Pat Proctor's final "Report from Afghanistan" available at Armchairgeneral.com

Pat Proctor writes about the future of the war in Afghanistan in the final instalment of his series, "Special Report from Afghanistan," for ArmchairGeneral.com. To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:

Conventional forces can continue their current mission in Afghanistan – advising and assisting Afghan national security forces – beyond the December 2014 deadline set for the withdrawal of “combat troops” from Afghanistan with or without SOF. The same cannot be said for the SOF Camp strategy, what Vice President Biden famously called in 2009 “counter-terrorism plus.”

Pat Proctor just returned from his eight-month deployment to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine. You can see other articles in this series here.

Pat Proctor Reports on a "Green on Blue" attack in his "Special Report from Afghanistan" Series

Pat Proctor writes about a "green on blue" attack in Sayadabad, Wardak for his series, "Special Report from Afghanistan," for ArmchairGeneral.com. To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:

After 45 minutes, the atmosphere suddenly turned. Two Afghan soldiers raised their weapons and fired, instantly killing the platoon sergeant and the law enforcement professional. Three more soldiers were wounded before the gunner for the M249 (squad automatic weapon or SAW) and the platoon leader, firing from the passenger seat of his nearby vehicle, silenced the Afghan attackers. As more U.S. soldiers rushed to the scene to treat the wounded, the platoon took more fire from a compound a few dozen feet away; they responded by clearing the compound with rifles and grenades. As they tried to load up and evacuate their casualties, the platoon took more fire, this time from insurgents deeper in the Tangi Valley.

Pat Proctor has been deployed to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division since April 2012. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine. You can see other articles in this series here.

Pat Proctor's Latest "Report from Afghanistan" Posted at ArmchairGeneral.com

The next installment in Pat Proctor's series, "Special Report from Afghanistan," called "The Last Offensive," is up at ArmchairGeneral.com. To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:

Next year, Ghazni City will be honored as the 2013 Center of Islamic Culture. This spring and summer, to the south of the city, in the dusty villages and fields along Afghanistan’s Highway 1 ― the critical artery between Kabul and Kandahar ― Task Force Devil (1st Brigade, 82d Airborne Division) fought the last major offensive of the Afghan war to drive the Taliban out of Ghanzi Province.

Pat Proctor has been deployed to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division since April 2012. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine. You can see other articles in this series here.

Another "Report from Afghanistan" from Pat Proctor

The next installment in Pat Proctor's series, "Special Report from Afghanistan," called "The Battle for Kunar," is up at ArmchairGeneral.com. To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:

More than any place in eastern Afghanistan, Kunar province illustrates the difficulty of handing the fight over to Afghan national security forces while the war still rages. Across the province, a patchwork of U.S. and Afghan security forces are serving: Task Force Mountain Warrior (4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division), security force assistance advisor teams (SFAATs) from Strike Brigade (2d Brigade, 101st Airborne Division), two battalions of 2d Brigade, 201st Afghan National Army (ANA) Corps, three battalions of the Afghan Border Patrol, and hundreds of Afghan uniformed police. They struggle to hold the cities and villages along the narrow Kunar River valley against the constant pressure of Afghan and Pakistani Taliban insurgents who flow back and forth across the porous border with Pakistan through countless mountain passes along Kunar’s eastern border.

Pat Proctor has been deployed to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division since April 2012. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine. You can see other articles in this series here.

Pat Proctor's latest "Special Report from Afghanistan" available at ArmchairGeneral.com

The next installment in Pat Proctor's series, "Special Report from Afghanistan," called "The Frontier of Freedom," is up at ArmchairGeneral.com. To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:

The Red Warriors are giving the insurgents as good as they get. Every week they add to the long list of insurgents killed or captured in northern Kunar. Yet, Lt. Col. Scott Green, the Red Warrior’s commander, would be the first to say that this isn’t enough. With an endless supply of young men from madrasas in Pakistan and the U.S. set to leave at the end of 2014, his most important job is not killing insurgents, but preparing the Afghans to continue the fight without him.

Pat Proctor has been deployed to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division since April 2012. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine. You can see other articles in this series here.

Pat Proctor's Newest "Report from Afghanistan" up at ArmchairGeneral.com

ArmchairGeneral.com has just posted another article by Pat Proctor, "Report from Afghanistan: A Turning Tide?" To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:


In Nerkh, as in the rugged northeastern reaches of Kunar and Nuristan and the arid plains of northeast Ghazni, Hezb-i-Islami is walking a precarious tightrope, declaring opposition to the Taliban where it has worn out its welcome, ambivalence to an Afghan government with tentative public support, and public hostility but private détente with coalition forces. If they can bring along those Afghans loyal to Hezb-i-Islami through thirty years of association with their tamim, this might just be the beginning of a turning tide in the decade long war in Afghanistan.

Pat Proctor has been deployed to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division since April 2012. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine.  You can see other articles in this series here.

The Journal of Strategic Security has just published an article by author Pat Proctor, "War without Violence: Leveraging the Arab Spring to Win the War on Terrorism."

"After a decade of war, the United States has failed to eradicate the threat of salafist jihadism. No matter how hard it tries, the United States cannot kill its way to victory in the war on terrorism. Sweeping changes across the Middle East—dubbed the "Arab Spring" by the media—have presented the West with a unique opportunity to pursue an alternative approach. Rather than engaging in war (politics through violence), the United States should engage in mass politics (war without violence) to compel the Arab world to reject the salafist jihadism idea."

