Obama makes his case; Air war heats up in Afghanistan; 4th Infantry Division to Europe?; Delta Force saves history; and just a bit more.
The only real alternative to an Iran deal was war, U.S. President Barack Obama explained to reporters at an unusually lengthy White House presser kicking off his 60-day campaign to convince skeptical U.S. voters and lawmakers—Democrats in particular—that the new accord is in the world’s best interests, the Washington Post reported.
“With a better deal impossible,” the New York Times added, “he challenged critics of the deal to acknowledge that what they really wanted was a military solution,” noting, “If the alternative is that we should bring Iran to heel through military force, then those critics should say so, and that will be an honest debate.”
“I am not betting on the Republican Party rallying behind this agreement,” the president said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “I just want to make sure that we’re not leaving any stones unturned here,” he said. “My hope is that everyone in Congress also evaluates this agreement based on the facts—not on politics, not on posturing,”
Obama’s national security team is doing their part in the White House’s messaging blitz. Vice President Joe Biden is working the Senate Democrat side and National Security Advisor Susan Rice laying out the international response if Iran tries to block UN nuclear inspectors from visiting suspicious sites.
While Biden got a hearty round of applause and high marks for his sales pitch on Wednesday to House Democrats, it’s not clear whether he actually got any votes, reports National Journal’s Alex Brown.
“Frankly, people were joking about it, but [Biden] went down to the minute details” while pitching the deal to Dems on Capitol Hill, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said Wednesday. “The president can lose no more than 12 Senate Democrats if all Republicans vote to oppose the deal.” More on that angle, here.
More administration officials could be carted out for hearings on Capitol Hill as early as next week, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R.-Tenn., told the WSJ.
The deal, a morally dubious compromise with a terror-supporting theocracy, may also be a practical necessity, argues The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. “The dirty little secret of this whole story is that it is very difficult to stop a large nation that possesses both natural resources and human talent, and a deep desire for power, from getting the bomb.”
And U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter hits up Israel and Saudi Arabia next week to address their concerns and responses to the deal, Reuters reported.
The U.S. air campaign over Afghanistan notched its busiest month of the year in June, a response to fears of spreading Islamic State group affiliates, NYTs reports. “American military officials had played down the Islamic State’s activity, but it flared quickly in the eastern Nangarhar Province in the late spring…
“‘We needed to take action,’ said one Afghan official who has been briefed on some of the intelligence that preceded the strikes. ‘The willingness on the part of the Americans to provide the air support is always there.’”
“Two senior Afghan officials…suggested that part of the new surge in airstrikes was linked to improved targeting information from the Afghan spy service, the National Directorate of Security.” And that increase in targeting could imperil peace negotiations with the Taliban, “indirectly strengthen[ing] the group’s legitimacy to an Afghan public that widely loathes the American airstrikes.” But officials in Kabul may also see it as a way to gain leverage as they try to work a peace deal. Read the rest, here.
Meantime in Kandahar, allegations of sexual harassment led to the firing of a U.S. Navy captain as second-in-command of the large medical unit at the NATO base, Navy Times reports. The sacking of Capt. Kurt Henry marks “the third member of the unit’s command triad to be fired this year. The former CO, Capt. Maria Majar, and former CMC Chief Hospital Corpsman Shane Reece were fired in March, mid-deployment, before Henry was named XO.”
There’s a new ISIS wargame report out this morning from the folks at the Institute for the Study of War. It highlights the group’s regional expansion and global ambitions, suggesting while “few countries are willing or able to counter ISIS as a global phenomenon … avoiding or delaying action against ISIS will not necessarily preserve strategic options in the future.”
To counter the terrorist threat from ISIS, the U.S. must continue to “define the global counter-ISIS mission” while recognizing that “a strategy focused on ISIS alone likely will allow other radical actors to thrive.” Full report, with more than a dozen bulleted takeaways, here.
U.S. Delta Force commandos snagged some 500 ancient artifacts during their May raid in Syria that killed ISIS “oil emir” Abu Sayyaf, AP reported yesterday. The artifacts had disappeared during the 2003 Iraq invasion; and they’re now on full display in the Baghdad National Museum.
Baghdad’s new hardware: Four F-16s—the first of a batch of 36 on order—arrived at Balad Air Base on Monday, AFP reported. Earlier this week, Iraqi security forces also received more than two-dozen “Navistar MaxxPro mine-resistant, ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles with mine rolling equipment,” IHS Janes reported yesterday.
