Attackerman

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 353-11

April 27, 2011

DOD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Joe M. Jackson, 22, of White Swan, Wash., died April 24 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

For additional background information on this Marine, news media representatives may contact the 1st Marine Division public affairs office at 760-725-8766.

How He Looks to The Thugs of The World

A noteworthy quote in this piece from the Gregs:

“I call him Mr. Petraeus because he’s less of a general and more of a politician,” the official said, alluding to rumors that Petraeus might run for president. The Pakistani official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the interview dealt with sensitive intelligence matters between Pakistan and the United States.

This is also why it made sense to send Petraeus to CENTCOM. You deal with the leaderships of authoritarian states. Natural mirror-imaging makes them more likely to respect and listen to men with stars on their shoulders than to civilian diplomats. (It's part of what makes rebalancing civilian and military components of national security so difficult.) That's all the more true of nefarious leaders of intelligence services, the men with blood on their hands that the CIA is entrusted to deal with. They see a man like Petraeus in the CIA job and conclude: ah, so that's where the center of American power now resides.

A Dastardly Theory About Gen. Petraeus' CIA Directorship

Spent my day reporting on something for Danger Room that I know you're going to like. Before I did -- well, while -- I wrote this catch-all reaction to the Panetta/Petraeus moves. But let's get a little cynical.

Let's say you're President Obama, or maybe National Security Adviser Tom Donilon. You're wary of David Petraeus as an independent political actor. Dude hasn't undermined the White House in public, and in fact has taken great pains not to, even as his security prerogatives win out in subtler battles. But you never know.

Your top defense officials are about to leave. Having already commanded two wars and held a combatant command, there ain't many places to put Petraeus. You'd vastly prefer him inside the tent pissing out, especially with a reelection campaign coming up. What you'd optimally prefer is total Petraeus Bladder Control.

If only there was a cabinet-level job where the principal is rarely seen and rarely heard. If only there was a cabinet-level job that would require him not to be as open to his sizable constituency in the press. If only there was a cabinet-level job that would preoccupy him with a challenge far from his comfort zone, knowing that he's the kind of guy who cannot help but throw himself into challenges far from his comfort zone. If only there was a cabinet-level job that would send him into the world of negotiating with foreign intel services, letting him scratch his strategy-making itch far from Washington and totally in the shadows.

Just saying. But even so, there's that famous quote from the latest Woodward book where Petraeus slugs some wine and opines that, as Jadakiss put it so well, he's still not to be fucked with.

(Did someone make this point several hours ago? While I was working on my day job? Ah well, no regrets.)

No, It Really Did Fail

Now this is how you overthink Afghanistan. Robert Haddick summarizes at SWJ:

But was the Soviet strategy, which Goodson and Johnson blame the U.S. for following, really a failure? In “Follow the Bear,” an essay published in February 2010 by Proceedings, four field-grade U.S. officers (three of whom served in Afghanistan) claim that the Soviets improved their tactics around 1986 and by the end were implementing many practices now found in FM 3-24. The authors assert that the Soviet end-game exceeded expectations, that the Soviets departed Afghanistan on their own terms, and that they left behind a friendly government that had the potential to last – and did in fact outlast the Soviet Union itself (I have cited “Follow the Bear” elsewhere). They conclude that “following the Bear” is a good idea.

Not a single one of the Soviets' objectives in Afghanistan succeeded. (That's how you know if the effort failed!) There was no durable satellite regime installed in Kabul at acceptable cost, which is to say without a bloody, expensive and troop-intensive occupation. I haven't read the piece, but if Haddick's summary is accurate, what these field-grades are really demonstrating is that the Soviets  mitigated the consequences of their Afghan blunder. That's not nothing! But it's also not success.

Sovietologists can correct me, but I don't think it's controversial to assert that the grinding war in Afghanistan contributed to the economic overstretch and popular disillusionment that tore apart the Soviet Union. To look at it from our perspective, if Hamid Karzai gets ousted and his government collapses four years after a U.S. withdrawal and the U.S. has ceased to exist, then yeah, we'd properly look up from the piles of burning tires around us as we scavenge for food along lawless highways leading to ever-more-apocalyptic landscapes and think, "Hmm, that wasn't such a success."

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 350-11

April 26, 2011

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Capt. Joshua M. McClimans, 30, of Akron, Ohio, died April 22 at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Khost province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 848th Forward Surgical Team, U.S. Army Reserve, Twinsburg, Ohio.

For more information, please contact the 807th Medical Command (Deployment Support) public affairs office, Fort Douglas, Utah, at 801-656-3667.

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 349-11

April 26, 2011

DOD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. David P. Day, 26, of Gaylord, Mich., died April 24 while conducting combat operations in Badghis province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Special Operations Regiment, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

For additional background information on this Marine, news media representatives may contact the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command public affairs office at 910-440-0770.

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 348-11

April 26, 2011

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Bradley S. Hughes, 41, of Newark, Ohio, died April 24 of a non-combat incident, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 528th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C.

For more information, media may contact the U.S. Army Special Operations Command public affairs office at 910-432-6005.

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 345-11

April 25, 2011

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin F. Bitner, 37, of Greencastle, Pa., died April 23 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.

For more information, media may contact U.S. Army Special Operations Command public affairs office at 910-432-6005.

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 344-11

April 25, 2011

DOD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

The following Marines died April 23 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan:

Sgt. Sean T. Callahan, 23, of Warrenton, Va.

Lance Cpl. Dominic J. Ciaramitaro, 19, of South Lyon, Mich.

Callahan and Ciaramitaro were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

For additional background information on these Marines, news media representatives may contact the 2nd Marine Division public affairs office at 910-378-6193 or http://www.marines.mil/unit/2ndmardiv/Pages/Media/default.aspx .

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 342-11

April 25, 2011

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Chief Warrant Officer, Terry L. Varnadore II, 29, of Hendersonville, N.C. died April 23 in Kapisa province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his helicopter went down due to an undetermined cause. This accident is under investigation. He was assigned to the 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

For more information the media may contact the Fort Drum public affairs office at 315-772-8286.