To read the entire article, click here.

Read Pat Proctor's "Report from Afghanistan"

Author Pat Proctor just posted a new article at ArmchairGeneral.com. The article, titled "Report From Afghanistan, Part One: One Enemy, Many Faces," is the first in a series of reports he will write while deployed to Afghanistan. It discusses the many different insurgent groups contending against coalition forces, the Afghan government, and even one another.

To read the article, click here.

Pat Proctor deploys to Afghanistan

Pat will deploy this week with the 1st Infantry Division (the storied "Big Red One"). The division will assume responsibility for eastern Afghanistan during this critical period in America's decade long war. See the full story at FoxNews.com. An excerpt...

“The headquarters spent a year in southern Iraq, returning to Fort Riley in January 2011, but has never deployed to Afghanistan. ‘We had to wrap our heads around a different country, a different people,’ said Lt. Col. Patrick Proctor, the division's chief of plans. As part of that effort, key officers on the division headquarters staff visited Afghanistan in September, October and December to be briefed by U.S. and Afghan officers and get a better lay of the land. Proctor and [division commander, Major General] Mayville made a final visit last week.”

To read more about the deployment, see the 1st Infantry Division Post, 16 March 2012.

To post a message for Pat as he leaves and keep up with the latest developments in eastern Afghanistan, go to Pat's FaceBook page.

Also check out Armchair General magazine beginning in May 2012. Pat will be writing a series of “Dispatches from the Front” over the course of his deployment.

Military Times Review of "Task Force Patriot"

J. Ford Huffman, a staff writer for Military Times, has written a review of Task Force Patriot and the End of Combat Operations in Iraq. Here's an excerpt...

“In his detailed narrative, Proctor, an Army lieutenant colonel, is not afraid to admit a 'fatal assumption' or a 'serious flaw' that leads to his unit’s realization that 'it was time to start from scratch,' again and again. Frustrations with local politicians, State Department representatives and local business practices get in the Army’s way, but the officer is persuasive.”

To read the entire review, click here.

Task Force Patriot is published by Government Institutes Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield. The book is now available in stores, or you can order it on Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble.

"Ten Years of GWOT" published at Journal of Strategic Security

The Journal of Strategic Security, a publication of Henley-Putnam University, has published an article by Pat Proctor and colleague Dave Oakley, called "Ten Years of GWOT, the Failure of Democratization and the Fallacy of 'Ungoverned Spaces'."  From the abstract:

"October 7, 2011, marked a decade since the United States invaded Afghanistan and initiated the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). While most ten-year anniversary gifts involve aluminum, tin, or diamonds, the greatest gift U.S. policymakers can present American citizens is a reconsideration of the logic that guides America's counterterrorism strategy. Although the United States has successfully averted large-scale domestic terrorist attacks, its inability to grasp the nature of the enemy has cost it dearly in wasted resources and, more importantly, lost lives. Two of the most consistent and glaring policy flaws revolve around the concepts of filling "ungoverned spaces" and installing democracy by force."

To read the article, click here.

Pat Proctor at the 1st Division Museum

Pat Proctor's appearance at the 1st Division Museum at Cantigny Park, in Wheaton, IL in December 2011 is now posted on YouTube.

Pat talks about his new book, Task Force Patriot and the End of Combat Operations in Iraq, the future for Iraq, and the United States' challenges in Afganistan.

This talk coincided with the release of Task Force Patriot, published by Government Institutes Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield. The book is now available in stores, or you can order it on Amazon.com.

The video is broken up into in eleven 7-9 minute videos.  Click on the links below to see each video:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV
• Part V
• Part VI
• Part VII
• Part VIII
• Part IX
• Part X
• Part XI

Special thanks to the 1st Division Museum for providing the video from which these short clips were built.

Catch author Pat Proctor's appearance on WGN for "Task Force Patriot"

Pat Proctor appeared on WGN's midday news to talk about his book, Task Force Patriot.

To see the video, click the link below...


February 7: Author - Lieutenant Colonel Pat Proctor, Task Force Patriot

Free Preview of "Task Force Patriot"

You can now scan excerpts fromTask Force Patriot and the End of Combat Operations in Iraq at Google Books! To see a free preview, click here. 

Task Force Patriot is published by Government Institutes Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield. The book is now available in stores, or you can order it on Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble.

Lt. Col. Pat Proctor's appearance on 970 WFLA

Here is audio of my appearance on WFLA 970 (Tampa Bay, FL) on 3 January 2012.

Lt. Col. Pat Proctor - 970 WFLA

Off the Bookshelf by Amy O'Loughlin: Read my book review of "Task Force Patriot and the...

Amy O'Loughlin wrote a great review of Task Force Patriot for Forewords...

Off the Bookshelf by Amy O'Loughlin: Read my book review of "Task Force Patriot and the...: Book review published in ForeWord Reviews   

More of Pat Proctor's media appearances up at his Website

I have appeared recently in a number of local and national news venues to talk about the End of the Iraq War, continuing violence in Iraq, and Iraq's uncertain future. These appearances coincide with the release of my new book, Task Force Patriot and the End of Combat Operations in Iraq. Audio of these appearances is available at my Website.  Just click on the dates to listen to the appearances.

• 22 December 2011, on the Lou Dobbs Show with guest host Dom Giordano
• 20 December 2011, on WOR Radio's Joan Hamburg Show with host Joan Hamburg

Task Force Patriot is published by Government Institutes Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield. The book is now available in stores, or you can order it on Amazon.com.