This appears spot-on. I've had some one-on-one experience with OSD CAPE and they appear to be true non-patriots whose sole function is to cut dollars. They don't seem to have a clue as to what the business of defending America is all about. They particularly oppose the concept of redundancy. In our huge bay, we have a cartoon posted about egg-head researchers at a blackboard whose task is to provide a scientific justification for a pre-determined solution: transfer dollars from the Army to the Air Force and Navy. That pretty well summarizes OSD CAPE and where things are heading these days. Big picture:
James Jay Carafano: Chuck Hagel begins knifing the Pentagon
EXTRACT:
CAPE is a number-cruncher. CAPE doesn't do strategy. Hagel can count on CAPE to put a happy face on sequester-size defense budgets.
Even more worrisome was Hagel's announcement that CAPE's assessment would provide the foundation for the Quadrennial Defense Review. The QDR is supposed to be a long-term assessment of missions, capabilities, threats and resource requirements — not a rubber stamp for budget cutting.
Related:
(U) Army Posture Statement 2013,23Apr
Pentagon Cuts Feared Tripping Up Pivot To Asia
Pentagon Asked To Detail Possible Cuts
Details Leak On DoD's Budget Reprogramming
Pentagon Furloughs Still Uncertain As Services Disagree
Phi Beta Iota: The pivot to Asia is ideological idiocy. The Army has suffered 80% of the casualties while providing the 4% of the force that receives the 1% of the budget. To cut the Army on the personnel side — while Congress unethically and treasonously forces more unwanted and unneeded tanks on Army, is criminal insanity at best, treason at worst. Most flag officers, but particularly those of the Navy and the Air Force, lack intelligence with integrity — what the Navy SHOULD be doing is zeroing out half its Admirals (one per ship, which is preposterously corrupt), half its task forces, and moving aggressively toward a simplified 450-ship globally distributed Navy that — combined with a long-haul Air Force and an air-mobile Army — allows for the immediate withdrawal of most of our troops from overseas, returning them — and their purchasing power — to CONUS — while radically reducing our overseas target footprint. The reality is that SecDef lacks advisors with intelligence and integrity — he is stumbling in the dark when he should be running with the wind on his back, empowered by ethical evidence-based decision-support.
See Also:
2013 Robert Steele: Reflections on Reform 2.2 Numbers for 30% DoD Cut over 2-4 Years
