Source: Associated Press
With one war over and another ending, President Obama has unveiled a new defense strategy that aims to cut spending dramatically without undermining America’s military readiness.

This is so horrible. We will suffer the fallout from this for many years to come. China and Russia will now have their own version of this craft in a very short time.

How can anyone not like this?

Former Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota Meyer will receive the Medal Of Honor for charging into a kill zone repeatedly during a firefight to retrieve the bodies of his fallen teammates.

(H/T The Blaze)

Source: Reuters
U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen tells members of the U.S. Congress that although he supports Obama’s plan to reduce troops in Afghanistan, the drawdown is more “aggressive” than he anticipated and will incur risks. Deborah Gembara reports.

This article titled “Taliban behind surge in attacks on western troops and advisers” was written by Jason Burke in Kabul, for The Guardian on Tuesday 31st May 2011 19.35 UTC

Commanders of international troops in Afghanistan are becoming increasingly concerned at the growing number of attacks by members of local security forces on western forces or advisers.

The Taliban ordered insurgents to step up infiltration of the Afghan national army and police earlier this year, Nato officials believe, leading to an alarming rise in the number of “blue on green” attacks.

Increasing the numbers of local security forces is a key part of the coalition strategy to allow international combat troops to leave the country before the 2014 deadline set at the Lisbon conference last year.

Recent months have seen dozens of incidents – many unreported – of Afghan soldiers or policemen turning their weapons on western troops or facilitating attacks by insurgents.

The latest saw an Australian mentor killed by an Afghan soldier in Oruzgan province on Monday. Lance Corporal Andrew Gordon Jones, 25, was shot three times by a soldier, who then fled. A Taliban spokesman said the killer was a hero. “Every soldier who joins us is rewarded with medals and great honour,” he said.

The Taliban regularly claim responsibility for attacks in which they had no immediate role. Intelligence officers said most are by “disgruntled guys”.

One spark for violence may be widespread anger in Afghanistan at continuing civilian casualties caused by international troops. The most recent incident saw 14 civilians killed by an airstrike in the southern province of Helmand at the weekend. Reports suggest insurgents fled into a home after attacking US troops.

President Hamid Karzai said he would take “unilateral action” if the airstrikes did not stop, adding that Afghans would react as they have to previous occupying forces if attacks continued. Afghans are proud of their history of repelling invaders, including the Soviet Union in the 1980s and the British in the 19th century. Karzai has repeatedly made similar threats.

Data collected by the UN shows most civilian casualties in Afghanistan are from Taliban attacks, particularly suicide bombs and remote-controlled blasts.

Western officials fear a “rising trend” of attacks by Afghan soldiers and police on western forces, though they stress that the numbers involved are a small minority of Afghan security forces.

In the past 18 months Nato has recorded around 20 incidents in which Afghan soldiers or policemen have attacked international forces, killing more than 50.

Two Nato trainers were killed by a police officer in Helmand earlier this month. In April, a veteran Afghan air force major shot and killed eight US troops and an American contractor in Kabul. Other recent incidents include the shooting of two Americans during police training in the northern Faryab province and the killing of three Germans in the north of the country by an Afghan soldier.

In November last year six US troops were killed when an Afghan border police officer shot them. Three British soldiers were killed by a soldier last July. In November 2009 five British soldiers were shot dead by a “rogue” Afghan policeman in an attack at a police checkpoint.

Hanif Atmar, the former interior minister, said most incidents were the result of “cultural misunderstandings” between foreigners and the police or troops they were trying to train. “There is an Afghan way of doing things that sometimes they don’t respect and that leads to angry outbursts and then shootings,” he said.

In addition, there are frequent but much less often reported incidents of members of the Afghan security forces involved in attacks on fellow Afghans.

Two recent incidents – the killings of the police chief of Kandahar province on 15 April and of the police chief of northern Afghanistan last weekend – involved individuals wearing police uniforms. It is unclear whether they were serving officers or imposters, although Afghan officials said a senior police bodyguard was involved in the attack in Kandahar.

The Afghan army has almost doubled in size in three years to more than 164,000. The Afghan national police has grown from fewer than 95,000 in late 2009 to 126,000 today.

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This article titled “Apache helicopters to be sent into Libya by Britain” was written by Richard Norton-Taylor, for The Guardian on Monday 23rd May 2011 17.16 UTC

Britain and France are to deploy attack helicopters against Libya in an attempt to break the military stalemate, particularly in the important coastal city of Misrata, security sources have told the Guardian.

