More Troops Into The Fight

More Troops Than Expected May Be Sent To Afghanistan
By Associated Press

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that more U.S. troops than originally planned could go to Afghanistan by the end of! the year.

Gates told troops at Fort Drum in New York that there will be "maybe some increase -- but not a lot" in troop levels beyond the 68,000 servicemembers the Obama administration approved. That includes 21,000 that Obama ordered added this spring.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took over as commander for all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last month, is to advise Washington in the next few weeks on his views of how to win the eight-year war.

McChrystal is nearing the end of a 60-day review of troop requirements in Afghanistan and will soon provide that report to Gates.

Also Thursday, Taliban commanders threatened to kill a captured American soldier unless the U.S. military stops operations in two districts of southeastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed last week to be holding the American soldier, whom the U.S. military earlier described as possibly being in enemy hands.

Abdullah Jalali, a spokesman for Taliban commander Mawla! vi Sangin, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the soldier was healthy. U.S. spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias declined to comment on the Taliban's demands.

Jalali said Taliban leader Mohammed Omar will decide the soldier's fate. The U.S. military has said the soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit June 30 and was probably captured. The Taliban claimed on its website July 6 that it was holding the soldier. The military has not identified the soldier but says his family has been notified that he is missing.

Gen Cartwright on Success in Afghanistan

Afghans’ Attitude Will Be Measure of Success, Vice Chairman Gen Cartwright Says

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 – A key measurement of success in Afghanistan will be the attitude of Afghans affected by U.S.-led operations, the military’s second-ranking military officer said today.

Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the counterinsurgency mission in Afghanistan elevates the civilian population as a main determinant of success or failure, much as it did in Iraq.

“I believe personally that one of our key metrics for success will be over the next few months to see whether or not there is a shift in the attitude of the local residents,” Cartwright said. The committee is considering the general’s reappointment.

Cartwright fleshed out the “clear, hold, build” strategy under way in Afghanistan. The latter elements of the strategy emphasize the role civilians play in establishing stability.

Articulating how local attitudes could be gauged, Cartwright said a favorable view of U.S. and multinational forces could come in the form Afghans providing intelligence or other resources.

“If they start supporting us with intelligence, with the giving of their own sons and daughters in the fight, and that they see there is more value in being able to produce crops rather than warriors, and that they can be sustained in that type of a lifestyle, then we will have an opportunity to turn the corner,” he said.

The general advised that the Marines engaged in a joint operation with Afghan forces in the Helmand River valley pay attention to the sentiment in villages and towns they operate in. Now in its eighth day, some 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan security forces are engaged in Operation Khanjar, which translates to “Strike of the Sword“ the biggest military offensive since President Barack Obama announced a new Afghanistan strategy in March.

“I think those are key metrics that we have to watch as the Marines move into Helmand, and followed by the [Army’s] Strykers as they move in on their flank,” Cartwright said.

At a briefing with Pentagon reporters yesterday, the commander overseeing the operation described how the interaction between U.S. Marines and local Afghans are playing out.

Anticipating that local residents would be curious about the Marines’ intentions, Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, established a requirement: Company commanders must hold a “shura,” or meeting, with local elders within one day of arriving.

“The focus of this operation from the very beginning has been on the people, not the enemy,” Nicholson said. “And I know that may sound very strange, and I got some raised eyebrows, even with talking to Marines. On the way, we'll take care of the Taliban. But get to the people.”

The “clear” phase of the three-stage approach refers to the type of mission the Marines undertook when Operation Khanjar launched, with the brigade fanning out across the southern Afghanistan region during the early morning hours of July 2. The strategy was two-fold: overwhelm opposing forces while saving civilian lives.

Current operations in Helmand are fundamentally different from previous missions, in that Marines are remaining behind to protect those villages as the remainder of forces moves through, Cartwright said. He added that forces have been successful in avoiding civilian casualties in the ongoing “clear” phase.

“Our approach here is to win their hearts and minds,” Cartwright said. “And we can't do that by having unnecessary civilian casualties.”

From Anbar to the NFL

Bu Mike Klis
Denver Post
May 4

There are many Broncos players who, after their freshman season of college ball, began to realize the NFL was not just possible, but probable.

Others may have been focusing on earning a promotion from backup to starter. Some may have been dealing with other issues, such as grades and girls.

Rulon Davis went off to fight in the Iraq war.

Fight for his country, a far cry from the sports world, where Davis is currently competing, as an undrafted 25-year-old free-agent defensive end, for a spot on the Broncos' roster.

