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NZ's Strategic Military Doctrine

The NZ Government has decided to bring NZ troops home from Iraq.  This seems like a timely move.  Troops, however, will remain in Afghanistan.

The question that would immediately spring to the mind of a curious Martian would be, Why has New Zealand--that tiny wee nation which nestles up to the South Pole--been sending soldiers to Iraq?  Why would New Zealand be involved in such a strange commitment?  Does New Zealand have globalist pretensions to subdue and rule over far flung nations?

Firstly, let's review the "reason" for our military involvement in Iraq:

New Zealand has had a joint-training mission in Iraq with Australia since 2015, all part of the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve.  "The New Zealand and Australian troops at Taji have worked hard, not only to provide training, but also to ensure that the ISF are well placed to take over this commitment at Taji in the near future. The goal of any training mission is to ensure that it becomes a sustainable programme," Ardern said, noting over 42,000 troops had been trained under the scheme.

ISIS lost all territorial control in the Middle East earlier this year. New Zealand will slightly increase its annual contribution to an Iraqi stabilisation fund - up to $3 million from $2.4m prior - for the next three years.  [Stuff]

For many years New Zealand has not funded a sufficient military presence or power to defend itself.

There Can Be Honour In Defeat?

Afghanistan Remains Unconquered

President Trump Should End The Failed Afghanistan War And Bring The Troops Home

The war in Afghanistan is over. If our aim was to reshape Afghanistan as a modern civilized liberal democracy, we lost.

Sumantra Maitra
The Federalist




Ten thousand Pashtun tribals launched an attack at the present Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Sept. 12, 1897, in a now mostly forgotten battle with a relatively small but determined regiment of Sikh troops fighting for the Imperal British Indian army. Often regarded as one of the greatest last stands in military history, the Sikh soldiers called the British troops for backup, but the reinforcements were a couple of days late.

The Sikhs, meanwhile, decided that they would fight to the last man and bullet, and defended the Saragarhi fort until they were overrun. No one knows if all 21 men died for a cause they believed in — spreading human rights and Anglo-Saxon law and order in a land that has remained tribal for centuries. Before the fort fell, the Sikhs managed to kill 600 Islamist fighters, and wounded a few thousand more with artillery fire.

Some 120 years later, in 2018, Major Brent Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden, Utah, was killed in Afghanistan in America’s longest “war.” He leaves behind a wife, seven kids, and a failed cause that has so far cost more than $1 trillion and thousands of lives, and with just a few handpicked military outposts in the wilderness to show for it. All this in a country mostly covered by poppy seeds, where the Taliban control more territory than they did at any time in 2001.

The word “war” is within quotes, because it doesn’t look like a war anymore.

The Myth of the Wars of Religion

Yet Another Cheap Trick

Voltaire once famously said, "History is after all only a pack of tricks we play on the dead".  Voltaire had in view some "dishonest" historians.  Doubtless he was excluding himself and his fellow Philosophes from the sarcasm.  Yet, arguably the Enlightenment intelligentsia was guilty of playing more tricks upon the dead than most.

One of the staunch prejudices of the Philosophes of the Enlightenment was against religion and religious belief.  These were characterised as riddled with myth, superstition, purblind prejudice, and ignorance.  In contrast were the cool headed, evidence based intellectuals of the Age of Reason.  Or so the story ran.

One of the slurs against religious belief was that it was responsible for fomenting war.  People believed in things that were no more than ignorant prejudices.  Ignorance (rather than rational debate, analysis, and discussion) readily led to the use of force.  With no evidence, the only persuader in the face of disagreement was compulsion.  Hence, religion was responsible for much of the violence and bloodshed of the early modern period.  Terms like the Wars of Religion have been coined to characterise Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  These wars, we are told, only came to an end with the emergence of the secular Nation State.  When the map of Europe was redrawn into nation states, wars passed away.  Enlightenment flourished.  Convinced?

