Armchair Generalist

The End of the War of the Worlds

It's so quiet today. There's no planes flying, no traffic. But something's... different. The television works again. I'm watching CNN, and they have Secretary of DHHS Kathy Seleblius talking. She's saying that the tripods have collapsed - the Martian soldiers are lying dead in the streets. The government's done a quick autopsy on some of the corpses, and the doctors all agree.

The Martians died of exposure to H1N1 virus. It's hard to understand, but I suppose because the infectious bug is so alien to them, it was 100 percent toxic. They're all dead. Says Seleblius, "Thank goodness our vaccine production was slower than we had anticipated. Enough people were sick by swine flu that every Martian in every state was affected. It was unintentional biological warfare." Martians in the United Kingdom, Russia, and other parts of the world have been similarly affected.

In other news, it seems that reports about Senator Mitch McConnell and Rep. John Boehner being killed in Washington DC hospital emergency rooms are true. The two Republicans were trying to cut past injured people who had been waiting hours for treatment, and... well, it didn't go well. The two started shouting something about "it's Obama's fault you don't have health care - go wait for your death panel!" and then the crowd just lost it. Yeah, I'll miss those two. 

President Obama has returned to the White House after he and a few Secret Service bodyguards dished out some big-time whoop-ass on the Martians. He returned carrying a strange gravity gun, pulse rifle, shotgun, crossbow, an SMG and a .357 Magnum. "Well," he said, "just having hope was not an option." 

City on Fire

Arlington, Virginia, is burning tonight. The firefighters are trying to keep the flames from spreading, but the tripods aren't giving them much leeway. 

I have to make a decision, whether to stay or go in the morning. There's no question that the Martian soldiers and their air support will be pushing south toward Richmond. And I'm in their way. 

Dammit. I should have left while it was light. I'm just as afraid of human threats as alien. 

And Now for Something Completely Different

The BBC is reporting that Nick Pope has been named Minister for the new Alien Affairs ministry, coordinating all responses to the alien threat. Hat tip to Travels with Shiloh.

Reports of Resistance

Radio news is now broadcasting that President Obama has not in fact been on board Air Force 1, although his family was evacuated from Washington DC. The word is that Obama grabbed a prototype soldier life support system - an orange armored suit that was in testing for possible employment in Afghanistan - and a crowbar and ran toward the immense building that seems to be the center of some mass turbulence.

Authorities continue to warn inhabitants of Washington DC - renamed by the invaders as "City 17," based on the sequenceof cities they've captured - to evacuate and move south.

Martian Foot Soldiers Attack

There's no signal on the television, but strangely enough, the internet is still working. A friend of mine made it out of Washington DC with these pictures of black-garbed humanoids with masks. They seem to be rounding up survivors and herding them toward a glowing portal of some kind.

Unfortunately, some talk radio is still broadcasting. Rush Limbaugh is on the air, squawking about how this is all President Obama's fault, that his defense cutbacks - which haven't even taken place yet - are responsible for this lapse in homeland security. "You wouldn't have seen President Bush running to Cheyenne Mountain," the fat one trumpeted. "No, he would have strapped on his Navy aviator suit and jumped into an F22 to go fight the Martians. But not this president..."

Hopefully the invaders will follow the radio signal from the studio where Rush is broadcasting and take him out.

UPDATE: The governors are calling out their Army and Air Guard units. The Pentagon has been silent for the last few hours, and we've heard nothing from the national leadership.

War of the Worlds

Washington is a ghost-town now. I was watching the helicopter news footage of these strange, tripod-like machines moving across the town. They have a strange heat-ray that has been destroying buildings, killing people, killing the soldiers trying to fight against them. It's been horrible, watching the cherry trees burning near the Jefferson Memorial.

Streams of tired and dirty refugees are passing through Northern Virgina, everyone going south, south to what? There aren't any shelters set up yet, but everyone is just determined to get away from these terrible death machines. I've heard that FEMA is setting up some camps, but Sean Hannity is on the radio warning people not to go, that it's a trap intended to confiscate guns from the survivors. Bill O'Reilly is convinced that this is all a hoax.

Mists of green smoke have swirled forth from the machines, and it appears to be some kind of toxic nerve agent. No one is alive now, not human, not animal, it seems. No one knows want they want. The National Guard sent tanks after them - they were destroyed. I could see the F16 planes being shot down after trying to take out the tripods. A few of the tripods fell, but there are more. If only we had more F22 Raptors... Nothing is working. 

