The Economist June 2, 2012 Robotics: From reconnaissance to bomb-defusal to launching attacks, military robots are on the march, raising knotty ethical quandaries In the early afternoon of August 18th 2008, a reconnaissance unit of about 100 French paratroopers, accompanied by a small number of Afghan and American soldiers, was ambushed by a similarly sized …
Defense Official Says Automatic Cuts Will Cause ‘Absurdities’ By Mike Mount
The Pentagon's chief budget officer is ringing the alarm bell about looming budget cuts that could destroy the department's new defense strategy and force the defense industry to face "absurdities" as defense programs are shuttered. "This is not the way to do defense planning and budgeting," said Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Carter was speaking …
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FAIL!
by J. William DeMarco EPIC FAIL! Is that always a bad thing? Sitting here on my XX birthday… I ponder all the successes and the EPIC FAILs in life. Success does not mean avoiding failure… it is all what you do with the EPIC FAIL. Do you learn, do you get stronger? All of us …
The Amazing Expanding Pentagon By Thanassis Cambanis
Boston Globe May 27, 2012 After a decade of 'mission creep'--into diplomacy, agriculture, even energy policy--the Department of Defense has become America's default tool for dealing with the world. Where does this leave the next president? When President Obama and Mitt Romney cross swords on defense policy, it can sound like a schoolyard fight: Who …
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John Nagl: No more war-hero presidents?
John Nagl Friday, May 25, 2012 In every presidential election since 1992, the candidate with the less distinguished military résumé has triumphed. Bill Clinton defeated war heroes George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole; National Guard pilot George W. Bush beat Vietnam veterans Al Gore and John Kerry; and Barack Obama was decisively elected over John …
5 Things the Pentagon Isn’t Telling Us About the Chinese Military by TREFOR MOSS
View original / Foreign Policy Think of it like an iceberg: The top lies in plain sight, but a lot more hides beneath the surface. In its annual appraisal of the Chinese military published last week, the U.S. Department of Defense seems to be describing an object it finds both familiar and mysterious. The report …
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Why Is General McChrystal Teaching An Off-The-Record Course At Yale? By Gian Gentile
TheAtlantic.com May 24, 2012 It's fine for a military office to play the role of professor -- but not if that means allowing 'special arrangements' that corrupt intellectual freedom. In 1951, American conservative William F. Buckley published God and Man at Yale. In his book, Buckley slammed Yale's faculty for turning American liberal ideology into …
On the Road to Nowhere…
By J. William DeMarco “I am appalled at the aimlessness of most people’s lives. Fifty percent don’t pay any attention to where they are going, forty percent are undecided and will go in any direction. Only ten percent know what they want and even all of them don’t go toward it.” - Katherine Anne Porter …
NATO’s Blind Spot
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. …
Retired General Talks Frankly On Defense Spending By Walter Pincus
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 …
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