{"id":18579,"date":"2015-02-24T14:30:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T03:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=18579"},"modified":"2015-02-25T06:02:59","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T19:02:59","slug":"rapid-fire-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapid Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sgt.<\/a>This week\u2019s update features Afghanistan, dishonesty in the US Army, Land 400, the PLA’s war-gaming technology, Houthi rebels, and women in combat.<\/p>\n

Over on Small Wars Journal<\/em>, the ADF’s Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Smith released a paper<\/a> this week analysing the effectiveness of the Australian military’s\u00a0relationships with other government agencies during Australia\u2019s participation in small wars, HADR and stabilisation operations over the past 15 years. Smith commends the ADF on its ability to commit to a whole-of-government approach that has shown both learning and sophistication.<\/p>\n

Small Wars Journal<\/em> also recently interviewed Carter Malkasian<\/a> on lessons learned from US counterinsurgency in Garmser district of Helmand province in Afghanistan. Looking back on the COIN mission from 2007 to 2010, he says \u2018I worry that we became too enamored with the idea that we had to fix the whole country\u2019 and elsewhere \u2018I suggest prioritizing effort toward those governance and development issues that most directly affect security and violence.\u2019 Poignant words, in light of events that unfolded after the US withdrawal from Iraq.<\/p>\n

During his recent visit to Australia, NATO Military Committee Chairman, General Knud Bartels, praised the continued Australian military presence in Afghanistan as a positive and necessary thing. With over 400 ADF\u00a0personnel still deployed in the country, General Bartels remains optimistic<\/a> on future security and stability in Afghanistan and hopeful on Australia\u2019s continued presence.<\/p>\n

In other news, a report by the US Army\u2019s Strategic Studies Institute<\/a> details the legacy of dishonesty in that service. The report implicates \u2018a culture that demands more from the profession\u2019s members than is possible\u2019 that leads to its officers becoming \u2018ethically numb\u2019. This could have further implications for the Australian Army if similar \u2018ethical fading\u2019<\/a>\u00a0 is seen here.<\/p>\n

The government shakeup here in December and changeover in Minister for Defence last year meant a delay in the release of the industry-anticipated Land 400 Request for Tender (RfT), resulting in frustration and speculation<\/a>. The RfT, which was eventually released on 19 February<\/a>, is the first tranche of the ADF\u2019s biggest land systems acquisition program<\/a> and is currently set to cost more than AUD$10 billion. Further ASPI discussion on the Land 400 project can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Turning to the Asia Pacific, Dean Chang over on War on the Rocks<\/em> has delved into the People’s Liberation Army\u2019s movements in its war-gaming technology.<\/a> The recent leaps in modernisation of strategic culture indicate that, despite recent claims of corruption<\/a> and organisational failure<\/a>, perhaps we should be paying more attention to the PLA.<\/p>\n

Travelling further east, pro-Iran, Shiite-led militias battling IS in Iraq could be undermining US attempts to strengthen the Iraq government. Michael Knights from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy speculates<\/a> that future efforts to reunite a post-IS Iraq could be frustrated by the militias\u2019 growing influence.<\/p>\n

Also on IS, New Zealand\u2019s defence chief is making an appearance in Saudi Arabia during Coalition talks on the battle against the organisation. NZ isn\u2019t yet involved in the fight but is using this as an opportunity to \u2018receive updates\u2019 on the situation. Prime Minister John Key announced in a press conference Monday that he will be announcing Parliament\u2019s decision to involve NZ troops today. Key stressed during the press conference<\/a> that if any action is taken in Iraq it will be only to train Iraqi forces. The issue is reported to have split Parliament<\/a>, with even Key supporters opposing the idea.<\/p>\n

The US has begun its plans to train 5,000 moderate Syrian rebels<\/a> in the fight against IS. So far 1,200 Syrians have been screened and approved for training as the US$500 million operation<\/a> gets underway. Critics of the plan<\/a> have been quick to draw analogies with the US training of the mujahidin in Afghanistan in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

