As of March 2011, Congress had approved a total of more than $1.2 trillion dollars for costs associated with the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other post-9/11 “war on terror” operations, the Congressional Research Service said in its most recent update on the subject. See “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” March 29, 2011.
Other new or newly updated CRS reports include the following (all pdf).
I'm told this story is in every newspaper and on television in Afghanistan. Most Afghans believe it to be true. Basically, in spite of the Administration's posturing, Pakistan would become the governing power in Afghanistan…..The Administration's statements show a clear lack of understanding about this region….
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Pakistan's leaders “bluntly” told Afghanistan's president “to forget about allowing a long-term U.S. military presence in his country,” and urged him instead “to look to Pakistan–and its Chinese ally–for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the economy.” According to Afghan officials, at an April 16 meeting in Kabul in which the leaders of Pakistan's military and intelligence also participated, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Pres. Hamid Karzai that “the Americans had failed them both,” and that it was time for Kabul to choose “alternative allies.” The Pakistani delegation also outlined a number of demands to the Afghan leader. Afghanpaper.com, quoting an unnamed Afghan official, lists Pakistan's demands as:
‘The HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) website has been down for the past 3 weeks. It was ordered taken down by the US government to conceal US weather modification and earthquake inducing warfare activities against foreign states.
The HAARP website was publishing very damaging evidence of US military weather modification and earthquake triggering operations against foreign states. HAARP’s waterfall charts and magnetometer charts gave evidence of an ongoing weather war between the United States government and foreign states. The magnetometer presented concrete evidence that HAARP triggered the Japan earthquake and ensuing tsunami.'
Phi Beta Iota: As with 9-11, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that classified elements of the US Government are deliberately causing natural catastrophes….and may be doing so on a foundation of ignorant hubris rather than malicious intent. It would be far-fetched in the extreme if we did not already have evidence of so many other crimes against humanity including elective wars justified by 935 documented lies, and major policies developed absent intelligence or integrity. Hence, we conclude that HAARP demands a World Court investigation, and an interim closure of all of the HAARP facilities. Classified elements of the US Government–with or without the explicit consent of the US Senate and the President– appear to have taken weapons of mass destruction to an entirely new level. This demands public investigation and a trustworthy conclusion.
An excellent read from credible sources in the vein of Phi Beta Iota articulated reforms. Oh, and by the way, surprisingly this was written (in part, this is a two-author article) by a fellow naval intelligence professional (and more surprising is the fact it comes from a senior navy intelligence officer …. not something I would have expected, given how wed to cold-war ideals most of the senior leadership is…
Two Special Assistants to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen say (unofficially) it’s time, strategically, to spend more on education and less on guns. We’ll hear them out.
Clapper said during a hearing March 10, when asked which state has the intent to be the greatest U.S. adversary: “Probably China.” … “If the question is pick one nation state,” he said, adding that both Russia and China potentially pose a mortal threat to the United States.
Meanwhile……
The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said last week that he did not agree with the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that China poses the most serious national security threat to the United States.
And finally,
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of a having a longstanding relationship with Haqqani militants targeting U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Although there are important elements I disagree with — in some cases strenuously — US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor (Ret.) has written an important piece on the fundamental changes and massive budget reductions that are needed to improve America's ability to survive into the future.
Macgregor gets the three essentials right, I believe:
1) the threat America faces is now massively reduced; its future character may very well not be what conventional wisdom expects, and Americans need to fundamentally change how we interact with the rest of the world,
2) before any changes are effected in the size, character and funding of our armed forces, a comprehensive audit must be successfully and immediately completed to understand how we spend our money, and funding should be withheld unless and until that is done, and
3) massive changes are needed in our armed forces and their leadership, organization, staffing, weapons, and more.
Phi Beta Iota: The US Marine Corps understood all this in 1989, and sought to change the defense paradigm from worst case to most likely in 1992; then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and his subordinates were not at all interested. Right-sizing defense–and the whole of government–is not that difficult, provided that one has absolute integrity rooted in real-world truthful intelligence. That cannot be said of the US Government today.
