog.

I subscribe to enough feeds from around the place to get more than enough stimuli to write…although we ding-dong occasionally, I find a get a lot of good cues off Mike Yon’s Facebook page; next after this would probably be items posted for discussion at the Small Wars Council…

What’s your strategy with your blog in general?

Ummm…you think I should have one…? Will give that some thought…it’s more a tool or a means than an end in its own right so I’ve never really thought about in that light…it’s not like I’m planning on using it to take over the world or anything…plus Dean (aka Dr Karma) already promised me a good job when he makes his bid for world domination…although, your Karma-ness, overlord of Australia…? I was expecting something a little more up-market, you know…longest serving minion (after Shiloh) at all that…in-humour, I’m sorry to any not signed up to Dean’s FB page and all of that will mean nothing and he probably meant for it to be a surprise…

What would you prioritize? Content? SEO? Traffic? Readers?

Content because it’s my soapbox and it’s all about me; then readers – one always likes to feel if not needed then at least not totally ignored; then the rest of that stuff…

What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his readers?

A. Entertainment. and/or b. something that might in some small way be useful to them…

A lot of people are interested in blogging for the money earning potential. What are some tips for people interesting in making money from blogging? What are some realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?

Don’t know…not really that interested…the big turn-off for me are those sites that are so dominated by ads, that it is difficult to determine what is content and what is mere marketing spam…

Do you think Pagerank plays a vital role in a blog’s life?

Honest answer…don’t really care; an even more honest answer would be I have no idea what you just said…

What has been your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and your blog?

Are you listening to me…really…? See what I said about re networking – that applies here as well – so does the strategy bit…please pay attention…I notice you’re not taking any notes – do you have a super-memory or am I just boring you…?

What was the most challenging moment in your blog content development process and why?

When I disagreed with a paper that Adam Elkus wrote and he came to my blog to discuss it…a real crisis of confidence: if that hadn’t gone well, I probably would have binned the blog and gone back into my hole. he was really good though and just wanted to put his POV…second would be when they added me to the blogroll at Snall Wars Council and that was like, wow, big leagues…I really need to up my game now…or just run away…so far game-upping seems to be working…

Everyone has a favorite/least favorite post. Name yours and why?

My favourite, because of the picture and not some much my content would be The Big Gun – Michael Yon’s up close and personal shot with the cannon on the A-10 is brilliant…least favourite? There are a few that I was less than satisfied with for one reason or another but no specific ‘un-favourites’…

What’s your take on sponsored reviews?

Paid advertising – I hate them…

Name some of the bloggers whom you look up to and why?

It’d be those in the blogroll – I’m not interested in a blogroll four miles long so I keep it pretty short and think long and hard before adding another one to the list…all of those bloggers are people who in one way or another inspire me…

If someone was interested in blogging, what would be a few things you would suggest?

Shop around the blog hosts before you commit – if you want a good soapbox, WordPress is tops; if you want to try to blogging for money, try elsewhere unless to want to self-host right from the start – NOT RECOMMENDED for noobs…

Start small and slow…don’t unload all your best ideas in the first week.

Stick with it and don’t given up because your daily hits seem stuck in single figures.

Write about the things that you are passionate about…eventually, if you write it, they will come…usually, so long as your passion is not so obscure that you’re the sole member of the groupie club…

A Bath?

Yep…like to finish with a photo too…this was in a house we looked at buying over Napier way a couple of years ago when we wanted to get a bit closer to civilisation. Decided that civilisation was over-rated so stayed where are near the Spiral…a good bath really makes a house though…

Facebook and Twitter strike a blow for democracy…

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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 – CommentsOverview 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…

Fill your hand, you sunnovabitch!!!

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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?