In a significant escalation of the conflict, the Apaches – based on HMS Ocean – will join French helicopters in risky operations which reflect deepening frustration among British and French defence chiefs about their continuing inability to protect civilians in Libya.

Apaches, which are being used in counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan, can manoeuvre and attack small targets in relatively built-up areas. Heavily armed Apaches and French Tiger helicopters are equipped with night vision equipment and electronic guidance systems. Forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, have shed their uniforms, are using civilian vehicles and hiding armour near civilian buildings, including hospitals and schools.

The decision to deploy the helicopters is a clear recognition that high-level bombing from 15,000 feet cannot protect civilians who continue to be attacked by rocket and mortar shells. It brings the Nato offensive much closer to the ground at a time when Britain and other Nato countries are insisting they have no intention of sending in troops.

However, the helicopters could be vulnerable to handheld rocket-propelled grenades and even rifle fire.

Hospital officials said two people were killed and several wounded during Monday’s fighting in Misrata. Later, heavy explosions outside the city were heard, lasting about an hour.

Reuters quoted a rebel spokesman as saying that forces loyal to Gaddafi also shelled the rebel-held town of Zintan and moved troops close to the mountainous region bordering Tunisia, intensifying operations on the war’s western front.

On Monday Nato warplanes bombed Tripoli in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing since the start of the air campaign against Gaddafi’s forces and his sprawling compound. More than 20 airstrikes in less than half an hour set off thunderous booms that rattled windows around the city.

Britain and France clearly hope that the use of attack helicopters, and the fact of revealing the intention to use them, will deter pro-Gaddafi forces and assuage Libyan rebels who have been demanding more effective military action from Nato countries. The sight of Nato forces actually on the ground would be strongly opposed by most countries in the alliance, including the US and also those Arab countries in favour of the air campaign against Gaddafi’s forces.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, attending an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels, said: “We are very much behind the intensification of the military campaign and … so is France.” He added: “We certainly agree with France, and indeed with all our partners, including all our partners at the EU meeting here today, that it is necessary to intensify the military, economic and diplomatic pressure on the Gaddafi regime.”

Alain Juppé, France’s foreign minister, confirmed that Paris has dispatched a dozen helicopters to add greater strike force to the campaign against Gaddafi in Libya. He said that the 12 Tiger and Gazelle helicopters sent from Toulon on 17 May would enable “us to better adapt our ground attack capacity with more precise means of striking”.

He added: “Our strategy is to step up the military pressure in the weeks ahead while pushing at the same time for a political solution.” According to French sources, the battleship Tonnerre, carrying the helicopters, left Toulon last week. The vessel combines the roles of helicopter carrier, hospital ship, and troops transporter.

Juppé said the helicopters would not be used to deploy ground forces in Libya and that the decision to send them was fully in line with the UN security council resolution mandating attacks in Libya.

The French newspaper Le Figaro said the helicopters would be assisted by target identification from French special forces who have been on the ground in Libya since the start of the allied operation there. The Ministry of Defence does not comment on special forces’ operations.

Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, said: “This is a significant development. It is right that the alliance is intensifying military pressure on Gaddafi’s forces, but the British government needs to be clearer about a political strategy for Libya and whether the military commitment to Libya is an open-ended one.”

The first international stabilisation response team has arrived in Libya, the international development secretary Andrew Mitchell has confirmed . He said Britain would continue to provide medical and emergency food supplies, adding that “the international community also needs to start thinking strategically about what is needed now to help lay the foundations for a stable, secure Libya”.

• This article was updated on 23 May 2011, to add greater detail.

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This article titled “Taliban is demoralised, says British forces commander” was written by Richard Norton-Taylor, for The Guardian on Wednesday 13th April 2011 19.26 UTC

Amid widespread predictions of a bloody fighting season in Afghanistan, the commander of British forces there has described the Taliban-led insurgency as “increasingly fractured and increasingly demoralised”.

Brigadier James Chiswell, said that in response to increasing attacks from British, US, and Afghan, forces in Helmand province, insurgents were “examining their options”.

However, though he suggested the insurgency had been badly hit by the deployment of 30,000 US marines who joined the 9,500 British troops over the past year, the insurgency had proved in the past to be “adaptable and resilient”.

