We’ll see how it goes. I think it is important to note our continuing work, which continues to be ignored by the main stream media, and that we will be impacted by the drawdown as well. Supplies will still need to be brought in to the camps, and even more security contractors will be needed to haul equipment out along with those standard logistics runs. And as U.S. troops are shuffled around, the civilian camp security elements will become more important to ‘buffer’ these movements. Oh, and don’t forget the fact that all the facility maintenance is highly dependent on civilian contractors, and without these folks. These guys are really important when AC units or generators breakdown, or god forbid, any internet networks break down.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Podcasts: ‘Long, Hot Summer’ Ahead For U.S. Troops In Iraq
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Saturday, June 6, 2009
Podcasts: SAIS Hosted Book Discussion–‘War 2.0’, With Andrew Exum and Thomas Rid
I highly recommend listening to this discussion, if you want a good primer for the book War 2.0. –Matt
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SAIS Hosted Book Discussion on Irregular Warfare With Scholar Thomas Rid on June 1
Thomas Rid, Calouste Gulbenkian Fellow at the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations and co-author of the new book War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age; and Andrew Exum, fellow at the Center for a New American Security and founder of the Abu Muqawama blog, discussed Rid’s book on Monday, June 1. Click here to download audio of this event (right-click or ctrl-click and choose “Save As”).
Or listen to the discussion at this link to SAIS here.
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War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information AgeBy Marc Hecker, Thomas Rid
Product Description
War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected trends are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt: the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the Web. Both in cyberspace and in warfare, the grassroots public has assumed increasing importance in recent years. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes. This newly interactive and participatory form of the Web promotes and enables offline action. Similarly, after Rumsfeld’s attempt to transform the US military into a lean, lethal, computerized force crashed in Iraq in 2003, counterinsurgency rose from the ashes. Counterinsurgency is a social form of war—indeed, the U.S. Army calls it armed social work—in which the local matrix population becomes the center of strategic gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability.
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Thursday, May 7, 2009
Podcasts: COR Interviews Doug Brooks of IPOA, Discusses Industry Regulation
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Podcasts: NPR-Behind The Business Plan of Pirates Inc.
I posted the initial story awhile back under ‘paracargo’, with a photo of some cash being dropped to a boat to pay off the pirates. That part was fascinating to me, but this part of the operation is equally fascinating. Matter of fact, the whole thing should be a case study at some maritime institute for modern day piracy and kidnap and ransom negotiations on the high seas. –Matt
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Podcast Here.
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David B. Hudson/U.S. Navy/AP
A container is parachuted to a ship being held by Somali pirates on Jan. 9. It’s believed the container held ransom money for the ship and its crew — the usual way pirates collect “pay” for their “work” in the piracy business model.
Behind The Business Plan Of Pirates Inc.
by Chana Joffe-Walt
All Things Considered, April 30, 2009 ·
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has become an international problem — and an international business. Navy SEALS rescued an American merchant captain earlier this month after Somali pirates raided the Maersk Alabama as it was making its way around the Horn of Africa to deliver aid.
But the issues of criminality and the potential for violence aside, a closer look at the “business model” of piracy reveals that the plan makes economic sense.
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Friday, May 1, 2009
Podcasts: Private Military Herald Radio Interviews T. Christian Miller
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