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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…

Ha–bloody – ha

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Hyena-laughing

It’s been a while since I visited my blogroll but I am making a serious attempt to get back into a proper work routine that balances my blogwork with Air Force projects, domestic ‘honey todos’, and my relationships with Hawkeye UAV and FX Bikes…I’m well into my summer programme which seeks to do as much work from home in order to optimise the longer summer days for honey todos: it’s just a case of getting the balance right…

So, having spent a day on base reviewing draft doctrine and keeping up with ASIC admin, I’m now feet up catching up with UK Masterchef and attempting some concurrent activity blog-surfing…

My first stop was Coming Anarchy…twas a bit of a worry when the first headline I saw was “Invade New Zealand!” but fortunately it’s actually a series of links to some great satirical Aussie piss-takings from a couple of years back – have a look and a laugh!

Speaking of having a laugh, and the reason for this post’s title, was a brief commentary on Julian Assange’s lawyers having a squawk because the same media that he used to publish the latest batch of wiki=leaks is now printing his linked Police record…oh dear…! WHat has Assange wrought the title asks…pretty much exactly what he has sown, I’d say…it seems that his urge for openness doesn’t apply to his own information…it amazes me how self-righteous Assange’s supporters become when their own privacy is challenged as it is now being at the rapid rate by various US government and law enforcement agencies…how dumb are some of these people when they blithely use US-based communications and networks, and then bleat when the US asserts ownership over information on those US-based networks, you know, things like Twitter, Facebook, Paypal, Google, etc, etc, etc…

Also on wikileaks, Chirol asks some long overdue questions about Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the Western world…

Even before Wikileaks, it was abundantly clear that Saudi Arabia is the largest financer of terrorism in the world. The US knows this, and Saudi knows we know. The continue to do to a half-assed job, doing enough to keep us happy but not enough to seriously attack the problem. My question, given that Saudi Arabia is not actually a major oil supplier to the United States (see Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Nigeria etc), what is keeping us from really putting the screws to them? Is it because maintaining an uneasy friendship and geting some cooperation is the lesser evil than making them an enemy? That is my reading of the situation. Would serious pressure even make them an enemy or could we still maintain decent relations? The more I think about it, the less I understand the special relationship we have today.

Not new news perhaps, when you get down to it, Osama Bin Laden was their dog and they’ve naff-all to shoot him or any of his rabid takfiri spawn…John Birmingham also makes a similar comment on spinelessness in the Gulf after wikileaks exposed “…Arab governments who’ve been caught out urging an attack on Iran…” He also comments on various leaked discussions regarding China’s true military capability and intentions with a link to a further Australian commentary on this topic…it’s worth a read but possibly only to see how confused Australian strategic thinking has been in the last decade: China has now taken over from the Indonesian bogey-man of the 70s and 80s, justifying Australia’s really quite amazing military expansion of its own…

Wiki…whatever….

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Julian Assange’s latest exploits from Wikileaks have caused about as much real news as Y2K on 1 January 2000…after all the hype and expectation-massaging, the latest torrent of leaked documents is about as inspiring and memorable as George Lucas’ attempt at a prequel trilogy to the Original Trilogy…I once heard somewhere that the body doesn’t remember pain: it’s not that great at remembering boredom either and hopefully once the ripples in the pond subside, Assange will be marginalised by the growing realisation that he has actually done anything…all the risk was taken by those who actually leaked the quarter of a million documents in question and anyone who believes that one disgruntled PFC who’s just been dumped by his boyfriend can steal such a range of classified documents is living in Lala-land (much, in fact, like those in my previous post…)…

Michael Yon puts it all in perspective on his Facebook Page by linking Assange to other nutjobs….

