Feral Jundi

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Afghanistan: The Taliban Fear Contractors

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Strategy — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:52 AM

    The attacks “are not about armed confrontation. They are about subversion of the government,” said Terrence K. Kelly, a senior researcher at the Washington-based RAND Corporation who has studied how rebuilding efforts work in war zones. America’s strategy counts on development work to increase the legitimacy and reach of the Karzai government. With these attacks the Taliban can “turn off the delivery of services — which makes the government look bad,” he said.

    USAID insists it will not scale back its work in Afghanistan because of the attacks, according to Rebecca Black, the agency’s deputy mission director for Afghanistan.

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    Break guerillas’ moral-mental-physical hold over the population, destroy their cohesion, and bring about their collapse via political initiative that demonstrates moral legitimacy and vitality of government and by relentless military operations that emphasize stealth/fast-tempo/fluidity-of-action and cohesion of overall effort.

     *If you cannot realize such a political program, you might consider changing sides! -Page 108, Patterns of Conflict, Col. John Boyd

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   They must fear us, if they feel it is necessary to attack us. They know that we are out in the towns of Afghanistan, connecting with the people, and winning them over with jobs and support.  And when we say we are doing this in the name of the Afghan government, and people see the fruits of this labor, well then that makes the government look good.  Happy people, happy government, and sad sad sad Taliban. lol  It also makes the Taliban’s shadow government sad, because now they have to contend with the goodwill the contractors are spreading.

   So what does this mean?  From a strategist point of view, and from a COIN point of view, my people (contractors) are actually connecting with the Afghans and making an impact.  We are the civilian face of the war effort, and the Taliban fear us. They must, if they are purposely trying to attack us–I thought we didn’t matter?

   It also means that we should be doing more of it.  If the Taliban fear what we are doing, then I say increase the effort and further support the various programs that we are involved with out there. Focus on the programs that make the Afghan government look good, and makes the Taliban shadow government look frivolous and pathetic. Keep connecting with the people and providing them with jobs and purpose.

   Now on to another factor of these attacks.  Because the US and ISAF militaries are so hung up on living on the big box FOBs and commuting to work, the Taliban and their shadow government is pushing around the population and terrorizing them into doing what they want.  That is what shadow governments do–they undermine the current government with the idea of making them look illegitimate or ineffectual.  That shadow government will do everything it can to either win over the population, or impose their will on the population.  In order to stop that shadow government, you need to provide a ‘big stick’ in the area that will put the smack down on these guys. You also have to be better at influencing the people than the shadow government. It also helps that the current government is legitimate and not corrupt in the eyes of the people.

   And that is a big problem.  Crazy Karzai and his clown posse is not helping things at all, and in turn, the people have no respect for the government. It will also hurt the troops and police morale, both of the Afghans and of the Coalition.  No one likes working for a loser.

   Ideally, if you can’t change Karzai’s tune, then he should be voted out by the people. Unfortunately, Karzai is rigging the voting booths, and that simple act of screwing with the electoral process is to me the one area that needs to be fixed.  Why would people vote to change out a leader, if they cannot trust that their vote is being counted?  If we are in this war for the long haul, the goal should be to clamp down on election fraud and use every bit of muscle we can to ensure that it is fair. In fact, we should be planning for the next election, and learn from past efforts of worthless elections. We can also use a big stick to beat down this shadow government in the meantime.

   We must get the troops out into the population centers. (FOBs equals few and large, COP’s equals many and small-New Rules of War)  Do it Ramadi style, and convoy right into the worst parts of these towns and cities, and move right on in with a well supported platoon or company. Pick a city block, pay the owners of the block and homes really well, and then walk the beat like a cop.  The image the people should have, is a troop presence, mixed with an Afghan police presence, all with the expressed desire of protecting the people and pushing out this shadow government and enemy forces.  This would be the big stick in these areas, and with this kind of presence, they could also protect the various contractors out there that are trying to get aid out to the people. Clear, hold, build.

    We must protect and serve the people, and to do that, we need to get out there and live where they live.  Or troops can continue to commute to their job site, and protect the people when it is convenient.  Meanwhile, the contractors outside the wire, will continue to be the focus of the Taliban, and the Taliban shadow government will continue to do what they want. Ideally, we must have sound leadership in the Afghan government as well or something the people can respect. Boyd made a point on emphasizing this as well. (see quote up top)

   I would also like to say that I am not alone in this thinking.  Tim from Free Range International has an excellent post on the same subject and I highly recommend his blog to further your research on the matter.-Matt

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Attacks against contractors surging in Afghanistan

By NOOR KHAN and TIM SULLIVAN

April 24, 2010

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The message, very often, is sent with bloodshed.

