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wired.com / view original DeM Banter: Really? We can't help ourselves can we? For the first time in over a decade, the Pentagon’s budget has to shrink, thanks to a deal to cut the deficit that Congress and President Obama struck last year. Yet a key Senate panel voted on Thursday to fund big-ticket hardware — ships, …
Continue reading "Senate Panel Funds Ships, Drones Military Doesn’t Want by Spencer Ackerman"
view original / globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School. He also teaches Afghan history to deploying U.S. Army units. The views expressed are solely those of the author. More than a decade into the conflict, the Afghan war isn’t going well. Politically, Afghanistan …
Continue reading "America’s 7 mistakes in Afghanistan by Michael Rubin"
DeM Banter: Sounds like there are many assumptions here that may indeed prove false...how many times in the past century and a half have we correctly predicted the next conflict? Planning is important however...there is a fine line between planning, funding, and execution. Eisenhower is famous for saying..."Plans are nothing; planning is everything." Washington Post …
DeM Banter: It took a CSIS Study? New York Times August 1, 2012 WASHINGTON — An independent review assessing the Obama administration’s plans to move national security resources toward Asia and away from the Atlantic has criticized the Pentagon, saying it insufficiently explained how it would shift military forces to the region and how the …
view original / theatlantic.com DeM Banter: Just thinking... should not we be hearing talk like this during the election season? What are our candidates thinking? Where have all the strategists gone? This is indeed very difficult stuff, but isn't America grand enough to have a grand strategy? _________________ In the decade since September 2001, why is the …
Continue reading "America’s Non-Grand Strategy by Parag Khanna"
DeM Banter: Social issues will only get bigger... but I ponder how this bounces off the MANY social issues China faces as well. China has many issues stemming from the One Child policy. Not to say the US issues are rosy, but China has some big issues as well. Perhaps we can collaborate on those …
Continue reading "Coming Soon: The Big Trade-Off By Thomas L. Friedman"
Air Force Times August 6, 2012 Pg. 23 'We righted the nuclear enterprise' and emphasized importance of Air Force families" In the not-so-distant future, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz will leave the confines of his Pentagon office for the beaches of Hawaii to enjoy his retirement after four decades of service. Since …
Continue reading "Schwartz Takes Stock Of His Time In Charge by Vago Muradian"
DeM Banter: Great piece with some stellar quotes from senior leaders. As is the case with just about everything today...there are no easy answers...things have to change, but the solutions are not clear. As I read, I have to ponder what does this mean for the next generation of military leaders...particularly those cadets in college …
Continue reading "The Risks Of Military Drawdowns By James Kitfield"
DeM Banter: Increasingly funding will become an issue... Yahoo.com/Agence France-Presse July 29, 2012 For over a decade US fighter pilots have become accustomed to "owning the sky" in wars against insurgents who have no air defenses, but now the air force is trying to get back to basics reminding pilots how to fly against a …
Continue reading "US Air Force Looks To Train Pilots For Hi-Tech Threats By Dan De Luce"
DeM Banter: So...which of the four scenarios is most likely? Should we start with odds? Thoughts? Defense News July 30, 2012 Pg. 1 1-Year Budget Deal Would Buy More Time Increasingly concerned that time is running out for the U.S. Congress to avoid $500 billion in automatic defense cuts, the Pentagon is assessing all options, …
Continue reading "DoD Sees 4 Sequestration Scenarios By Marcus Weisgerber"
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