According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, “The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.” Since the military has been using computers since World War II, it is pretty remarkable that they are just now getting around to figuring this out. As defined by the Constitution, it is the government’s job to “provide for the common defense.” Why would the …
In the 1970s, rather than rebuilding the military after the Vietnam War, President Jimmy Carter let it go hollow—the military looked okay on paper, but readiness dropped to appalling levels. President Bill Clinton adopted a similar strategy after the Cold War. They both did it for the same reasons: Wanting to respond to criticisms of “big government” spending, they cut defense—hence less government spending—but they could save as much of their precious “big government” as possible. Clinton’s neglect of the military was less apparent, because Reagan had built up the …
Nobody likes wasteful government spending, whether it’s $500 hammers at the Pentagon or federal employees using Uncle Sam’s credit cards to buy personal cameras, laptop computers and iPods. So the military should set a goal: Find ways to trim the fat in its budget, then reinvest the savings in combat missions. One area in which the United States military can operate more efficiently, possibly providing large-scale dollar savings, is in logistics. For example, if the maintenance costs incurred for the support of existing weapons can be reduced, the savings can …
Listening to Washington, you would never know that today’s hot topics include Climategate, Glaciergate, and an increasingly bitter debate about what we really know about our capacity to accurately forecast global climate change. In his State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama asserted that there is “overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change.” The Director of National Intelligence and the Pentagon are following the President’s lead in Lemming-like fashion. In his testimony to Congress, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, stated, “We continue to assess that global climate change …
In a report titled, “Long-Term Implications of the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Budget,” the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) points out that this year’s Department of Defense (DoD) budget will exceed the real dollar equivalent of the Pentagon’s budget at the time of the defense build-up in the 1980s. Specifically, CBO calculates that this year’s defense budget will total $664 billion, compared to roughly $500 billion in 1985 — an increase of one-third. This comparison is no surprise to Congress or the American people because the U.S. is currently fighting two …
It seems every time you pick up a newspaper, the headline proclaims another military program cancelled. First, it was the F-22. Then it was missile defense. The list goes on and on. The reason given seems always the same too…“We don’t need that.” This mantra gets repeated so often, one suspects one of two truisms must be at the root of it. Perhaps, everyone in the Pentagon before Obama showed up was an idiot and didn’t know what was really needed—or, all these cuts are a budget driven exercise, gutting …
The Pentagon’s top intelligence official this week indicated that although Iran has been developing the means to build nuclear weapons, his agency has discerned no sign that Tehran has made a final decision to do so. Lt. General Ronald Burgess, the chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Voice of America in an interview that “We have not seen indication that the government has made the decision to move ahead with the program. But the fact still remains that we don’t know what we don’t know.” Given Iran’s long …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQiTMnt4ebw[/youtube] America’s Air Reserve Component has shifted to an operational reserve engaged around the world and essential to today’s fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the pace of combat operations continues unabated, Pentagon resources are rapidly declining. Unfortunately, defense budget cuts tend to disproportionately affect the National Guard and Reserves. Pentagon leaders often overlook the tremendous capabilities provided by these men and women at a relative bargain to the nation. For example,
The defense budget is a lens through which we see our national defense priorities and the tool by which we will equip our warfighters and maintain a ready defense. To achieve an effective defense budget requires – at the very least – accountability and transparency. While the Administration has certainly insisted on transparency when it involves divulging interrogation techniques used on detainees, they have refused to apply the same standard for the American people when it comes to the readiness of our nation’s defenses. Consider the following recent actions: The …