* Adapt and overcome. *

It's an inspirational edict U.S. Marines frequently say to each other. Yes, Davis witnessed death. Soldiers he considered friends were killed.

"Unfortunately, yes," he said. "They're the real heroes. Not me. People think, 'Wow, you did all this.' But I don't think it's that big of a deal because I didn't have to sacrifice my life, like some of these other guys. Really, the honor is on them."

Heroes come in many forms. Broncos defensive backs Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins are often considered heroes.

Davis has been considered a football hero, too, having started the past two years at the University of California. That was part of his new life, after his four-year commitment to the Marines and six-month tour in Iraq in 2004.

"That's serious. Marines are tough people, man," said Broncos rookie tight end Richard Quinn Jr. "My dad was one."

And Davis' football stardom at Cal would come after his motorcycle flipped on a Los Angeles freeway interchange and left him crawling, too late, in an attempted escape from under a rolling semi.

* Pain is weakness leaving the body. *
Davis, 6-feet-5 and 281 pounds, didn't play much high school football in Covina, Calif. So upon graduation he joined the Marine Corps reserves. He first got the idea after spending his eighth- and ninth-grade years at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.

"I fell in love with the Corps," he said. "The structure, the discipline, the leadership traits. The routine of things. Organization. It was my thing. I liked it a lot. I wanted to live my life as a Marine."

He went through the Marines' rigorous training program, then served one weekend a month in the Marine reserves when he decided to also play football at Mount San Antonio Junior College in Walnut, Calif.

He had 16 1/2 sacks as a freshman. Davis still loved the Marines, but now he also loved playing football. And Pac-10 schools scouted him, and offered a scholarship. The Marines would make one more call, however, to go to Iraq.

"I wanted to get back as soon as I possibly could to start playing football again," Davis said. "But I had to do my job. I signed the contract, and I like to honor my commitment."

Davis does not give specifics of his tour of duty. When asked, he politely asked to change the subject. Civilians who have never served can only understand they will never understand.

"It's tough," he said. "I think about it all the time."

Brought up right
America can only imagine how most 20-something men start their day, but Davis begins by making his bed. His father, Lorenzo, served a four-year commitment in the Marines from 1971-75. If Semper Fidelis didn't run through Rulon's blood the day he was born in San Diego, the Latin expression meaning "Always Faithful" was ingrained while he attended the Marine Military Academy in Texas.

Lorenzo didn't push the military school upon his son but said his son knew right from wrong before he went off to military school.

"It wasn't my decision; it was his decision," Lorenzo said. "We talked about it for about three months. It was hard letting him go; he was only 13 years old. But I felt if a young man wants to get out in the world, this was a great way to do it. And this would teach him some character traits he might not learn if he stayed at home."

Davis said long after football, he will keep his hair short, his face shaven. He will take a jog each day.

* Once a Marine, always a Marine. *
In another sense, the Marines are always with Davis, in the way he acts, the way he carries himself.

"The way he speaks, he's very correct, proper," Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said. "He treats everybody with a great deal of respect. He listens, asks good questions. Sits up in his chair, always attentive, those types of things. You can tell he was brought up the right way."

Davis returned from the war safely, only to endure a near-death experience a few months later while riding his motor-cycle. He was exiting off one busy L.A. highway onto another when the car behind him tapped his bike. The collision sped him uncontrollably forward into the rear bumper of a midsized truck in front. The bike flipped, and Davis flew.

Airborne, Davis landed beneath an adjacent semi. Fortunately, Davis was wearing his helmet, which was dented in the front. But there was still the matter of this semi. "I knew I was about to die if I didn't move," Davis said. He tried to crawl out of the way, but the semi continued to roll, right over his calves.

Davis suffered some internal tissue damage and spent a month in and out of a hospital because of swelling. And while his return to his sophomore football season at Mount San Antonio was out, he did not have any broken bones.

Major-college football is a competitive business. Before Davis had completely healed, he had pledged his allegiance to the Cal Bears, who didn't forget about his 16 1/2 sacks before he left for Iraq, and before the motorcycle mishap.

3-4 looks familiar
Davis voluntarily enlisted in the Marines, but come last week, he thought he would be drafted — into the NFL. It didn't happen. San Francisco, Jacksonville and the New York Giants all communicated their interest in the days leading up to the draft. But after the draft ended, Davis chose the Broncos instead because they are converting to a 3-4 defense.