From Defense One
The Iran deal limits the options for the next U.S. commander in chief, but the 45th president will still have room to tweak and improve the agreement. The Atlantic’s David Frum explains.
And take heart: Iran’s regional power has been on the wane for five years, thanks in part to the unpopular chaos its proxies have created, say John Bradshaw and J. Dana Shuster of the National Security Network in Defense One. “Facts on the ground simply do not support fears in Congress that a nuclear agreement will somehow empower an Iranian grab for regional hegemony.”
What happens when you storm a U.S. military checkpoint? The answer is getting more complicated, and less immediately lethal, thanks to new tactics and technology. Technology Editor Patrick Tucker lays it out.
And finally, what do Africans see as the biggest threat to their continent? Terrorism is up there, but it doesn’t top the list. Quartz’s Omar Mohammed reports on a new Pew Research poll.
And be sure and follow us on Twitter today at the hashtag #nextinsiderthreat for Defense One’s discussion on the DOD Insider Threat Program with Technology Editor Patrick Tucker sitting down with Patricia Larsen, co-director of the National Insider Threat Task Force, and Mark Nehmer, deputy chief of implementation at the DOD Insider Threat Management and Analysis Center with the Defense Security Service. The event begins in about a half an hour at the CEB Waterview Conference Center in Arlington, Va.
And briefly here—It’s been decided that one of your D Brief-ers deserves a gut punch after yesterday’s mixup of the Army Rangers as “long tabbers” (that’s Special Forces, or Green Berets) instead of their proper “short tab” descriptor. Shorter name; shorter tab. We knew better. Thanks for the polite azimuth checks, gang.
Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The D Brief, from Ben Watson and Brad Peniston. Want to share The D Brief with a friend? Find our subscribe link here. (And if you want to view today’s edition in your browser, you can do that here.) And please tell us what you like, don’t like, or want to drop on our radar right here at the-d-brief@defenseone.com.
The U.S. Army has a European wish list, and it includes doubling the number of tanks it keeps on the continent as well as dedicating an entire division to reassuring NATO allies and partners, Military Times reports on the heels of WSJ’s report last week from Julian Barnes’ interview with Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno.
“These moves come as the Army continues a massive drawdown of forces that has already cut 10,000 soldiers — including two brigade combat teams — from Europe. Another 1,700 soldiers will be cut over the next three years as part of the latest round of reductions, leaving about 30,000 soldiers forward-stationed in Europe.” Nearly 1,200 vehicles, including some 220 tanks, Bradleys and Howitzers, are due to arrive in Europe this December, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe, said Monday.
“Army senior leaders also are considering dedicating the 4th Infantry Division to Europe as part of the service’s regionally-aligned forces concept…Hodges said the plan to align all of the 4th Infantry Division — to include its brigade combat teams, aviation brigade and enablers — has not been finalized. ‘It’s a proposal, and I certainly would welcome it,’ he said. ‘It would make it a very effective and efficient way to generate what was needed for the rotational force.’” Read the rest here.
Defense companies have given four times as much money to the House and Senate lawmakers now hashing out the 2016 defense authorization bill than to other members of the Armed Services committees, the Center for Public Integrity found. “Members of the conference committee are slated to hold their deliberations behind closed doors, as they usually do, so it will be hard for outsiders to see which lawmakers are carrying the most water for their donors.”
And Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said he's “very disappointed” in Defense Secretary Ash Carter for recommending President Obama veto the annual defense authorization bill. In remarks at the Heritage Foundation, McCain said the conference between the House and Senate to hammer out differences between their versions of the defense authorization bill could wrap up as soon as this week, queuing up a full vote some five months earlier than in recent years. But as for whether Obama will make good on his veto threat, McCain said gravely: “I’m very much afraid he will.”
Fatty pants alert: One-third of America’s youth are too obese to join the military, a new study from a group of retired military leaders says. Not exactly news, especially to noncommissioned officers grading physical fitness tests; but it can be an extra motivator to put back that doughnut this morning. AP with more here.
And lastly today, in space news: “A Ranger-tabbed doctor who served with Special Forces and a helicopter pilot with more than 800 combat flying hours—officially joined NASA's astronaut corps this month,” Army Times reports. Lt. Col. (Dr.) Andrew Morgan and Maj. Anne McClain are “join a long list of West Point astronauts that includes retired Air Force officers Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.”