A suicide bombing last week on a fortified Kandahar guesthouse shared by Western contracting companies killed four Afghans and injured several Americans. An Afghan engineer was shot dead in March as he helped inspect a school not far from the Pakistan border. An Afghan woman who worked for a U.S.-based consulting firm was shot by motorbike-riding gunmen as she headed home in this southern city.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Afghanistan: Taliban Targets U.S. Contractors Working On Projects In Afghanistan

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 5:44 AM

   Rest in peace to all those contractors who have fallen at the hands of the Taliban.  My heart goes out to the friends and families of these heroes.

   What I also want to mention is that it sounds like what these contractors are doing, is a threat to the Taliban.  That is awesome!  These USAID implementing partners are the ones going around and dishing out the money and projects that make the government look good, and keep potential Taliban fighters busy with work.  I say double the size of the program if this is the effect it has, and give these guys what they need for success.

   I also want to highlight all the Afghan guards that have perished in the defense of these folks.  Just read all the incidents below and it is filled with Afghan security contractor KIA’s.  Perhaps it is time to supplement the security for these implementing partners with some expat security, just to make sure that security is being properly done?  Or dress up some military folks to look like civilians, and have them soup up the security for these guys?  The point is, if this current aid strategy is a threat to the Taliban, then maybe we should work a little harder on providing proper security for it? Or maybe these Afghan security forces are sufficient? Tim would probably have something to say about it. –Matt

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Taliban targets U.S. contractors working on projects in Afghanistan

By Joshua PartlowSaturday, April 17, 2010

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The Taliban has begun regularly targeting U.S. government contractors in southern Afghanistan, stepping up use of a tactic that is rattling participating firms and could undermine development projects intended to stem the insurgency, according to U.S. officials.

Within the past month, there have been at least five attacks in Helmand and Kandahar provinces against employees of U.S. Agency for International Development contractors who are running agricultural projects, building roads, maintaining power plants and working with local officials.

The USAID “implementing partners,” as they are known, employ mainly Afghans, who are overseen by foreigners. The companies’ role is becoming increasingly important as more aid money floods into southern Afghanistan as part of a dual effort to generate goodwill and bolster the Kabul government.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Strategy: Smart Power And The Defense Industry

Filed under: Strategy — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:51 AM

   Boy, this is a long one and this will take you a little bit to read through all the speeches and various articles.  But hey, if you are a student of strategy and are wanting to take a look into the future of defense contracting, you have to figure out what the big boys are thinking and wanting to do.

   What is interesting about ‘Smart Power’, is that it is a concept that gained it’s start as a political buzz word to differentiate one party’s views on foreign policy versus another’s. Which is standard play in the world of politics. Although I would argue that every administration no matter what party, all strive to use smart power in their foreign policy strategies. But hey, I will let the political pundits play that game–I have more important things to talk about.

   With that said, with a new administration comes newly minted foreign policy goals. Smart power is the flag pole that they are rallying around and that is what we all must focus on in order to stay current.

   There are a number of places to research the definition and origins of the concept of smart power.  For this post, I wanted to stick with Matt Armstrong’s definition of smart power because his pays respect to the original strategists who promoted such concepts back in their day.  He built a ‘snow mobile’ out of it, and brought in Sun Tzu and Clausewitz to create four pieces to the definition.(see below)

   Now that we have perspective and reference for smart power, my intention in this post was to highlight what the defense industry thinks about smart power.  Just look at the latest moves of Cerberus, and you will see how important this smart power concept is.  DynCorp, along with other defense companies involved with contracting, are all trying to adapt to the goals of a new administration and their ‘smart power’ focus, and investors are taking notice.  So what does all this mean for security contractors like you and me?

   Training, training, and more training is going to be the wave of the smart power future.  In order to stop a state from failing, you need to get into nation building, and the defense industry is jumping all over that.  From training police and military forces to propping up government institutions, the defense industry is all about training and mentoring. Expect to see more contracts in really bad places in the world, all with a focus on strengthening the recognized government and stabilizing that country.  Those are the places that need expertise and all the help we can give them, and private industry will answer that call.

   We also can provide other necessities of the state.  We can build defenses, enforce borders, build government facilities, create ‘Green Zones’, guard dignitaries or investors (commerce is vital to failed states as well), build infrastructure and provide the necessary support to the U.S. military and federal government as they go around the world and implement ‘smart power’. We are the SysAdmin and the ‘hold and build’ portion of today’s strategies. Security contractors are essential for all of that, whether a local national guard or it being an expat guard.  Someone has to protect these folks as they rebuild a crumbling state.

