Marcus Aurelius: Letter from Joint Chiefs to Senate Armed Service Committee — Comment by Robert Steele + DoD Transformation RECAP

The letter appears only on the Association of the US Navy website, it does not appear at the Joint Chiefs website. Letter from Joint Chiefs Following Armed Forces Press Service item ((DOES)) appear as of 2042 EST, 19Jan13: Sequestration Will Hollow Out Force Fast, Dempsey Says By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service ABOARD A …

Reflections on Lincoln, Principle, Compromise, Autonomous Internet & Citizen Intelligence / Counter-Intelligence 2.0 with Meta-RECAP

EDIT of 21 January 2013:  I have gotten both sharp criticism from folks I revere, and complements.  I am more than willing to delete this, but I am more interested in having people think outside the lines.  I’ve made some revisions, adding issues and readings in each section.   Email me as you please, robert.david.steele.vivas [at] …

NIGHTWATCH: French with UK Lift & Africans Handle Mali — SOF in Africa at Greater Risk? Islamists and Food Security — Islamists versus Separatists

Mali-France: Last Friday, France began its direct intervention in the Malian civil war, at the request of the Bamako government after Islamists, terrorist and jihadis captured a key town on the road from the north to Bamako. The immediate French objective was to stop the jihadis at Konna and to deter them from moving farther …

Chuck Spinney: The Real Challenges Facing the Next Secretary of Defense, Robert Steele Comments

No Guts, No Glory The Real Challenges Facing the Next Secretary of Defense FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, This essay appeared in Counterpunch (12 Dec 2012) and Time’s Battleland (3 Jan 2013) EXTRACT: The problem is not just a strategic one of extracting our forces with dignity; nor is it a political one of fingering who is …

2012 Global Trends 2030: Review by Robert Steele — Report Lauds Fracking as Energy Solution, Disappoints on Multiple Fronts

NOTE:  This is the final report with new comments.  Comments were made on the earlier elements of this report on year ago.  Robert Steele: Global Trends 2030 – Gaps + RECAP Best External Snapshot: 2012-12-10 Nicole Gaouette, Four ‘Megatrends’ Reshaping the World: U.S. Intelligence (BloombergBusinessweek) New technologies, dwindling resources and explosive population growth in the …

Winslow Wheeler: The U.S. Navy – Troubled Waters

THE U.S. NAVY: TROUBLED WATERS By Winslow Wheeler Time, Dec. 3-5, 2012 Part 1: If more money buys a smaller fleet, what does less money buy? Part 2: More than the Navy’s numbers could be shrinking Part 3: Is the fleet steaming forward or backward? All three articles below the line.