{"id":18905,"date":"2015-03-10T14:30:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T03:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=18905"},"modified":"2015-03-12T12:41:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T01:41:00","slug":"rapid-fire-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapid Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"U.S.<\/a><\/figure>\n

With International Women\u2019s Day yesterday this week\u2019s Land Warfare tips its hat to women in the US army and former CIA spy Betty McIntosh, and then looks at Boko Haram, US military power, the offensive in Tikrit and a (graphic) insight into mindset of Russian soldiers fighting in the Ukrainian conflict.<\/p>\n

In the lead up to the US military\u2019s plan to open all combat roles to women by 2016, six women have passed the Ranger Training assessment course<\/a> and are set to attend Ranger school this April. Major-General Scott Miller says \u2018any time any soldier will raise their hand for a voluntary course, particularly one that\u2019s very, very tough, I admire those soldiers\u2019.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, women who do graduate from the Ranger Course next month won\u2019t be eligible for assignment to the 75th Ranger Regiment, as it remains closed to women. But with 4,100 previously \u2018men only\u2019 positions opening to women<\/a> in the National Guard, regular Army and Army reserve, perhaps it\u2019s simply a matter of time. The integration of women into combat roles has also prompted further research by the Army into the most effective measures<\/a> and standards for testing a soldier\u2019s fitness and capabilities in training in order to better match soldiers to their roles.<\/p>\n

Former WWII spy Elizabeth \u2018Betty\u2019 McIntosh turned 100 last week, with CIA Director John Brennan hosting a special celebration. The agency also featured a commemorative story about her life and achievements<\/a>. Brennan said that \u2018it is fitting that Women\u2019s History Month begins each year on [her birthday]\u2019as \u2018her many achievements and storied life are an inspiration to all women\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Islamic State (IS) franchise continues to grow and challenge al-Qaeda. In an unverified message released via Twitter over the weekend, Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram\u2019s leader Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.\u00a0Daveed Gartenstein-Ross says that the primary advantages<\/a> for Boko Haram are financial gain and \u2018access to the group\u2019s \u2018propaganda apparatus.\u2019 But ultimately Gartenstein-Ross believes that it won\u2019t spur direct military intervention. Aaron Zelin from the Washington Institute<\/a> likened the pledge to saying \u2018We are on the same page\u2019 but stressed that it\u2019s \u2018too early to tell if Boko Haram will fall directly under ISIS command, and to what extent they will act as an ISIS proxy.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the news does reinforce fears that IS is moving beyond its current base in Syria and Iraq. Those fears may soon see a rush for American and allied forces to train African counterterrorism troops<\/a> to combat extremism on the African continent.<\/p>\n

Michael Noonan from the Foreign Policy Research Institute<\/em> has written an important commentary at War on the Rocks<\/em> on the attractiveness of special operations forces<\/a>. He warns that no matter how \u2018sexy\u2019 SOF is made to look in films such as American Sniper,<\/em> it should be utilised only when circumstances dictate and not because politicians and the public are seduced by its attractiveness.<\/p>\n

In the Middle East, the ground force operation to reclaim the Iraq city of Tikrit<\/a> has been underway for almost nine days. The operation comprises about 30,000 fighters, of whom roughly half are said to be Iraqi military. The other half appears to comprise 2,000 Sunni tribal fighters and 13,000 Shiite military forces<\/a> accompanied by their Iranian sponsors and advisers. The overwhelming numbers of Iranian backed Shiite militia forces has sparked concern over the future safety of locals in the area<\/a>, as it\u2019s primarily a Sunni region.<\/p>\n

In contrast to the impressive contributions of Shiite combatants, there\u2019ve been questions on the capability of Iraq governance at this critical time. Over the weekend General Dempsey stated during a press conference<\/a> that US advisors in the Middle East are \u2018waiting for some of the Iraq units to show up, and when they\u2019ve shown up they\u2019ve shown up understrength and sometimes without the proper equipment\u2019.<\/p>\n

Finally, an interview with 20-year-old Russian soldier, Dorzhi Batomkunuev<\/a>, gives a raw and powerful look into the perspective of those fighting to \u2018liberate\u2019 the people of Eastern Ukraine; he says that \u2018if Donetsk wants independence, you gotta give it\u2019. A warning to readers, though, the video and some of the photos are graphic.<\/p>\n

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

With International Women\u2019s Day yesterday this week\u2019s Land Warfare tips its hat to women in the US army and former CIA spy Betty McIntosh, and then looks at Boko Haram, US military power, the offensive …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":18906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[969,895,311,636,714,351,310],"class_list":["post-18905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-boko-haram","tag-islamic-state","tag-special-operations","tag-spying","tag-ukraine","tag-us-army","tag-women-in-combat"],"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-4\/\" \/>\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=\"With International Women\u2019s Day yesterday this week\u2019s Land Warfare tips its hat to women in the US army and former CIA spy Betty McIntosh, and then looks at Boko Haram, US military power, the offensive ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/\" \/>\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=\"2015-03-10T03:30:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-12T01:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/8577462756_b7548c87d5_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-4\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/8577462756_b7548c87d5_z.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/8577462756_b7548c87d5_z.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":427,\"caption\":\"U.S. Army 1st Lt. Audrey Griffith, points out an area of interest during a force protection drill to Spc. Heidi Gerke along the perimeter of Forward Operating Base Hadrian in Deh Rawud, Afghanistan, March 18, 2013.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/\",\"name\":\"Rapid Fire | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-10T03:30:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-12T01:41:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/7879897f6a3b2805e3067e559b1cbc4c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/#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-4\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rapid Fire | The Strategist","og_description":"With International Women\u2019s Day yesterday this week\u2019s Land Warfare tips its hat to women in the US army and former CIA spy Betty McIntosh, and then looks at Boko Haram, US military power, the offensive ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2015-03-10T03:30:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-12T01:41:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/8577462756_b7548c87d5_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-4\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/8577462756_b7548c87d5_z.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/8577462756_b7548c87d5_z.jpg","width":640,"height":427,"caption":"U.S. Army 1st Lt. Audrey Griffith, points out an area of interest during a force protection drill to Spc. Heidi Gerke along the perimeter of Forward Operating Base Hadrian in Deh Rawud, Afghanistan, March 18, 2013."},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/","name":"Rapid Fire | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2015-03-10T03:30:35+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-12T01:41:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/7879897f6a3b2805e3067e559b1cbc4c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rapid-fire-4\/#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\/18905"}],"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=18905"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18970,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18905\/revisions\/18970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}