National Defense Briefs – September 12, 2014

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.

• U.S. military forces “will expand” the air campaign against the terrorist army ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports, “The expanded air campaign will not just consist of strikes in support of Iraqi forces trying to retake lost territory. Independent of that, there will be strikes to ‘degrade’ the capabilities of ISIS … in other words, any other ISIS units that can be hit.”
• The Central Intelligence Agency said Thursday, the number of ISIS fighters “has grown to as many as three times previous estimates,” according to reports. The new estimates are between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters within Iraq and Syria. These numbers do not reflect ISIS operators, recruits, supporters, and sympathizers throughout the rest of the world.
• The Washington Times is reporting that Francis Taylor, undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, “confirmed to Congress Wednesday that militants associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are planning to enter the U.S. via the porous southern border.”
• In late Aug., the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a SITREP bulletin stating, “A review of ISIS social media messaging during the week ending Aug. 26 shows that militants are expressing an increased interest in the notion that they could clandestinely infiltrate the southwest border of U.S., for terror attack.”
• The Washington Times also reported, Aug. 30, “Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has a stark warning to America: The Islamic State’s terror will visit American shores in one month if it is not confronted in Syria and Iraq. ‘If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month.’”
• The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – as we have reported – is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (also ISIS), the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and simply the Islamic State (IS).
• “Go without food or sleep for days. Jump out of a plane at 35,000 feet. Trade gunfire with al Qaeda in the mountains of Afghanistan while outnumbered. This is not what Navy SEALs call a nightmare. It’s what they call ‘Thursday.’” Read The secret to handling pressure like astronauts, Navy SEALs, and samurai [http://theweek.com/article/index/264544/the-secrets-to-handling-pressure-like-astronauts-navy-seals-and-samurai]
• AHOY RAIDERS! U.S. Marines serving as special operators in the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) are now officially known as “Marine Raiders,” a rebranding in honor of the elite Marine Raiders of World War II (the first official special operations forces in U.S. military history). According to Marine Corps Times, “1st Marine Special Operations Battalion would become 1st Marine Raider Battalion, and so forth.” Marine riflemen have a long, esteemed history in special and counterinsurgency operations, though refusing for years to officially sign-on with the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) for a variety of reasons. USSOCOM, founded in 1987, includes the special operations forces of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and since 2006, the Marines.
• “MARSOC is the modern-day embodiment of the Marine Raiders of World War II,” says MARSOC spokesman Capt. Barry Morris. “Our mission set includes not only the raids and guerrilla operations conducted by the Raiders, but also foreign internal defense, security force assistance, counterinsurgency operations, and a host of other capabilities that are uniquely relevant to modern day conflict.”

– 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.