2008 NO MISSION TOO GREAT
The members of the West Point Class 0f 2008 are dismissed following commissioning as second lieutenants at Michie Stadium May 31st. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren delivered the graduation speech. This marks West Point’s 210th graduation since its founding in 1802.
May 31, 2008
2008 NO MISSION TOO GREAT
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May 30, 2008
The other enemy
Impossible standards for victory promote failure
BY RALPH PETERS
Can we win in Afghanistan?
It’s an odd question, considering that we’ve already won, by historical standards.
Yet unrealistic metrics of success continue to pile up, fabricated in ignorance — often willful and even spiteful — of Afghan reality.
Political partisans intent on scoring points and media figures desperate for headlines demand the impossible (and not only in Afghanistan.)
Increasingly, the greatest obstacle to success in trouble spots where our troops are engaged is our own unwillingness to accept that wars never yield perfect results and rarely yield permanent change.
Unaware of historical precedent and dismissing practical limitations, we increasingly insist on ideal transformations of broken states and regions where reasonable progress is the only fair measure of success.
Staying with the Afghan example, a sensible assessment of the possible begins with the recognition that no such country exists or ever has in the sense of statehood familiar to us.
The vast clots of miserable territory we label “Afghanistan” (maps, like nature, abhor a vacuum) really consist of the city-state of Kabul, tributary cities along timeless caravan routes and tribal areas that Alexander, the Mongols or any other conqueror, shah or king never fully controlled.
Read more here.
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May 29, 2008
Cryptologic Hero
The Story of a Cryptologic Hero
SGT Trista L. Moretti
“The mission of the U.S. Intelligence rests on a pillar of pure optimism: that seemingly ordinary men and women can do truly extraordinary things.” — DCI George Tenet
From the beginning of the Republic, the foundation of the United States Army has rested on the courage and ability of dedicated warriors to carry the fight to America’s enemies. But behind every warrior are other highly trained professionals whose skills are also critical to ensuring success. Among them are army cryptologists who use their talents and abilities to provide and protect critical information on the battlefield. In order to succeed in this field one must be innovative, intelligent, creative, and most importantly imbued with an indomitable team spirit. As a member of the United States Army, SGT Trista Leah Moretti was all of these things and more.
Trista was born appropriately on Flag Day, June 14, 1980, and raised in South Plainfield, New Jersey. During her youth she excelled both in the classroom and on the athletic field, earning nine varsity letters in field hockey and spring and winter track. In 1997 she and her teammates brought home the Middlesex County field hockey championship to South Plainfield High.
Trista loved children and seriously considered a career as a teacher. For a brief time she took courses in child development and worked at a local day care center, but like many bright young women of her time, Trista had a strong desire to have not only a successful life, but a meaningful one as well. She was determined to be a part of something bigger than herself. With this in mind she began to think about a career in the United States armed forces. In 2003, after talking the idea over with her father and a close friend, both of whom were familiar with military life, she made the decision to enlist in the United States Army. After basic training, AIT and airborne school, she was assigned to the Medina Regional Security Operations Center Command in Texas where she worked hard to hone her cryptologic skills.
All soldiers, no matter what their military specialty, are trained in infantry tactics. In her time in the service of her country Trista not only made good use of her soldier skills, but also became an accomplished cryptologist. In December 2005, she was assigned to the 425th Brigade Special Troop Battalion of the 25th Infantry where she became adept at gathering and protecting the critical information so vital to winning battles and saving lives.
The roots of the 25th Infantry can be traced to WWII in the Hawaiian Islands. The motto of this division is Tropic Lightning: Ready to Strike! Anywhere, Anytime. The unit was stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu on the morning of December 7th 1941 and was one of the very first units in the United States Army to carry the fight to Japan. Decades later, the attacks on our nation on September 11, 2001 led the unit to once again answer the call to the colors. In 2006, Trista would become a part of the 25th’s efforts to protect America in this day and time when her unit was deployed to Forward Operating Base Kalso near the Sunni Triangle in Iraq.
Friends and family described Trista as “fearless, brave and resourceful.” During her time in Iraq she used all of these attributes to help the unit to succeed in its efforts to defeat the insurgency. One of the most critical tasks of the 425th was to search for and locate IEDs — roadside bombs. Trista’s work was critical to this effort. Her work and the work of the unit were not in vain; countless IEDs were discovered before detonation.
