Journal: Defense Theatrics & One-Two Star Flag Agonizing?

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Worth a look….coincides with what Chuck Spinney has been saying.

Defense Budget Debate:

SAME OLD GAME: JUST NEW PLAYERS

January 13, 2011 Harry C. Blaney III

Rethinking National Security

(Center for International Policy)

Among the first security issues of the year is the release of information about China’s military capabilities and the recent release of the U.S. defense budget request, which is not coincidental . Each year, when key decisions are made about the coming annual DOD budget, we see media reports about China’s new potential and physical military ambitions and weapons programs. They arise from statements by U.S. military commanders, anonymous Pentagon sources and conservative think tank pundits. The intent is to create a “boogeyman,” to depict the Chinese as nine feet tall and America as a “Lilliputian.”

I remember this same bizarre scenario took place during the Cold War. At that time, I had a bit of responsibility from time to time looking at these issues and especially the bureaucratic warfare between the military establishment and the intelligence community analysts who had to provide assessments about how far the Soviets were ahead of America and who in reality were behind us. The interagency fights were often fierce with billions of dollars at stake along with real command over new resources, programs and especially planes and ships – whether needed or not. There was the prospect of a nice rich job in the defense industry if your program won out.

Today, the kabuki is not much different but the reality of today’s security challenges is dramatically different in substantive ways.

Read rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: We are observing with fascination the moral and intellectual struggle of the one and two star flag officers. They know the four-stars got them in this mess by ignoring reality in the 1990's, blowing the peace dividend, ignoring the Army War College when it spelled it out in 1998, and then going on with “business as usual,” aggravated by allowing the neo-cons to lie to Congress, the US public, and the United Nations over 9/11 and Iraq. These younger flag officers are well-intentioned, intelligent, and troubled–they want to get it right but lip service from the top is not the same as the authority to do the right things. They can “go along” and be the four-star failures of the future, or they can assume risk, connect with reality, hold everyone accountable for the truth, and actually build the four forces after next, with cyber-information as the driving force for strategy, for policy, for acquisition, and for M4IS2 operations in which superior information harmonizes and influences over one trillion a year in other people's money. Let's see how they work it out, with every hope for their success in choosing to do the right things, not the wrong things righter….

2010: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Trilogy Updated

2010: OPINION–America’s Cyber Scam

2009 Perhaps We Should Have Shouted: A Twenty-Year Restrospective

2008 Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power–Army Strategy Conference of 2008 Notes, Summary, & Article

2006 IJIC 19/3 Peacekeeping Intelligence & Information Peacekeeping

2004 IJIC 17/2 Information Peacekeeping & The Future of Intelligence

2002 New Rules for the New Craft of Intelligence (Book 2 Chapter 15)

2001 Threats, Strategy, and Force Structure: An Alternative Paradigm for National Security

2000 Presidential Leadership and National Security Policy Making

1999 Virtual Intelligence: Conflict Avoidance and Resolution through Information Peacekeeping (Journal of Conflict Resolution, Spring 1999)

1998 JFQ The Asymmetric Threat: Listening to the Debate

1998 Information Peacekeeping: The Purest Form of War