Bleh. A lot on my plate, at the moment. I have literally been reading a book a day (despite the out of date information on the home page). Here are some of the items that I broke up the hours with…
Al-Sahwa has an interesting three-part series on al-Qaeda as a conglomerate, rather than as a franchise. See Al Qaeda: Franchise or Conglomerate?, A Follow-up to "Al Qaeda: Franchise or Conglomerate?" Comments, and Targeting a Conglomerate Modeled AQ. (h/t to Ink Spots). FWIW, I offered some initial thoughts and then something slightly more coherent.
Bernard Finel has put more focus than most people on the issue of civil-military relations. While I disagree with most of his assertions and I think that he analyzes the issues through an overly partisan lens (not saying that he is partisan, but just that he analyzes things in terms of Democrat/Republican), I nonetheless think his thoughts are worth pondering. See his latest post on the topic.
I recently got an e-mail asking my thoughts on STX lanes and training ROTC cadets. This, in my opinion, is it’s own challenge, separate from training enlisted Soldiers and separate from training units. Some brief thoughts on this below (I e-mailed him back with a lengthier response, which I may soon revise into a blog post)…
- training a group of cadets (peers who take turns filling very different specialized roles) has a different organizational dynamic than training a unit (tiers of superiors and subordinates, often with specialized jobs that they always focus on); it’s similar to the dynamic at OBC or Ranger School
- an ROTC battalion is not a deployable unit and the training focus is not on training it as a unit; rather it is focused on developing individuals.
- given the focus on training individuals, rather than units, the manner in which STX lanes are executed may not be relevant. STX lanes are for small units, not individuals.
- I learned more from discussing concepts with my NCOs (the top performers, anyway), peers, reflecting upon experiences, and doing my own reading of doctrine, CALL products, and related stuff; NTC? Not so much.
Uskowi on Iran has good information about the recent assassination of Dr. Masoud Alimohammadi. See
Assassination of Dr. Masoud Alimohammadi and
Group Denies Involvement in Alimohammadi's Assassination. The Mullahs, once again, are not too keen on dissent.
An anthropologist is teaching, in my opinion, exactly what our leaders need to be taught. See here. (h/t to Marc Tyrrell).
For those who like to argue, “you’ve never been to [insert country]” or “you’ve never been in [insert situation]” see a good observation about that non-thinking reaction at Kings of War.
Comments are welcome, particularly on the ROTC training bullet points.