On June 25, 2007, after a hard night of work Trista returned to her quarters for some much needed rest. At midday the base came under an intensive mortar attack. A shell struck the area killing her and injuring dozens. For her service and sacrifice she was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Combat Action Badge.
In her short but eventful life, Trista Leah Moretti was many things: a devoted daughter and sister, a true friend, a superb athlete, an airborne soldier and a patriot who dedicated her life to serving her country during a challenging and demanding time. Her sister described her as a person who lived her life with an unsurpassed “fire and tenacity.” Others who knew her often said that “she was bigger than life.” In the end she will be remembered not only for the lives she touched and the exemplary life she led, but also for the work she did to save the lives of others, both military and civilian.
SGT Trista L. Moretti
United States Army
14 June 1980 – 25 June 2007
More about the NSA/CSS National Cryptologic Memorial here.
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May 28, 2008
Bridge linking Busayefi to Hawr Rajab opened
Sheikh Salah (left), a prominent sheikh in Busayefi, cuts the ribbon on a new bridge May 13.
The bridge, constructed by an Iraqi company and funded by the GoI, spans the Mercedes Canal and links the communities of Hawr Rajab and Busayefi. (Courtesy photo)
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May 27, 2008
In Their Own Words
2nd Brigade Combat Team lets facts tell its story of success
Sgt. David Turner
2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div.
H/T: Task Force Marne: Dog Face Daily
“When 2nd BCT first assumed control of the Spartan (2nd BCT) operating environment in June 2007, the brigade was faced with a unique and challenging situation,” said Capt. Lauren Glaze, 2nd BCT provost marshal. “The only Iraqi Security Force present in the brigade OE was an undermanned and underequipped Iraqi Army battalion, stretched thinly across a quarter of the area,” Sectarian strife and rumors of ISF targeting and killing Sunnis led many to distrust the largely-Shia army and police, Glaze said.
“What developed was really a Petri dish for al-Qaeda to grow,” said Lt. Col. Kenneth Adgie, commander of 1-30th Inf. Regt., a mechanized infantry battalion.
Coalition forces were attacked 95 times in the first two weeks, as they pushed into areas they had not been since 2003. After establishing Patrol Base Murray just 16 kilometers south of Baghdad, Soldiers of the 1-30th Inf. Regt. began moving south and east to secure the area along the banks of the Tigris River called Arab Jabour; because AQI had firmly established a presence there, it was not easy.
“What we discovered was a well built, elaborate, defensive belt,” said Ferrell, a native of Huntington W.Va. Improvised explosive devices, many of them buried deep, made travel in the area difficult. A combination of air assaults and ground strikes enabled the Soldiers to capture and hold territory from al-Buaytha down the banks of the Tigris to Sayafiyah.
“From June 16 until the first of February of this year, we were in full-scale kinetic operations,” Ferrell said. “Simultaneously, we were doing humanitarian assistance and working to build local governance.” As Coalition forces secured the area, citizens came to realize the benefits of working with them.
One of the key elements to success in holding the newly-gained areas was the formation of the Sons of Iraq, a volunteer security force of Iraqi citizens initially formed to guard important infrastructure such as roads and power stations. Coalition forces trained and worked with the SoI to secure their neighborhoods and help oust AQI, Glaze said.
“The training included classes on the SoI role in securing the community, basic first aid, basic self-defense tactics, the use of force and an overview of basic security principles,” Glaze said. “As a result, the SoI received the information they needed to successfully assist in removing hundreds of al-Qaeda, caches and IEDs from the battlefield.”
An important turning point came in November, Ferrell said. “We had a battle in Hawr Rajab in November, on Thanksgiving Day, when al-Qaeda attacked to try and take back the city. We stood arm-in-arm; you had Coalition, ISF, SoI. You had Sunnis and Shia banding together and you could not tell anyone apart,” he said.
“From that day forward, I’ve always highlighted that one battle, when they were standing there as brothers to take care of one another.”
Another key event was Operation Marne Thunderbolt, intended to deny al-Qaeda safe havens in the area. “Just as recently as January, we dropped over 40,000 pounds of ordnance as we fought down the southeast in our area of operations, finalizing one of the last major kinetic operations,” Ferrell said.
