Editorial Note – Naval Year in Review 2006

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2006

World Naval Operational News Highlights

The ten most significant naval news stories / themes this year included:

  • The continued irrelevance of the US Navy to Fourth Generation Warfare. Nearly 4 years after the invasion of Iraq, the US Navy is finally ready to send a brown water / riverine unit to Iraq to patrol the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. What took so long and why was there no sense of urgency?
  • The rising awareness within the US military on the best ways to conduct the war in Iraq, evidenced by the new joint manual by the US Marines / US Army entitled FM 3-24 / MCWP 3-33.5 – Counterinsurgency.
  • The first successful naval attack by a Fourth Generation entity (Hezbollah) against an Israeli naval vessel with a land-based antiship missile, showing how Fourth Generation opponents can reach out and strike naval targets successfully.
  • The rise of Iran as a preeminent regional power in the Persian Gulf, and the implications that could have in a naval conflict in the Persian Gulf.
  • The continued slow but steady rise of the Chinese Navy – will it be peaceful – or not?
  • The increasing ballistic missile defense capability being forward-deployed at sea by the US Navy.
  • The failure of the SeaSwap manning initiative in the US Navy, which shows that too much efficiency can sometimes be a bad thing.
  • The successful use of lawfare, by environmental groups, to impede US Navy use of low frequency active sonar systems.
  • The slow fading away of the Royal Navy, due to continued deep budget cuts.
  • The US Marine Corps devising ways to (literally) shoot troops anywhere around the Earth in a few hours using rockets, showing that long-term planning and thinking is still thankfully alive and well in the Marine Corps???

Statistics
In 2006, there were news stories linked to on 270 / 365 days – that is on 74% of the days.

In 2006, NOSI linked to 556 articles covering 505 news stories.

In 2006, 171 of these stories (34%) were related to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, or U.S. Military Sealift Command.

In 2006, 201 of these stories (40%) were background stories and 17 stories (3%) were historical stories.

The remaining 116 news stories (23%) covered the operational activities of 20 nation’s navies, coast guards, and marine corps:

Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, United Kingdom

In 2006, 216,179 pages of information were read on NOSI by 119,473 users.

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Geopolitics / Long War – Civil Rights, Uncivil Wrongs:The War on Terrorism's Toll on the U.S. Constitution

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Foreign Affairs – Much of the already voluminous commentary on the war on terrorism centers on the question of whether it is a war at all. Here is an analysis of three books that are willing to stipulate, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, that it is. They differ dramatically, however, over what tactics this war allows and, more broadly, what it means for governing within the limits of the U.S. Constitution.
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Iraq – General May See Early Success in Iraq

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Washington Post – Thomas Ricks writes that the battle for Baghdad will start in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods chosen by military strategists as being the least likely to offer stiff resistance, raising the odds of early success, according to military planners and officials familiar with the thinking of the incoming Iraq commander, Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus.
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Geopolitics / Cuba -Fidel's Final Victory

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Foreign Affairs – The smooth transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his successors is exposing the willful ignorance and wishful thinking of U.S. policy toward Cuba. The post-Fidel transition is already well under way, and change in Cuba will come only gradually from here on out. With or without Fidel, renewed U.S. efforts to topple the revolutionary regime in Havana can do no good — and have the potential to do considerable harm.
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Geopolitics / Long War – A Battle for Global Values

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Foreign Affairs – The war on terrorism is not just about security or military tactics. It is a battle of values, and one that can only be won by the triumph of tolerance and liberty. Afghanistan and Iraq have been the necessary starting points of this battle. Success there, however, must be coupled with a bolder, more consistent, and more thorough application of global values, with Washington leading the way.
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Iraq – Intensified Combat on Streets Likely

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Washington Post – Thomas Ricks writes that President Bush’s plan to send tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements to Baghdad to jointly confront Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias is likely to touch off a more dangerous phase of the war, featuring months of fighting in the streets of the Iraqi capital, current and former military officials warned.
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