In A Time of Peace . . .

The US Secretary of Defense and the High Schooler

This is an interesting story on a number of levels.  The first is to acknowledge that a high school reporter in the US managed to score  a personal interview with Secretary of Defense, James Mattis.  Another aspect is the apparently quirky way the mind of the Secretary works--that he would grant the time for an interview.  A third facet is the way Mattis does not talk down to the high school student, but answers in an adult fashion.  And, finally, there is the content itself.  

High School Reporter’s Interview With Secretary Of Defense James Mattis

Dana
Patterico

No matter how one feels about Donald Trump being elected president, I think it’s safe to say that most Americans are pleased with his selection of James Mattis for Secretary of Defense.

With that, back in May when the Washington Post published a photo with James Mattis’s phone number on it, a motivated reporter called the number, and then texted Mattis to request an interview. To the young high school reporter’s surprise, Mattis said yes. Teddy Fisher is a reporter for the Mercer Island High School Islander newspaper.

The interview took place on Memorial Day, but did not appear in the school paper until late June. Here are a few excerpts from the excellent, content-rich and informative interview. Subjects covered, and providing much to chew over, include foreign policy, national policy, political ideologies, the Middle East, Iran, and advice for high schoolers. But if you think the interview is geared for high schoolers, think again: “I speak the same to high schoolers, college grads, or congressmen,” [Mattis] said. “I’ve found high schoolers to be plenty bright.”

Excerpts:

Civil War

Sizing the Problem

Those politicians and advocacy groups which have pushed Britain more and more in the direction of open borders have an awful lot to answer for.  It turns out that the "jihadi" problem is much, much bigger than previously announced.

Government sources have confessed that there are at least 23,000 jihadists in Britain – more than seven times higher than previously revealed.   Until recently, the public had been led to believe there were around 3,000 known jihadists in Britain, with 500 being subject to active investigations led by MI5. Whitehall officials have now disclosed that a further 20,000 individuals have been identified as posing a “residual risk”, according to The Times.  [BreitbartLondon]

Assuming this is correct, the effort to keep Britain safe from jihadi attacks will need to be prodigious.  As one expert put it:

Anthony Glees, the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies director who recently estimated the number of jihadists in Britain at “between 6,000 and 10,000”, described the Whitehall revelations as “horrifying”.  “To have 23,000 potential killers in our midst is horrifying. We should double the size of MI5, as we did in World War Two, and expand the number of intelligence-led police by thousands,” he said.

In times of war, it is expected that normal civil rights will contract to some extent, and even to a significant extent, depending upon the threats.  It appears that we are now entering such a time.  The first duty is to tell the truth to the public.   Britain is entering a time and state of civil war.  It's time to call a spade and spade.

War On A Different Front

British Police Making Terror Arrests on ‘Near Daily Basis’ 

Experts Estimate There Are 10,000 Jihadis in the UK

Jack Montgomery
BreitbartLondon

The Senior National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism has confirmed that police are now making terror-related arrests “on a near daily basis”. Meanwhile, a noted security expert has estimated the number of “committed Islamists” in the country is “between 6,000 and 10,000”.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu revealed the astonishing scale of the struggle to contain terrorism in a statement outside New Scotland Yard on Friday.  “I wanted to reassure the public that our increased activity to combat terrorism over the last two years continues,” he said. The statement came following an “extraordinary day” in which police apprehended a migrant carrying a rucksack filled with knives in Whitehall and, in a separate incident, shot a woman in a niqab in a raid to foil an “active plot” in Willesden.

“Activity continues around the clock to identify and stop these threats,” said Basu, before his shocking admission that “we are making arrests on a near daily basis”.  The terror suspect who was apprehended with knives near Downing Street was “born abroad” and has been named as Khalid Mohammed Omar Ali, the BBC has learnt.