"I don't even care about that anymore," Davis said of not getting drafted. "I'm happy I'm with this team. I'm trying to make this team right now and that's where my focus is."

Turns out, Cal is one of the few major-college programs to play a 3-4. And Davis became the only pure "5-technique" defensive end the Broncos took last week, either in the draft or as a free agent.

Maybe he isn't such an underdog to make the Broncos after all. Not with his experience as a 3-4 end. Not with all he's been through. The challenge of going from undrafted free agent to a 53-man roster? Puh-leze.

"Nothing's came easy in my life as you can see," Davis said. "I've had to work for everything. Hard work is not something that's unfamiliar to me."

Pakistani Problems Threatening Afghanistan

Extremists In Pakistan Putting US Afghan Strategy In Jeopardy
By Robert Burns, Associated Press
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

WASHINGTON — A central pillar of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan — enlisting Pakistan to eliminate extremist havens on its side of the border — is being tested so severely it calls into question the viability of the entire plan.

When President Obama announced on March 27 his approach to turning around the war in Afghanistan, he said stronger action by neighboring Pakistan against Taliban sanctuaries on its soil was "indispensable." He called the insurgent-infested border area "the most dangerous place in the world."

Since then, extremists have not only held their own on the border but have made inroads toward Pakistan's capital.

The extremists, including Pakistani elements of the Taliban, are not a homogenous force; some elements are focused more on infiltrating Afghanistan to contest control of that country, while others are oriented toward destabilizing Pakistan. But in either case the trends are growing more worrisome for an Obama administration that has decided the Afghan problem cannot be fixed without progress in Pakistan.

Reports of a pullback Friday from the militants' latest advances toward Islamabad were greeted with measured relief in Washington, but there remains a worry that the Pakistani government is failing to deal forcefully with Islamist fighters slowly advancing toward the heart of the nuclear-armed country.

Teresita Schaffer, director of the South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said developments in Pakistan have caused "deep anxiety" among administration officials — "and a worry about the viability, frankly, of any Afghan strategy, not just this one."

There seem to be few other options for the U.S. in Pakistan. It has used periodic missile attacks from Predator drone aircraft to strike extremist leadership targets, but more direct military action would seem unlikely. Obama has pledged to provide more financial and other non-military support, while warning Islamabad that U.S. patience is limited.

Obama made the calculation that Pakistan's sovereignty must be respected and therefore U.S. ground forces would not be used inside Pakistan against the extremists, including elements of the al-Qaida network whose leaders are believed to be operating on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan, with U.S. help, must show its commitment to making progress against the extremists.

Since Obama laid out that strategy, Pakistan arguably has regressed, endangering one pillar of the U.S. plan. The other pillars are a U.S. military and civilian buildup in Afghanistan and a redoubling of U.S. and allied efforts to train an Afghan security force capable of handling the insurgency on its own.

David W. Barno, a former top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, says extremists threaten to upend the very existence of Pakistan.

"Events in Pakistan are spiraling out of control," Barno told Congress on Thursday, "and our options in reversing the downward acceleration are limited at best."

U.S. officials have sought, with limited success, to nudge the Pakistani government toward confronting the extremists. The frustration was evident in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's assertion to Congress on Wednesday that the Pakistanis are "basically abdicating" to the extremists.

At least as cutting were comments Friday in Afghanistan by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "I'm increasingly both concerned and frustrated at the progression of the danger," he said in an NBC News interview one day after meeting with Pakistani officials.

Some thoughts from former CMC Gen Krulak:

General Chuck Krulak addresses several current issues --

..."A dear friend of mine sent me a series of e-mails [posts on USNA-At-Large] asking where Senator McCain and General Krulak are...with regard to a couple of issues currently in the media. Obviously I cannot speak for Senator McCain but I thought it might be worthwhile to shed some light on what has led my thinking on the issues raised...:"

1. Gays in the Military:
As the Commanding General of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC), I, along with the Counsel to the Commandant (Mr. Peter Murphy) and the then-Commandant, Gen. Carl E. Mundy, Jr. helped "fight" the Gays in the Military movement and helped craft the current policy(now referred to as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell.) The actual language presente by the Marine Corps during this debate was initially drafted by personnelat MCCDC. (Obviously, Gen. Mundy put the argument in his own words...and did a superb job.) Hopefully this lays out where I stand on this issue. My position has not changed since my time at MCCDC.

2. Extraordinary Interrogation Techniques and Rendition.
After reading comments made by members of this forum, I am sure that what I will write will have little or no impact but I do want people to understand my thought
process. I have spent over 3 years looking and studying this issue.

