Category: Strategy/Policy

Miami Herald May 22, 2012 Pg. 3 A change has been made in how the U.S. determines which terrorists should be targeted for drone attacks. Associated Press WASHINGTON — White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in choosing which terrorists will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure …

Continue reading "White House Team Picks Attack Targets By Kimberly Dozier"

Washingtonpost.com May 18, 2012 Checkpoint Washington: Reporting on diplomacy, intelligence and military affairs Drum roll, please. The House, for a second year in a row, has approved a measure limiting Pentagon spending on military bands next year to only $200 million. An amendment by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, …

Continue reading "House Puts Squeeze On Military’s ‘Musical Arsenal’ By Walter Pincus"

Washington Times May 21, 2012 Pg. 1 The Washington Times For Pentagon planners, automatic spending cuts slated to begin in January have become the $600 billion contingency they can’t plan for. Military planners are under strict orders not to devise scenarios for meeting the demands of “sequestration,” as the automatic, across-the-board spending reductions are called. …

Continue reading "How To Cut $600 Billion Not On The Radar At Pentagon Planners fear showing sequestration is doable By Rowan Scarborough,"

Blogger's Note: Crisis, Complexity, and Confusion (C3) Washington Post May 20, 2012 Pg. 23 Perhaps when Chinese leaders began to speak over the past several years about a new “Beijing Consensus” and the triumph of the “China Model,” that was a warning that the bubble was about to burst. And we’re seeing that hubris play …

Continue reading "China’s Power Struggle By David Ignatius"

Blogger's note: interesting there is no talk of tankers here. USAF carried the alliance in tanking during Libya operations, but better planning, sharing of resources, communication, collaboration, and a bit of creative thinking: 3Cs...we (NATO/remember the US is PART of the alliance) can solve that. Sounds like a job for the European Air Refueling Center …

Continue reading "United States To Unveil Plans To Bolster NATO Alliance By Thom Shanker"

International Herald Tribune May 18, 2012 Pg. 8 The goal in Chicago is to fundamentally change the way allies think about developing our future capabilities. In his valedictory speech last year, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates argued that the partnership between the North American and European sides of the NATO alliance needed a new impulse. …

Continue reading "NATO In A Time Of Austerity By Stephane Abrial"