PBS Frontline – Gen. Thomas White (U.S. Army-Ret.) was Secretary of the Army from 2001 until April 2003, when he was fired by Donald Rumsfeld. In this interview, he talks about Rumsfeld’s leadership style and drive to remake the military, the Defense Department’s rigid control in planning for a post-war Iraq, and why he believes the Army is on the brink of being broken. “What we are all worried about is that the manpower situation will come unglued. ??? The Army is people; it’s not weapons or platforms. Somebody once said, ‘A soldier’s not in the Army; they are the Army.'”
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History – Italy's MAS Torpedo Boats
Military History – Mosquitoes with a deadly sting, Italy’s tiny MAS torpedo boats cut enemy battleships down to size.
US Navy – Boeing Converts 737 Into Bomber
Wired – A look at Boeing’s new Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft.
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US Marines – 'Stunning' arms haul in Falluja
BBC – US marines combing the Iraqi city of Falluja after a major offensive say they found weapons stocks sufficient to mount an insurgency across the country.
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Iraq – Rumsfeld's War – Interview with Paul Van Riper
PBS Frontline – Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper (U.S. Marine Corps-Ret.) is a veteran of Vietnam and Desert Storm and currently lecturer at the National Defense University. He spoke with FRONTLINE about the lessons learned from those past wars, his bitterness over what has happened in post-war Iraq, and the failures of the Pentagon’s civilian leaders: “We don’t have a leadership that’s involved intellectually,” he says. “They simply want to will their way to this transformation. They don’t want to get involved themselves and help think the way through.” Despite this, Van Riper, a scholar of warfare, is hopeful: “I see inside the United States Army the germs of a second intellectual renaissance that’s approaching these problems. And they’re not caught up in the sloganeering that most of the Joint community’s caught up in. They really are studying.”
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Fourth Generation Warfare – Tactics of the Crescent Moon
Defense and the National Interest – William Lind reviews a book on how Islamic non-state forces fight.
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Editorial Note – New Archive Organized by Topic
I have just added to the Archive page an archive of NOSI, organized by topic. Every article posted to NOSI since July 1, 2004 has a topic assigned to it, and if you wish at any time to see all the recent articles posted on the “Royal Navy” or “Transformation,” etc. — simply go to the Archive page and click on the appropriate topic and you will be shown all the articles on that topic in reverse chronological order.
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Royal Navy – Navy pledges curbs on sonar to avoid harming dolphins
The Scotsman – Strict measures are to be employed by the Royal Navy when using new sonar equipment to make sure no harm is done to whales, dolphins and other sea mammals.
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Iraq – Rumsfeld's War
PBS Frontline – An outstanding documentary on the inside story of the war within the Pentagon: Donald Rumsfeld’s battle to assert civilian control and remake the way America fights???all the while conducting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This is the transcript of the show. In future days I’ll be linking to the extensive interviews conducted with each participant in the show. The transcript gives a broad overview of the topic. The interviews give fascinating detail of the conflict with Iraq.
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Miscellaneous – Jones: Transforming NATO Into 21st-Century Alliance
Sea Power – An interview with the commander of NATO forces, Gen. James L. Jones.
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US Marines – Medics Testify to Fallujah's Horrors
Washington Post – A look at the battle of Fallujah, from the eyes of US Navy corpsmen.
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US Marines – Hunting 'Satan' in Falluja hell
BBC – Paul Wood was embedded with the 1st Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment during the battle of Falluja. This is what he saw.
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Wargaming – Will Iran Be Next?
The Atlantic – Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war gameówith sobering results. From James Fallows, a fascinating look at the options available to the U.S. to counter Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
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US Marines – DÈjá Vu All Over Again?
Marine Corps Gazette – The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Here, the author reminds Marines that as they look toward the future, many lessons can be learned by studying the Small Wars Manual.
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US Marines – In Falluja, Young Marines Saw the Savagery of an Urban War
New York Times – A close-up chronicle of the most sustained period of street-to-street fighting that the U.S. has encountered since Vietnam.
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US Navy – Adm. Fallon: 'We Are on Our Way to a New Navy'
Sea Power – The view from the Commander, Fleet Forces Command.
Indian Navy – India admiral fears sub production delay
UPI – Indian Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash has said the delay in a project to locally manufacture submarines is “a big dent” in India’s “national security matrix.”
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Geopolitics / America – Riding for a Fall
Foreign Affairs – Three long-term trends are threatening to bankrupt America: the burgeoning costs of waging the war on terrorism, the U.S. economy’s increasing reliance on foreign capital, and rapid aging throughout the developed world. Washington must understand that committing the United States to a broader global role while ignoring the financial costs of doing so is deeply irresponsible.
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History – Heroic Effort Paved Way for Victory in the Battle Off Samar
Sea Power – If the battle for Surigao Strait, fought early on the morning of Oct. 25, 1944, ranks as one of the most decisive in American naval history, the engagement off Samar that occurred shortly thereafter rates as one of the most heroic.
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Royal Australian Navy – Go-ahead to $6bn navy ship project
AAP – Australia and the United States have signed an agreement to install the latest version of a computerised combat system in Collins and US Navy submarines.
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US Marines – Marine Officers See Risk in Cuts in Falluja Force
New York Times – Senior Marine intelligence officers in Iraq are warning that if American troop levels in the Falluja area are significantly reduced during reconstruction there, as has been planned, insurgents in the region will rebound from their defeat.
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US Navy – Lockheed Martin Expands Missions for Littoral Craft Concept
Sea Power – Lockheed Martin has expanded yet again the missions proposed for its Covert High-Speed Attack & Reconnaissance Craft (CHARC). Originally envisioned primarily as a surface warfare platform, Lockheed has added the support of Special Operations Forces and, subsequently, littoral antisubmarine warfare and mine countermeasures to its repertoire. An unmanned version also is under consideration.
Israeli Navy – The navy is well prepared
Haaretz – The foreign submarine that secretly entered Israel’s territorial waters and quickly left upon being discovered by the Israel Navy was probably American or French, experts say. The possibility that it was Iranian, Egyptian or Syrian has been ruled out completely.
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US Marines – Small Unit Leadership in Future Security and Stability Operations
Marine Corps Gazette – Several years ago the Army began the use of the acronym, SASO (stability and support operations), as a counter to the staid MOOTW (military operations other than war). The Marines have adopted the SASO acronym to mean security and stability operations as describing current activities in Iraq. The author stresses the importance of decentralization and small unit leadership in SASO.
Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force – China 'sorry' over mystery sub
BBC – China has apologised for what it called an accidental incursion by one of its submarines into Japanese waters last week, Tokyo has said.
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