Hunting Bin Laden & Carlos the Jackal
Attached are some slides Billy Waugh provided roughly covering his ops in Sudan against UBL and Carlos the Jackal in the 90’s. He uses these slides in teaching SF troops the fundamentals of close target reconnaissance and man tracking. I recommend Billy’s book “Hunting the Jackal” for a more detailed run down on these ops. I’ve included this post today as the intelligence community has seemingly gotten out of the business of HUMINT collection. Event the CIA seems to be shifting to greater paramilitary operations and drone operations than doing collection. Billy did these ops while with the Agency. For Carlos, he did PID and close target recce until the French Forces were able to do the rendition. Billy Waugh is an American hero and I’m proud to call him a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Intelligence, Special Forces, Terrorism, UW
The Future of Special Operations Beyond Kill and Capture Linda Robinson
I’ve selected Linda Robinson’s article from Foreign Affairs (behind a pay wall so included in entirety below) as it gets to a belief I’ve had since 9/11 in that SOCOM must prioritize Special Warfare to the extent they do Surgical Strike. Funding, authorities, and organization must become a priority for the command if they are to continue the momentum of countering threats in a period of fiscal austerity and in regions where we are less likely to conduct direct actions in other nation’s sovereign territory. This will not be easy as it is difficult to ascertain the immediate results of Special Warfare that our populace and government demand, but we can look to Colombia and the Philippines as successful examples of Special Warfare. The relative low cost of Special Warfare … Read entire article »
Filed under: COIN, Defense Policy, FID, Special Forces, UW
10 Books That Are Better Than The Art of War
I’ve chosen this article for a number of reasons. First, I like the recommended reading list. I think it augments the one mentioned that West Point put out, not beats it as suggested in some articles. I like that it focused on Irregular Warfare topics as that is very topical today and also shows that the US has a long association with this type of fighting. While the classics should be studied, I see nothing wrong with branching out for other viewpoints. Again, I think Arguilla’s list is a nice compliment to the classical one put out by West Point. I also like that this list for its brevity. Too often, the Services, educational institutions, and/or various GOs put out lists that would take a lifetime to read. In today’s world … Read entire article »
Filed under: COIN, Defense Policy, FID, Military Education, UW
Overcoming Self-Inflicted Complexities: A Return to Problem Solving and Unconventional Means
Somehow, somewhere, at some time we over-complicated intelligence and operations framing for the General Purpose and Special Operations warfighter. We entered a time when we decided to call an issue a “wicked problem set” or a “complex adaptive systems situation”, which are concepts and names that are confusing to understand in and of themselves. We continue to use other big descriptive terms that seem to be framed more as an excuse by academics and advisors as to why we can’t figure things out than a way to move forward to understand our adversaries and their way of thinking to ensure our end state objectives can be met through effective engagement and influence options directed at the enemy and germane population. Further, our irregular threat mitigation involvement is being increasingly hindered by … Read entire article »
Filed under: Intelligence, UW
Casebook on Revolutionary Warfare and Insurgency Volume II: 1962-2009
Received the below from COL (ret) Dave Maxwell. I was able to paste the link into web browser and successfully downloaded the electronic version of “Casebook on Revolutionary Warfare and Insurgency Volume II: 1962-2009″. This is a must for every student of Unconventional Warfare and Irregular Warfare. This is for anyone who is interested in studying as well as operating in the Human Domain (and with an interest in Unconventional Warfare, Irregular Warfare, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency). At this link (to my public dropbox) you can download the casebook (888 pages and about 15-19 MB depending on how it downloads for you) that has been produced in partnership between the US Army Special Operations Command and The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab National Security Analysis Department. This has been a 4 year project … Read entire article »
Filed under: COIN, Defense Policy, FID, Special Forces, UW
Duffy Sends 18 April 2012 – IMPORTANT!!! Read Before Invasion…
I chose Roger Carstens article on considerations before intervening in Syria mainly as it lays out a checklist on requirements prior to any decision to enter the fray. While not necessarily a fan of check lists as each conflict is different, at least Roger lays out a model to consider where I’m not aware of one existing. Dr Rebecca Johnson does lay out nicely the tenets for justifiable war in her draft remarks here http://endeavortopersevere.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/some-thoughts/, but in our ADD world I think Roger’s bumper sticker approach will at least remind folks that there should be at least some sort of guideline before engagement. Every pundit should have these simple rules tacked up on their cubicle, in particularly the UN to temper R2P (responsibility to protect) desire that would have intervention ongoing in … Read entire article »
Filed under: COIN, Defense Policy, FID, Special Forces, UW
Duffy Sends 14 March 2012 – 100 Ways to Say the Same Thing…
I chose this article from King’s College’s “Kings of War” web site as it describes a huge pet peeve of mine, the neverending creation of terms to describe Irregular Warfare (which is in itself a new term since ’06). This article barely scratches the surface on the plethora of terms used to describe everything related to conflict beyond what DoD and the greater Defense Industrial Complex thinks of as conventional war. Which is ironic since our history shows that the preponderance of our military engagements is anything but “conventional”. While DoD and TRADOC have a long history of coming up with new terms (read OER Support forms are due so need to contribute something), thanks to the explosion of blog sites and think tanks an entire industry has been created from … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, COIN, Defense Policy, Special Forces, UW
Duffy Sends – Trouble in Tripoli
I chose this article as it highlights the most important, but often neglected phase of Unconventional Warfare: Transition. If done incorrectly, gains made in changing a government or ousting an occupying power will be for naught if the next “government” fails to successfully establish its credibility with the people by maintaining security and improving quality of life. This phase needs to be planned during Phase 1 Preparation and continually readdressed through all aspects of the campaign. I would hope that the USG took advantage of our own poor planning for the transition in Iraq and advised the Government in Exile on how to go about establishing itself once Kaddafi was eliminated. That would be better support in the long run than any amount of munitions dropped by NATO. Time will … Read entire article »
Good Initiative…Bad Judgement
“Good Initiative…bad Judgement” This phrase could probably be tattooed on eager privates, second lieutenants and just about all of us on our first graded patrol in Darby phase. It was a semi polite way of saying good job on doing something, but it didn’t work. In the counter insurgency fight, and really with every activity, we have always asked our selves a few questions…what did we plan to do, what did we actually do, did it work? Lately we have broken down these questions into the concepts of “Measures of Performance” and “Measures of Effectiveness”. I like this concept. As discussed in previous posts, COIN has universal principles with local applications which means you aren’t always going to get it right, and a little trial and error is the nature of the game. The secret is to minimize the error part, and that can only come from … Read entire article »
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