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DeM Banter: So I've got a few resumes out..."what are we going to today Brain...????" View Original Defense industry leaders are growing uneasy over the number of unfilled senior civilian posts at the Pentagon. Many of the current vacancies have not been filled because the Obama administration has not yet named candidates. Others are positions …
Continue reading "Defense Senior Civilian Vacancies On the Rise By Sandra I. Erwin"
DeM Banter: ...what could possibly go wrong? View Original / NY Times / 19 Nov 2013 SIMI VALLEY, Ca. – The four-star commander of all Air Force combat jets earned an audible gasp from the audience of national security specialists with his disclosure about American vulnerabilities brought on by the spending stalemate back in Washington. …
Continue reading "Waging War on a Shoestring By THOM SHANKER"
DeM Banter: I was fortunate to hear Mr Hirsh speak about a year ago in DC...and I have been pondering his talk ever since... his premise...AQ continues to morph and we are on about AQ4.0 right about now...yet we continue to ponder and fight AQ1.0 and the operating system has totally changed. Oh...all this as …
DeM Banter: Leadership challenge? The implication is this is simply too hard...or that's what one would get from reading the article...really? Who is accountable? The Services? It was an OSD decision to place all of this under one roof--so is it OSD and the SecDef? Or is is some guy name Matt Foley "35 years …
DeM Banter: Are we indeed NOW smarter than history? Interesting times...any bets on how long until we turn this around (will it be too late) ? And...isn't the sequester the ultimate non-decision decision ever? Need more coffee.... Los Angles Times / View Original / 18 Nov 2013November 15, 2013Almost every time this country finishes a major …
Continue reading "How big an Army do we need? BY MICHAEL O’HANLON"
DeM Banter: Nice thought piece... but I would offer; if it were so easy... it would have been done by now. I know I keep beating on this...but WHAT DO YOU WANT THE US MILITARY TO DO? This is the job of the Executive to develop and deploy a National Security Strategy. There will be …
Continue reading "Can the Defense Budget Shrink Without Risking National Security? By Eric Schnurer"
DeM Banter: Interesting times...it would seem no one wants a to pay for a strong military until they want a strong military...at that point it might be too late. The strategic warning signs of conflict are screaming...but it looks as if we will simply ignore those. Where do we chose to invest our very limited …
Continue reading "Five Takeaways from a Decade of War By James Kitfield"
DeM Banter: It's all about strategy...do we have one? It's not easy, it won't make everyone happy...but without one we have no true priorities, no objective, no real way to know what to fund, what to build, what to defend. Interesting read...link to the full report at the bottom. http://www.aei.org / View Original / October 31st, 2013 When President …
Continue reading "A Strong and Focused National Security Strategy by Jim Talent and Jon Kyl"
DeMarco Banter: A book recommended by Neil Stott, of Cambridge University's Judge Business School...and now by The Economist....will need to pick it up, but it sounds as if any member of the US Federal Government should read as well... Strategy: A History. By Lawrence Freedman. Oxford University Press USA; 751 pages; $34.95. Buy from Amazon.com EVERYONE, it seems, is …
DeM Banter: IF this could work...and IF this were the only thing needed... would the culture of the DoD accept it? IF this could take hold... it is only a small drop in a massive bucket. A couple lines that are of concern..."unconventional warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan have “distorted” the skills of the U.S. …
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