Korea

I feel that the recent flight of two B-2 bombers was meant to let North Korea know the U.S. will possible respond if it or South Korea is attacked. But how will the US respond is the question.

“This is important for two reasons: The north only respects one thing — strength and power,” said retired Army Col. David Maxwell. “It is important to demonstrate that strength and will. Second, the north will not attack in the face of strength and readiness.” Under the International Law umbrella, I have been studying how states and non states interact with one another. Under the International Law umbrella, I have been pondering realism and idealism quiet a bit, which is wrong and which is right or maybe a mixture of the both. I believe this quote above reveals America's attitude and behavior, I'm not saying its wrong or right, but the B-2 Bombers sent to Korea war definitely a realism approach to the issue in North Korea. “Ironically the stronger we are the less there is a chance of miscalculation by the regime,” Maxwell said in an email. “If we show daylight in the alliance they will try to exploit that and then we are going to have trouble.” How do you seek an idealist approach when a country avoids negotiations stating and believes the armistices that ended the Korean war to be void?  

Being a military commander, I bet it is hard to take an idealistic approach to any conflict. You have the strongest military in the world and you are in control of that military in some capacity, why wouldn't you want to use it! I believe it can be very tempting to just say, "we can send in the military". And to give commanders some slack, that is their job. That is why they are in the military, to command and lead soldiers in war. 

The B-2 bombers flew from an American base all the way to South Korea to drop fake munitions on an Island off the mainland of South Korea and then back to America in all in one mission. No stopping, so there is no doubt it was to warn the N. Korean.“Tension rises almost every year when it’s time for the U.S.-South Korean drills to take place, but as soon as those drills end, things quickly return to normal,” Sung Hyun-sang said in Seoul. North Korea’s latest threats are seen as efforts to test the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang. North Korea’s moves at home to order troops into “combat readiness” also are seen as ways to build domestic unity as Kim Jong Un, who took power after his father’s death in December 2011, strengthens his military credentials. I am looking forward to the response of Kim Jong-un to the warning. 

Special Operators Whereabouts After Afghanistan.

The secretive special forces are already known for their undercover work and low key operations. As the war in Afghanistan is drawing to end, where will the majority of the special forces (SF) go? Admiral Bill McRaven, the US Special Operations Commander gives us some direction to where they will be in the near future.

March 6th, Adm. McRaven met with lawmakers to talk about this very issue. He mentions that the majority of Special Operators are in the Central Command Region (USCENTCOM--the yellow area on the map above), about 85% of all SF are deployed to the CENTCOM region. It is Adm. McRavens desire to push the Special Operators to other commands or regions as their work is sone in Afghanistan (or will it ever be done). To be honest, I believe America and the US Special Operation Command (USSOCOM) will keep a close eye on the CENTCOM region and have a force that is ready to fight in an instant near by. SF will continue to operate in Afghanistan and Pakistan after conventional forces leave, it only make sense.

If the majority of SF leaves CENTCOM, where will they go and what will they be doing? In 2001, there were about 30,000 special operators in the Navy, Air Force, and Army. Now in 2013, the force has grown significantly to 70,000 and the addition of the Marine Special Operation Command (MARSOC) in 2006. I imagine the continued growth of SF because of the way we are fighting. Unconventional, irregular, guerrillas, terrorist, freedom fighters, whatever you want to call them, warfare has changed and it calls for SF attention. Politicians label the SF community the "cure all medicine". I have the feeling politicians rely on the SF to fix anything and they might be able to, but just because the SF can sure all doesn't mean you send them every time. To answer my question at the beginning of the paragraph, SF  will be providing internal defense to foriegn allies and network to strengthen relationships.

As Im looking at the map  above, its hard not to think that America just divided up the world into region and probably put in place commanders over each region and a responsibility within that region. Just funny to think about and how it relates to America trying to police the world.

Looking Back to Iraq

Military TImes-10 Years After The Invasion

This article is very well put together, in my opinion. One of the reasons I like this piece is because of its focus on reflecting on what happened 10 years ago in Iraq, not exploring was this war right or justified.

