Virginia stands to feel the most pain from defense cuts
Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post, Tuesday August 10, 2010
RICHMOND — Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Department budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramatically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia.
Most of the immediate reaction revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's proposal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region.
Phi Beta Iota: SecDef is no fool–Virginia can win BIG. We need (and Virginia can provide):
a 450-ship Navy, we need a Multinational Peace Command, we need county-level as well as state-wide communication, computing, and intelligence, we need deep integration between education, intelligence, and research–and ideally an independent Open Source Agency (OSA) under diplomatic auspices with nodes in northern, eastern, and southwestern Virginia. The fact that the Pentagon has no threat definition worthy of the name; no strategy; no acquisition process; and a kludge of scattered operational capabilities should not stop Virginia from thinking this through.
Search: smart nation intelligence reform electoral reform national security reform
Search: UN intelligence peace intelligence
Definitions: M4IS2 (Multinational, Multiagency, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information-Sharing & Sense-Making
Reference: Human Intelligence (HUMINT)–All Humans, All Minds, All the Time
Journal: Cyber-Security Etc. & Multinational Engagement
