DeM Banter: Probably too close to this to comment... Government Executive August 15, 2012 America’s military community has long felt disconnected from the civilian population it protects. In the latest survey from the nonprofit military support group Blue Star Families, 95 percent of respondents, who included service members, veterans, spouses and children, agreed with the …
Conflict with China: What It Would Look Like, How to Avoid It: by James Dobbins
view original / thediplomat.com DeM Banter: A more realistic view of "the Pivot?" Since the disappearance of the Soviet Union, China has become America’s default adversary, the power against which the United States measures itself militarily, at least when there is no more proximate enemy in sight. With America’s war in Iraq over and the one in Afghanistan winding …
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Hidden History: America’s Secret Drone War In Africa By David Axe
DeM Banter: Are we pondering the 2nd and 3rd order effects? There is good here...to be sure, but are we looking at the strategic implications of proliferation and the empowerment of robotic warfare? Perhaps we are... Danger Room (Wired.com) August 13, 2012 More secret bases. More and better unmanned warplanes. More frequent and deadly robotic …
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Fixing The Air Force By Jeff Schogol
DeM Banter: Classic...crisis, complexity, and confusion (C3), but does the USAF culture support the communication, creative thinking and collaboration to fix it? ...trust.....something that takes a great deal of time and effort to rebuild Air Force Times August 20, 2012 Pg. 20 Welsh must repair relations with Congress and reserve components, experts say The new chief of …
Exploding The Myths About Vietnam By Lien-Hang Nguyen
DeM Banter: Cant help but harken back to Thinking in Time by May and Neustadt... history is extremely useful when...decision-makers separate what is known about the situation from what is unclear and from what is merely presumed; to study the history of the issue, thereby putting it in perspective; to beware of easy historical analogies when current …
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The Next Proxy War By Robert Haddick
SmallWarsJournal.com August 10, 2012 This Week At War In my Foreign Policy column, I explain why the U.S. should intervene in Syria. Hint: the reason is not about Syria. In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman argued for stepped-up U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war. They called for providing …
Air Force Cuts Mean Service Is ‘Slowly Going Out of Business’ By Mackenzie Eaglen and Doug Birkey
View Original / A year has passed since Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act-the legislation mandating sequestration. Funding cuts that once seemed politically remote now loom large for leaders increasingly anxious about the impact $1.2 trillion in automatic budget reductions will have upon their respective districts and states. An estimated two …
Syrian Crisis Won’t Be Resolved With The Tactics Used In Libya by P.J. Crowley
TheDailyBeast.com August 4, 2012 President Obama's strategy in Libya helped depose Qaddafi in short order. But P.J. Crowley says the same tactics won't work in Syria--and the crisis will only get worse. The resignation of Kofi Annan, the U.N. and Arab League special envoy for Syria, made official what was long ago apparent. His six-point …
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The real problem with the civilian-military gaps : By Rosa Brooks
ForeignPolicy.com DeM Banter: And why do we have these issues? Would be very interested in any thoughts... August 2, 2012 Thought Cloud One of the biggest misunderstandings about the civilian-military gap is that it is cultural -- the national security version of the red state-blue state divide. But the distance between those in and out …
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Victory For The Drones By Michael Evans
DeM Banter: Always interesting and still pondering what this will looking like in 5 to 10 years. If the architecture gets exploited...think of the investment lost? Where will technology take these aircraft? What about the continuing moral implications? London Times August 2, 2012 Pg. 27 'PlayStation pilots' are taking over from the Top Guns as …
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