It is HIGHLY doubtful that the United States government would kill Assange. If Assange is killed, the hit more likely would come from a lone wolf or someone else’s government. The conspiracy theorists might then “prove” that it was a CIA hit ordered by the same people who killed Kennedy, and that we didn’t really land on the moon but we do have a secret moon base. And 9/11 was a Jewish plot…

Never really thought about that before either…that the same people who deny the moon landings are the same ones who think the US/UN World Government has a secret Moonbase…but then again, when I was 10 I was a big fan of Gerry Anderson’s UFO and thought that building a secret Moonbase (complete with chicks with purple hair – the penny relating to the benefits of the short skirts hadn’t really dropped when I was that old) was a. pretty cool and b. pretty simple…

Dean covers it all pretty well in Wikileaks and ‘cablegate’ and I share his desperate plea to stop adding ‘gate’ to everything that has the slightest potential whiff of scandal attached to it…much the same as could we please stop referring to every campaign or initiative as a ‘war’ unless we really mean to fix bayonets, send in the Marines and let Air Combat Command off the leash…

And on ‘wars’, let’s not forget that, rhetoric aside, we’re not really at war at the moment…in at least one…yes, certainly…but ‘at’ war…no, not really: we’re not harnessing all the instruments of national power to quell the adversary and most definitely, we are not acting against those who seek to undermine the ‘war’ effort through accident or deliberate action. And that, boys, girls and family pets, is why people like Assange get away with what they do: because they are not breaking any laws…that their motives and actions are reprehensible is beyond question but even if it can be proved in the World Court (where else would have jurisdiction?) that the wikileaks were directly responsible for deaths in Afghanistan or elsewhere, it is not an offense to publish leaked material – not unless perhaps there is some form of court-ordered suppression order in effect. Even then, with the internet being what it is, it is unlikely that this would be that enforceable or provable…

But that notwithstanding, the lunatic fringe is out there demanding that Assange be arrested, assassinated or otherwise jabbed in the calf by a ricin-loaded umbrella. There’s a good thread at Small Wars Journal that hammers out the why-nots of this issue. In fact, Small Wars seems to be all over this one…WikiLeaks, Round Three provides a comprehensive list of links to various comments and reports on Assange’s latest non-event: note the DoD caveat at the top of the list, two or more wrongs DO NOT make a right:

Department of Defense personnel should not access the WikiLeaks website to view or download publicized classified information nor should they download it from anywhere, regardless of the source. Doing so will introduce potentially classified information on unclassified networks. Executive Order 13526 states ‘Classified Information shall not be declassified automatically as a result of any unauthorized disclosure of identical or similar information.

Digital security problem is bigger than Assange and PFC Manning discusses the likelihood of kneejerk reactions to PFC Manning’s indiscretions (so just how does one PFC access let alone copy 250,000 classified military and diplomatic documents between making coffee, sweeping the floor and being unappreciated?) leading to balkanisation of military and government information systems ( and Dean raises this as well)…might as well since most of them can’t talk to each other anyway, but doing so effectively cedes the public information domain to the other guys – which is probably not the sharpest move we’d want to be making…

And finally a word from our sponsor for the current ‘war’, Secretary Gates, once again courtesy of Michael Yon :

I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on.  I think — I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets.  Many governments — some governments deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us.  We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation.

So other nations will continue to deal with us.  They will continue to work with us.  We will continue to share sensitive information with one another.

Is this embarrassing?  Yes.  Is it awkward?  Yes.  Consequences for U.S. foreign policy?  I think fairly modest.

The sooner we forget about Assange and let him be consumed by his own insignificance, the better…the real problem raised by the unauthorised release of close to half a million classified documents is what are we going to do a. about those who are releasing them in the first place (there can’t be THAT many briefcases and thumb drives left on the train each night)? and b. how do we train and educate their replacements that doing these is the wrong thing to do…?

Aaaah….yep

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A picture's worth a 1000 words

A picture's worth a 1000 words

There is a great commentary at Small War Journal regarding the manner in which GEN McCrystal was brought down…

Meanwhile, back in LooneyToonville, Michael Yawn continues his sterling work for the Taliban and continues his campaign against RADM Greg Smith, the head PAO for ISAF…

Who needs enemies with friends like Yawn?

RADM Smith’s real crime, of course, was that he supported Yawn’s disembedment after he began his smear campaign against senior ISAF staff…

Contemporary Warfare

I’ve spent the last day or so typing out all my notes from the Contemporary Warfare sessions – who might have thought that some much great material could come from only two days?

