Category: National Security

National Security – DIME

Iraq IEDs – New Variant

New Flying IEDs Being Used In Iraq
(CNN)…Barbara Starr, July 10, 2008

Last month here in Baghdad’s Adamiyah neighborhood, 18 civilians were killed and 29 wounded when a large explosion rocked the neighborhood — one of the latest examples of yet another type of bomb being used by insurgents — improvised rocket assisted mortars or I-RAMs.

… With these, insurgents line the back of trucks with launch tubes. Using Iranian-made rocket charges, they propel cylinders full of explosives, like mortar and tank shells, sometimes over walls more than 20 feet high — the type surrounding U.S. bases.

AFRICOM: Smart Power

POST: AFRICOM: important, humble template, Thomas P.M. Barnett on July 8, 2008

ARTICLE: AfriCom Short on Answers, Long on Challenges, By David A. Fulghum, Aviation Week Intelligence Network, 06/19/2008

All very smart and careful answers from Ward, who seems like he really understands the challenges and opportunities here. A very tough job to own, but one Ward seems well prepared for. He is setting a very important template, and right now that’s a humble one as far as America is concerned.

So he goes in low, creating few waves, and slowly builds.

AFRICOM is the newest of the commands and is to have a much greater  interagency make-up and civilian membership than the other unified commands.

Managing costs: U.S. Weapons Programs

Rising U.S. Weapon Costs May Force Cuts, Jonas Says
(Bloomberg.com)…Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News, July 7, 2008

The next president will likely be forced to cut or delay U.S. weapons programs because their cost has almost doubled since 2000 to a projected $1.7 trillion, according to Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas.

“Some of this is just a matter of our own discipline — not changing the bells and whistles once we get going on something,”

U.S. National Debt: Interest payments

Just who owns the U.S. national debt?

And as the cost of paying Social Security and Medicare benefits continues to rise, the national debt monster is going to be even harder to tame.

So far, the consequences of all this are hard to put your finger on. As Warren Buffett pointed out last week in his widely-read annual letter to shareholders (pdf file, page 16), a big reason we can fund our budget and trade deficits is that the U.S. is still an incredibly wealthy country with lots of stock, bonds, real estate and companies to sell. And we got that way because of the hard work of generations that come before us.

And American investors and companies also have investments in foreign countries. But as Buffett noted, last year marked the first time since 1915 that the net balance of this investment turned negative.

“Foreigners now earn more on their U.S. investments than we do on our investments abroad,” Buffett wrote to shareholders “In effect, we’ve used up our bank account and turned to our credit card. And, like everyone who gets in hock, the U.S. will now experience ‘reverse compounding’ as we pay ever-increasing amounts of interest on interest.”

The wealth gap between the U.S. and other countries — even those with huge, rapidly growing economies like China — is still big. That means our credit with the rest of the world should be good for years — if not decades — to come. But no matter how rich you are, borrowing on top of borrowing is not a great long-term financial plan.

“I believe that at some point in the future, U.S. workers and voters will find this annual ‘tribute’ (of interest payment on the debt) so onerous that there will be a severe political backlash,” Buffett wrote. “How that will play out in markets is impossible to predict – but to expect a ‘soft landing’ seems like wishful thinking.”

Observations (highlighted) on the debt from Warren Buffett caught my attention.

Army: Biometrics

Biometrics: The Army as Executive Agent for the Department of Defense

Biometrics are measurable physical and behavioral characteristics that enable the establishment and verification of an individual’s identity. Once established, a biometric identity can be used to regulate individual access to DOD services and resources or to deny a criminal or adversary the ability to hide his true identity by stripping away anonymity with swift, accurate, and definitive identity verification.

Biometrics are key to intelligence and security efforts in the war on terrorism. The ability to establish an individual’s identity with certainty and link the individual to past aliases or activities gives our Soldiers a decisive edge in fighting the war on terrorism and aiding other U.S. government organizations. In addition, biometrics add a layer of security and a method of identity verification when accessing DOD and federal government spaces by further automating the identification process and increasing speed of entry.

Declaring War

Put War Powers Back Where They Belong
(New York Times)…James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher, July 8, 2008

THE most agonizing decision we make as a nation is whether to go to war.

A bipartisan group that we led, the National War Powers Commission, has unanimously concluded after a year of study that the law purporting to govern the decision to engage in war — the 1973 War Powers Resolution — should be replaced by a new law

Partnership for Iraq

The Wrong Partnership For Iraq, (Washington Post)…Bill Delahunt and Rosa DeLauro, July 8, 2008, Pg. 15

The June 15 editorial ” A Partnership For Iraq” criticized Democrats in Congress for opposing the proposed long-term military agreement between the United States and Iraq that would replace the U.N. mandate under which U.S. forces are fighting. The editorial called the agreement a way of “countering Iran’s attempt to dominate the Middle East.” We have examined this issue for many months and believe that The Post’s position is badly misguided.

…We have proposed an alternative that would serve our interests and those of the Iraqis far better: extending the U.N. mandate in Iraq for six months, as has been done before, so that the new president and Congress can work with Iraq’s leaders to determine the next agreement.

It is time for everyone to slow down. We should extend the U.N. mandate for a short period to maintain the status quo and ultimately turn this issue over to the next president and Congress, who must implement any agreement. Rather than dictating the terms of our long-term relationship with Iraq, such a policy would allow us to work with Iraqis to craft an agreement that includes the carefully coordinated withdrawal of U.S. combat forces that majorities in both countries support. Doing so would also solidify the type of sustainable partnership that the people of the United States and Iraq need and deserve.

 

Iraq: Justification for War

Why We Went To War In Iraq
(Wall Street Journal)…Douglas J. Feith, July 3, 2008
Pg. 11

A lot of poor commentary has framed the Iraq war as a conflict of "choice" rather than of "necessity." In fact, President George W. Bush chose to remove Saddam Hussein from power because he concluded that doing so was necessary.

When the president ultimately decided that the Iraqi regime must be ousted by force, he was influenced by five key factors:

1) Saddam was a threat to U.S. interests before 9/11. 

2) The threat of renewed aggression by Saddam was more troubling and urgent after 9/11.

3) To contain the threat from Saddam, all reasonable means short of war had been tried unsuccessfully for a dozen years.

4) While there were large risks involved in a war, the risks of leaving Saddam in power were even larger.

5) America after 9/11 had a lower tolerance for such dangers. 

Mr. Feith, under secretary of defense for policy from 2001 to 2005, is author of "War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism" (HarperCollins, 2008), the author’s proceeds of which are being donated to charities for veterans and their families.