I have been joined in this effort by over 30 Flag and General Officers and a
like number of Commanders and Lieutenant Colonels and Captains and Colonels...not to mention a significant number of former FBI and CIA agents who helped form my opinion. I have also been able to gain significant information from both classified and unclassified sources. I mention this, NOT to "beat my own drum" but, rather, to indicate that my view is not a cursory one. To the contrary, it is a view developed over time and with academic and "first hand" rigor.

a. Torture brings little to no "actionable intelligence" to the table. Simply put, the individual will say almost anything to stop the torture. If the answer being sought is about WMD, then the individual being tortured will give that up in a heart beat...accuracy is not an issue. Gen. Colin Powell can give you chapter and verse on that. He went in front of the UN and gave a talk on WMD in Iraq based on information
(Intelligence??) gained from an individual who was water-boarded. The "intelligence" turned out to be inaccurate and Gen. Powell was made to look foolish. The professionals from the CIA and FBI that I have talked to have emphasized that they have yet to see "actionable intelligence" come from toruture.

b. There is a negative impact, obviously, on the person being tortured but there is also a negative impact on the person doing the torturing. This has been repeatedly documented by the medical community. All but the sadistic find the act of participating in torture an extremely stressful and disturbing act.

c. Whether we like it or not, we are signators to the Geneva Conventions. "Picking and choosing" what conventions to follow is not something we, as a Nation, should be doing.

d. We should never do anything that deprives our fighting men and women the moral authority to undertake what we all know as the "just war." This concept is critical to our concept of war fighting. Moral authority forms the basis of how we train our warriors (Code of Conduct) and how we expect them to act on the battlefield. Condoning torture erodes moral authority.

e. Along the same theme as noted in paragraph d., the mothers and fathers of America did not send their sons and daughters into government service to learn how to torture. This may seem to be an obvious statement but our actions run counter to this fact when we do, in fact, engage in torture.

f. The so-called "ticking time bomb scenario" is a red herring and needs to be fully understood. First off, there is not a single interrogator that we have spoken with that would give any veracity to statements made by a prisoner under interrogation (torture) in this scenario. Secondly, we need to remember that an IED is a "ticking time bomb" to a young Marine PFC who thinks he has found a insurgent who may know where the IED has been planted. If we condone torture at the highest levels of our government, then what is to stop the Marine PFC from torturing "his" prisoner? It is a very slippery slope.

g. Since our enemy is already torturing their prisoners...beheading, etc. the argument that our torturing will somehow endanger our troops is a specious one and one that I do not buy into at all. What I do buy into is the fact that America does not do torture! It is not who we are...it is not how we act...it is not what the world expects of us. If we have any sense ofresponsibility, we need to understand that there are many people from many Nations...all looking at whether we truly stand for the values we espouse. Torture runs counter to our value system.

h. Finally, for those who do not think water-boarding is torture, try it. I have and I confess I was scared to death. I would have said anything to have it stop. It is drowning at its worst. As for rendition, it is simply playing Pontius Pilate...letting another country do the torturing for us.

I realize I have probably not changed anyone's mind with my comments but I felt it might be helpful to understand why I feel the way I do.

Semper Fidelis, CCK

What it's like in Afghanistan

Western Troops' Finest Foe In Southern Afghanistan

Los Angeles Times
March 17, 20

It gets in their engines, their sleeping bags, even between their teeth. There is no escaping this gritty menace.

By Laura King

COMBAT POST BARROW, AFGHANISTAN -- Thousands of U.S. and other Western troops in the south of Afghanistan do battle daily with a foe far more ubiquitous than Taliban insurgents: dust.

Chalky and powdery, it fouls engines and electronic gear. It seeps through the seams of clothing and sleeping bags. It cakes dry lips, stains sweaty faces and coats the interiors of tents and armored vehicles.

Food and water take on a gritty tang. With the consistency of talc, the dust of southern Afghanistan is billowy when dry, slimy when wet, with a concrete-hard crust when it re-dries. Locals use it to build the durable mud-brick compounds that dot the desert, home to Afghan civilians and combatants alike.

Inert, the dust presents an infinite-seeming horizon, particularly eerie when viewed through night-vision goggles. Whipped by wind into funnel clouds that can reach hundreds of feet in the air, it is the bane of military aviators.

Choking clouds of it are kicked up whenever convoys roll past or helicopters land. At one remote U..S. Marine base, a visitor was cheerfully informed, "You'll be coughing up mud balls for a week!"