Winning the information battle

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…or, at least, not losing it by default…

Now that I’m working again, the calls on my time have multiplied geometrically and this little corner of cyberspace has been somewhat quieter than during my seven month exile at the Raurimu Centre for Contemporary Studies aka  home. I have a two hour drive to and from base each week and, during those periods on the road, have introspected on the unfortunate sequence of events that led to the demise of GEN Stanley McCrystal and his departure from the COMISAF appointment.

(c) Rolling Stone 2010

My first thought is that Michael Yawn had no more to do with what happened to GEN McCrystal that he did with the removal from ISAF of Canada’s most senior in-theatre officer..whether Michael Yawn had yapped on or not, the fate of both these officers would have been the same i.e. contrary to popular misinformation, Michael Yon did nothing to influence these events, other than perhaps besmirching them in his own personal smear campaign which says more about him that it doers either Daniel Menard or Stanley McCrystal. In 2005, I was fortunate to spend some time with the now Chief of the Canadian Defence Force, General Walter Natynczyk, and nothing about that officer struck me as the sort of guy who would or could casually overlook a negligent discharge by a senior Canadian officer and even less so, when it occurred in his presence.

I feel sad for GEN McCrystal, brought down by an angry Icelandic volcano (which is how they all came to be in a  bus together with an embedded reporter from Rolling Stone) magazine and a fickle and irresponsible reporter who, in my ever so humble opinion, abused the position that he was placed in by Eyjafjallajokull, reporting out of context the frustrations of  staff facing the unenviable task of winning a conflict that is unlikely to be winnable. I agree fully with Mike Innes’ comments @ Current Intelligence…

I spent the better part of yesterday trying to wrap my head around Michael Hastings’ profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his team of advisors. My initial thoughts on the subject at CNN hint at but don’t fully get to what I wanted to say on the matter… which places me in good company, since the chatter on this issue has been blazing across the wire/blog/twitter sphere since the piece was “leaked” on Monday.

My main point was about social distance – which is actually an issue that binds together pretty much everyone who reads, researches, writes, or does anything at all in relation to Afghanistan (or anywhere, really). It’s what soldiers have to contend with, sitting behind the fortified walls of armed camps, all the while trying to gain a more intimate understanding of local culture. It’s what people sent to a strange place have to contend with, absent the time and access needed for familiarization, much less to develop any profound “knowledge” of their environment. And it’s what war correspondents and other journalists have to contend with when reporting from zones so catastrophically different from their otherwise peaceful, functioning worlds.

Powers of observation, an eye for detail, and a nimble pen can go a long way toward telling a good, accurate, and full story, and toward overcoming some of that distance (or at least recognizing it for what it is). Sometimes, maybe, the gap is just too profound, too wide and too deep, to accurately convey a larger meaning – not factoids and datapoints, but meaning.

Anyway, don’t take my word for it. I think of all the bits and pieces I read yesterday and this morning – and there was a lot of good analysis out there – is this Danger Room piece and Peter Feaver’s clear and focusedbreakdown at Foreign Policy of Hastings’ story elements.

What’s really disappointing, too, is that Hastings and Rolling Stone might have missed out on a real opportunity to craft some truly fine and literary journalism. In an interview on National Public Radio yesterday, Hastings gave some background that would have added a great deal of context and nuance to the story, had they been included. The Paris interlude, for example – which is really where all the juiciest bits of the story come from – came about because of the Icelandic volcano eruption, which disrupted air travel worldwide, and stranded ISAF’s Command Group, like thousands of other travelers. To my mind, that would have been both a unique element of narrative color and detail, and an obvious and immediate source of frustration for men running a war, but trapped outside of it and unable to return to it.

