Communities of Practice – Page 1193 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/04/272011/04/27

Right-Sizing the US Military–Doug Macgregor

10 Security, 11 Society, Intelligence (government), Key Players, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Strategy, Threats

WinslowWheeler Cropped — Winslow Wheeler

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.

Macgregor's two part article, “Lean Mean Fighting Machine” and “A Radical Plan for Cutting the Defense Budget and Reconfiguring the Military.” Both are published by Foreign Policy; I believe they merit your thorough reading and consideration.

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.

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

2008 U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century

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

2000 Presidential Leadership and National Security Policy Making

1998 JFQ The Asymmetric Threat: Listening to the Debate

1995 GIQ 13/2 Creating a Smart Nation: Strategy, Policy, Intelligence, and Information

1993 On Defense & Intelligence–The Grand Vision

1992 MCU Thinking About Revolution

1992 E3i: Ethics, Ecology, Evolution, & intelligence (An Alternative Paradigm)

Reference: 1992 USMC C4I Campaign Plan

1991 MCG Intelligence Support for Expeditionary Planners

2011/04/27

Bolivia: Drilling Down on Nature, Evo, Truth

03 Environmental Degradation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government

Round I: UK Guardian on Bolivia–and Rights for Nature

Round II: Bolivia: Switch and Bait on Protecting Nature

Round III: Jim Hickman lives in Bolivia…

John

Most of your articles and information are very reliable and appreciated for what they are. This time, however, it is a mix of good research (Chellis's article) and a bit of exaggeration (your friend of a friend memo.) Chellis's article was published several months ago after she did a very thorough job of discovering the facts and assembling the story in an
engaging way. She definitely understands the political dynamics here in Bolivia, especially the role of racial identity in the process. I am glad you have circulated it. It is important that the Evo fans around the world
understand that, like Obama, his promises and his actions are far removed from each other.

Continue reading “Bolivia: Drilling Down on Nature, Evo, Truth”

2011/04/272011/04/27

CIA Given To Petraeus, DoD Given to Panetta

Corruption, Government, Military

CIA director Leon Panetta is to take over at the Pentagon and Gen. David Petraeus is to be nominated to head the CIA, NBC News confirmed Wednesday.

Sources: Petraeus to be nominated to head CIA

Agency director Panetta expected to become Defense Secretary, replacing Robert Gates

Phi Beta Iota: This is worse than business as usual, this is a dramatic step backwards. CIA is clearly irrelevant, an off-stage holding area for a failed General. In today's context, the best candidate for Defense, Senator Chuck Hagel, has evidently had second thoughts about the viability of the Obama Administration. Defense is about to be raped by the clerks as a bill-payer, rather than right-sized by serious people mindful of Senator Sam Nunn's wisdom:

I am constantly being asked for a bottom-line defense number. I don't know of any logicial way to arrive at such a figure without analyzing the threat; without determining what changes in our strategy should be made in light of the changes in the threat; and then determining what force structure and weapons programs we need to carry out this revised strategy.

This Administration–like others before it–lacks intelligence; lacks a holistic global and domestic strategy; and lacks the integrity necessary to fulfill its Constitutional responsibilities to the public.

2011/04/272011/04/27

Indonesia’s Urban Open Farmville

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 04 Indonesia, 11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Global News Blog

Indonesia's real-life Farmville

Rising food prices are galvanizing Jakarta's urban farming movement.

By Sara Schonhardt, Correspondent / April 22, 2011

Jakarta, Indonesia

• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

Jakarta’s urban gardening scene got started with a simple tweet: “Who wants to start urban farming?” After that first Twitter message in November 2010, the group known as Jakarta Berkebun secured a plot in the city’s north and harvested a crop of morning glories (a common ingredient in many dishes here).

jakarta garden — Click on Image to Enlarge

Jakarta lacks green space, but unused land abounds. Jakarta Berkebun aims to transform empty lots that often fill with rubbish into training grounds for urban youths to learn about growing food. For Milly Ratudian, an architect who leads the group, urban farming is a a response to skyrocketing food prices despite the nation’s abundant fertile crop land.

Read full article….

2011/04/262011/04/26

Bolivia: Switch and Bait on Protecting Nature

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

Dear Friends:

See the below [December 2010] article from our old friend, Chellis Glendinning, now living in Bolivia, that she did on the administration's recent anti-eco projects, and the following sent from a friend of a friend also living there now.

Sad to hear the other side of the story…JAS

“Need to tell you that this is all bull. Mr. Morales turns out to play to the international audience (you) — while at home he's got something else going on: industrial development up the kazoo, dams many times bigger than Hoover, nuclear power plants, uranium mining, lithium mining, new oil wells, pipelines through indigenous lands, new highways that tribes are fighting. Every time the people rise up against his plans — which happens constantly now (a friend just lost his eye to the police in the streets) — the administration dismisses them saying they are in the hands of the capitalists or are trying to tear down the state. Plus, public opinion has been cut via new laws that minimize the voice of journalists with heavy fines and perhaps closing papers, radio stations, etc. if
convicted. It is commonly said that EM says one thing but does the other.

“So, here at ground level, we don't take this law very seriously. It's nice, a nice collection of words. Sorry to tell you this. Non-democractic socialism, it turns out, is no picnic.

“The challenge begins now, as the people were too afraid to protest for the last years due to the assault by the right. But that's not a threat just now, so the people are rising up. It's a whole new ballgame at this point.
No one knows what will happen. Today's news is that El Evo liberated a bunch more millions to spend on further industrialization!”

See Also:

The Consequences of Modernization: The Techno-Fantasies of Evo Morales, Counterpunch, Christmas Weekend Edition, December 24-26, 2010

2011/04/262011/04/26

Simultaneous Policy: Two Interviews

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Key Players, Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Serious Games, Strategy, Threats, Tools

1. Simpol – John Bunzl – Interview Part One (April 15, 2009)

See Simpol's Founder, John Bunzl, explain Simpol on Youtube, Part 1. (about 5 minutes)

2. Simpol – John Bunzl – Interview Part Two (April 15, 2009)

See Simpol's Founder, John Bunzl, explain Simpol on Youtube, Part 2. (about 5 minutes)

2011/04/26

Ron Paul’s Moment?

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Open Government, Policies

face michael ostrolenk — Michael Ostrolenk

Politico The Arena, 26 April 2011

The Ron Paul Revolution in 2008 and the tea party movement that followed shows that the American conservative mainstream is starting to awaken to its own pre-neocon past and potential future. It is seeing itself as the bulwark needed to protect our Republic, the rule of law, individual liberty and our fiscal health against those in both parties whose policies have taken the United State to the precipice of disaster.

For those who think both constitutionally as Dr. Paul does and systemically, it's impossible to distinguish between our national debt and our foreign policy. Dr. Paul is one of the few candidates who offers an integrated and systemic way of understanding the difficulties we face as a country and the means to restore our Republic.

Continue reading “Ron Paul's Moment?”