Letter From the UK (About Political Correctness in the Army)

‘Marine A’, Sergeant Blackman

‘Wife In A Million’ Saved Me

Jack Montgomery
BreitbartLondon


Sergeant Alexander Blackman, better known as Marine A, has spoken out for the first time since his release from prison, saying that his “wife in a million” saved him.  “I will be eternally grateful to Claire and I cannot put into words how wonderful she is,” he told the Daily Mail.

“She is a wife in a million. Other inmates often said how lucky I was to have her fighting so hard for me.  I don’t think there is anybody who has witnessed the effort she has gone to who will doubt how she feels about me, and that’s beyond words really.  You just can’t imagine anyone cares for you that much.”

It is rumoured that the couple, who will not be changing his identity or appearance, in spite of terror risks, will be played by Tom Hardy and Kate Winslett in a big screen adaptation of their story, with Hollywood legend Al Pacino taking up a role as their lawyer.

Sgt Blackman, a Royal Marines Commando who served his country with distinction for 15 years in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Northern Ireland, was sentenced to ten years in prison by a court-martial for shooting an already mortally wounded terrorist fighter.

Hindsight and Crystal Balls

 Rethinking The Causes of World War II

As we approach ANZAC remembrance in New Zealand, thoughts will be turning once again to war, and in particular, New Zealand's involvement in World Wars I &II, along with lots of smaller actions since the Korean War to which New Zealand has contributed soldiers.

We have been ruminating once more on whether World War II could have been averted.  Now, a disclaimer is required: hind sight is always 20/20 vision, which means that it is speculative to one extent or another.  But the matter has assumed more relevance, given that Hitler turned out to be the wild-card which led Europe into armed conflict.  In our days, we face similar kinds of threats.  Replace Hitler with Kim Jong-un and we all get the point.

Therefore, re-thinking how Britain failed to avoid the conflagration which exploded when Hitler unleashed his legions, is not as academic today as it was three or four years ago.  Historian Robert Tombs provides a list of some things, which, in hindsight, Britain got wrong during what he calls the "Twenty-Year Truce" between the two world wars.  These become potential lessons for the future.

Trump's War Doctrine

Bombast, Money, and Technology

With the advent of Donald Trump "wartalk" has suddenly assumed much greater weight.  Jehu drove his chariot furiously, as does Trump.  This represents a radical change from Barack Obama, who appeared to like the blood and guts, but only cerebrally, you understand.   Obama, we suspect, was the ultimate arm-chair general.  He pondered extensively over the minutia of the matter.  He insisted (we were told) on personally authorizing each drone strike against Islamic mujahideen,  He thought himself into a blue funk over Syria, announcing a "Red Line" which overnight morphed into an "Invisible Line drawn with Fading Ink".

Meanwhile, he struck great blows for human rights within the military.  He recognised homosexuality in the ranks, striking down "don't ask, don't tell"; he strove to achieve gender equality; he wanted the military to resemble a modern liberal arts campus.  Obama was a feckless president.  He was also ideologically blinded.  He refused to see any real threat in Islam, preferring instead to see the whole matter as little more than a Marxist struggle on the part of Islamic nations for self-respect and independence.  His role, as he saw it, was not to make things worse, but to cut the mujahideen lots of slack.  Hence, he forbade calling terrorist attacks upon the US "Islamic"terrorist acts.  He proclaimed that Afghanistan was a war the US had to fight (as opposed to finishing the job in Iraq); within months the Afghan war morphed into "nation building", requiring a time frame of over twenty-five years.

Donald Trump is none of these things.  But this does not make him right.

Strange Things In An Odd World

And Your Problem Is . . . What, Exactly?

Public bread and butter in New Zealand has been covered with a thick, oozing dollop of sanctimony these last few days.  Nicky Hager has been going full tilt offering the benefit of his investigation into the killing of innocent non-combatants by NZ SAS soldiers in Afghanistan.

