Link Purge, 23-28 February 2014 Edition

China:

War is Boring: China’s Aircraft Carriers on the Cheap

COIN:

War on the Rocks: The Strategy of Savagery: Explaining the Islamic State

Wired: The 40,000 People on Bagram Air Base Haven’t Actually Seen Afghanistan - I've been hearing a line for years that "If you've only ever been to Bagram, you've never been to Afghanistan." Recently, when discussing Kuwait with a business associate who had spent a year in Afghanistan, I made the same observation of Ali al Salem Air Base.

War on the Rocks: Reading Galula in Afghanistan - This is a somewhat narrowly focused, but overall poignant discussion of American counterinsurgency doctrine relative to traditionally accepted counterinsurgency theory. The comments on the article itself, and on the corresponding thread at Small Wars Journal, are worth skimming as well.

NPR: The IED: The $30-Bombs That Cost The U.S. Billions

Afghanistan Analysts Network: Six Days That Shook Kabul: The ’3 Hut uprising’, first urban protest against the Soviet occupation

Foreign Affairs:

War on the Rocks: Nepal’s Dirty Little War: Counterinsurgency and the Fall of a Hindu King

BBC: Are the Afghan Taliban ready to talk? - Why would the Afghan Taliban be ready to talk? Belligerents negotiate the end of a conflict when one or another of them has been forced into a position in which surrender is preferable to continuing hostilities. The Taliban have not been forced into such a position, and for years, their adversaries have been advertising to them that all they need to do is wait.

Michael J. Totten: ISIS' Next Target

AFP: Fighting IS not a priority for Turkey: US spy chief

War on the Rocks: Women in Combat Arms: Just Good Business - While Captain (Major?) van Dam's service as a Marine Corps attack helicopter pilot certainly gives weight to her argument, I personally find the views of Army Special Forces Michael Yon more compelling, though they're less diplomatic.

Intelligence/Espionage:

BBC: Argentina Congress votes to dissolve intelligence agency - If you haven't caught the recent controversy over the Argentine intelligence agency, it's worth catching up on.

BBC: Paris drones: Al-Jazeera journalist to face court - If you haven't caught the recent controversy over UAVs in Paris, it's worth catching up on.

Iran:

War on the Rocks: The Key to a Nuclear Agreement with Iran? The Window of Vulnerability I think that commentator Cliff Sherrill puts it well: "How can we be confident that Fordow was the only secret site? (Natanz was hardly secret). How can we be so sure as to our intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program when our intelligence about Iraq’s proved mistaken? The issue, it seems to me, is not about crafting an agreement with a regime that holds us to be a necessary enemy. Such an actor will inevitably abandon any agreement. The issue, rather, is how to obtain regime change such that Iranian knowledge about nuclear arms no longer presents a threat." I've been cautiously optimistic about the last thirteen or fourteen months of negotiations with Iran, but I continue to worry that they're focused entirely on technical concerns without addressing the root cause: the Iranian regime sees a nuclear program as its best chance of securing domestic support, and a nuclear weapon as its best chance of deterring international intervention in Iranian affairs. Without addressing those root causes, even cautious optimism is difficult to maintain.

War is Boring: Iran Stages Giant Attack on Mock Aircraft Carrier - You can read more about this story here, here, and here.

Iraq:

War is Boring: These Westerners Joined an Iraqi Militia - This is a follow-up to a recent article I knicked from Doctrine Man.

Small Wars Journal: US Christians Back Emerging Private War on Iraq Jihadists - This is a follow-up to a recent article I knicked from Doctrine Man.

AFP: Riyadh talks seek stronger Iraqi army: Western source

IT Security:

AFP: US State Dept blocks thousands of hack attacks every day

BBC: US spy chief James Clapper highlights cyber threats - No, Virginia, hackers do not pose a treater threat than terrorists.

Kuwait - General:

Arab Times: Police Raid ‘Disco Tent’ - This was the Kuwaiti Headline of the Week.

Libya:

BBC: Islamic State gains Libya foothold

BBC: How West's limited intervention failed Libya - Limited, intervention, e.g. air strikes and Western special operations/covert intelligence support to local actors was the panacea for the early 1980's, and has become popular today. However, Libya - and to a similar degree, Somalia, Yemen, the Iraqi-Syrian border, and elsewhere - is proof that such an approach has its severe limitations.

AFP: Libya could be next Syria without West's help: foreign minister

Military Kit:

War is Boring: Top U.S. Army Marksman Explains Why Gun Nuts Shoot Better - I'm reminded of a long blog post that circulated after the Newtown Shootings in which the writer discussed, among other things, the role that an anti-gun culture played in the poor response by Indian police to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Both are worth reading.

War is Boring: The U.S. Navy Reserve’s Fighter Jets Are Going Extinct

War is Boring: I Built an AR-15 in My Kitchen - This article reminded me of this pictorial in which a guy built an AK-47 out of a shovel - a garden variety shovel, one might dare to presume.

North Korea:

AFP: N.Korea could have 100 nuclear weapons by 2020: US researchers

BBC: North Korea reflagging ships to evade sanctions - UN - Oh, those wacky North Koreans. What will they think of next?

BBC: Kidnapped by North Korea - and forced to make films

Professional Stuff:

Task and Purpose: 10 Ways To Get Ahead Of Your Military Transition While You’re Still Active Duty

Times of Oman: Sayyid Fahd inaugurates Oman's Military Technical College

Risk Management:

BBC: US hostage policy reviewed as Qatari emir visits Obama

Russia:

BBC: Cyprus signs deal to allow Russian navy to use ports

AFP: Russian paratroopers in drills on border with Estonia, Latvia

AFP: Russia could target Moldova: NATO commander

Scottish Miscellany:

BBC: New Aberdour manure letterbox incident man fined

BBC: Oil and gas industry in 'bleak' 2014, finds survey

BBC: Are low oil prices here to stay?

BBC: Consultative ballot on offshore strike from GMB Scotland

Strategy:

War on the Rocks: U.S. Land Forces Must Deter and Defend Abroad

General James Mattis: A New American Grand Strategy - When the Warrior Monk talks, everyone should listen. General James Mattis has penned a testimony to the need for a renewal of American grand strategy.

WMD:

BBC: Trident question comes to the surface - God forbid the BBC would find someone who actually knows about strategic nuclear doctrine to interview, instead of a bunch of political hacks and feckless yobs on street corners, none of whom are competent to comment on defense ("defence") issues.

War on the Rocks: Why the New Bomber is a Good Investment - I'm currently reading Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force. The author, Robert M. Farley, argues that the Air Force has traditionally decided upon the platform they wanted, and built their capability justification around the platform, rather than building a platform to provide a capability in order to meet a strategic requirement. I haven't put much thought into the projected replacement for the Air Force's bomber fleet, but I'd prefer to see a lot more objective analysis of the actual requirements a bomber is meant to meet - potentially by analytical organizations that are free of undue Air Force institutional influence - than we've seen from such procurement efforts as the F-35.

War is Boring: America Readies Its New ‘Smart’ Nuke

XNA: Three rockets launched near-simultaneously in Aegis test

General Chicanery:

BBC: The secrets of the Santa Priscilla catacombs

Yemen:

BBC: Yemen on brink as Gulf Co-operation Council initiative fails

BBC: Yemen kidnap: French woman seized in capital Sanaa

Kuwait Times: Houthis take over US-trained Special Forces base