Marcus Aurelius: Five Takeaways from a Decade of War [Defense One] Plus Blistering Alternative View from Phi Beta Iota Editors

Five Takeaways from a Decade of War Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, in a keynote address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies this week, signaled to military commanders that they should assume the across-the-board, automatic spending cuts imposed by sequester over the next decade will remain in place indefinitely. “We do not have …

Marcus Aurelius: SecDef – Six Points, No Bench, No Plan, No Joy — Can CSA Mobilize Carlisle and Re-Invent the US Army in 6 Months?

Attached is a SECDEF speech from two days ago — six main points and the major thrust is things are not going to get better any time soon. PDF (10 Pages): (U) SecDef Six Points 5 NOV 13 Six priorities: First, we will continue to focus on institutional reform. Second, we will re-evaluate our military’s …

Neal Rauhauser: Greater Irans Greatest Problem — US Fumbling with Geo-Political Terrain It Does Not Understand…

Greater Iran’s Greatest Problem The current political boundaries of the Islamic Republic are a fraction of what the Persian empire was at it’s peak. This map of Scythia & Parthia shows what have been fairly stable boundaries for Iranian culture – from the Tigris river in the west to the Indus in the east. Geographically this …

Mini-Me: NYT Discussion of Cutting Military Flag Officers + Meta-RECAP on Flag Waste and Corruption

Huh? Weighing the Brass New York Times, 5 November 2013 One of the hardest-hit areas being discussed in federal budget talks is the Pentagon, which would take an automatic $20 billion cut in January under sequestration. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel proposed a 20 percent cut in his own office’s budget, but command headquarters around …

Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt

Posted by Contributing Editor Berto Jongman Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt Is our relentless quest for economic growth killing the planet? Climate scientists have seen the data – and they are coming to some incendiary conclusions. By Naomi Klein NewStatesman, 29 October 2013 In December 2012, a pink-haired complex systems …

Jean Lievens: How the 99% Are Using Lateral Power to Create a Global Revolution

How the 99% Are Using Lateral Power to Create a Global Revolution It’s happened before, in 1848 and in 1968. The youth of the world took to the streets to protest the injustices of autocratic political regimes and rapacious business interests and to demand the most basic human right to participate as equal citizens in …