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How Resilient Is Post-9/11 America? By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt

DeM Banter:  There is so much more going on here...Schmitt starts off and it looks like we are going somewhere and we stop.  So... I can only imagine this is to push or tease their new book,  “Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda.”  If not...I am stuck thinking... and... why... …

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Geography Strikes Back by Robert D. Kaplan

DeM Banter: how soon we forget or think we have stepped beyond history...only to be yanked right back into it... Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft. Winston Churchill Wall Street Journal September 8, 2012 Pg. C1 The Saturday Essay To understand today's global conflicts, forget economics and technology and …

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This Week At War: The Pentagon Doesn’t Have The Right Stuff By Robert Haddick

DeM Banter: Hence the reason strategy is so important...especially strategy during time of financial reductions and strain... What do we, as a nation, expect our military to do? We might should fund that... FP National Security (ForeignPolicy.com) September 6, 2012 Small Wars The Navy can't 'contain' Iran -- even if we wanted it to. Gen. …

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American Character Is at Stake by Nicholas Eberstadt

online.wsj.com / view original DeM Banter: Wow... nice article and very apolitical...facts are facts, no spin (please correct me if I am wrong). I used to encourage folks in the 100th to watch the History Channel 13 part series, the Story of Us...great series on how America became America...entitlements were not part of it. We …

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This Week At War: Shipping Out By Robert Haddick

SmallWarsJournal.com September 1, 2012 In my Foreign Policy column, I explain why missiles, technology, and budget problems are now conspiring against aircraft carriers. For decades, aircraft carriers have been the tool-of-choice for crisis response. Policymakers in Washington and four-star commanders in the field invariably have turned to carriers when they needed to signal U.S. intentions, …

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At Military’s ‘Turning Point,’ Panetta Avoids Bold Moves By Greg Jaffe

Washington Post September 4, 2012 Pg. 1 Instead of pushing changes, defense chief emphasizes consensus For most of the past year, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has stressed that the vast military complex over which he presides is at a "strategic turning point." A decade of grinding guerrilla war is drawing to a close. Defense …

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Air Force could lose big in procurement, aircraft, readiness By Jeff Schogol

Air Force Times September 10, 2012 Pg. 20 Budget Cuts Bear Down As the specter of mandatory budget cuts totaling $500 billion within the Defense Department looms ever larger, the Air Force finds itself facing the possibility of dialing back its aircraft modernization plans and ditching older aircraft. Lawmakers have until the end of the …

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The Case For Disruption And Dialogue In Defense Reform By Peter J. Munson

SmallWarsJournal.com September 1, 2012 DeM Banter: so I ask myself...what are WE going to do about it? Back to the foxhole...we can do this and we can do better...thoughts? Case studies abound of businesses that have seen their success turn into bloat, hubris, and ultimately decline. It should be no surprise then that the most …

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