From Politico Morning Defense:
FIRST LOOK – THE STRONG-ON-DEFENSE PLAYBOOK: A leading national-security think tank is releasing the latest edition of its annual briefing book, which has become a kind of playbook for strong-on-defense Democrats. The Truman National Security Project, which spent more than $90,000 during the 2012 presidential campaign to help defeat Republican Mitt Romney, has been working to build a coalition of center-left members of Congress with strong records on defense – and its briefing book offers messaging strategies for countering Republican defense hawks.
The book, an advance copy of which was provided to Morning D, urges an increased emphasis on diplomacy and alliance-building and says the U.S. should remain committed to the international community as it withdraws from Afghanistan and cuts its defense budget. The group is scheduled to hold a launch event this evening in Washington attended by Doug Wilson, former assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs, who recently joined the think tank as a senior fellow. We've got the rundown, for Pros: http://politico.pro/1c226p4. And here's a first look at the full briefing book: http://bit.ly/18yag6a.
Phi Beta Iota: Republicans are unethical and stupid on a grand scale. Democrats are the lite version. This is a very sad bit of well-intentioned idiocy that lacks context, a strategic analytic model, true cost economics, or any semblance of intelligence with integrity. The most intelligent aspect of this product is its design — it is a real shame they could not find the substance to go with it. There is nothing here on the fundamentals — electoral reform to restore government legitimacy; educational reform, intelligence reform, and research reform to create a Smart Nation; or governance reform to stop borrowing a trillion a year, slash the 50% that is bribery-enabled waste; and create capabilities relevant to actual needs — little things like cutting flag officers by two thirds and creating a 450 ship Navy, a long-haul Air Force, and an air-mobile Army while refocusing foreign policy on healing the Americas, keep the Arctic clean, and creating a prosperous world at peace with Open Source Everything.
Safety Copy: 2013-07-23 Truman Security Briefng Book