   Smart power is very friendly to private industry in another way.  Using military for everything when it comes to nation building, is not smart.  If we want to put a civilian face to our diplomacy, as opposed to a menacing military face, then smart power requirements will need civilians.  Of course there will be federal employees providing that civilian face, but that only goes so far, and federal response is no where near as fast as private industry response.  In other words, private industry equals speed, flexibility and scalability.  In a fast paced and highly dangerous world, private military companies with nation building capabilities and built in security mechanisms will be necessary to implement smart power strategies.  Just look at today’s wars and projects throughout the world, and tell me private industry doesn’t have a role in that process?  (might I note that contracting has only increased under the current admin–too bad we get zero recognition for our contribution to smart power)

   Interesting stuff, and let me know what you think. –Matt

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Smart Power is “the capacity of an actor to combine elements of hard power and soft power in ways that are mutually reinforcing such that the actor’s purposes are advanced effectively and efficiently.”  Those familiar with Sun Tzu and Clausewitz will recognize the four elements of Smart Power:

• The target over which one seeks to exercise power—its internal nature and its broader global context. Power cannot be smart if those who wield it are ignorant of these attributes of the target populations and regions.

• Self-knowledge and understanding of one’s own goals and capacities. Smart power requires the wielder to know what his or her country or community seeks, as well as its will and capacity to achieve its goals.

• The broader regional and global context within which the action will be conducted.

• The tools to be employed, as well as how and when to deploy them individually and in combination.

From the Mountain Runner blog.

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What’s “Smart Power”? DynCorp’s Tony Smeraglinolo on six best practices

April 12th, 2010

by JD Kathuria

“Smart power” — ever since Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined the policy in a 2008 speech, it’s become the emerging tenet for how the United States should approach global security initiatives. Through a mix of military strength and nation-building activities, the aim is to keep “fractured or failed states,” as Gates put it, from teetering on the brink of war — or from requiring the US military, already stretched thin in Iraq or Afghanistan, from having to intervene further.

The urgency for smart power has only grown with the Obama administration’s call for $39.4 billion in funding for civilian foreign operations in fiscal 2011. Now comes the hard part: Determining how smart power can be implemented effectively to address global challenges.

Tony Smeraglinolo is working to cut through that uncertainty. As president of Global Stabilization and Development Solutions for DynCorp International, Smeraglinolo offers up this succinct definition: Smart power requires the application of three D’s — Defense, Diplomacy, and Development.  Since assuming his role in April 2009, Smeraglinolo has helped structure his division at DynCorp to provide all three core competencies.

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Thursday, April 8, 2010

Strategy: ‘The Toyota Horde’ And More Hybrid Warfare Stuff

Filed under: Iran,Israel,PMC 2.0,Publications,Strategy — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:40 AM

   I love papers like this, because these are the kind of deals that ruffle the feathers of Tankers and Armor fans, as well as status quo military thinkers. Thanks to Small Wars Journal for publishing it. Basically, William has presented some excellent low cost hybrid warfare concepts that should be of great interest to the military and PMC’s. It’s a different way of looking at armor and maneuver warfare as it applies to small countries and armies, and today’s wars.

   The concept revolves around using small pickups that are easily available throughout the world as a means to transport troops and really modern weaponry–like Javelins for example.  He goes into how Hezbollah fought the Israelis in 2006, and used that war as an example of the kind of fight that would benefit from the Toyota Horde idea.

   Especially if Hezbollah actually had better proficiency with their anti-tank weapons.  If they had actually trained with those weapons and got proficient before that battle, they could have easily upped the numbers of kills.  Javelins and other fire and forget weapons would have been a game changer and the Israelis would have really felt the sting. But just basic anti-tank gunnery skills would have really changed the dynamic.

   The pickup can also be used for the hard work of fortifying a region or prepping the battlefield, much like what Hezbollah did.  They planted IED’s all over the place, set up tank traps, built rocket hides, you name it.  Cheap local trucks, that can quickly transport people, bombs and tools all over the place, are all you need for that endeavor.  And with fortified regions, hybrid armies actually want to be attacked so they can suck in armored columns into their traps.  Then attacks on the logistics can be set up, as well as attacks on individual tanks and APC’s, all using the stuff that was planted.  Much like what Hezbollah did.

   The trucks can also disappear into the population.  Hell, you could use taxis as transports, and really blend into society.  If the trucks are attacked, a group like Hezbollah could kill some civilians, throw them in those trucks, film it and put it all on youtube and say the attacking force killed these innocents.  In essence, these local vehicle/military transports, are the ultimate tools for hybrid warfare and playing the propaganda game to your advantage.

