The Tip of a Shadowy Spear

July 6th, 2011 by zen

America is headed into the Light Footprint Era, ready or not.

Page 3 of 3 | Previous page

Posted in 21st century, Afghanistan, America, analytic, army, COIN, Collaboration, counterinsurgency, defense, foreign policy, government, IC, ideas, insurgency, intelligence, leadership, military, military intelligence, military reform, national security, organizations, politics, security, strategy, Strategy and War, Tactics, terrorism, theory, war, warriors | 14 comments

Previous post:
Next post:

  1. sro:

    July 6th, 2011 at 7:24 am

    Thirty years ago you could walk into any bar and there would be a Delta or Seal operator there.  Today there are five or six.   Difference is, the former would be lying and the latter would be telling the truth.  There will be nothing ‘special’ about these folks in a few years, and there won’t be budget to support their toys.

    Too bad the generals and the deep thinkers are in charge, the ‘anti-war’ and ‘anti-American factions of the Left’ crowd would probably leave the force less molested and be far less successful at destabilizing the ME.

  2. Ski:

    July 6th, 2011 at 8:02 am

    "I fully expect the bureaucratic gravitational pull and sheer utility in fighting the murky, mutable, Islamist enemy to eventually draw in cyber elements of various agencies, elite law enforcement, DOJ, DARPA, Treasury and State Department personnel in to the mix, albeit sparingly."

    It’s been happening for years.

  3. J.ScottShipman:

    July 6th, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    I’m reading The Profession by Pressfield, and was struck by the warrior ethos of the mercenaries. While this is a fictional account some twenty years hence, I believe part of the political solution going forward will be the use of private contractors (mercs) to do the stuff politicians don’t have the stomach for. This may already be occurring, but our bureaucrats are constrained by political correctness and maneuverings (CIA interrogators under a legal cloud to use one example). Our trouble with radical Islam won’t suddenly evaporate even if we manage to wipe-out the Taliban. Our "Light Footprint Era" will be heavy on information on reliance private security…

  4. MikeF:

    July 6th, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    We need a better conversation about mass.  It means different things to different people usually determined by culture.  For Big Army to include Special Operations Forces (Rangers, Delta, etc are hyper-infantry units), mass is the sum of US ground forces in the country because the mentality is to do it yourself.  OTOH, for Special Forces (Green Beret types), mass is the sum of local security forces.  There’s a big difference.

  5. Mercutio:

    July 6th, 2011 at 2:58 pm

    This is an example of what Buckminster Fuller called "ephemeralizaton."

    Of course, if we had been listening to Fuller over the past generation, we wouldn’t need these overseas adventures in the first place.

  6. Chuckleberry:

    July 6th, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    "I believe part of the political solution going forward will be the use of private contractors (mercs) to do the stuff politicians don’t have the stomach for. This may already be occurring, but our bureaucrats are constrained by political correctness and maneuverings (CIA interrogators under a legal cloud to use one example). Our trouble with radical Islam won’t suddenly evaporate even if we manage to wipe-out the Taliban."

    And it WILL evaporate if we start using mercenaries to do "stuff politicians don’t have the stomach for"?  The 9/11 Commission Report revealed that good intelligence work would have been enough to prevent the attacks.  We’ve come a long way since then.  I think good counter-terrorism efforts mixed with limited special forces operations will work just fine.  Not only will it will be exceedingly cheaper, but it will also help us slowly but surely regain our standing as a moral force in the world.  In my opinion, that’s the most effective way to deal with Islamic extremism.  The more we stay out of their culture and affairs, the better.     

  7. zen:

    July 6th, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    " Not only will it will be exceedingly cheaper, but it will also help us slowly but surely regain our standing as a moral force in the world. "
    .
    Entirely driven by the former. The latter is a possible, hopeful, outcome.

  8. zen:

    July 6th, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    "We need a better conversation about mass.  It means different things to different people usually determined by culture"
    .
    Hi Mike – I was being pithy there, but I meant a fraction of the whole, our whole and not locals/allies, so I was closer to the Big Army viewpoint on what mass is. Agree that it can be used differently in different contexts though.

  9. Ken Hoop:

    July 6th, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    " Secondly, normal use of this kind of force requires a political climate that keeps the antiwar and anti-American factions of the Left marginalized because many operations in the blurry realm between war, terrorism, crime and covert ops will legally require presidential findings to be reported to Congressional oversight committees."

    Actually, Mark, pretend "right-wing ""small government" imperialist-interventionists like you, clever as you might be in reading actual Right-small government patriots (eg Buchanan, Paul) out of your fantasy neocon/neolib  fellow-travelling right, have done more destruction than the "antiwar Left" to the Nation with your economically draining, demoralizing sanction of overreach the past few decades.

    I suggest reading the archives of American Conservative re foreign policy since circa 1992 for an attitude adjustment. Or merely enjoy without perspective the deserved collapse toward, by your definition, a really gay "footprint."

  10. Ken Hoop:

    July 6th, 2011 at 6:07 pm

    http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2011/07/05/americans-from-across-the-political-spectrum-call-for-end-to-u-s-militarism/

    RIGHT-LEFT AXIS AGAINST THE EMPIRE.

    America the Nation First. America the Empire, the m-i complex of war profiteers and America  the agent of Israel and the attempted terroristic imperialist implantation on Islam and the world of runaway Finance Capital’s Corruption, losses thereof always socialized, paid off forcibly by the working-middle, from Greece to Minnesota….LAST AND NEVER.

  11. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » A Culture of Punitive Raiding:

    July 9th, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    […] Haddick agrees with me, albeit with greater eloquence and length ( hat tip to Colonel […]

  12. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Unhappy Medium: The Perils of Annoyance as Your Strategic Default:

    July 10th, 2011 at 2:14 am

    […] last week saw something more important: substantive and troubling hints of the reemergence of a real threat, a specter that has haunted American defense thinking since 1844: unapologetic magic […]

  13. Unhappy Medium: The Perils of Annoyance as Your Strategic Default « The Committee of Public Safety:

    July 10th, 2011 at 2:23 am

    […] last week saw something more important: substantive and troubling hints of the reemergence of a real threat, a specter that has haunted American defense thinking since 1844: unapologetic magic […]

  14. Unhappy Medium: The Perils of Annoyance as Your Strategic Default | Fear, Honor, and Interest:

    July 10th, 2011 at 2:25 am

    […] last week saw something more important: substantive and troubling hints of the reemergence of a real threat, a specter that has haunted American defense thinking since 1844: unapologetic magic […]