I've heard that the Congress has gone to Mt. Weather, Virginia. President Obama is in Air Force One, flying toward Cheyenne Mountain. No one has heard from Joe Biden, which is unusual, considering the man never stops talking. There hasn't been a national declaration of emergency, although I'm expecting it any moment. Footage of tripods attacking New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other major cities is circulating around on YouTube. Nothing about European capitals yet. New Zealand and Australia seem to have been missed by the attackers.

Disaster in Silver Springs

Early this morning, a huge meteoroid hit a residential area in Silver Springs, Maryland. The firemen are still battling blazes, and the police are keeping people out of the impact area. It's strange... I see that there are reports of meteor strikes all over the country, such as this one in New Jersey.

There are some wild reports about a large cylindrical container in the impact area, but I think that's just crazy talk, considering that only Faux News is reporting such instances.

UPDATE: CNN has a shot of the New Jersey impact area.

UPDATE II: Russia, Romania, other nations are hit.

Casual Fridays

Oh, the horror... the horror... 

Comrade E.B. Misfit was right not to trust the makers of Battlestar Galactica. Even with the talented Eddie Olmos as the director, "The Plan" ultimately disappoints, but only after raising your hopes in the first third, praying that the plot will pull out its death spiral in the second third, and then depression sets in during the last third.

I am going to do you a favor and tell you the plan, so that you don't have to suffer like I did. The Plan is... to kill all the humans. Really. That's it. And when Cavil finds out that some escaped, well, he's going to dog his comrades until they all take out some humans. But for machines, these skin-jobs aren't that good. 

The Cavil skin-job is the main character of this show, with a split personality - one is hell-bent on revenge, and the other seems to realize that it's no good. Then the show drags on for another hour. There are some good spots in the beginning, notably the scenes of the Final Five in their idillic states in the colonies (pre-invasion). Each one has a skin-job shadowing him/her. I want to think that this is to keep the Final Five alive when the nukes hit, which is a gorgeous graphic battle. 

We get to see Boomer get coached by Cavil on the Galactica to cause trouble, while Sam Anders gets advice and religion from Cavil 2. There are a lot of season 1 and 2 clips mixed into the tape, and that's okay - but the rest of the plot sucks. There is some deal of gratuitous nudity - which I don't mind, but seeing naked men and women troopers in the latrine really isn't all that. Neither was the nude woman bartender. It was just out of place.

 The extras suck just as much as the film. All the actors and Olmos, as the director, seem to be having such a good time, but they really don't explain anything. No story as to how the skin-jobs were made, no story about the seventh Cylon Daniel, no story about the hybrids. No nothing. Rent this, don't buy it, and only rent it if you want to see Six dress and act as a prostitute. Very disappointing. I almost wish that Tom Zarek had succeeded in his coup. Almost.

What's Going On?

I wasn't sure what this post was referring to, but I saw this weird news clip at the beginning of the 11 PM news. Seems that some astronomers in Hawaii have observed several flashes on the surface of Mars, like surface eruptions of some sort. Scientists are not clear on what it was at all. Oh, and the Mars rover shut down. More news later.

It's Not Just About the Numbers

I wanted to echo Brother Matt's point at Foreign Policy Watch that this AP article at the Huffington Post, "Troops In Afghanistan Outnumber Taliban 12-1" written by Slobodan Lekic, does completely miss the point.  We don't expect journalists to understand military theory before they write about military issues, so this doesn't surprise us. But it does bear correcting the observations within the article.

There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn't led to anything close to victory.

Now, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for tens of thousands more troops to stem the escalating insurgency, raising the question of how many more troops it would take to succeed.
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The 12-1 ratio may be misleading because two-thirds of the Allied force is made up of Afghans, who lack the training and experience. The Taliban usually fight in small, cohesive units made up of friends and fellow clansmen. A more meaningful ratio, then, might be 4-1 or 5-1.

Historically in guerrilla wars, security forces have usually had at least a 3-1 advantage.

Now, any strategist worth his/her salt will tell you that numerical supremacy within a theater of operations doesn't count for squat. It doesn't matter whether the US coalition outnumbers the Taliban by a ratio of 12-1, 5-1, or 3-1. What matters is what the ratio is when US forces are engaging the Taliban in tactical battles, such as those in Nuristan provinces. If the side with superior forces is spread out and trying to cover everything, then the side with fewer numbers and more agility has the combat advantage. This has happened time and time again through history.

