National Defense Briefs – June 8, 2015

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

NATIONAL DEFENSE BRIEFS is a series aimed at informing readers with timely military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Defense issues are inextricably connected to business. In that, MidlandsBiz.com presents the “National Defense Briefs” that matter.

• The U.S. Intelligence Community has gained and is processing “valuable information” regarding ISIS’s “leadership structure, financial operations and security measures;” information gathered when materials were seized during a May 16 raid against the terrorist army by U.S. Army Delta Force operators, according to an article in the New York Times.

• According to the report, “The information harvested from the laptops, cellphones and other materials recovered from the raid… has already helped the United States identify, locate and carry out an airstrike against another Islamic State leader in eastern Syria, on May 31. American officials expressed confidence that an influential lieutenant, Abu Hamid, was killed in the attack, but the Islamic State, which remains resilient, has not yet confirmed his death.” Meanwhile, the White House says it does not “yet have a complete strategy” to train and equip Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS.

• ISIS has declared an Islamic caliphate in territories it has seized and now controls in Syria and Iraq. According to reports, “[ISIS] has used oil facilities and smuggling to finance much of its operations.”

• Interestingly, Iraqi troops supported by the U.S. are fighting alongside Iranian-supported Shia militiamen (many of whom are from the Hezbollah terrorist group). Both groups are attempting to regain ground seized by ISIS in Iraq.

• According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “The Shiite-led government in Baghdad, backed by Iran, was unwilling to help Sunni tribes in Anbar that wanted to fight ISIS. Around 2,500 Anbar Sunnis got only a smatter of training and a pittance of light arms, a far cry from the mid-2000s, when Washington armed and backed Sunni tribes who drove al-Qaeda out of Anbar. U.S. officials, for their part, chose not to arm Sunni tribesmen directly or pressure Baghdad strongly to permit those tribes to set up national guard units. Washington maintained the fiction that some Sunni tribesmen could be integrated with Shiite militias that weren’t linked with Iran – a mismatch that never jelled.”

• As we have reported, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (also ISIS), the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the Islamic State (IS). Many Arab-speaking people refer to ISIS as Daesh, an acronym for Al Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham (the Arabic translation of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham).

• The U.S. Marine Corps’ daunting officer candidate school and post-OCS finishing school (known simply as The Basic School or TBS) is looking to better the success rate of its officer candidates and newly commissioned officers going forward. According to Marine Corps Times, in May, the Marine Corps Recruiting Command “distributed a solicitation asking for research and studies to help identify predictors for success at Officer Candidate School and The Basic School that follows. The document explains that officials have found consistent attrition patterns with current recruiting methods, which focus on a prospective candidate’s grades, test scores and physical fitness performance, as well as accomplishments that demonstrated qualities such as integrity and leadership.”

• The elite Marine Officer Candidate School is tough. Despite its officer candidates being carefully selected and being physically fit upon arrival at OCS, approximately one-quarter to one-third of all Marine officer candidates wash out. Newly commissioned Marine officers who do make it, but then go on to attend the Corps’ even tougher infantry officers course (IOC) wash out of IOC at a rate of 25 percent.

• Military leaders, special operators, infantry fighters and other warriors serving in the various combat-arms fields, are always looking for an edge in terms of summoning physical courage when needed. How do they do it? A U.S. Navy SEAL offers several tips – Write down what you are afraid of. Break your big challenges into small pieces; then attack the pieces. Mentally rehearse. Self-talk. Control your breathing. And build resilience [Read – http://observer.com/2015/03/your-own-frontline-a-navy-seals-guide-to-building-resilience/]

– W. Thomas Smith Jr. – a former U.S. Marine rifleman – is a military analyst and partner with NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at http://uswriter.com.

.