Dust played a well-documented role in ancient warfare, serving as a kind of antique early-warning system. Some generals used guile to make their approaching armies appear larger than they were, creating huge dust clouds with mules dragging bundles of branches.

In a modern-day setting, the vast, bare expanse of Afghan desert provides little cover for insurgents; even a small band of fighters can be readily sighted. But Western convoys, too, are visible for miles, with their signature halo of dust.

In rustic military outposts where indoor and outdoor living blur together, any piece of gear left unattended acquires a film of fine grit within moments. Undisturbed for a day or two, mundane objects like plastic-wrapped crates of drinking water come to resemble relics of a lost civilization.

Despite the primitive living conditions, military outposts are hives of high-tech equipment: surveillance cameras that sweep the surrounding desert, monitors relaying footage from unmanned aerial drones. All need constant cleaning or they will become dust-clogged -- "canned air saves us," said Marine Pfc. Conor Wood of Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

When a desert dust storm sweeps through, it can take with it almost anything that isn't tied down, and sometimes things that are. This month, Marines at a forward operating base in Farah province built an open-sided mess hall, but had only a few days to admire their handiwork before a sandstorm blew the roof off.

With dust as a daily companion, personal hygiene is a losing battle. Grit insinuates its way into crevices between teeth -- and among the bristles of toothbrushes used to scrub them. And woe betide any wearer of contact lenses.

There's no plumbing in the remotest outposts, only solar showers that deliver a chilly deluge few wish to brave. Many Marines go months without a shower, growing more dust-crusted by the day. They launder their own fatigues, one said, "when the pants are standing up, waiting for you to climb into them."

Springtime is the season of sandstorms, and in the open desert, they approach as a ghostly vision, turning the air yellowish, then greenish, then black.

"At 1500 hours [3 p.m.], it was like the middle of the night," said Navy medical corpsman Joshua Steinhilber of Webster, N.Y., describing a dirt-blasted tempest that recently swept through. "We figured it had to be either the Apocalypse or a dust storm bearing down," he said. "So a dust storm -- that was fine."

King was recently on assignment in Afghanistan..

Pakistan: Closer to the Abyss

Closer To The Cliff
New York Times
March 13, 2009
Editorial, P. 26

Pakistan's rival political leaders seem determined to push their already unstable country over a cliff. Their increasingly out-of-control power struggle spilled out of the halls of government and the courtroom this week and onto the streets. The more time and energy they waste on selfish squabbling, the less they have to combat extremists who pose a mortal threat to their country.

We are especially alarmed to see President Asif Ali Zardari repeating the excesses of his predecessor, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Six months after taking office, Mr. Zardari?s government has banned Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, and his brother from holding office. It issued a two-week halt on rallies and threatened to charge Mr. Sharif with sedition.

On Wednesday, authorities arrested hundreds of political activists. A day later, police in riot gear forcibly dispersed some of the thousands of Pakistanis marching from Karachi to Islamabad in support of an independent judiciary.

That?s the kind of repressive behavior that Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, criticized Mr. Musharraf for before she was assassinated. Mr. Zardari is dishonoring his late wife?s memory by following that same path.

Mr. Sharif is all too eager to manipulate this destructive drama for personal gain. He has taken up the cause of anti-government lawyers who have long campaigned for the reinstatement of the country?s former top judge who was dismissed by Mr. Musharraf. But we fear his real goal is to topple Mr. Zardari, whose popularity has plummeted as Mr. Sharif?s has risen.

There will be no stability in Afghanistan until Pakistan defeats Taliban and Al Qaeda forces along the border.. And there can be no security in the region, if a nuclear-armed Pakistan is unraveling.

President Obama and his aides are still developing a policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. We are pleased to see that they moved quickly on Thursday to try to defuse the crisis. The American ambassador in Islamabad spoke with Mr. Sharif, and an envoy, Richard Holbrooke, had a video conference call with Mr. Zardari.

They need to press Mr. Zardari now to compromise on the dispute over Pakistan?s courts and to allow Mr. Sharif to run for office. And they need to press Mr. Sharif to work for peaceful political solutions. If there is any hope for democracy in Pakistan, a robust opposition must be allowed to flourish and participate fully in the country?s political life.

Mr. Obama must also ensure that any new aid to Pakistan strengthens democratic institutions, not just whoever is president.

Already, some Washington analysts are suggesting there might be worse things than a return to military rule in Pakistan. We?ve seen this movie before, and it is not a strategy for long-term stability.