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- Published: Wednesday, 17 June 2009 16:46
17 June 2009
Small teams of American troops are spread across many locations in the southern Philippines. Each team works side-by-side with Filipino counterparts. The jobs vary. Navy SEALs and Special Boat Teams often support the AFP (Armed Forces Philippines) on actual operations. I have been briefed on some of these operations -- though without the physical access one gets in Iraq or Afghanistan. One truism of embedding: the more they are fighting, the closer the writer is welcome to get, right up into the middle.
Read more: Southern Philippines
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- Published: Friday, 12 June 2009 02:01
12 June 2009
Lieutenant Colonel Jim Crider and his battalion, 1-4 Cav, performed masterfully in Iraq. I got to know LTC Crider and his soldiers on the streets of Baghdad. We spent a lot of time on those streets. 1-4 Cav brought home lessons for the history books. Please see this from CNAS:
Read more: Inside the Surge: One Commander’s Lessons in Counterinsurgency
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- Published: Wednesday, 10 June 2009 14:08
First published: 10 June 2009
Mindanao Island, Philippines
After one week of close access to some key players in this conflict, I can make one certain statement: This is a complex war. As for the complexity of the human terrain, the Philippines is the “Afghanistan of the Sea.” There are great differences, of course. The Republic of the Philippines is a functioning democracy with a professional military and it’s not bordering Pakistan and Iran, yet the human terrain here is far more complex than that of Iraq or even Afghanistan. Physical terrain shapes human terrain. Afghanistan has deserts, mountains and valleys, while this place has the sea, thousands of islands, and mountains and valleys. Physical barriers create separate languages and cultures.
Read more: Green Beret Loses Race and Wins a Battle
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- Published: Saturday, 06 June 2009 03:59
05 June 2009
This is the nicest war I’ve ever been to. Outside Magazine seems to think the same:
Read more: Jolo
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- Published: Friday, 05 June 2009 14:53
Friday, 05 June 2009
Sulu Island
U.S. troops here in the Philippines have been happily receiving large shipments of donated books from citizens in the United States.
Read more: This Morning’s Photos
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- Published: Wednesday, 03 June 2009 22:46
03 June 2009
Mindanao
The southern Philippines has been a festering bed for international terrorists for decades. Direct links with al Qaeda and associated groups, such as Jemaah Islamiya (JI), are conclusively established. These groups are collectively responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people from dozens of countries. JI, for instance, was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people, including my friend Beata Pawlak.
Read more: Philippines
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- Published: Tuesday, 02 June 2009 23:36
02 June 2009
U.S. and Philippine troops are closely cooperating in the fight against terrorists. After duty, these men practice knife fighting and “Arnis.” Arnis is a form of stick fighting popular in the Philippines.
Read more: Close Combat
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- Published: Tuesday, 02 June 2009 22:57
Please Click here to view the entire document.
Read more: PIPS NATO Supply Lines
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- Published: Tuesday, 02 June 2009 14:46
02 June 2009
Members of “Special Boat Team 12” from Coronado preparing for work earlier today. The Philippine armed forces are hard at work in the battle against international terrorists. They are making progress. Stay tuned. I’m currently with U.S. and Philippine forces.
Read more: U.S. Navy in the Philippines
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- Published: Monday, 01 June 2009 12:55
01 June 2009
Manila, Philippines
The Shangri-La security dialogue is over. Bigwigs from all over the region came to the conference, including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. All the major media outlets piled in, such as the New York Times, AP, and dozens of others from Asia, Europe, and the United States. The dialogue is already well covered in the media, so I’ll write mostly about topics that likely will not make the press.
One matter that you will see in the press is that North Korea is the elephant in the room. Secretary Gates has made it clear that we have no intention of rewarding bad behavior, as we have done in the past with North Korea. Many readers seem to hold a special disdain for President Obama, and I actively campaigned for McCain, but I get the feeling that Obama is tougher and proving wiser than many people seem to think. I do not detect that we are slinking away from North Korea. It seems as though we are going to have some sort of showdown, which hopefully will all be through diplomacy. I heard Secretary Gates say that a nuclear armed North Korea is not in the cards. (Not verbatim but that was the gist.)