Sons of Iraq helped Coalition forces identify safe houses, weapons caches and IEDs, which in some cases were eliminated with air strikes. Between January 10 and 20, more than 100,000 pounds of bombs were dropped in the Arab Jabour area by Coalition aircraft.
Adgie, a National Park, N.J. native, marked Jan. 22 as the date when AQI left Arab Jabour. In the past four months, SoI membership in the Spartan AO has grown to 5,400, greater than the number of Coalition forces and IA in the area combined. Their involvement, Adgie said, has kept AQI from returning.
The next step toward making security sustainable in the area was to increase the amount of ISF in the area, particularly the Iraqi Police.
“In September 2007, the Governor of Baghdad visited Arab Jabour and promised the local leadership and Coalition forces that Arab Jabour would have an IP station by mid-2008,” said Glaze, from Woodbridge, Va.
“After his visit we noticed an obvious change in the locals’ opinion of the ISF, specifically towards the IP. Over 300 SoI came forward and said they wanted to go through the IP recruiting process,” Glaze said.
The police station is currently under construction. “The ground has been broken and they are in the process of building the structure,” Ferrell said.
Even before IP forces could be established in the area, IA forces began to work alongside their Coalition counterparts, living and conducting operations alongside them. Two IA battalions now conduct patrols with Coalition forces and work with the SoI to maintain security.
“There are more hard days along the way,” Ferrell said. “We have to work to build the ISF, we have to continue to build confidence in the ISF, in the progress they are making.”
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May 23, 2008
Stopping A Globemaster
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Frank Wisnieski, a transient alert supervisor assigned to the 332nd Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron, prepares to stop a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft on Balad Air Base, Iraq, May 12, 2008.
Wisnieski is deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
DoD photo by Senior Airman Julianne Showalter, U.S. Air Force.
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Operation Enduring Freedom
U.S. Army Spc. Jorge Aquillon, of 2nd Battalion, 82nd Aviation Brigade (Long Range Surveillance Detachment), prepares to fire his .50-caliber machine gun at Taliban forces near the village of Allah Say, Afghanistan, Aug. 21, 2007.
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May 21, 2008
Heading Home
U.S. Army 1st Lt. John Costello, front left, and 1st Lt. Ruben Ramos, front right, take a power nap in the back of a C-130 Hercules 13 after departing an air base in Iraq, May 13, 2008.
The soldiers, assigned to the 31st Division’s 1-10 Field Artillery, A Battery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, are returning home after a 14-month deployment in Iraq.
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May 20, 2008
Spirit of St. Louis
May 20, 1927 – Charles Lindbergh took off from New York, at 7:52 AM, to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the “Spirit of St. Louis.” The trip took 33 1/2 hours.
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May 18, 2008
Yemen and The Cole Bombing
Coddling Terrorists In Yemen
By Ali H. Soufan
Washington Post
Saturday, May 17, 2008; A17
Seven years after al-Qaeda terrorists Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd al-Quso confessed to me their crucial involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole, and three years after they were convicted in a Yemeni court — where a judge imposed a death sentence on Badawi — they, along with many other al-Qaeda terrorists, are free. On Oct. 12, 2000, when I flew to Yemen to lead the FBI’s Cole investigation, I had no idea how uncooperative the Yemeni government would initially be. Nor could I have imagined how disconnected from reality the U.S. ambassador to Yemen then, Barbara K. Bodine, would prove.
I have hesitated in the past to share my view of the conflict between Bodine and the FBI’s counterterrorism leader, John O’Neill. I feel compelled, however, to respond to Bodine’s recent comments, which slander the efforts of many dedicated counterterrorism agents and divert attention from the significant terrorist problem within Yemen, our “ally” in the “war on terror.”
A recent Post report on Yemen allowing al-Qaeda operatives to go free offered insight into the challenges the FBI faced. Bodine was quoted in the article not urging the Yemeni government to rearrest the terrorists but, instead, denigrating the agents who investigated the attack. She faulted the FBI as being slow to trust Yemeni authorities and said agents were “dealing with a bureaucracy and a culture they didn’t understand. . . . We had one group working on a New York minute, and another on a 4,000-year-old history.”
