Here is a note from an Army captain who is serving his country overseas:

While Tom expressed quite a bit of dismay at an apparent upsurge in incidents involving inappropriate relationships in the Canadian Army (Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, and that other Canadian captain, whatever his name is), I'm not surprised. I think we keep forgetting that human beings have been thinking about and having sex for all of recorded history: you can read it in writings as far back as Ovid and Pietro Aretino.

Even the Greatest Generation, our noble forefathers, were once described by the British as 'over-sexed, over-paid, and over here,' apparently liberating as many European women from the girdle of Nazi oppression as they did from their, eh, you get the point.

It's no secret that sex happens, even in combat zones, despite General Order Number One (widely interpreted as a ban on sex). It's little more than a sign of the times. Today's operational tempo doesn't lend itself well to relationships with those outside the military, with frequent year-long deployments and a hectic training schedule. It shouldn't be any surprise that troops are searching for companionship within our own ranks, particularly when they're cooped up on a FOB or COP with no other means of getting their jollies (even, according to GO1, from porn).   

Read on

Here is another comment from a parent of a soldier lost at Wanat. I do not regard this as bellyaching. These people deserve, at the very least, straight answers. Instead I think their grief is intensified by what they regard as a Pentagon runaround.

This note is from retired Army Col. David Brostrom:

My wife and I entered the briefing without any preconcieved notions of who was to blame for the Wanat debacle.  Despite all of the media attention and armchair quarterbacking we knew that our accusations of negligence could be proven false -- in fact,some were.  That is why the family members requested an independent investigation to determine without prejudice and influence from Army culture the lessons learned and leadership accountability. General Petraeus's independent investigation into the Battle of Wanat was very detailed and unbiased. In the end it found three officers guilty of dereliction of duty with numerous other findings to improve combat operations in Afghanistan.  

The UCMJ process required the Service who the accused individuals serve under to carry out the recommendations of the independent investigation. General Campbell admitted he conducted in his terms a overarching reinvestigation that questioned every facet of the CENTCOM's findings and recommendations. General Campbell by the UCMJ was the Judge, Jury, Prosecution and Defense. However, General Campbell limited his questioning to only the three officers accused of dereliction of duty and the evidence they presented in their behalf.  This evidence included letters from Army General Officers who had served in Afghanistan and who knew the three accused officers. General Campbell did not talk to any of the surviving enlisted or NCO's who fought in the battle. At the end of the day General Campbell, who has not seen combat since Vietnam, lost sight of the real issue -- the soldiers who fought and died at Wanat.  

Read on

By Rebecca Frankel
Best Defense Chief Canine Correspondent

In between headlines on Gen. William Starke Rosecrans and cartoons depicting attempts to evade the draft, the Nov. 8, 1862 edition of Harper's Weekly featured a rousing profile in patriotism on an emerging Civil War hero -- Union Jack. Though this soldier was of the "brute creation," he exhibited "far more courage, devotion, trust-worthiness ... than many a shoulder-strapped and gold-bedizened animal now walking upon two legs."

Jack's story makes for quite a war-dog yarn. It seems that before fighting for the North, Jack, a "young dog of the mastiff breed, of medium size and jetty blackness, except a white breast and a dash of white on each of his four paws," belonged to a rebel jailer in Front Royal, VA. As the loquacious reporter for Harper's Weekly tells it, Jack took a liking to the men of the First Maryland regiment while they were there on provost guard duty, and left behind his Confederate beginnings to accompany the Union soldiers to the battlefield. And it was there that he displayed his valor and loyalty.

On the road, when our parched men were fainting from thirst, he would always run forward, and whenever he discovered a pool of water would rush back, barking loudly, to tell them of it. When ... our poor fellows were literally dying from starvation, this noble animal has been known to go and catch chickens for them and to bring them in his mouth! or he would waylay  every rebel horse or wagon passing with food, and bark imploringly for them to bring relief. On one occasion, when a sick and exhausted Union soldier had been left behind, Jack staid with  him for several hours until a wagon took him up.

Read on

When I was reporting in Iraq, the Washington Post's bureau chief had a list of emergency numbers printed up and put on a laminated card you could keep in your wallet. Like who to call if you are kidnapped.