   Now to put on my PMC hat.  Imagine contracting your services to a country, in order to build up regional fortifications and set up this Toyota Horde and Hezbollah style hybrid warfare concept?  It would be cheap, quick to get off the ground, and pretty effective if done correctly. You could also use the country’s current weapon systems to add to those regional fortifications, much like what William was talking about in his paper.  You could also use these ideas, if PMC’s ever had to fight other PMC’s in the coming future. (big if) Notice that the New Rules Of War fit nicely with this paper as well. Interesting stuff and maybe the ‘Somali technicals’ are the wave of the future? lol –Matt

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The classic Somali Technical…. Bring on the Toyota Horde!!

The Toyota Horde: Examining a Lost Cost Military Capability

by William F. Owen

Download the full article: The Toyota Horde

The subject of this article is a broad technical and operational examination of how almost any country on earth can currently gain a viable level of military power by building on the enduring elements of combined arms warfare. These elements are enduring and appeared in the first twenty years of the twentieth century. It is further suggested that skillfully applied this type of capability may enable its user to confront and possibly defeat NATO type expeditionary forces.

A number of popular opinions about the future nature of warfare have created a substantially misleading impression that the skills and equipment required for formation level combined arms capability, such as that possessed by NATO during the cold war is no longer needed, because few potential enemies possess similar peer capability. Thus the object of the article is to show just how simply a peer or near-peer capability can be acquired, and maintained.

Contrary to popular belief, there are many examples of where military action by irregular forces has inflicted battlefield defeats on regular forces. The most famous are the Boer defeats of the British Army during “Black Week” in December 1899 and the Hussite Wars of the 15th Century, where irregular forces, using improvised barricades made of ox wagons (wagenburgs) were able to stand against and defeat the armoured knights of the Holy Roman Empire. In both cases each irregular force was able to generate conventional military force from fairly meager resources. There is nothing novel, new or even complex, in this approach. It is common, enduring and proven.

Download the full article: The Toyota Horde

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William F Owen is British and was born in Singapore in 1963. Privately educated, he joined the Army in 1981, and served in both regular and territorial units until resigning in 1993 to work on defense and advisory projects in Kuwait, Taiwan, Algeria, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone. An accomplished glider, fixed wing and helicopter pilot, he works as a writer, broadcaster and defence analyst.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Afghanistan: Protecting Telecom Should Be A Priority, And How Private Industry Can Help

Filed under: Afghanistan,PMC 2.0,Technology — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 3:43 AM

   I have read both of these stories below and I am in absolute disbelief that we are allowing this to happen?  Protecting cell towers and telecommunications in Afghanistan should be a wartime priority.  For COIN or counter-terrorism operations, this is your connection to the people, and to not protect that connection is just stupid.  Who the hell is in charge, and why are they allowing the Taliban to do this?

   So with that said, if today’s military strategists and war planners cannot do the job of protecting this stuff, then my suggestion is to contract it out.  Private industry could totally protect each and every cell tower, and entire contract vehicles could be set up to do such a thing. You could actually set it up for world-wide telecommunications protection services (WTPS), just because cell towers and phones will be vital to the war effort in those places as well. Both the troops and civilian contractors use cell phones for operations, as well as the civilian populations for their commerce and day to day rebuilding activities of their towns and cities.  To allow the Taliban or anyone to shut that down or mess with it, is just dumb.

     I can’t stress enough on how important this stuff is, and I am floored that it is not a priority in the war.  It’s right up there with logistics.  Because more than likely, the tips that will come in and lead to the capture of high value terrorists (like Bin Laden), will come via a cellphone call or text message from a pissed off villager.  You allow that to shut down and you have just effectively shot yourself in the foot.

   Anyway, private industry will step up if the military doesn’t want to take this on. Hell, DoS or DoD could take charge of this…… that’s if anyone cares. –Matt

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Afghan Cell Carriers Follow Taliban Rules

by Alex Sundby

March 26, 2010

Afghanistan’s cell phone companies and the Taliban have formed a kind of detente in the southern and eastern parts of the wartorn country. The phone companies shut down their cell towers at night, preventing local residents from discreetly calling coalition military tip lines. In exchange, Taliban militants don’t target the costly cell towers with explosives.

It’s a part of day-to-day life The Wall Street Journal explores at length. The deal between the phone companies and the Taliban isn’t a secret to the Afghan government with the country’s communications minister telling the newspaper, “We understand that in some areas, unfortunately, there is no other way … We don’t have security to protect the towers.”

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