Over the years we have learned to treat everything Nicky says with a lashings of cynical scepticism.  Nicky, for his part, is always sure he is right.  Self-critical he ain't.  But then again, one never gets headlines if one mumbles or appears in public as two handed: that is, "one the one hand . . . " and "on the other hand . . . "  Nicky has always been blessed with truckloads of self-certitude.  He is a thorough "one-handed" man, you may say.

Nicky is infallibly certain that the secretive SAS has been guilty of a massive cover-up where "in retaliation" against the death of one of its soldiers, shot innocent Afghan villagers in a "revenge" attack.  Maybe.  It's possible.  But note right off the "framing" of the incident.  "Retaliation".  "Revenge".  Note the high moral dudgeon, the self-righteous sanctimony on display.

The first thing that we find odd is Nicky's display of an infallible righteous code which seems to project from every part of his being.  In our modern world, this does appear a bit strange.  A bit antediluvian.  It's one thing for a Christian to hold to standards and ethics which have stood since the Garden of Eden.  It's one thing for a Christian to tremble before a holy God and the interdictions of His Word commanding the Church to be perfect, even as He is perfect.  But a Modern?  An Unbeliever?  It seems so alien coming from the mouth of an Unbeliever--this righteous indignation against an alleged war-crime.

Armchair General

Hager the Horrible Strikes Again . . . 

And Embarrasses Himself

We have this chap in NZ who is a left-wing conspiracy-theorist who sees all kinds of plans and stratagems issuing forth from corrupt plutocrats to hold the world in their thrall.  Nicky Hager is an embarrassment to himself in many ways.  But, then again, there are those who regard him as St Nickolas, convinced that were he to attempt it, he would walk on water, No Worries. Each to his bias, we suppose.

The media love him because they adore headlines and notoriety generates them faster than anything else.  Sensation will trump hard news every time. Here is the first breathless account from a NZ Herald sensationalist, presenting Hager's account of a fight in Afghanistan conduced by the NZ SAS.

The House of Internecine War

Islam's Achilles Heel

It is easy to become fatalistic about the eventual triumph of Islam throughout the world.  Islamists really do believe their doctrine, whereas so many in the formerly Christian West view Christian doctrine as a fable.

But, historically at least, Islam has an Achilles Heel.  It is that ever since Islam was first made up by Muhammad in the seventh century AD it has been a House of War.  It is not just that the scimitar was deployed to spread the religion of "peace" to infidels; rather, intra-Islamic war has also been the norm.  This is unlikely to change.  As Efraim Karsh reminds us

Conflicts and wars among members of the same civilization have been far more common, and far more intense, than those between members of rival civilizations.  Even in Islam, where Muhammad specifically and categorically forbade fighting among believers, it took a mere twenty-four hours  after the Prophet's death for the head of the universal Islamic community, the caliph Uthman, to be murdered by political rivals.  This opened the floodgates to incessant infighting  within the House of Islam, which has not ceased to date and has exacted far more numerous casualties than conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims.  [Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 238.]

We see this writ large in the Middle East today.

We Hope the Movie is Worthy of Its Subject

In Faithful Service To Our Lord

We came across an amazing story in one of our prominent New Zealand current affairs blogs.  We reproduce it in full:

An Incredible Hero

August 12th, 2016 at 12:00 pm by David Farrar
Kiwiblog

Just listened to a podcast about a true hero, Desmond Doss. Desmond Doss was a conscientious objector in WWII yet won the Congressional Medal of Honour for bravery.  He was a devout Seventh-day Adventist and took the sixth Commandment literally “Thou shalt not kill” and also the fourth “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”.

He took this to mean he could not kill, or even hold a weapon, nor work on a Saturday. However he became an Army medic as even Christ healed people on the Sabbath. He could have tried to defer or stay home, but wanted to help the war effort – so long as it didn’t violate his religious beliefs.

He got many hassles for his devout beliefs and refusal to train on Saturdays or hold a weapon. One superior even tried to get him discharged on the grounds of mental illness. He refused to take this way out, saying how could he agree being a Christian is a mental illness.

