Marcus Aurelius: General Failure — Neil Sheehan Reviews Thomas Rick’s New Book Plus Chapter Extract

An adapted excerpt from this book, cued to me by a friend, can be found as indicated below, followed by Neil Sheehan’s review of the book. General Failure Looking back on the troubled wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many observers are content to lay blame on the Bush administration. But inept leadership by American generals …

Marcus Aurelius: Secretary Harold Brown on Cutting Service Secretaries

Dr. Brown paints Service Secretaries, in the terms my father would have used, as “spare gear.”) A Better Place To Cut To protect military programs, get rid of redundant service secretaries By Harold Brown Washington Post, October 19, 2012, Pg. 21 The four military services in the Defense Department differ in their roles, missions and …

Marcus Aurelius: Mike Hayden Says Obama’s Military Comments Not ‘Presidential’

Hayden: Obama’s Military Comments Not ‘Presidential’ President Obama’s response to Mitt Romney comments on the size of the U.S. Navy during Monday’s debate did not “play well” with American voters, former CIA Director Michael Hayden tells Newsmax. Romney complained that the Navy is “smaller now than any time since 1917.” Obama responded: “We also have …

David Isenberg: Secret Contracting – Totally Beyond the Reach of Inspectors-General

The use of private contractors is not just for the Pentagon or the State Department. It is also for that frequently crashing collection of agencies euphemistically known as the intelligence community (IC). I have written previously on this but let’s consider some of the costs of using contractors in the IC. The following is taken …