National Defense Briefs – June 16, 2014

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Nineteenth in the series, National Defense Briefs. Each week we bring to readers of MidlandsBiz.com updates aimed at informing with timely military and homeland-security news briefs, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Defense issues are inextricably connected to business. In that, we present the “National Defense Briefs” that matter.

• The Lebanon-based, Iranian-supported terrorist group Hezbollah is said to be “stronger than any Arab army.” [Read story here] No surprise. We’ve been saying this for years. Hezbollah’s ground forces, its infiltration of the Lebanese army leadership, its media arm and control of telecommunications, and its global reach (Yes, even in the Western Hemisphere) makes the group extremely dangerous. As former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said, “Hezbollah makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team.”
• Regarding the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five captured terrorists, Col. Steven B. Vitali, USMC (Ret.) – former senior advisor to the 201st Afghan National Army (ANA) Corps – says, “The repatriation of five ‘four-star general’ equivalent Taliban commanders was solely aimed at the eventual closing of Guantanamo military prison facility. Yes, Americans are happy by the release of Sgt. Bergdahl from captivity, but the price paid was too high and Sgt. Bergdahl is a hapless tool in the White House’s overall Guantanamo objective.”
• Regarding the deteriorating situation in Iraq, Vitali says, “Radical Islamic terrorist have a say when the fight will end. The president’s failure to leave a residual force in Iraq has benefited Al Qaeda forces, enabling them to reorganize and surge back into Iraq. Al Qaeda has quickly captured major Iraqi cities and poses a growing threat to the Iraqi government’s survival.”
• “We are witnessing the unraveling of Iraq’s military and police units in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and in several cities to the south along the main avenue of approach into Baghdad,” says Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, U.S. Army (Ret.), former commanding general of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team in Iraq. “The speed of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham assault on the second largest city in Iraq has stunned the command and control structure of the Iraqi Armed Forces and created a leadership vacuum that has destroyed the good order and discipline of deployed Iraqi soldiers and police. In short, the will to fight in many units has been broken.”
• As of this writing [Jun 15, 1130 EDT] Reuters is reporting, “The insurgent offensive that has threatened to dismember Iraq spread to the northwest of the country on Sunday, when Sunni militants launched a dawn raid on a town close to the Syrian border, clashing with police and government forces. As the rapid advance south by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) towards Baghdad appeared to slow over the weekend, fierce fighting erupted in the town of Tal Afar 60 km (40 miles) west of Mosul near the Syrian border, security sources and a local official said.”
• Time is reporting, “As fighters from an al-Qaeda inspired and staunchly Sunni Islamic militant group closed on more Iraqi cities in its march towards Baghdad, Iraq’s most senior Shi’ite cleric issued a call to arms at Friday prayers. ‘Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose,’ Sheik Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai told his congregants in statements broadcast across the country.”
• Live Iraq updates from the (UK) Telegraph here.
• U.S. Marine Cpl. Michael Egan was on his last foot-patrol in Afghanistan when he lost his legs in an IED blast. Now he is dealing both with his physical wounds and PTSD. [Read story here]

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