In fact, our team included several Arab American agents who understood the culture and the region. Even so, such comments were irrelevant. The FBI left Yemen with the terrorists in jail.
It is true that while tracking the terrorists we worked “on a New York minute.” We owed that much to the sailors murdered on the Cole and to all innocent people who remained targets as long as the terrorists were free.
It is also true that we did not trust some Yemeni officials. We had good reason not to:
When the FBI arrived in Yemen, some government officials tried to convince us that the explosion had been caused by a malfunction in the Cole’s operating systems. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh even asked the U.S. government for money to clean up port damage the United States “caused.”
After we took representatives from various security agencies aboard the Cole and proved to them that the explosion was caused by an external attack, some Yemeni officials claimed that those responsible had died in the attack and that there was no reason to keep investigating. Similar excuses and smoke screens were rampant.
We faced constant threats to our safety, not just from terrorists. Members of the Yemeni parliament, in fiery speeches broadcast on official television, called for “jihad” to be declared against us. The hotel where we stayed was shot at and received at least one bomb threat, prompting an evacuation.
Rather than supporting us, Bodine declared John O’Neill, a man greatly respected by his Yemeni counterparts, persona non grata.
Many American officials in Yemen, including members of Bodine’s team, shared our frustration. Even victims of the Cole were offended by her. I’ll never forget one sailor telling me that Bodine visited the ship soon after the attack and acted “as if we had just inconvenienced her country.”
We had other reasons to be suspicious. For example, the State Department issued a “Search for Justice” poster offering a reward for information related to the bombing. After the poster was translated into Arabic, it ended up warning anyone against helping us. Was it a mistake, or calculated interference?
Read more here.
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May 16, 2008
Gas Pump Missions
That number at the Gas Pump that everyone is watching . . .
It isn’t just going up here in SUV Land. It’s going up all over the world. Which leads us to this clip from another venue:
. . . There are many church planters that are very much under supported. The fall of the dollar and inflation has taken quite a toll. Pray that more western churches will give so that these servants can devote their time to developing new churches in the various unreached cities and villages . . .
If you know about such things, consider this a reminder: a small Post-It from upstairs, perhaps.
If not, don’t worry about it. Somebody else will take probably take care of it.
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Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park faces bleak future
Historians have postulated that, without Bletchley Park, the Allies may never have won the war.
But, despite an impressive contribution to the war effort, the Bletchley Park site, now a museum, faces a bleak future unless it can secure funding to keep its doors open and its numerous exhibits from rotting away.
Read more here.
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May 15, 2008
National Archives Overwhelmed
Washington DC, May 14, 2008 – The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is overwhelmed and behind the curve, facing huge increases in both electronic records and classified records, according to Congressional testimony today by National Security Archive director Tom Blanton.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, chaired by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), asked for the National Security Archive’s expert testimony for an oversight hearing on NARA under the title “Protecting Our Nation’s History for Future Generations.”
Blanton warned: “[T]he National Archives today faces two overwhelming challenges – the exponential increase in government-held electronic records, and the geometric increase in currently classified and previously declassified records – with which NARA has neither the resources nor the strategy to cope.”
On electronic records, Blanton cited the case of the White House e-mail to argue for Congressional mandates to agencies that they include archiving requirements at the front end of information technology procurement (the government spends $68 billion a year on IT, compared to NARA’s total budget of about $400 million and electronic archiving budget of $67 million), and for a much more active leadership and auditing role for NARA.
On classified records, the Archive’s testimony urged Congress to impose a “classification tax” on federal agencies (the government currently spends more than $8 billion a year keeping secrets and only $44 million declassifying them) to fund a National Declassification Center. The Archive also recommended that Congress change the standards for current classification and for release of historical records, with independent review boards providing oversight (following the highly successful models of the Kennedy Assassination Records Act and the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act).
Read more here.
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.
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May 13, 2008
Aid To Burma
Burmese servicemembers unload food packages from a U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules to a Burmese military vehicle at the Yangon International Airport, May 12, 2008.
The plane carrying water, food and medical supplies is part of the Joint Task Force Caring Response, a multiservice humanitarian assistance and disaster relief effort for Burmese citizens devastated by Cyclone Nargis.
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