This story about the US Democrats, and specifically the Obama campaign, and their strategy based on small, autonomous campaign groups working from a honking gurt database of voters, hooks into something I’ve been thinking recently; in all kinds of fields, it’s all about big enabling systems that small autonomous organisations can benefit from. This is…
Read More Small groups and big systemsIt’s been said, I think by Alanbrooke, that strategy consists in the proper handling of reserves. Looking at the situation with this framework, what can we say about Iraq? It’s now been a year since the announcement of “The Surge”, the deployment of the US Army’s strategic reserve in Iraq. And what’s happened? First, it…
Read More Ou est la masse de manoeuvre?Says Iranian foreign minister Manoucher Mottaki: “America, today, in the international system is facing a serious challenge … Americans are in a very, very difficult situation. “The people of Afghanistan would not allow America to use Afghanistan against any country. This is our … belief,” he said. Mottaki said Tehran’s findings from three rounds of…
Read More Let’s lay this one to restSo, I wonder if there’s anything stupid going on at Richard “Who are you going to believe – me, or the fact the Israeli Air Force *apologised* for the strike-in-error?” North’s place….and guess what? There is! As CabaPhil (good to have him back in the ‘sphere) points out, Dick North is deeply conflicted here –…
Read More Richard North is Still WrongI don’t think this means what Thomas Barnett thinks it does. He argues that the demand for armoured patrol vehicles in Iraq is an example of conflict between the objectives of his “SysAdmin” force, and the Washington-cented, tech-heavy “Leviathan”. Of course, it’s an example of conflict between the centre and the front line, but that’s…
Read More Built-In StupidityIn my last “there will be no war with Iran” post, I asked if there were any other indicators I ought to be watching. Having given it some thought, I have indeed been looking at some others; for a start, I would expect that before such a strike the US Government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve would…
Read More Any Other IndicatorsThis Spyblog post, regarding the Grauniad’s splash story yesterday that the TITAN RAIN inquiry into alleged Chinese hackers attacking the US government had spread to attacks on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, raises some interesting questions. For a start, like all Chinese-hacker stories, it’s based heavily on semi-military sources and quotes from doctrinal publications. What,…
Read More A Mystery, Wrapped in Cat-5 Cable..You just don’t know what they’re going to do, do you? First of all they sneak up on Illustrious with one of our old subs!… but then you learn the true horror. How much more of our vital infrastructure is rigged to explode with the McNaughton Pipe? Fortunately, as will be made clear if you…
Read More Fear the Canadian Menace!David Axe reports on various American officials moaning that the Dutch Army in Afghanistan is not sufficiently keen on burning the peasants’ crops, specifically the poppy crop. Now, Dave is currently engaged in something like the Four Days’ Fight of the Anglo-Dutch War, when the Royal Navy and Martin Tromp’s fleets got locked into a…
Read More Burn this filthDo we actually have a policy with regard to Afghanistan? The question wants asking. After all, we’ve just had a change of government, and Gordon Brown is apparently willing to appoint people from other political parties or none. But despite this, Des “Swiss Toni” Browne is left in place as secretary of defence, with the…
Read More Does Gordon Brown have a policy on Afghanistan?