Chiswell, just returned from Helmand after commanding 16 Air Assault Brigade there, predicted that the Taliban would shift to asymetric tactics and intimidation – soft civilian targets. Referring to recent spectacular attacks in neighbouring Kandahar province, he said those were unlikely to endear the Taliban to the local population.

Taliban suicide bombers used an ambulance to attack a police training centre in Kandahar in an incident the Taliban promised to investigate. A suicide bomber killed 10 people in an attack on peace talks between tribal elders in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.

However, Chiswell said the insurgency was “under pressure” and there was a sense of optimism, above all confidence, among the local population. Whether it was the result of a “seasonal feel-good factor or something more profound and enduring”, could really only be answered this time next year.

Senior British officials in London predict that the forthcoming fighting season will be bloody and that there is a political vacuum around the commitment to end Britain’s military combat role in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Growing frustration about the lack of political or diplomatic progress, was reflected by David Miliband, the former foreign secretary who wrote in the New York Times: “Our leverage will decline, not improve, as 2014 approaches.” He added: “The insurgency can spread, outstripping the ability of international and Afghan forces to check its growth.”

Asked whether it was time for a political surge, Chiswell replied: “Our take is it is all politics, as much politics as war amongst the people”. He added: “If you get the politics locally right, it sucks the oxygen out of the insurgency… Only time will tell but I’m very positive we are heading in the right direction. It comes down to a local sense of confidence”.

British military chiefs, including General Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff, are foremost among those increasingly frustrated by the lack of political progress now that they say they have sufficient troops in Afghanistan and that the international – foreign – force there cannot achieve more. It is now up to Afghan leaders at the local as well as national level, and the growing number of Afghan security forces, they say.

The new fighting season, which will start as soon as the poppy harvest is in, is likely to hit Afghans, security forces in uniform, as well as civilians, observers – including senior British government officials, warn.

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This article titled “RAF converts Typhoons so they can join Nato airstrikes on Gaddafi’s forces” was written by Nick Hopkins and Richard Norton-Taylor, for The Guardian on Wednesday 6th April 2011 20.23 UTC

The RAF is converting four of its new Typhoon fast jets so that they can take part in bombing raids in Libya amid concern expressed by rebel leaders that the military campaign against Colonel Gaddafi has stalled.

Nato and UK defence officials insist that the rebel fears are unfounded, though the withdrawal of US combat aircraft over the last week has forced Britain and France to increase the number of planes capable of attacking military targets.

Nato officials will not say which other countries are providing a strike capability, but the Guardian has been told that only Denmark, Canada and Norway have agreed to take part. The rest of the countries that form the coalition either do not have the right equipment or have stipulated that they will help only to enforce the no-fly zone and will not allow their planes to conduct bombing missions.

That is likely to dismay rebel commanders, whose major concern is that the coalition is not providing the level of support it needs to win back territory lost to Gaddafi over the last week.

On Wednesday there were reports of heavy fighting west of Ajdabiya, with rebel leaders saying government forces had taken the initiative after being resupplied with ammunition.

Stung by criticism that it is not doing enough, Nato said that “the pace of operations continued unabated” and had not changed since the US relinquished its commanding role.

“The ambition and precision of our strikes has not changed,” a spokesman said. “The facts speak for themselves. In the first six days of Nato-led operations, we flew over 850 sorties and over 330 strike sorties.

“For example, on Monday, 14 separate strikes destroyed targets including air defence systems, tanks and armoured vehicles around Misrata and a rocket launcher which was firing on Brega, as well as ammunition storage facilities. Misrata is our number one priority. Overall, our assessment is that we have taken out a third of the military capacity of Gaddafi’s armed forces. And operations continue. We are fully implementing our UN mandate.”

UK defence sources admit they are also frustrated by the complaints and say the rebels may have lost sight of what the coalition is supposed to be doing and the limitations imposed by UN resolution 1973.

The rebels’ lack of experience in the “ebb and flow” of combat was cited as another factor. British commanders concede, though, that Gaddafi has changed tactics and his use of human shields has made bombing raids much more difficult to sanction.

“The rebels perhaps thought that when Nato came in it would effect regime change,” said a Whitehall source. “But that is not what we are mandated to do. We are there to protect civilians. When we were launching Tomahawk cruise missiles and flying operations from the UK and the US, we were bombing fixed targets, and we quickly degraded Gaddafi’s forces to enforce the no-fly zone. Now we are launching ground attacks against moving, dynamic targets. Our opponents are learning… the regime is using trucks which look just like the ones used by the rebels, and they are putting tanks next to civilian buildings. We could take them out but that would be a big risk.”

