Officers Call – Page 118 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/10/29

Chuck Spinney: Steven Walt’s Proof of Col John Boyd’s Strategic Theorem — Don’t Think, Just Keep The Money Moving….

Military, Officers Call, Strategy

Boyd's Theorem

(pounded with unrelenting ferocity into the heads of friends for over 30 years):

“People say the Pentagon does not have a strategy

They are wrong. The Pentagon does have a strategy; it is:

Don’t interrupt the money flow, add to it.”

— Col. John R. Boyd (U.S. Air Force, ret.)*

Fighter Pilot, Tactician, Strategist,

Conceptual Designer, Reformer

Now read the attached opinion piece to see why Steven Walt's last sentence is dangerously wrong.

Lesson: If you want to understand U.S. foreign policy and U.S. military strategy, you need to climb down from Mount Olympus and dig into the dirt to discern and acknowledge its domestic roots.

Hint: A good place to start getting your hands dirty would be to investigate the real reasons why the Pentagon has refused to fix its corrupt and unauditable accounting system, a disgraceful state of affairs that is in violation of the law (i.e., the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990), not to mention the spirit and the letter of the Appropriations and Accountability Clauses of the Constitution (which, by the way, every member of the US government has taken a sacred unconditional oath to protect and uphold).

Chuck Spinney

The Blaster

* New readers unfamiliar with Boyd and his seminal works will find an introduction and references to his strategic theories here, including especially Robert Coram's highly readable biography, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (Little Brown).

Leaving Afghanistan: Not With a Bang, But a Whimper

Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy, 28/10/13

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Steven Walt's Proof of Col John Boyd's Strategic Theorem — Don't Think, Just Keep The Money Moving….”

2013/10/292013/10/29

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

Ethics, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Strategy

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 message from Gen. Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff, was one of frustration with uncertain budgets and automatic and inflexible defense cuts that are gutting readiness, with only two of his brigades ready for combat. The Army has been cutting personnel at a breakneck pace to save as much money as possible, given additional budget cuts are likely.

The Army is headed from a force of 570,000 soldiers, just a few years ago, down to 490,000. That number could get smaller, given sequestration is likely to continue and deeper reductions are expected over the coming months as part of a broader debt and spending deal.

Q. What is the real impact of past and future budget cuts on the force? Why are you so alarmed? And what is the way out of it?

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: CSA Interview + AWC SSI Reminder — Answers from the 1990's Long Ignored…”

2013/10/292013/10/29

SchwartzReport: Fukushima Fries the West Coast 28 Ways — US Map & Links — Deeply Frightening, Pity There Is No One Attending to the Public Interest….

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Academia, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Lessons, Media, Officers Call

This is the latest on Fukushima and the impact it is making on the U.S. West Coast. This directly affects me, as well as tens of millions of other Americans, and there doesn't seem to be a thing we can do about it.

28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima
MICHAEL SNYDER – Global Research – Centre for Research and Globilization

The map below comes from the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center. It shows that radiation levels at radiation monitoring stations all over the country are elevated. As you will notice, this is particularly true along the west coast of the United States.

Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean. That means that the total amouont of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain. Ultimately, all of this nuclear radiation will outlive all of us by a very wide margin. They are saying that it could take up to 40 years to clean up the Fukushima disaster, and meanwhile countless innocent people will develop cancer and other health problems as a result of exposure to high levels of nuclear radiation. We are talking about a nuclear disaster that is absolutely unprecedented, and it is constantly getting worse. The following are 28 signs that the west coast of North America is being absolutely fried with nuclear radiation from Fukushima.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Fukushima Fries the West Coast 28 Ways — US Map & Links — Deeply Frightening, Pity There Is No One Attending to the Public Interest….”

2013/10/282013/10/28

4th Media: America’s Threat-Centric [Lie-Based] Education System: Out of Date and Out of Time

04 Education, Academia, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

America’s Threat-Centric [Lie-Based] Education System: Out of Date and Out of Time

“History is a story. That’s why we fight over history. We make sense of ourselves, the world and ourselves in the world through the struggle to tell the truth through stories. Facts have to be contextualised to become the truth. And that truth is a struggle that is constantly fought over. It is not given. And telling stories helps to create debate about that truth. That is why working people should tell their stories. Truth is a class issue. I would appeal to all your readers, especially to young ones, to make their own political films; shoot interviews, especially with older comrades, and dare to express themselves on the screen. Film making is for everybody. I would be looking at the new technologies. They are disruptive and a problem in capitalist society…That’s why they want to close down the Internet if they can. Politicians don’t like allowing people to communicate anonymously with each other. They want to restrain freedom … But still for a while there is a window of opportunity and freedom. They monitor you, but don’t yet stop you. That will come, of course…[But] it’s where people ought to be, where creative people and political people ought to be.” Tony Garnett interviewed by the editors of WSWS

How can young people be encouraged and coached to narrate a “true” history of their lives and times in the world—and the events, people and geography that influence them—for the bulk of their literate existence (i.e., 21st Century literate to include visual and technological literacy)?