If I had the power I'd print up this comment by Fred Reed, the Hunter S. Thompson of the right, laminate it, and give one card to every member of the Pentagon press corps:

Reporters don't meet Important People because we news weasels are meritorious, but because the press enjoys power all out of proportion to its worth. If people knew reporters as well as I do, they would emigrate. You could take a blind cocker spaniel with a low IQ and give him, her, or it a press card from the Washington Post, and in three weeks every pol in the city would kiss up to the beast, who would develop delusions of grandeur.

It's the reporter's disease: You come to believe that the Secretary of the Air Force wants a press breakfast with you because he respects the depth of your thought. No. He thinks you are an idiot, and in all likelihood loathes you, but he knows that what you write will show up in the White House clips."

I just want to note that one of my dogs already has delusions of grandeur, and she doesn't even have a press card.

Marine Gen. James Mattis is going to take over the Central Command post from Petraeus, Defense Secretary Gates just announced.

This is the best news I have heard in a long time. Just when I think Gates has lost his touch, he revives my faith by doing something like this. Readers of this blog will know that I think Mattis is terrific.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, earlier this week took reporters to task for being too negative. According to NPR, he wrote that:

As I review news coverage of Iraq, I thought it would be helpful to provide you with my perspective ... Iraqis are embracing their version of democracy."

There is political debate as party leaders work to form a new government. The population has been united in its commitment to representative government, just as it was united in its rejection of violence and attempts to ignite sectarian violence. Are we witnessing political rhetoric? To be sure. Isn't that natural following a close election?"

Reporters responded with alacrity. The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse wrote back, in a reply to all:

You say that Iraqis are'embracing their version of democracy.' I expect you might have quite a hard time finding someone at the market who would describe his or her relationship to Iraq's democracy in this way. Four months after the election, with no new government in sight, the majority of people I have spoken to are deeply frustrated with their experience of democracy. Surely, they ask, democracy is about more than that one day every four or five years, when we go to put out crosses on a ballot paper? Surely it is about the ability to hold our representatives to account and make them work on our behalf? This is not the experience most Iraqis have with democracy so far."

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, in reporting on all this, added a comment of her own. She noted that she has spent most of the last eight years in Baghdad. She wrote that:

This was probably my last trip to Iraq for awhile, and I've spent six weeks moving around the country talking to regular Iraqis far removed from the politicians and military men.

Many have told me how disappointed they are by the direction Iraq is headed.

It has been four months since the parliamentary elections, and the parties are still bickering over who gets to form a government. Electricity is terrible, the phone networks don't work, and most basic services like water and sewage are patchy at best. Iraq is constantly indexed as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced.

And there is still violence, every single day. About 4,400 American service members have given their lives in Iraq. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died.

Both Iraqis and Americans are still being killed, though in vastly reduced numbers."

General Lanza is entitled to his opinion, but this was stupid of him for a couple of reasons. First, the reporters in Baghdad generally know Iraq far better than he ever will. Many of those still there have been there for years. And most of them get around the city far more than he ever will. The U.S. military should avoid anything that smacks of happy talk in Iraq. They tried it for several years and it didn't work.

Meanwhile, more than 400 people were killed or wounded by bomb blasts in recent days.

Here is a note from my CNAS colleague Ethan Kapstein, who has been hanging out in Kabul lately:

The firing of General Stanley McChrystal following his remarks to a Rolling Stone reporter risk overwhelming the real progress that is now being made in Afghanistan. In particular, Afghanistan is enjoying strong economic growth in several parts of the country.

What explains these regional booms? The answer is clear: It's security.

For that reason, a premature withdrawal of American forces -- now slated by the Obama Administration to begin in July 2011 -- could undermine all that is being achieved. The data show that when Afghans feel secure, they invest in their economy. The United States and its coalition partners should not depart before they are confident that this economic momentum can be maintained, since it is growth which provides the surest foundations for a more peaceful future.

It's not really surprising that Afghanistan is ready for an economic take-off; after so many decades of conflict, there's pent-up demand for almost every good and service imaginable. As a result, many different sectors of the economy are booming, including construction, finance, and transportation.

Read on

I was reading a 1986 paper from the School of Advanced Military Studies about generalship and was interested by this quotation from Hermann Balck, a senior German general of World War II:

Even my largest and most important operations orders were verbal [oral]. After all there wasn't any need for written orders. As division commander, I forbade the use of written orders within my division."