These numbers and rations ought not to be considered in McChrystal's request for 40,000 more troops. What matters is what strategy is pursued - country-wide COIN operations, conducting combat operations, protecting "ink spots" and vital regions, or just training Afghan security forces and protecting the government. McChrystal didn't ask for enough to do a country-wide option, so I'm guessing that he's going for "ink spots" plus combat operations. President Obama seems to be leaning toward just doing the "ink spot" strategy, which might not require additional troops.

So ignore the talk about force ratios and troop increases - it's not relevant until a sustainable long-term regional strategy is developed and implemented. The real unanswered question remains, "How does this all end?"  

Obama Signs Defense Auth Act

With some fanfare, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2010. About $550 billion is dedicated to the normal military functions of operations, R&D, and personnel, and another $130 billion would go to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Good news is no more defense "emergency" funding bills for military operations that have been ongoing for six-plus years. He noted the success in holding the line on particular defense projects that had... troubles.

 As Commander-in-Chief, I will always do whatever it takes to keep the American people safe, to defend this nation.  And that's why this bill provides for the best military in the history of the world.  It reaffirms our commitment to our brave men and women in uniform and our wounded warriors.  It expands family leave rights for the family members of our troops and veterans.  And it makes investments in the capabilities necessary to meet 21st century challenges.

     But I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure.  In fact, I think that wasting these dollars makes us less secure.  And that's why we have passed a defense bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense process -- reforms that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops, and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
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    Now, this bill isn't perfect.  This bill is an important step forward, but it's just a first step.  There's still more waste we need to cut.  There are still more fights that we need to win.  Changing the culture in Washington will take time and sustained effort.  And that's why Secretary Gates and I will continue waging these battles in the months and years ahead.     

     But I will say that when Secretary Gates and I first proposed going after some of these wasteful projects, there were a lot of people in this town who didn't think it was possible, who were certain we were going to lose, who were certain that we would get steamrolled, who argued that the special interests were too entrenched, and that Washington was simply too set in its ways.
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  And already I've put an end to unnecessary no-bid contracts.  I signed bipartisan legislation to reform defense procurement so weapons systems don't spin out of control.  And even as we made critical investments in the equipment and weapons our troops do need, we're eliminating tens of billions of dollars in waste we don't need.  So no longer will we be spending nearly $2 billion to buy more F-22 fighter jets that the Pentagon says they don't need.  This bill also terminates troubled and massively over budget programs such as the Future Combat Systems, the Airborne Lasers, the Combat Search and Rescue helicopter, and a new presidential helicopter that costs nearly as much as Air Force One.  I won't be flying on that.

     At the same time, we accelerated or increased weapons programs needed to confront real and growing threats -- the Joint Strike Fighter, the Littoral Combat Ship, and more helicopters and reconnaissance support for our troops at the front. 

Yeah, except it doesn't terminate the Future Combat Systems project, it just stopped the ground vehicle portion, and then the Army renamed the effort and continues the project. The Airborne Laser program isn't terminated, it was moved back to early research and development and just won't be procured or fielded in the near future. Same for the presidential helicopter - the project continues because the need is still there, but a new team will be in charge. And then there's the half billion in R&D that Congress wants to be applied to a second engine for the F35 - which the Pentagon didn't ask for. So no, there weren't major changes, but some process changes may have been made that might make certain acquisition projects more efficiently executed.

And this bill also reduces waste and fraud in our contracting system, as well as our reliance on private contractors for jobs that federal employees have the expertise and the training to do.

Yeah, not so much. If the employees had the expertise and training in the first place, we contractors would never be hired. And then there's the minimum 9-12 month waiting time between applying for a fed job and actually starting work. We're not going to see substantive change in any time soon. Finally, this was the DOD Authorization Bill - it says what DOD is allowed to fund, but isn't binding on the actual funding costs. That will come in the DOD Appropriations Bill, which isn't out of committee yet. So... good luck with that, Mr. President. 