Continue reading “4th Media: America’s Threat-Centric [Lie-Based] Education System: Out of Date and Out of Time”

2013/10/28

Chuck Spinney: Strategy? Or Stupidity on a Grand Scale?

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Officers Call, Strategy

Professor Brenner gave me permission to distribute and post the attached essay. Without saying so, he describes a way that seems tailor-made to systematically violate just about all the criteria for a sensible grand strategy.

Chuck Spinney

The Blaster

27 OCTOBER 2013

NSA DOES THE GRAND TOUR

by Michael Brenner, PhD

Professor of International Affairs

University of Pittsburgh

mbren@pitt.edu

NSA returned to center stage last week thanks to revelations that it has tapped the phones of European leaders. The resulting ruckus raises three questions: why? how far will the targeting governments go in demanding redress? how will Washington respond? In considering them, I look at the political/psychological underpinnings of the Euro-Americans relationship.

2013/10/25

Berto Jongman: NSA A Diplomatic Disaster for USA

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

Hard National Security Choices

Dispatch from Berlin on a Diplomatic Disaster

By Ingrid Wuerth

Friday, October 25, 2013 at 7:00 AM

A diplomatic disaster for the United States is currently unfolding in Berlin. The revelation that the NSA may have monitored cell phone conversations and text messages of Chancellor Angela Merkel has led to popular outrage in Germany, as well as unusually pointed language from the Chancellor and other government officials. The U.S. Ambassador was not merely asked but summoned (“einbestellt”) to the German foreign office—a strong verb used until now (if at all) only for the Syrian and Iranian ambassadors. The Chancellor’s phone conversation with President Obama did nothing to ease the tension. Merkel declared such practices totally unacceptable: Between friends and partners such as the United States and Germany, the monitoring of communications by government leaders is a grave breach of trust, her press secretary emphasized. The Obama administration, other than saying the Chancellor’s phone is not now and will not in the future be monitored, has offered nothing: neither apology, nor explanation of what happened in the past, nor any sort of suggestion for future cooperation or discussion of a collective solution.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: NSA A Diplomatic Disaster for USA”

2013/10/252013/10/25

John Steiner: US “War on Terror” Has INCREASED Terrorism

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

From Gary Sycalik

Fellow earth-travelers,

An exceedingly important article / blog is copied below. It involves the War on Terror.

The very important rule rule is “Follow-the-Money.” So, when applied to the War on Terror what do we find? Perhaps, we find a tremendous strengthening of the Military-Industrial-Complex, a substantiation for unconscionable U.S. military budgets (to the determent of other budget areas such as education) and exceedingly huge profits of such corporate giants as Halliburton. According to a 2012 article in the Huffington Post, the U.S. spends more than China, Japan, UK, France, and Russia combined. More than all these added together. Russia spent 52.7 billion while the United States spent 695.7 billion (Not counting off the books stuff such as ‘black ops.”)

Could the War on Terror really be, substantially (and pivotally), about power and money? And until the majority of we, the people, become realistic about the ‘why’ of ‘things’, shine light into the shadows of secrecy, and demand appropriate responsible action from government and corporate leaders, the very few will control the many to the determent of the citizen-public. Consider this; existing corporate-government relationships are insidious in nature and dangerous in fact. President Eisenhower warned us about the this relationship (military-industrial complex) as he left office. Why do you think he waited to do so at the end of his presidency? Think about it. A more balanced relationship can be created. Actually, it must be if our country is to be sustainable and viable in the future. I want a sustainable and viable country. I assume that you do too.

Happy travels,

Gary

U.S. “War On Terror” Has INCREASED Terrorism

Posted onOctober 21, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog

Charts Show that U.S. Policy Has Increased Terror Attacks

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) Global Terrorism Database – part of a joint government-university program on terrorism – is hosted at the University of Maryland.

START is the most comprehensive open source terrorism database, which can be viewed by journalists and civilians lacking national security clearance.

A quick review of charts from the START database show that terrorism has increased in the last 9 years since the U.S. started its “war on terror”.

This chart shows the number of terror attacks conducted in Iraq:

See compelling charts and rest of article.

Phi Beta Iota: The article and the charts do not address the financial terrorism of the City of London and Wall Street that have destroyed entire national economies, and particularly those of the USA, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece. Iceland, alone, had the integrity and intelligence to stuff the bankers into jail.