Read more: Secretary Gates in Singapore
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- Published: Sunday, 31 May 2009 12:05
31 May 2009
We are in Singapore for an extra day. This following is an official statement from Geoff Morrell, the press secretary for Secretary Gates:
"Secretary Gates has elected to delay by a day his travel to Manila. A series of mechanical problems on one of the military's specially-outfitted 747's prevented it from being flown today as scheduled. The flight crew is hard at work trying to repair the aircraft, but a back-up plane with appropriate communications capabilities is being flown into Singapore and will be available to transport the Secretary to Manila Monday morning if needed. Despite the later arrival, the Secretary still anticipates being able to conduct all of his planned engagements in Manila, including meeting with Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro and visiting with US and Philippine forces, before heading to Alaska."
The United States can't afford to have Secretary Gates without communications, even for a few hours. If the President needs him, or something goes wrong, Secretary Gates must be plugged in. So we are waiting for a fix and will move out shortly.
Michael Yon
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- Published: Friday, 29 May 2009 15:49
29 May 2009
Secretary Gates arrived in Singapore after a 35 hour flight from Kansas. The aircraft landed several times along the way due to a technical issue that precluded in-flight refueling. But he got here.
Read more: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Sets Me Straight
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- Published: Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:06
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Am in Singapore to meet up with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Unfortunately his airplane had difficulties and he is delayed. I understand part of the trip is being trimmed down, and I detected that some of our soldiers are not happy with that. Secretary Gates is getting increasing respect from the soldiers, and I got word that the soldiers wanted to see him. VIP visits often are a royal pain for our folks on the ground, and so it says a lot when they are upset about not getting to host Secretary Gates.
After my trip with Secretary Gates, will do an embed with U.S. forces in the Philippines. They are helping in the fight against some seriously bad terrorists there, and I understand that they are making progress.
After that, over to Pakistan for a short time. An embed was approved yesterday for Afghanistan. Back to combat for me -- not looking forward to the endless firefights and bombs -- but at least we'll have one more voice out there with the grunts. It's hard to get firsthand reports from Afghanistan. I'll work on that.
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- Published: Tuesday, 26 May 2009 12:30
I went into a village in Iraq some years ago, and heard stories of how Saddam’s army came in, killed a lot of people and took all the pretty girls. The pretty girls were never seen again. I recall that the people of the village thought the girls had been sold and were still alive. They didn’t know where, but the people thought their daughters and sisters might have ended up in the Middle East, or Africa. Maybe there were records in Baghdad. The villagers were very friendly to the American soldiers, and served us all a large meal. Sometimes I still wonder what happened to those girls.
Read more: Jungle Baby of Borneo
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- Published: Tuesday, 26 May 2009 10:41
26 May 2009
Went into a Korean travel agency in Thailand today to buy an airline ticket. Am heading to Singapore, Philippines, then Pakistan and Afghanistan. The staff at the agency is Korean and their customers are nearly all Korean. The staff looked like zombies. Really out of it. Dumb stares and all. Was very strange because they truly seemed to be in shock.
Read more: Atomic Bomb and Suicide
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- Published: Monday, 25 May 2009 15:50
25 May 2009
Searching for an opportunity to honor America's veterans this Memorial Day, a moment presented itself. Some friends and I visited a school for blind children in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I saw about 110 students who seemed to range in age from about six to mid-teens. The school was clean and most of the kids seemed happy and they were cutting up like kids do. Some of the older boys, in particular, acted in the normal crazy ways that many teen aged boys act. Basically they were making a nuisance of themselves, but they seemed goodhearted and they listened to the teachers. We stayed for about an hour and helped serve lunch to the kids who were very friendly and there was a lot of laughter, other than from one little girl. She was about seven years-old and she was weeping and a teacher said that nobody had come to visit her for three months. Her mother had disappeared. It was heartbreaking to see her crying for her mother. The little girl has nobody other than the teachers at the school.
I made a donation to the school in honor of America's veterans and drove away very saddened.
Michael
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- Published: Monday, 25 May 2009 03:46
A man can’t stop the rain, but he can use an umbrella.
Read more: Can't Stop the Rain
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- Published: Thursday, 21 May 2009 15:49
Stalemate in Korangal Valley.
Read more: Stalemate in Korangal Valley
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- Published: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 12:10
20 May 2009
A quick email as I pack to return to the war. Please excuse the roughness; I can write more dispatches if the reader will kindly accept the rough edges:
Read more: A Few Helicopter Night Shots
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- Published: Tuesday, 19 May 2009 06:14
19 May 2009
American Special Operations Forces are eager to receive tracking training, but very few attain any tracking skills that extend much beyond common experience. This reality translates into a profound and unnecessary weakness. An experienced Green Beret who spent years as an Army Ranger recently told me, “Getting our guys to tracking school is almost an act of congress.”
Read more: Tracking Afghanistan