Brian Jenkins is a Golden God

I'm reading Brian Jenkin's "Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?" and I LOVE it. I was apprehensive at first, thought this was going to be another "oh noes, the terrorists are all going to nuke us" but it's not. It's a very level-headed review of terrorism and the other factors that result in nuclear terror. More next week, but here's a key passage:

When we accept the fact that they will one day destroy an American city in a horrific nuclear blast, we provide al Qaeda's terrorists with an enormous opportunity. If Americans are anxious, it serves the terrorists' cause to make us even more anxious. Our enemies are not stupid, and they realize that a campaign of terror might even yield what an act of terrorism could not.
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The alternative acronym [to WMD] CBRN ... specifies the instruments but no criterion for scale. In fact, there have already been a number of incidents in which terrorists have employed or have attempted to employ chemical weapons. These range from chlorine-enhanced truck bombs in Baghdad to the nerve-gas attack in Tokyo, which sent fifty-five hundred people to the hospital [most with imagined symptoms] but resulted in only twelve deaths. There also have been terrorist incidents involving ricin and anthrax, again with very few fatalities. CBRN weapons are not necessarily WMD.

These little statements, and others in the book, are absolute truths that many defense analysts and politicians in Washington DC just cannot accept. It would ruin their world view. The fact that a terrorism expert recognizes these points, rather than a WMD expert who should know this, is a great thing. There's hope for clarity yet. 

Afghan's Govt - A Big Albatross

If you don't read anything else this morning, make sure that this NY Times article on President Karzai's brother is the one you read. It's a very interesting piece, and has implications far beyond the immediate shock waves that it will inevitably cause.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
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These military and political officials say the evidence, though largely circumstantial, suggests strongly that Mr. Karzai has enriched himself by helping the illegal trade in poppy and opium to flourish. The assessment of these military and senior officials in the Obama administration dovetails with that of senior officials in the Bush administration.

Now the fact that Mr. Karzai is profiting both from the drug trade and from supporting the CIA's operations is not in and of itself particularly amazing or outlandish to most people who understand the Afghani culture and who have to demonstrate short-term progress against the Taliban. A former CIA intel officer is quoted in the article:

“Virtually every significant Afghan figure has had brushes with the drug trade,” he said. “If you are looking for Mother Teresa, she doesn’t live in Afghanistan.”

The CIA has a long record of supporting bad actors in the name of getting intelligence or achieving progress against other countries whose goals are inimical to US interests, and that may be understandable in some situations, except when that practice runs counter to official US policy in those particular regions. The brother to the president of Afghanistan uses his position to profit from the drug trade and also is a prime suspect in trying to fix the election (in a disappointingly transparent and amateurish fashion). That might be acceptable except for the fact that he's not helping the US government advance its efforts to stabilize the country.

Our government's goals do not align with the brothers Karzai's goals. Mr. Karzai's interests are to protect the drug lords in the south provinces, who in turn pay and rely on the Taliban for protection. Those are the same provinces where US, British, and other forces are fighting and dying every day. Until the current Afghani government is replaced by a legitimate group which has a real desire to advance the Afghani people's needs and interests, there is no way that a strategy based on COIN tactics will work. And if there is no way that COIN tactics will work, then there is no reason to support Gen. McChrystal's request for 40,000+ additional troops.

Of course, there is the possibility that our government's actual goal is to develop Afghanistan into "a horrific, full-fledged quagmire by 2012."

Our Convoluted CBRN Defense Policies

Israel and the United States are participating in a missile defense exercise called "Juniper Cobra," a biennial exercise between the two nations. The Haaretz newspaper describes it as "a preparation for a faceoff with Iran." That's really nice, because we really needed another reason to confirm Muslim suspicions that the US government is solidly in bed with Israel and working against Iran. 

This year, the Ohio CBRN Enhanced Response Force (CERF) has nine of its members joining the exercise to see how the Israeli Home Front Command does its job.

The Ohioans have been observing and participating in training with the Israeli Home Front Command (HFC) Search and Rescue School, Unit Training Branch. The HFC is similar to the National Guard in structure and mission. It is comprised mainly of reservists and serves the people of Israel through disaster relief, nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) operations, search and rescue, and supporting the Israeli Defense Force, which conducts all combat operations. 

Only three other state National Guards have done any type of exchange or training with the Israelis, the majority of which have been conducted in the U.S.  

“Any exchange is important,” Meislin said. “The CERF is very important to the HFC because they are exact counterparts. They are just really into saving lives no matter where it is, and so are we, so it’s a good fit.”

There's no question that the Israeli HFC has to be on its toes in this area, but then again, their nation is surrounded by countries with nasty munitions. Its chem-bio military compatriots in the IDF have a saying, "If they're using us, everyone else is either hiding, underground, or already dead." I have no issues with the training, but it's not exactly an "exact counterpart." The alleged domestic terrorist CBRN threat to the United States isn't close to what Israel has from external national WMD threats. But I suppose the Ohio CERF was bored from the lack of action here in the States and wanted some travel time.

