An Insider’s Guide To Decoding the Pentagon Budget
Posted on
The Pentagon will release the details of its fiscal year 2013 budget on Monday. If this year is like most in the past, some of the numbers, specifically those in the Pentagon’s press release, will be the wrong ones, and many of the important and fundamental issues will be distorted or ignored. What follows is… Keep reading →
The Pentagon’s Budget Sky Isn’t Falling
Posted on
The weeping and gnashing of teeth – that so descriptive phrase from the New Testament — is the end-of-days tone that grips the Congress, Defense Department and defense industry every time there is a change in strategic direction. Coffee mugs with program names on them are being considered for endangered species status. You can take… Keep reading →
Real Cuts, Real Jobs, Real Danger: The Defense Budget Crisis
Posted on
With the Supercommittee’s wreckage still smoldering in Congress, the prospect of an additional half trillion dollars in cuts to our national defense budget isn’t hypothetical anymore. For an overstretched military needing to reset after a decade of war and the 13 million Americans already looking for work, it’s a disaster. But amazingly, even as expert… Keep reading →
New Obama Strategy Looks Misguided, Predictable, Underwhelming
Posted on
Elections, as President Barack Obama knows, are a time of big ideas. So it would seem fitting that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will roll out a new Pentagon national defense strategy just a few days into a make-or-break election year for the White House. [Panetta is expected to formally unveil the new strategy tomorrow and… Keep reading →
Whack Old Weapons, Rebuild the Army Or Fade From View
Posted on
In the new year, America’s power projection forces must be restructured and we must pursue a ruthless retirement of old weapons in favor of the new. Much of this can be paid for and modernized because of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, which costs $2 billion a week. Logistics costs in Afghanistan alone have diverted money… Keep reading →
‘Can Do’ Must Replace ‘Give Me’ In US Politics
Posted on
My vote in the 2012 presidential election will go to the candidate who most resists pandering to the American electorate. I say “most resist,” as all candidates pander, but hopefully at least one of the presidential candidates will believe and act as if there should be a limit. Given the campaigns so far, perhaps there… Keep reading →
Without Economic Changes, America Can’t Contain China
Posted on
The problem with military planners is that all they know is military stuff. The Pentagon may harbor some of the best strategists who ever gazed at a globe, but they seldom have much grasp of economics or demographics or cultural trends. So when a new threat arises, their natural inclination is to figure out how… Keep reading →
Wake Up: America Can’t Afford Its Military
Posted on
Through the last year the defense industries and their supporters in Congress worked overtime to ensure the federal government kept the armed forces in a perpetual procurement cycle. Inside the Pentagon, the generals and admirals who lead thedefense bureaucracies worked to minimize procurement costs. This was not altruistic behavior. It’s the only way to protect… Keep reading →
What’s Likely in New Pentagon Strategy: 2 Theaters, Fewer Bases, A2AD
Posted on
The threat of a $500 billion defense sequestration looms as a result of the Super Committee failure – a prospect that Secretary Panetta has called “potentially ruinous.” Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon and some of his Senate colleagues have promised to introduce legislation to reverse the cuts. Meanwhile, the… Keep reading →
Create ‘Smart Power’ Budget Pool for Tough Times Ahead
Posted on
Contrary to what some say, applying smart power to our most challenging national security issues makes even more sense today amid the severe budget pressures facing the Pentagon and the State Department. Today’s military and Foreign Service officers will tell you that collaboration and coordination among State, DoD and USAID is more common than one… Keep reading →