Washington Post – Thomas Ricks writes that former top Pentagon official Douglas Feith blamed the Bush administration’s top official in Iraq for abandoning a plan for a quick transition to Iraqi leadership in the summer of 2003 and instead keeping the U.S. government in control of the country for more than a year.
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South African Navy – South Africa Can't Afford to Run its New Subs
Defense Technology International – South Africa is suffering from a critical shortage of qualified navy personnel because it cannot afford to pay them, thereby paralysing its brand new submarines
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Afghanistan – Into the Valley of Death
Vanity Fair – A strategic passage wanted by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Afghanistanís Korengal Valley is among the deadliest pieces of terrain in the world for U.S. forces. One platoon is considered the tip of the American spear. Its men spend their days in a surreal combination of backbreaking labor-building outposts on rocky ridges-and deadly firefights, while they try to avoid the mistakes the Russians made. Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington join the platoonís painfully slow advance, as its soldiers laugh, swear, and run for cover, never knowing which of them wonít make it home.
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French Navy – French Navy Uses Second Life to Recruit
Defense Technology International – From 29 November to 4 December a virtual frigate (which looks remarkably like the yet-to-be-built Franco-Italian FREMM) called in on Second Life which could be visited 24 hours a day and where youngsters could meet virtual sailors who would answer questions about the jobs and careers they might have if they joined the French Navy.
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Geopolitics / Asia – Washington's Eastern Sunset: The Decline of U.S. Power in Northeast Asia
Foreign Affairs – After 60 years of U.S. domination, the balance of power in Northeast Asia is shifting. The United States is in relative decline, China is on the rise, and Japan and South Korea are in flux. To maintain U.S. power in the region, Washington must identify the trends shaping this transition and embrace new tools and regimes that broaden the United States’ power base.
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Royal Australian Navy – Sailors under pressure
The Australian – A look at submarine rescue exercises in the Pacific.
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Russian Navy – Russian navy to start sorties in Mediterranean
Reuters – Russia said on Wednesday it would start the first major navy sortie into the Mediterranean since Soviet times, the latest move by an increasingly assertive Moscow to demonstrate its military might.
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US Marines – Gates said to oppose force shift to Afghanistan
New York Times – Senior Pentagon and military officials said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had decided against a proposal to shift Marine Corps forces from Iraq to take the lead in American operations in Afghanistan.
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Malaysian Navy – Protection for submarines
New Straits Times – The Royal Malaysian Navy is looking at acquiring the capability of protecting its two Scorpene diesel-electric submarines.
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Piracy – U.S. warships corner Somali pirates who seized ship
Reuters – U.S. and German navy ships have cornered Somali pirates who seized a Japanese-owned chemical tanker more than a month ago and are demanding a ransom.
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Nuclear Warfare – Calculating the Risks in Pakistan
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks reports a small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal if the country’s political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart.
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Iranian Navy – Iranian Navy receives stealth-capable submarine
Novosti -Iran’s Navy commissioned Wednesday a domestically designed and produced light submarine featuring extended stealth capability and strong firepower.
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Operations Other Than War – US Navy ship providing aid, medicine to Bangladeshi cyclone victims
Associated Press – The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge was performing maritime security operations off the coast of Somalia when Tropical Cyclone Sidr hit southwestern Bangladesh. The ship rushed toward south Asia, traveling 3,000 miles over five days and reaching the Bangladesh coast on Nov. 22, to begin helping thousands of people left hungry, homeless and without clean water. The storm killed more than 3,200 people.
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US Navy – An Invader In Navy's Home Waters
Washington Post – The Army likes to brag that it’s got a significant navy of its own — even if there isn’t a destroyer or aircraft carrier in it.
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Royal Navy – Navy would struggle to fight a war
Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under funding and cutbacks, a leaked Whitehall report has revealed.
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Geopolitics – A Disciplined Defense: How to Regain Strategic Solvency
Foreign Affairs – The United States now spends almost as much on defense in real dollars as it ever has before — even though it has no plausible rationale for using most of its impressive military forces. Why? Because without political incentives for restraint, policymakers have lost the ability to think clearly about defense policy. Washington’s new mantra should be “Half a trillion dollars is more than enough.”
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Afghanistan – In Counterinsurgency Class, Soldiers Think Like Taliban
Wall Street Journal – An inside look at the US Army’s new Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy.
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US Navy – China blames U.S. for denial of ship visit to Hong Kong
New York Times – China blocked the visit of a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group and other American warships to Hong Kong last week in retaliation for the Bush administration’s proposed upgrading of Taiwan’s Patriot antimissile batteries, the state media reported Thursday.
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Geopolitics / Pakistan – It's The Tribes, Stupid!
The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan says that quelling anarchy in Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere, will require building on tribal loyalties-not imposing democracy from the top down
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US Navy – US protest at China navy refusal
BBC – The US has formally protested to China over its refusal to allow a number of US ships to dock in Hong Kong.
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Geopolitics / Africa – The Next Frontier
The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan says the creation of AFRICOM, the U.S. military’s new Africa Command, offers the hope of steady, low-key progress in the war on terror.
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Operations Other Than War – US helicopters fly in cyclone aid
BBC – Helicopters from the USS Kearsarge have begun delivering relief supplies to survivors of the devastating cyclone that hit southern Bangladesh 10 days ago.
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Fourth Generation Warfare – Unheralded military successes
Los Angeles Times – Robert Kaplan on how low-cost, low-risk operations such as those in Colombia and the Philippines show what the U.S. can achieve.
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Geopolitics / India – America's Strategic Opportunity With India: The New U.S.-India Partnership
Foreign Affairs – The rise of a democratic and increasingly powerful India is a positive development for U.S. interests. Rarely has the United States shared so many interests and values with a growing power as we do today with India. By reaching out to India, we have made the bet that the future lies in pluralism, democracy, and market economics.
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US Navy – The Navy's New Flat-Earth Strategy
The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan on the new U.S. collaborative plan for policing the seas
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