A UNSC meeting on 15 February resulted in a unanimous resolution<\/a> demanding Houthi rebels in Yemen \u2018immediately and unconditionally\u2019 withdraw from government institutions they occupied in September last year. The resolution indicates a united front against the Houthis but does not act under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, failing to authorise military intervention. That\u2019s in spite of growing concern about violence<\/a> that\u2019s resulted in several countries shutting down embassies in the country.<\/a><\/p>\n

On the African continent, Italy has begun discussions over intervention in Libya<\/a> under a UN mandate after advising Italians to leave the country. France and Egypt have also joined the discussion<\/a>, calling for a UNSC resolution to lift the artillery ban to enable the \u2018legitimate government\u2019 to defend itself and reclaim Tripoli. This comes as a NATO official stipulated<\/a> last week that despite escalations<\/a> they aren\u2019t considering another intervention in Libya.<\/p>\n

Is the Marine Corps setting women up to fail in combat roles? Retired US Army Colonel Ellen Haring argues<\/a> that, rather than recruiting and integrating women, the Marines have been searching for a justification to keep women out. The US military is required to open all combat roles to females by 2016 unless a suitable ground for exclusion is found. For a look at the USMC position, here\u2019s a recent article that gives an overview of its efforts<\/a> to study integration of females into ground combat units.<\/p>\n

Sarah Hately is an intern at ASPI. Image courtesy of Flickr user US Army<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s update features Afghanistan, dishonesty in the US Army, Land 400, the PLA’s war-gaming technology, Houthi rebels, and women in combat. Over on Small Wars Journal, the ADF’s Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Smith released a paper …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":18593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,64,203,1062,262,274,310,542],"class_list":["post-18579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-civil-military-relations","tag-culture","tag-land-400","tag-libya","tag-syria","tag-women-in-combat","tag-yemen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRapid Fire | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rapid Fire | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week\u2019s update features Afghanistan, dishonesty in the US Army, Land 400, the PLA’s war-gaming technology, Houthi rebels, and women in combat. Over on Small Wars Journal, the ADF’s Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Smith released a paper ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-24T03:30:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-24T19:02:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/6992766462_b2d1cb8d0f_z.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Hately\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Hately\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/6992766462_b2d1cb8d0f_z.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/6992766462_b2d1cb8d0f_z.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":427,\"caption\":\"Sgt. Joshua Smith, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division\u2019s 1st Brigade Combat Team, chats with an Afghan boy during an Afghan-led clearing operation April 28, 2012, Ghazni province, Afghanistan. The soldier studied the Pashtun language prior to his deployment to southern Ghazni. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/\",\"name\":\"Rapid Fire | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-24T03:30:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-24T19:02:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/7879897f6a3b2805e3067e559b1cbc4c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rapid Fire\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/7879897f6a3b2805e3067e559b1cbc4c\",\"name\":\"Sarah Hately\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c256e91838fefdc781bcb7ae2b04d135?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c256e91838fefdc781bcb7ae2b04d135?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sarah Hately\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/sarah-hately\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rapid Fire | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rapid Fire | The Strategist","og_description":"This week\u2019s update features Afghanistan, dishonesty in the US Army, Land 400, the PLA’s war-gaming technology, Houthi rebels, and women in combat. Over on Small Wars Journal, the ADF’s Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Smith released a paper ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2015-02-24T03:30:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-24T19:02:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/6992766462_b2d1cb8d0f_z.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sarah Hately","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sarah Hately","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/6992766462_b2d1cb8d0f_z.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/6992766462_b2d1cb8d0f_z.jpg","width":640,"height":427,"caption":"Sgt. Joshua Smith, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division\u2019s 1st Brigade Combat Team, chats with an Afghan boy during an Afghan-led clearing operation April 28, 2012, Ghazni province, Afghanistan. The soldier studied the Pashtun language prior to his deployment to southern Ghazni. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod)"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/","name":"Rapid Fire | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2015-02-24T03:30:13+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-24T19:02:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/7879897f6a3b2805e3067e559b1cbc4c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rapid Fire"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/7879897f6a3b2805e3067e559b1cbc4c","name":"Sarah Hately","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c256e91838fefdc781bcb7ae2b04d135?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c256e91838fefdc781bcb7ae2b04d135?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sarah Hately"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/sarah-hately\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18579"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18614,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579\/revisions\/18614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}