Syrian train-and-equip shocker; Assad’s forces using new Russian arms; Does the ISIS fight need a czar?; GOPers debate national security; And a bit more.
Two suicide bombers struck checkpoints in Baghdad this morning and killed nearly two dozen people in an attack the Islamic State quickly took credit for, AP reports. The bombings—carried out by attackers on foot—hit commercial areas during rush hour and, in addition to the dead, wounded another 75. The news of the Baghdad bombings comes less than a day after U.S. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin of Central Command told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services committee that security in Baghdad had greatly improved in the months since the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIS began more than a year ago.
Austin dropped a bomb of his own on lawmakers Wednesday, telling them a mere “four or five” U.S.-trained Syrian rebels—out of an initial group of 60 just three months ago—remain on the battlefield fighting ISIS today. Austin, customarily very shy of media attention, drew the ire of lawmakers immediately, including key Democrats like Missouri’s Sen. Claire McCaskill and Virginia’s Tim Kaine—with the toss-off estimate, as Defense One’s Molly O’Toole reports.
“So we’re counting on our fingers and toes at this point, when we had envisioned 5,400 by the end of the year,” McCaskill said.
“Let’s not kid ourselves—that’s a joke,” added Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.
But where to go from here is anyone’s guess. SASC Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wants to establish a buffer zone to cordon off Syrian forces from attacking civilians. Other ideas include shifting some of the $500 million for rebel training to the Kurds (McCaskill) or stepping up efforts to stop ISIS recruiting efforts online (Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii)—but Austin and his counterpart at the hearing, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth, both essentially said none of those ideas alone are enough to defeat ISIS.
Kaine described a disturbing overall lack of concern for the counter-ISIS effort on Capitol Hill, The Daily Beast adds, noting “the Pentagon was not alone to blame as Congress has stopped short of authorizing the war—or making efforts to stop it.”
“We are acting like fans in the stadium,” said Kaine. “We still have not authorized this war. We are supposed to be owners of this team.”
Meantime in Syria, the Assad regime has begun “using new types of air and ground weapons supplied by Russia,” a Syrian military source told Reuters this morning.
Russian helos on the battlefield. U.S. officials said on Wednesday they’d spotted four Russian helicopters at a Syrian airfield, “including helicopter gunships, although it was not clear when the Russian helicopters had arrived there,” Reuters writes.
Now the White House is about to begin talks with Russia on Moscow’s military buildup in Syria, AP reports this morning. “U.S. officials said they expect the administration to begin a military-to-military dialogue with Russia in the coming days. The Pentagon will take the lead in the discussions but the exact level, venue and timing have yet to be determined.”
This diplomatic change in direction follows days of discussions between State Secretary John Kerry with his Russian counterpart—one of the last open channels with Moscow after military-to-military talks were suspended following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a position many current and former military officials in Europe have questioned, The Wall Street Journal reports.
What’s it like delivering bombs from the USS Theodore Roosevelt, in the Persian Gulf, to ISIS targets? NYT’s Helene Cooper and photog Adam Ferguson dropped in and filed this report on the “long periods of monotony, combat missions that end with bombs still intact to avoid hitting civilians, [and] occasional moments of fear.” It all adds up, Cooper writes, to a world that in many ways couldn’t be more different from the iconic ’80s film “Top Gun.” (And if you weren’t tracking, a sequel is reportedly in the works; no word on if Cooper’s reporting will add any elements of realism to the plot, which is said to feature drone warfare and the end of the fighter pilot’s reign.)
Back stateside, national security took center stage at GOP debate. “When 11 GOP candidates use much of their second presidential debate to re-litigate the Iraq War with each other, it’s symptomatic of a national-security identity crisis yet to be resolved more than a decade after the last Republican president in the White House began it,” writes Defense One Politics Reporter Molly O’Toole. “None of the Republican rivals attempting to break out of Donald Trump’s shadow has yet to emerge as a frontrunner on the subject.” Read O’Toole’s analysis of last night’s debate, here.
Some of the foreign policy highlights include: Jeb Bush proposing cyber attacks on China to “send a signal”; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul asking everyone to think twice before toppling secular dictators in the Middle East; former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina wants to rebuild the U.S. Navy in Europe and cut off diplomatic talks with Vladimir Putin; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio railed against what he viewed as an inadequate use of American power to fight terrorism abroad, adding “the United States military was not built to conduct pinprick attacks.” The Washington Post has a full (and annotated) transcript of the debate, here.
But Trump remained the draw—and drew a number of attacks from his GOP colleagues, including a zinger from Fiorina that elevated her profile considerably, WaPo noted. As for Trump’s remarks, “he had little to say on how he would conduct national security affairs, other than by gathering experts around him…[a] stance left him as almost a bystander to the foreign policy parts of the debate,” The New York Times' David Sanger wrote.
“Only two candidates—Trump and Fiorina—mentioned military veterans during the three-hour debate, neither in response to a direct question,” Military Times’ Leo Shane III adds.
