Arms race in space

ARTICLE: Preventing An Arms Race In Outer Space, (Boston Globe)…James Carroll, May 12, 2008

…The world-historic decision about carrying warfare across the last threshold into outer space is being left to defense contractors, military commanders, and their wholly owned subsidiary on Capitol Hill.

Humans who did not think to ban weapons from the air a century ago know better when it comes to outer space. Yet what are we doing? And if the deadly current is still hidden, what is that low rumble that can be heard, rolling toward us from down the river?

Agree with the ideal but when has an arms race ever been prevented?

Managing the Financial Cost of War

ARTICLE: For Defense, Crunching The Numbers Is Half The Battle
(Washington Post)…Stephen Barr, May 12, 2008 , Pg. D1

…From her Pentagon office, Jonas is responsible for the department’s financial management policies, the computer systems that track $3.4 trillion in assets and liabilities, an annual budget of more than $600 billion and efforts to modernize business practices.

Jonas also has moved to cut operating overhead. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which once had 22,000 employees, is down to 13,000 and will shrink to 7,000. With the reductions and improvements in technology, the department has saved $500 million in operating costs.

Such savings “in the back office,” Jonas said, make millions of dollars available for the armed forces. “It matters to the soldiers, it matters to the Marines, it matters to the airmen, it matters to the sailors, and all their families and all our defense workers whether or not we are efficient.

“So at least we are trying to change the culture, and we think we’ve made some good progress.”

DARPA Budget – A Record

ARTICLE: How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective In Wartime (Washington Post)…Walter Pincus, May 12, 2008

…DARPA’s proposed $3.3 billion budget for fiscal 2009, now before Congress, is the largest in its history. Almost all DARPA projects are long-range efforts, and those that come to fruition often are not used by the military until years later.

South Korea – Military Transformation

COMMENTARY: U.S. Forces In Korea Not Just Looking North
Honolulu Advertiser, Richard Halloran, May 11, 2008

…Like U.S. forces in Okinawa, which operate as far away as the Indian Ocean, Iraq and East Africa, American troops in South Korea could be sent anywhere and might not be available for the defense of South Korea. That includes forces earmarked for Korea in reserve in the U.S.
Summary of significant changes in U.S. policy.

U.S. and South Korean forces are in the early stages of a 10-year transition plan intended to turn over most defensive duties to South Koreans. In August, the two forces will conduct their first large-scale drill in which the Koreans for the first time will exercise command and control of forces throughout South Korea

Summary of changes in U.S. and South Korean policy.

War and Decision

ARTICLE: Rethinking The Iraq Critics
(U.S. News & World Report)…Michael Barone, May 19, 2008
Pg. 25

…There’s still much to be learned about our decisions, good and bad, in Iraq. But Feith’s book is a step forward, as were those of Sherwood and Churchill 60 years ago.

Today we’re only beginning to learn about what went on behind the scenes on Iraq. One important new source is the recently published War and Decision by Douglas Feith, the No. 3 civilian at the Pentagon from 2001 to 2005.

Long Shot

ARTICLE: Air Combat By Remote Control,
(Wall Street Journal)…Brian M. Carney, May 12, 2008
Pg. 13

…The 432nd officially “stood up,” in the jargon of the Air Force, on May 1, 2007. One year later, two dozen of its drones patrol the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan every hour of every day. And almost all of them are flown by two-man crews sitting in the air-conditioned comfort of a “ground control station” (GCS) in the Nevada desert.

Indian Springs, Nev.–The sniper never knew what hit him. The Marines patrolling the street below were taking fire, but did not have a clear shot at the third-story window that the sniper was shooting from. They were pinned down and called for reinforcements.

Help came from a Predator drone circling the skies 20 miles away. As the unmanned plane closed in, the infrared camera underneath its nose picked up the muzzle flashes from the window. The sniper was still firing when the Predator’s 100-pound Hellfire missile came through the window and eliminated the threat.

The airman who fired that missile was 8,000 miles away …

Iran … 3 possible ways …

ARTICLE: A Plea To Quiet Drums On Iran, And Try Talk
(Chicago Tribune)…Stephen Kinzer, May 11, 2008

…Hardly a day goes by without new and more vivid threats against America’s newest supposed enemy, Iran. It seems almost unbelievable that the United States, so bloodied and weakened by its adventure in Iraq, would contemplate an attack on another Middle Eastern country. Yet some American leaders seem bent on it.

There are three possible ways for the U.S. to deal with growing threats from Iran. One is to do nothing, which will allow Iran to intensify its nuclear program in ways that could profoundly threaten the region and global stability. The second is to launch a military attack, which would have devastating “blowback” consequences for the U.S., Israel and the Western world. The third is negotiation. This option is so low-cost that it seems folly not to try.

Kinzer makes a case for negotiations.

North Korea – Predicted Food Crisis

NEWS RELEASE: Famine Predicted; Food Crisis Worsens
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution)…Unattributed

North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time, a South Korean aid group said Friday.

Presidential Elections – Red, States, Blue States, Nation States ..

ARTICLE: Our Enemies And The Election, Wall Street Journal, Gabriel Schoenfeld, May 10, 2008, Pg. 11

…Ever since October 1972, when Henry Kissinger, then Richard Nixon’s national security adviser, announced that “peace is at hand” in Vietnam, an October surprise – or the impending possibility of one – has been a perennial feature of American political life. Will a dramatic foreign-policy development tip the electoral balance this year? Several factors have converged to make this more probable than in any recent election.

In addition to red states and blue states, nation states and terrorist groups (altered states) sharing opinions on the presidential candidates to include: Hamas, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela, Iranians ….

May not be anything new but direct action to influence outcomes would be the “surprise.”

Targeting Nuclear Reactors

ARTICLE: Tempting Targets
(International Herald Tribune)…Bennett Ramberg, May 10, 2008.

…With a number of Middle East countries planning to build similar nuclear power plants in the decade ahead, discouraging military assaults – at least against active reactors – should be a priority for all.

Bennett Ramberg, who served in the State Department in the George H. W. Bush administration, is the author of “Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy.”

Interesting story regarding the effects of a potential retaliatory strike by Syria on Israel’s nuclear weapons reactor at Dimona.