Right now, we have the DOD trying to reform its former concept for three CCMRFs into 10 smaller units, not because they can identify the threat any better but it's "more efficient." It's still just as wasteful, lacking a real reason for being. We really lack a coherent strategy that describes what DOD is trying to do with consequence management, either in the domestic environment or in support of other nations (foreign CM). Part of the problem is that the US government doesn't really know what it wants, other than to respond with massive resources if/when the incident happens. But the threat assessment is overblown, the mass casualty incident isn't going to happen tomorrow, the resources are being wasted, and all the defense officials pretend that it's more important than what the situation really portends.

I don't think our current administration is any smarter about "countering WMD" than the last, in some respects. That's unfortunate, I actually had the notion that they might improve the academic discussion on this area. As a side note, I noticed Israeli press and other web sites referring to WMDs as "nonconventional warfare." That's not the same as unconventional warfare, which refers to special forces operations and guerilla warfare. But I know we used to refer to NBC weapons as "unconventional weapons" as opposed to conventional weapons - so do we now have unconventional warfare and nonconventional weapons for irregular warfare, and nonconventional warfare and unconventional weapons for nuclear warfare?

We're so confused.

Joining Crooks and Liars

I've been very fortunate to be asked by John Amato to join the group blog "Crooks and Liars." It's a great blog that I've visited over and over again, looking to keep up on all the political news of the day. I'm looking forward to continuing the discussion of how the progressive movement can work with and shape national security issues at that site.

I'll still be here, of course, posting about both military issues and CB defense issues, as they come along. It's my hope that the increased visibility will allow the progressive community to see that not all the milblogs are right-of-center and that we progressives do have an important role to play in defense issues. Thanks to Spencer Ackerman for the recommendation.  

Good Morning Afghanistan

Check out Defense.gov - DOD is trying to get into the 21st century information process.

Our NATO "Partners"

There has been some talk in the papers about the NATO Secretary General's support for Gen. McChrystal's report. I would suggest that what he said was that Afghanistan clearly does need some COIN support. What he also said was this (see around 3:30 mark):

"NATO will consider the addition of ground forces when the time is right."

Wow. So it's okay to endorse the strategy, but there's no way that NATO is going to actually add any substantive amount of troops to the mix. Other than Britain, I am not sure we're going to see more than a few dozen military personnel from the rest of the community. So whenever NATO wants to get serious about sending its fair share of troops - say, about 20,000 or so - then feel free to discuss how our operations in Afghanistan ought to be conducted, Mr. Rasmussen.

More from Spencer Ackerman.

Painting A Better Decon Strategy

Ray from the UK sends this article about the development of a self-stripping paint for military vehicles that would absorb chemical warfare agents and then fall off the side of the vehicle. No muss, no fuss.

"It's a single pack emulsion. It looks much like paint you'd find in a DIY store for painting your house. So you could apply it with a paint brush, or you could apply it with a roller. It's really flexible," Dr Mitchell explained.

"That's important for potential use in theatre because you might not have a sophisticated paint spray system available."

On the grounds of DSTL's headquarters, Dr Mitchell demonstrated how to remove the coating from a battlefield ambulance which had been painted for desert camouflage.

The coating on a rear door had been pre-scored with a knife; Dr Mitchell reached up to the raised tab and peeled back the rubbery skin by hand. The coating came away easily and largely in one piece.

While paint remained stuck to some raised areas such as bolts, he said remaining residue could be removed with a water power washer.

Before long, the whole door was stripped to the vehicle's dark green base colour. Dr Mitchell squashed the peeled coating into a lump and dropped it on the grass.

It's an interesting idea, one that the US Army has tried to develop over the past two decades without much success. In theory it's a great idea, especially if it can be designed to not require any additional decontamination or water (which even this British concept isn't quite at that stage). It may be a question of efficacy - that the military wants close to 100% of the agent to be absorbed into the paint, or that there still is a requirement for some aqueous decon to be executed on the vehicle. I'm not sure what the hold-up is, only that the magic Holy Grail of strippable, reactive and/or enzymatic coatings are still held out there as future possibilities.

Of course, what would help is if the DOD CB defense program invested more than a few paltry million dollars a year in this area. Just before the exciting journey to Iraq in 2003, the military realized that it had no modern decontamination capability and no modern decontaminant solution. So it had to buy commercial decon systems that used untested decon solutions and hot water and soap. It was pretty embarrassing, but they still haven't learned the lesson. Much more interesting to invest in exciting CB detection technologies and medical countermeasures that take decades to develop than boring decontamination, despite the unresolved issues in cleaning up after a CB weapons or CB terrorist attack.

