Center for a New American Security

The U.S. occupation of Australia has begun. U.S. officials claim the occupation has nothing to do with the behavior of China, leading defense analysts to conclude this has more to do with helping Australia counter the well-publicized scourge of baby-stealing dingos down under. The problem with this kind of dingo-centric "strategy" -- can you even call it that, or is it just a collection of tactics? -- is that it's hard to see how the U.S. Marine Corps will maintain its core competencies while in Australia. I have made a careful study of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1942 to 1945, and based on that study, I have concluded that amphibious landings are really the heart and soul of the Corps. The history of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1775-1941 and from 1946-present is also quite interesting and may well have included some other stuff, to include counter-dingo operations, but it is largely irrelevant as far as Marine culture and doctrine are concerned. No, amphibious operations are the only thing that really matters, which is why I am also concerned the costly deployment of Marines to Australia will endanger the long-term health of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, without which the U.S. Marine Corps would surely decide to turn in their uniforms and weapons, grow out their hair and take up hemp farming in Idaho.

There are other things that trouble me about this deployment. How many cultural advisors, for example, have these Marines deployed with? How many Marines in each platoon speak the local language or have any training in the tribes and customs of the Australians? How many Marines know that an "Australian" is what you call a native, whereas an "Australiani" is the local unit of currency? (I predict that ten years from now, it will still be possible for esteemed professors of international relations at Harvard to get these two terms confused in the pages of the New York Times.) I understand that U.S. Marines believe "Fosters" is the Australian word for beer, but I worry that few of them know that it is also the Australian word for "cat urine." 

Finally, it may make sense today to limit the U.S. mission in Australia to a struggle to disrupt, dismantle and defeat the dingo menace. But inevitably, U.S. Marines will be drawn into adjudicating the petty internal rivalries of Australia. Without a proper understanding of Australia's culture or troubled history, U.S. Marines will create winners and losers among the population, which will eventually tire of our heavy-handedness. Equally inevitably, well-meaning U.S. Marines will offend Australians by asking awkward questions, like, "Why are all your rugby players from Fiji?"    

Australia is a land populated by criminals, which is why Alexander the Great stopped well short of there. (Alexander the Great understood defense in depth.) The British Empire has been humiliated in Australia time and time again, and there is no reason to imagine that we Americans will have any more luck. I fear we are embarking on another fool's errand.

Happy Easter, everyone. I want to share a quick Easter message as well as a reminder that tomorrow is ANZAC Day. First, ANZAC Day:

Since I moved back to Washington, DC in January 2009, it has been a privilege to attend the sunrise service held on ANZAC Day each year. I should not have to remind U.S. readers that Australia and New Zealand have been America's most loyal allies, fighting alongside the United States in every major conflict since the First World War, including Vietnam. There is perhaps no better way to honor the ANZUS Pact and our Aussie and Kiwi friends than by attending the wonderful sunrise service held each year. So if you are in Washington and did not manage to make it to mass this morning, I'll see you tomorrow by the Korean Veterans War Memorial at 5:30. (21 Australian soldiers died in the Iraq War, in case you are wondering, while 23 Australians and two New Zealanders have been killed in Afghanistan.)

On ABC's This Week this morning, meanwhile, Christiane Amanpour had a special Easter edition in which she interviewed folks like Franklin Graham, who <sigh> seemed to question both the president's faith and place of birth while inevitably calling for more civility in public discourse, and Al Sharpton, who was ... well, Al Sharpton. Wedged in between those two gentlemen, though, was an interview with one of my favorite pastors, Tim Keller of New York's Redeemer Presbyterian Church. There is some great stuff in here, and, from 4:37 on, some stuff that will make those of use who blog and tweet take a harder look at our words and how we use them to either enrich or degrade the public discourse.

Abu Muqawama salutes our allies in Australia and New Zealand.

Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

                                             -- Ataturk

Speaking of Australians of whom the Anzacs would be proud, this will be in tomorrow's paper:

“The Accidental Guerrilla” is not an easy book. It’s best when Kilcullen uses narrative to recount his personal experiences. Then, he becomes a military adventurer, a modern Fitzroy MacLean: wandering through volcanic jungles; or flying in a Blackhawk over northwest Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonates on the ground below, nearly plunging him to his death.

Kilcullen’s knowledge of warfare is highly sophisticated, but he does himself and his readers no favors when he weighs his book down with acronyms and digressions. For those not willing to put in the time and effort, reading “The Accidental Guerrilla” could be like a junior high school student’s attempting “Ulysses.”

Even so, this book is essential. One of the larger mistakes America has made in its handling of the Long War against Al Qaeda was ignoring the details of small conflicts that are so important to Kilcullen. What is needed, he points out, is to develop strategies that deal both with global terrorism and conflicts at the local level.

Kilcullen skillfully interprets the future of counterinsurgency, the proper use of military force and what we must learn from our losses and mistakes.

After reading “The Accidental Guerrilla,” one is left to wonder why the Pentagon did not listen to his sage advice back in 2003, instead of that of all those cheery optimists who predicted the Iraqis would greet the American forces with flowers.

What am I doing up before five on a Saturday? Going to the ANZAC Day service at the Korean War Memorial to honor America's most loyal ally. (They even fought in Vietnam, for goodness sake.)

I suspect most of you slept in today, though, so you can rent this movie instead. I'll warn you, though: the last minute is enough to rip your heart out. Most difficult ending in movie history? Quite possibly.

If you missed the David Kilcullen event last week, we at the Center for a New American Security have your Australian fix covered. Those of you in the DC area should join us on Thursday for an event with the Australian defense minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, who is sure to both flame and galah to the delight of we assembled Yanks. RSVP here.

Abu Muqawama has been away for the past several days at a COIN conference held at Wilton Park. Although all of the presentations were delivered under Chatham House rules and thus not for attribution, quite a few of the presentations were simply fantastic. Juan Carlos Pinzón, Colombia's Vice-Minister of Defense, gave a presentation on the fight against the FARC that was both timely and fascinating. General Sir David Richards and Ashraf Ghani gave dueling presentations on Afghanistan from the military and political perspectives, respectively. Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely and Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl both gave good presentations on the difficulty of learning COIN as an institution, and finally, Emma Sky (Gen. Odierno's chief civilian adviser in Iraq) gave perhaps the best presentation on the war in Iraq Abu Muqawama has ever seen. All of this leaves out many other great presentations, including those from the aid and development side of the house on issues about which Abu Muqawama confesses to know very little.

One person who wasn't there, though, was Dave Kilcullen. Dave was in eastern Afghanistan, fighting the good fight. That fact did not prevent John Nagl from sending out harassing emails to Dave while sitting comfortably in the estate's bar. That also did not prevent several of the Australians present from telling a story from 1999 in which an Australian Army unit walked into a village named Motaain in East Timor. The problem with this particular village was that while it was within the boundaries of East Timor on the Australian maps, it was, on the Indonesian maps, a part of Indonesia. Chaos ensued.

Enter a certain Australian Army major by the name of David Kilcullen:

He decided that we were still 100 metres on our side of the border, and he acknowledged that his troops had fired first. We said - we showed him our map and indicated that according to our map we are still 500 metres on our side of the border.

He looked at our map and agreed that it was different from his and said that we were 100 metres from the border. He admitted however that we were still on our side of the border when his troops opened fire. [Transcript here]

The outcome of the battle involved one dead Indonesian policeman and, we hear, an extension for Kilcullen on turning in his PhD dissertation. (Abu Muqawama can think of someone else who would like an extension on handing in their PhD dissertation right now. Abu Muqawama has given Charlie a six-year head start on her dissertation, and right now, it's even odds as to who finishes first. But, uh, Go Jayhawks, young scholar!)

Incredibly, thanks to the miracle of YouTube, you can watch a video of the firefight in Motaain bellow. Hey, who's that guy?