I hear now that the Pentagon is staking steps to require all interviews with senior commanders to be pre-approved from the five-sided building…is this what we are coming to in our fear of the fourth estate…we can entrust senior staff with the live of the nation’s young men and women, empower them to sortie into harm’s way, place the instruments of global destruction in their hands but won’t trust them to say the right thing to a reporter without a thumbs-up from a carpeted office thousands of miles and possibly eons of reality away…Rolling Stone‘s The Runaway General and Michael Yawn’s lipping off about things he know nothing about e.g. senior command, strategy, responsibility, etc are excellent examples of the damage than can be done by irresponsible reporters and editorial staffs, just like 911, the Bali bombings, Lockerbie etc are similar example of the damage than can be done by terrorist organisations BUT we didn’t run away and hide then…we went out and learned a new way of warfare…and that’s what we need to do now in the information war…

The first battle must be internal to shed our fear of the censure and embarrassment  that may come from perceptions of dirty washing being aired in public…this thinking is tantamount to grandma concealing her bloomers  in a pillow case when she hangs out the washing…surely we’re past this stage and realise that we do more damage to ourselves and our causes by playing a manic game of Whac-A-Mole trying to suppress any and all reports that may not be the purest distillation of happy happy joy joy juice…nowhere have I seen it summed up so well as this commenter on Michael Yon’s Facebook page (of course, I can’t find the exact quote anymore) to the effect that the USMC mindset is that “...if we don’t want it exposed out in the open, then we probably shouldn’t be doing it…” And that attitude is the place we need to strive towards, to stopping fearing the media and hiding from them, of being able to stand up say “…we screwed up…AND…here’s what we’re (really) doing about it...” or, sometimes, simply “…this is a risky business and sometime crap simple happens…”

If we can’t get our heads around this now, this key battle we are consistently losing int he minds of our people and those of our adversaries, what are we going to do one day when anyone can publish what they think, their own views, opinions and images…what are we going to do then…? Uh-oh….youtube…facebook, bebo…that intreenet thingamebobby… time to climb into the information fight, people….

Michael Yawn predicts…

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(c) CJ O'Neill 9/2009

…that the sun will come up in the morning…where would we be without him…?

Yon is crowing on his Facebook page that…

This fight was expensive for me in many ways, but I got him.

Getting this man fired was worth the fight and the costs.

This will save American, Canadian, and Afghan lives.

…in regard to the news a couple of hours ago that BGEN Daniel Menard…

…has been relieved of duty and ordered home immediately, accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a female soldier…the news came only days after Menard faced a court martial in Canada, where he pled guilty to accidentally firing his weapon at the Kandahar airbase in March. The incident occurred as Menard walked with Canada’s chief of the defence staff, General Walter Natynczyk, on his way to a helicopter.

Unusually, the Canadian National Defence spokesperson omitted to credit Yon with BGEN Menard’s removal and this may be an indication that the Canadians think that they can police themselves without Yon’s guidance or assistance. Unfortunately for BGEN Menard, he was not found (nor even charged with incompetence in an operational theatre) so it is likely that Yon will continue his vindictive vendatta. Yon has yet to substantiate his allegations of incompetence against any of the senior commanders he accused following the bombing at the Tarnak bridge just outside Kandahar airfield but continues to play (one assumes that it is an act) dumb regarding the reasons for his disembedment from US forces in Afghanistan…those silly old generals, they should like being publicly accused of incompetence and conspiracy…after all, Michael Yon thrives on such comments – oh, no, that’s only when he is dishing them out…

Personally I think Menard should have been like most of his troops and kept it in his trousers but that’s no call for the likes of Yon to conduct a personal vendetta against him or anyone else – you notice that Menard’s partner in crime is being targeted by Yon? Maybe this is just (yet) another instance of the 19 year old private masquerading as a 45 year old adult playing petty score settling games – possibly due to some perceived wrong during his four whole years in the US Army in the mid-80s…

And now, having de-Yon-ed myself it’s back to real work…I’m just about done on my review of Benoit Mandelbrot’s The (mis)Behaviour of Markets and should be posting it early next week…