Just another day in the Pentagon, where people refuse to address the really tough issues.

Our Convoluted CBRN Defense Policies

Israel and the United States are participating in a missile defense exercise called "Juniper Cobra," a biennial exercise between the two nations. The Haaretz newspaper describes it as "a preparation for a faceoff with Iran." That's really nice, because we really needed another reason to confirm Muslim suspicions that the US government is solidly in bed with Israel. 

This year, the Ohio CBRN Enhanced Response Force (CERF) has nine of its members joining the exercise to see how the Israeli Home Front Command does it.

The Ohioans have been observing and participating in training with the Israeli Home Front Command (HFC) Search and Rescue School, Unit Training Branch. The HFC is similar to the National Guard in structure and mission. It is comprised mainly of reservists and serves the people of Israel through disaster relief, nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) operations, search and rescue, and supporting the Israeli Defense Force, which conducts all combat operations. 

Only three other state National Guards have done any type of exchange or training with the Israelis, the majority of which have been conducted in the U.S.  

“Any exchange is important,” Meislin said. “The CERF is very important to the HFC because they are exact counterparts. They are just really into saving lives no matter where it is, and so are we, so it’s a good fit.”

There's no question that the Israeli HFC has to be on its toes in this area, but then again, their nation is surrounded by countries with nasty munitions. Its military compatriots have a saying, "If they're using us, everyone else is either hiding, underground, or already dead." I have no issues with the training, but it's not exactly an "exact counterpart." The alleged domestic threat to the United States isn't close to what Israel has from external threats. But I suppose the Ohio CERF was bored from the lack of action here in the States.

We have the DOD trying to reform its former plan for three CCMRFs into 10 smaller units, not because they can identify the threat any better but it's "more efficient." Still just as wasteful. We really lack a coherent strategy that describes what DOD is trying to do with consequence management, either in the domestic environment or in support of other nations (foreign CM). Part of the problem is that the US government doesn't really know what it wants, other than to respond if/when the incident happens. But the threat assessment is overblown, the resources aren't there, and we all pretend that it's more important than what OSD really thinks.

I don't think this new administration is any smarter about "countering WMD" than the last, in some respects. That's unfortunate. As a side note, I noticed the reference in the Israeli documents to "nonconventional warfare." That's not unconventional warfare, which refers to special forces operations and guerilla warfare. But I know we used to refer to NBC weapons as "unconventional weapons" - so do we have unconventional warfare and nonconventional weapons for irregular warfare and nonconventional warfare and unconventional weapons for nuclear warfare?

We're so confused.

Experts Talk Logistics

Interesting testimony from OSD Policy and the Joint Staff to the House Armed Services Committee, explaining how we're pulling equipment out of Iraq.

DoD has been planning the drawdown of equipment for over a year now, and we are in the process of executing that drawdown now.  USCENTCOM has a plan, orders, and contingencies to support posture requirements for August 2010 and beyond, and the relevant DoD components meet regularly to resolve the issues and overcome the obstacles that inevitably develop in a logistical operation of this magnitude.

The equipment drawdown is a priority for all relevant DoD components, many of which have teams positioned in Iraq to provide on-site expertise and assistance.  To facilitate disposition instructions for those items destined for national-level reset programs, the Army Materiel Command has positioned the Reposture Retrograde Task Force both in Kuwait and in Baghdad with MNF-I.  Similarly, Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) and Marine Force Central Command (MARCENT) have liaison officers co-located with MNF-I to facilitate retrograde of service-specific equipment.

Equipment and materiel have been divided into the following four categories: (1) Equipment and material from the Iraq Joint Operations Area that will be refurbished and ultimately redistributed to U.S. forces in Afghanistan; (2) Equipment and material that will be retrograded to home stations; (3) Equipment and material that will be retrograded to depot/reset programs; or (4) Equipment and material that will be transferred to the Government of Iraq or the Government of Afghanistan. 

In order to reduce the volume of materiel being moved at the height of the drawdown, the Services have validated equipment accountability in Iraq to determine which pieces of equipment are not mission essential and can therefore be retrograded early.  In this way, we will be able to draw down equipment gradually, as troops are drawn down. 

One thing DOD does well - move stuff and people around.