Marcus Aurelius: CSA Reflects on Whole of Government Deficiencies — Military Best for Strong on Strong, Not Strong on Weak

Dempsey Wants to ‘Rebalance the Use of Military Power’ By James Kitfield Defense One, May 12, 2014 At the top of the United States military’s vast, global bureaucracy sits the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the land and the president’s senior military advisor. The chairman sits between the four-star …

Marcus Aurelius: Can the Army [CSA] Handle the Truth? Includes Copy of SSI Monograph “Closing the Candor Chasm”

Article below appeared in last week’s Army Times. Paper to which article refers attached; I’ve been carrying a hardcopy in my rucksack for weeks. Author works for the Undersecretary of the Army. Many of us feel that the Army absolutely cannot deal with truth or candor. Messengers often get killed. PC often rules the day. …

Marcus Aurelius: SecDef – Six Points, No Bench, No Plan, No Joy — Can CSA Mobilize Carlisle and Re-Invent the US Army in 6 Months?

Attached is a SECDEF speech from two days ago — six main points and the major thrust is things are not going to get better any time soon. PDF (10 Pages): (U) SecDef Six Points 5 NOV 13 Six priorities: First, we will continue to focus on institutional reform. Second, we will re-evaluate our military’s …

Marcus Aurelius: CSA Interview + AWC SSI Reminder — Answers from the 1990’s Long Ignored…

PDF (1 Page): (U) CSA Interview (Defense News, 28Oct13)-1 Interview GEN. RAY ODIERNO US Army Chief of Staff Defense News 10/28/2013 At last week’s Association of the United States Army annual meeting and exposition in Washington, thousands gathered to hear senior leaders explain where the service is headed in this era of austerity. And the …

2013 ON REVOLUTION — HelpngTransform the US Army Consistent with CSA Guidance

* The Chinese character for revolution, “fire in the lake,” was made well-known to literate Americans by Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Little, Brown and Company, 2009), originally published in the early 1970’s.  The book remains startlingly relevant to a learning-disabled US military repeating the same mistakes, …

LtCol X: CSA Sends – Strategic Priorities for the Army – with Phi Beta Iota Comments

Please note Army Chief of Staff General Raymond T. Odierno‘s updated strategic priorities for the US Army, arranged in five (5) categories. PDF Slide Show: CSA Strategic Priorities vFinal 16Oct13 From those, here is an extract . EXTRACTS: [DOWNSIZED ARMY; EXPEDITIONARY] – Downsize, transition, and then sustain a smaller, but ready and capable Total Army …