He served initially in 1944 in Guam and the Philippines.

No Firsts Among "Equals"

False Egalitarianism

We were irritated to read recently about an elite special military unit--consisting of both Australians and New Zealanders--whose courage, skills, and exploits have been suppressed for decades.  For no good reason, it would seem.

One can understand suppression of military exploits that might expose those who participated to danger.  Or, if the danger would come to those presently serving, we can understand keeping things locked in a deep, dark dungeon.  All of this would appear very reasonable.  But not this time.

Families of a forgotten World War II crack commando unit are calling on the New Zealand Government to officially recognise their behind-enemy-lines feats more than 70 years on.  There were 22 New Zealanders who signed up to the ultra-secret Z Special Unit which caused mayhem waging a guerrilla war against the Japanese in the Pacific.

But after the war, they were silenced by 30-year secrecy agreements.  Many died before they could tell anyone - even their wives and families - exactly what they did in the war. [NZ Herald]

What state, or military secrets were being protected, one wonders, by the secrecy?  The Aussies have at last seen the light and decided to allow their heroes to come out into the light.  But not NZ.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Pro-Life Rhetoric and War

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

One of the problems that arises out of pro-life phrases like “sanctity of human life” is that it makes human life the standard. But God’s law is the standard, not human life. We should rather speak of the sanctity of God’s law, and the resultant dignity of human life.

Neglect of this principle is why pro-lifers often walk into a trap when they are asked if they are pacifists or if they support capital punishment under any circumstances. When they reply that they are not pacifists or if they show support for capital punishment, they are then charged with inconsistency. “Pro-life, huh?”

But life can never be the standard. God’s law (revealed or natural) is the only possible standard for public righteousness. Speaking of which, I am currently reading a good book on the subject of God’s law — we live in lawless times, and this book would be a good refresher for a lot of people.

A defenseless child in the womb is always to be protected, and never assaulted. That is the case across the board. The child has done nothing that could possibly warrant a just execution, and this is true in the very nature of the case. All we need to know is that we are talking about abortion. If we are talking about abortion, then we know what side we are on.

When it comes to capital punishment, we actually need to know the additional circumstances.

France Declares "Humanitarian" War

More of the Same

The terror attacks and mass fatalities in Paris over the past days have been long predicted and expected.  We believe there will be many more attempted; some successful.  The West is in disarray.

The French President, Hollande somewhat fatuously pronounced, "We are at war".  Sadly, and so characteristically, this was likely little more than a rhetorical flourish.  Certainly, Hollande had not had the time to go through the constitutional processes required in order for France as a nation to declare war.  Being at war has become fashionable, and somewhat meaningless, with declarations of wars being pronounced on poverty, discrimination, disease, immigration, poverty, excessive wealth, illiteracy, global warming, and Mum's Apple Pie.  Consequently, the West appears to be fighting many wars, of which this is just one. The concept of war has been inflated to meaninglessness.

Sadly, we suggest that Hollande does not know much at all about war--genuine war--and he, along with all other ostrich-head European politicians, will merely pontificate away.  Consequently, as long as this state of affairs continues, Islamist terror attacks will continue in Europe and the West.  Europe has sought to build a utopian paradise upon an idolatrous four headed ideology (secularism, atheism, materialism, and humanitarianism).  These ideologies, taken together, do not persuade a nation to fight.  In the end, they have no higher cause, no absolute law which they must respect.  They do not provide the spiritual or mental fortitude to go to war.

Now war has been taken to Europe.

Bound to Suspend Disbelief

Social Justice, Egalitarian, and Politically-Correct Ideologues Doing Damage

And now something to make the feminists and their fellow travellers mad . . . .

