Category: Strategy/Policy

Washington Post May 22, 2012 Pg. 14 NATO's Blind Spot A summit in Chicago ignores the thousands dying in Syria. NATO's "victory" in Libya, senior U.S. officials recently wrote, was a "model intervention," a "teachable moment." "The first lesson is that NATO is uniquely positioned to respond quickly and effectively to international crises," the U.S. …

Continue reading "NATO’s Blind Spot"

Washington Post May 22, 2012 Pg. 13 Fine Print Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright aired some fresh ideas about U.S. defense policies last week. About the same time, the House was preparing to pass next year's Pentagon authorization bill and, in the process, illustrating Cartwright's point that the nation isn't downsizing correctly. The former …

Continue reading "Retired General Talks Frankly On Defense Spending By Walter Pincus"

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"