The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, supported this view, saying Nato operations were at risk of getting “bogged down” because Gaddafi’s forces were making it harder for alliance pilots to distinguish them from civilians. Admiral Edouard Guillaud, France’s armed forces chief, told Europe 1 radio: “I would like things to go faster but … protecting civilians means no firing anywhere near them. That is precisely the difficulty.”

On Wednesday the Ministry of Defence said that, in the latest bombing raids, RAF Tornados had fired Paveway and Brimstone missiles at targets around Misrata and Sirte, destroying six tanks and six other fighting vehicles. It also confirmed that four of the Typhoons would be converted to ground attack missions – modifications that could be done in a couple of days.

The total number of RAF fast jets based at the Gioia del Colle base in southern Italy stands at 20 – 16 of them now directed for ground attack missions.

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This article titled “Nato lacking strike aircraft for Libya campaign” was written by Ian Traynor in Brussels and Richard Norton-Taylor, for The Guardian on Tuesday 5th April 2011 15.49 UTC

Nato is running short of attack aircraft for its bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi only days after taking command of the Libyan mission from a coalition led by the US, France and Britain.

David Cameron has pledged four more British Tornado jets on top of eight already being used for the air strikes. But pressure is growing for other European countries, especially France, to offer more after the Americans withdrew their attack aircraft from the campaign on Monday.

“We will need more strike capability,” a Nato official said.

Since the French launched the first raids on Libya 16 days ago, the coalition and Nato have destroyed around 30% of Gaddafi’s military capacity, Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, the Canadian officer leading the air campaign, told Nato ambassadors.

But attempts to “degrade” the Libyan leader’s firepower further were being complicated by a shift in tactics by Gaddafi, said Brigadier General Marc van Uhm, a senior Nato military planner.

“They are using light vehicles and trucks to transport,” while hiding tanks and heavy weapons, he said.

“We try to identify where those heavy assets are, because we have seen they have chosen to hide themselves into urban areas to prevent being targeted, even using human shields.”

Nato officials insisted the pace of the air operations was being maintained. But it has emerged that the US and the French, who have been the two biggest military players until now, are retaining national control over substantial military forces in the Mediterranean and refusing to submit them to Nato authority.

The French have the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, two escorting frigates and 16 fighter aircraft, none of which are under the Nato command and control which was announced last Thursday.

Until last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy was the loudest opponent of handing over the operations to Nato control. Nonetheless, the French are not only taking part in the Nato campaign, but are the biggest non-US contributors, with 33 aircraft, double Britain’s 17. Not all of these are strike aircraft.

Until Monday, the Americans had performed most of the attacks on ground targets, with the French executing around a quarter and the British around a 10th. Given the US retreat, Nato is seeking to fill the gap, but only the British have pledged more.

“We’re very happy that one country decided to bring in more assets,” said Van Uhm.

When Nato took over from the coalition it was stressed that it had assumed “sole command and control” of all air operations.

However, countries are dipping in and out of Nato command, withdrawing “air assets” for national operations before returning them to alliance control.

“It’s pretty clear that Nato is in command. Nato is in the lead,” said Van Uhm. “There are assets under national control in the area. But General Bouchard is commanding what Nato does … You could say nothing is happening without Nato knowing.”

The general stressed that no air strikes on ground targets in Libya had taken place outside Nato’s command.

Six countries are believed to be engaged in the bombing campaign – France, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, and Norway – with many others involved in policing an arms embargo and enforcing a no-fly zone.

Gaddafi’s air force had been grounded, Van Uhm said.

In London, the Ministry of Defence said RAF aircraft had struck targets in Libya on each of the past three days.

Tornado GR4 ground attack planes, flying from the Italian airbase of Gioia del Colle, hit a battle tank and two surface-to-air missile launchers near Sirte on Monday when they launched three anti-armour Brimstone missiles. The previous day, they dropped Paveway IV bombs and fired Brimstone missiles to target a group of 10 armoured vehicles south of Sirte.

On Saturday, they dropped Paveway IV bombs on two tanks in Sirte and also hit “several small ground attack aircraft” on an airfield near Misrata, the MoD said.

Two of the 10 Eurofighter/Typhoons based in Italy have returned to the UK. The Typhoons are not equipped to conduct ground attack operations.

• This article was amended on 7 April 2011. The original referred to firing Paveway IV bombs and missiles. These have both been corrected.

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