Looking back, all I remember about the initial fight for Bagdad was watching it on TV, thinking it was so cool that we were killin' the bad guys. I remember the new station had the coverage going 24/7 with bombs dropping in the night and tracer bullets flying through the air. Not knowing or even caring that this war would trickle out longer than expected. We did not realize the mess we were getting into.“Our mission was go in from the start and set the conditions for success, and then leave and turn things over to the Iraqis, the State Department and contractors, and try to get the military out very quickly,” said Blount, who retired in 2005. “It grew into more later, but that was not the intent initially.”

The US military expected heavy fighting with the Iraqi Republican Guard, tanks, air planes, and chemical weapons were expected too, however, none of these were seen. But most of the Iraqi Guard slipped into insurgency and insurgency warfare. The US military did not expect this at all. It seems the US Army and Marines were trained for heavy combat and intense fighting with the Iraqi, not counterinsurgency. Im mean what an adjustment soldiers and Marines had to make. Now, our soldiers were dealing with unconventional warfare, IED and suicide bombers. How do you adjust to this warfare almost immediately? We took Bagdad and the conventional warfare expedition was over it seems.“The whole purpose of the plan was regime change,” said Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy. Preventing an insurgency wasn’t the initial plan, however. U.S. forces were told to topple Saddam and prepare to go home. To combat the insurgency, then, the U.S. military had to change the way it fights wars to make its central mission protecting the Iraqi population. The Army would later codify some of the lessons learned in a 2008 field manual on “full spectrum operations,” which made clear that soldiers had to be ready to fight both conventional and irregular wars.

Again, I'm not writing this to express whether the war was right or wrong, its over and a part of history. My question is how did we get involved without knowing the war would drag on. That the war would turn into conventional forces vs. insurgence. Was it a lack of planning? Lack of leadership? Maybe its easier said than done now looking back. Also, what does this mean for our military now? It seems we that we will not be fighting conventional forces in the near future, but maybe i'm wrong. Look at the drug cartels in Latin America, Taliban in the Middle East and Asia, and rebel fighters in Africa. Warfare seems to be turning to guerrilla tactics, at least used towards the Unites State's forces. And how do you present ideas or alternative methods to solving the conflict with these groups? War is not black and white, there are many gray areas I believe that cannot be answered right away.

What is ISAF?

I have seen this patch everywhere, but never knew what it really meant until now. I have finally taken sometime to study what ISAF actually stands for.

International Security Assistance Force is the name. The mission of ISAF is to help and support the government of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, by "reducing the capability and will of the insurgency, support the growth in capacity and capability of the Afghan National Security Forces, and facilitate improvements in governance and socio-economic development in order to provide a secure environment for sustainable stability that is observable to the population". However, the main role of ISAF is to assist, train, prepare, and equip the Afghanistan nation army. The two, ISAF and Afghanistan perform operations and training to best prepare the Afghanistan army. The ISAF also, supports and monitors reconstruction and development through out Afghanistan, including contractors, humanitarian aide from Afghanistan and foreign nations, IGOs, and NGOs. Mostly all NATO members give troops of some sort, some many than others. The United States is leading the troop count with approximately 68,000 troops and Luxembourg is at the bottom with 10 troops. The United Kingdom comes is second and Germany third with the most troops present.

Pursuing a career in the Military, I think it would cool to be a commander of the ISAF (hopefully we are no longer in Afghanistan when I would be a high ranking officer, but the ISAF may still be around). But as I was thinking how cool it would be to meet, lead, and command troops from around the world, I feel the ISAF is such a big organization and would be filled with bureaucratic loop holes to jump through. I feel as if I would be playing the politics game. With so many countries involve and really the United States as the leader of the ISAF, I would be required to do things or not do things that should be done, or say things or not say thing I think should be said. This I believe would drive me nuts. And going into the military I will meet this game of politics head on. How do you skip the bureaucratic loop holes and can you even avoid the "playing the game"? These are all questions of mine as I plan a future in the military. Only God knows what is in store.