A new poll peeks into the American psyche to explain why Trump is in the lead—even on foreign policy, Defense One’s Kevin Baron writes off the findings from the Chicago Council. “What really matters to voters is that when they feel threatened, they want their president to strike back. And that’s why Donald Trump has a better shot of winning the Republican nomination than any other candidate: Trump wants to fight.”
But the question of when the U.S. should flex its muscle continues to divide Republicans and Democrats, as Baron explains in-depth, here.
From Defense One
Dangerous, unfair, and embarrassing is how U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter described Congress’ inaction on defense spending. “Budget uncertainty, a decrease in defense resources, and Congressional reluctance to agree to proposed reforms — including eliminating overhead and unneeded infrastructure, retiring older platforms, and making reasonable adjustments in compensation – amount to a tax on how we plan and operate,” Carter said at the Air Force Association’s Air & Space Conference just outside Washington, D.C.
Carter also called on China to halt island-building, just days after a Chinese admiral claimed the South China Sea for Beijing. Defense One Deputy Editor Bradley Peniston has the report, and Carter’s full prepared remarks, here.
Now is the time for the White House to bring in an ISIS war czar, argues Richard Fontaine and Vance Serchuk of the Center for a New American Security, writing in Defense One. “Several experts now call for the U.S. to send additional trainers and advisers, under less restrictive rules of engagement, to support the Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga, and to intensify efforts to build a moderate Syrian rebel force. These steps are essential, but also inadequate."
Their pitch? “First, Obama should establish a formal operational headquarters for the Iraq-Syria campaign and put it in Baghdad. Together with the U.S. embassy and the State Department’s Syria team, this headquarters should be tasked with developing a joint civil-military campaign plan against ISIS.” As far as the “war czar” position at the National Security Council, read on to find out the value Fontaine and Serchuk believe it could add to what’s currently an “under-resourced fight with a dysfunctional and disjointed command structure.”
But before you intervene in Syria, answer these questions first. That’s the plea from Timothy Kaldas, via the Council on Foreign Relations. “Even as the cries for action rise, the mistakes of past interventions — in Libya, Iraq, and elsewhere — demand forethought.” Kaldas lays out a slew of items he’d like to see addressed, including, “How would any intervening military force deal with the array of rebel factions? Would the invasion force seek the removal of Assad and what would they do with the rest of Syria’s Baath leadership?” Read the rest at Defense One, here.
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Xi-Obama preview. Chinese President Xi Jinping is looking forward to a “profound exchange of views” with President Barack Obama during Xi’s trip next week to the White House, AP reports this morning. Obama, meanwhile, said the cyber threat from China is “probably one of the biggest topics I will discuss with President Xi,” WSJ adds.
SASC holds a hearing on the Pentagon’s Asia-Pacific maritime strategy with PACOM’s Adm. Harry Harris and Assistant Defense Secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs David Shear. That gets underway at 10 a.m. Livestream it here.
Also today, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva hold an award ceremony for Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, Specialist Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler for their heroism in thwarting the Thayls train attack on August 21. That’s in the Pentagon courtyard at 2 p.m.
Shortly after the FBI sent out consumer warnings on the perils of everyday objects that stay connected to the internet—or, what’s often referred to as the “internet of things,” IoT for short—the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Denise Zheng and William Carter have released a new report this morning on how the U.S. military can put the IoT to use.
Cost savings. “Adopting IoT devices for real-time fleet management, including geolocation, status, fuel efficiency, and weight and cargo sensors, could reduce fuel costs by as much as 25 percent and increase fleet utilization by 20 percent.” As well, “Smart thermostats have saved consumers as much as 10–15 percent on heat and cooling; even half those efficiency gains could save DoD $700 million on energy per year.”
Strengthening internet signals in “denied areas, including high-altitude communications relay platforms, CubeSat (miniaturized satellite) technology, and, where appropriate, piggybacking on commercial communications satellites.”
Better coordinate with “the private sector to field, maintain, and update IoT systems quickly with the newest technologies,” a move the Pentagon has already laid the initial groundwork for with its new Silicon Valley offices. Catch the rest of CSIS’ report in its entirety right here.
Women vets in Congress send congrats. Reps. Martha McSally, R-Ariz. and Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii — both women veterans — will introduce a resolution today congratulating the first female graduates of the Army’s Ranger School, mirroring the measure in the Senate last week. “These women deserve our fullest congratulations for all they’ve accomplished. Not only did they make history, but they showed that our military is ready to call upon whoever is the best man for the job – even if she’s a woman,” McSally told Defense One. All the women on the House Armed Services Committee are co-sponsors. They’re holding a press conference at 1 p.m. today at the House Radio and TV Gallery Studio B.
Words fail us. A British citizen who left his job as a supermarket guard to join ISIS in Syria would like you to know that being a member of a terror group isn’t all tea and crumpets. On his blog, Omar Hussain, formerly of the Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe, writes of the disappointingly boorish behavior of his brother terrorists who steal his shoes, “eat like children,” unplug his cellphone to charge their own, and refuse to honor queues at the ISIS pay office. Someone’s always taking the fun out of perpetrating atrocity and horror. The Independent has more, here.