Women in Combat Endanger Their Fellow Soldiers’ Lives

National Review Online
David French

Imagine, if you will, reading a story that begins, “The NFL announced the results of a year-long study in mixed-gender football teams today, concluding that women not only suffered more injuries than men, but also performed worse in every football-related physical task.”

You would likely have two immediate reactions. First, you’d wonder why the NFL actually had to commission a study to discover a reality obvious to every sentient, rational person in the universe — women aren’t as physically strong as men. Then, you’d demand to know what kind of barbarian actually approved a testing process in which real women were injured at wildly disproportionate rates to prove what we all already knew.

The Marine Corps is playing out just such a scenario today. In response to relentless political pressure from social-justice warriors who mistake military service for one long exercise in diversity training, the Marines conducted a nine-month study comparing the performance of all-male infantry units with mixed units in simulated combat environments. The results?

What Is Our Policy?

Survival

The period between the First and Second World War in the UK has been dubbed the "Twilight Years"  by celebrated historians.  The country was awash with communist and latterly national socialist sympathisers, with pacifists, with Fabian socialists, with academics entranced by Freudianism, and with eugenicists.  [See Richard Overy,  The Twilight Years: The Paradox of Britain Between the Wars (New York: Penguin/Viking, 2009)]

The pacifist sentiment was largely represented politically via the Labour and Liberal parties.  But not exclusively so.  Neville Chamberlain, the architect of the foreign policy of appeasement towards Hitler, professed to be a pacifist.  He led the Conservative Party.  But despite the grip of these strange philosophies and teachings, when it finally became clear to the wilfully obtuse that Herr Hitler was an aggressor and had an ambition to rule Britain by force, the nation and its intellectuals and false prophets came together as one.

When Chamberlain realised that Hitler had deliberately deceived and lied to him, he became resolute in leading the nation in war.  But he was unable to win the universal support of the House of Commons.  Eventually, Winston Churchill was asked to lead a coalition government representing all parties in the House.  Repentant pacifists stood to indicate their support.  All parties laid aside politicking and began to pull together in harness to defend the nation.

Winston Churchill describes the moment:

Knowing One's Limitations

A Mistake

It's encouraging to see some Republican candidates for US President articulating a much, much more responsible doctrine of war.  We have often noted in this blog that the United States has shed more blood in warfare than any other nation on the globe over the past fifty years.  Instead of talking softly and carrying a big stick, it has shouted loudly and used a stick to kill people all over the world. 

Christians often get confused over war.  Because we worship and serve the Prince of Peace, some Christians unfaithfully and ignorantly elide into pacifism.  They forget that the Prince ordained the magistrate to bear a sword to punish evil doers.  Moreover, because there are many evils in the world, and the US has the most powerful, global military force, other Christians think it right to use the nation's military might to solve problems and conflicts anywhere on the globe.  "Because we can, we should" is the argument.  This latter folly represents naivete and arrogance way beyond the norm. 

Remember when President Obama decided that the US had to "nation-build" in Afghanistan.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Ukraine #1

Douglas Wilson

Blog&Mablog

March 2, 2015

In the past, I have made passing references to Ukraine, and those references have made clear my distaste for Putin’s brand of Russian adventurism, along with my sympathies for Ukraine, stuck as they are with us on their side, us being such a hapless chump of a superpower. For example, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had a bunch of nukes. We talked them into surrendering those nukes in exchange for us guaranteeing their borders. They were stupid enough to believe us, so it is partly their fault I guess.

But this promises to descend into the particulars too quickly. I do want to get there in subsequent installments, but first I want to make some distinctions between two different kinds of political issues. There are the “do triangles have three sides?” issues, and there are the “did Smith shoot Murphy on the night of the 13th?” issues. Whether minimum wage laws are a good idea is the former kind of issue, and who should own the Crimea is the latter kind.

Unfortunately, the latter kind of issue is the kind that winds up in shooting wars, when the issues are often far more murky than people like to pretend, while the former kind of issue is the kind where people are prone to adopt a live and let live approach.