Winslow Wheeler: Who Really Runs the Pentagon?

It’s not Chuck Hagel.  I explain in a commentary at Foreign Policy at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/13/the_men_who_really_run_the_pentagon_chuck_hagel, and below. The Men Who Really Run the Pentagon Bob Gates wrestled the defense budget back from the Joint Chiefs. Chuck Hagel is handing it back. Winslow Wheeler Winslow T. Wheeler is the director of the Straus Military Reform Project at …

Chuck Spinney: Cracks in the Alliance – Is There Finally Daylight Between Israel and the US?

The author is one of the sharpest observers of developments in the Middle East. CS WEEKEND EDITION JANUARY 24-26, 2014 Is There Finally Daylight Between Israel and the US? Cracks in the Alliance? by JONATHAN COOK, Counterpunch Things have come to a strange state of affairs when Washington regards Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s far-right foreign minister, …

Chuck Spinney: Corrupt Congress Spends on Contractor Waste Instead of Human Core

WEEKEND EDITION JANUARY 17-19, 2014 The Cockburn Report Defense Spending: Putting Toys Before Boys by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch Being pro-defense in the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles on the Potomac means, in the salty words of my late friend Col. David Hackworth, one of the U.S. Army’s most decorated combat soldiers, putting “the toys …

2014 Intelligence Reform (All Others)

SHORT URL: http://tinyurl.com/2014-Intel-Reform Under Construction – Send Nominations to robert.david.steele.vivas@gmail.com Updated 23 Jan 2014 14:58 E Phi Beta Iota: The current literature on intelligence reform is underdeveloped and under-specified.  An example of this under- or mis-specification can be seen in the treatment of 9/11. The dominant position that 9/11 was an intelligence failure is correct …

Chuck Spinney: Afghan Disaster…Rooted in Western Ignorance and Western Lies

The Afghan adventure is ending in a disaster.  The outsiders are again leaving with their tails between their legs.  This will be the fourth time for the Brits.  For the U.S. Afghanistan is just another disaster in what what is becoming a dreary pattern of military failures at ever higher costs.  Predictably, President Obama’s surge …