Next Cold War …?

True Or False: We Need A Wartime President
(Newsweek)…Fareed Zakaria, July 7-14, 2008

…Life in America today is surprisingly normal for a country with troops in two battle zones. The country may be engaged in wars, but it is not at war.

We are in a struggle against Islamic extremism, but it is more like the cold war than a hot war—a long, mostly peacetime challenge in which a leader must be willing to use military power but also know when not to do so.

Perhaps the wisest American president during the cold war was Dwight Eisenhower, and his greatest virtues were those of balance, judgment and restraint. He knew we were in a contest with the Soviet Union, but—at a time when the rest of the country was vastly inflating the threat—he put it in considerable perspective. Eisenhower refused to follow the French into Vietnam or support the British at Suez. He turned down several requests for new weapons systems and missiles, and instead used defense dollars to build the interstate highway system and make other investments in improving America’s economic competitiveness. Those are the kinds of challenges that the next president truly needs to address.

In a sense, the warriors are pessimists. In the old days they were scared that communists would destroy America. Today they rail that Al Qaeda and Iran threaten our way of life. In fact, America is an extremely powerful country, with a unique and extraordinary set of strengths. The only way that position can truly be eroded is by its own actions and overreactions—by unwise and imprudent leadership. A good way to start correcting the errors of the past would be to recognize that we are not at war.

Answer: False

Iran: Info Quality

U.S. Is Said To Expand Covert Operations In Iran

(Washington Post)

320,000 Graves To Be Dug For Enemies

(Washington Times)

Tehran Reportedly Reviewing Incentives

(Baltimore Sun)

Internet Awareness

Military Looking For Signs Of Attack, (Washington Times)…Shaun Waterman, United Press International

The U.S. military is looking for a contractor to patrol cyberspace, watching for warning signs of forthcoming terrorist attacks or other hostile activity on the Web.

"If someone wants to blow us up, we want to know about it," Robert Hembrook, the deputy intelligence chief of the U.S. Army´s Fifth Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany, told United Press International.

In a solicitation posted on the Web last week, the command said it was looking for a contractor to provide "Internet awareness services" to support "force protection," meaning the security of U.S. military installations and personnel.

Iraq: Strategic Planning

Military Success In Iraq Masks Failures On Other Goals
(USA Today)…Editorial, July 1, 2008, Pg. 10

…Those are striking measures of military success, and they form the storyline of most importance to both Americans and to Iraqis. For good reason. Without reasonable security, little other success can be attained. But there is another storyline — one about the fragility of the recent successes — and it tells a deeper, more complex tale.

It was outlined most effectively last week by Congress’ investigative arm, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, in a finely detailed report that got less attention than it deserved. Its central conclusion was more than a little bit worrisome: The U.S. lacks a convincing strategic plan for capitalizing on recent success, an echo of the lack of planning that turned victory into chaos after the invasion of Iraq five years ago.

The Pentagon and the State Department quickly disputed the GAO’s conclusion, but the report nevertheless points to challenging problems for which the GAO investigators, at least, did not see a cohesive, convincing response: Continued violence… Iraqi competence … . Refugees .. Al-Qaeda in Iraq. … Iraqi government failings … . Overlap among U.S. agencies … Worries about Sunnis.

Information Mgmt in War

A Former Marine Discusses IT In Iraq
(Wall Street Journal)…Lee Gomes, July 1, 2008, Pg. B6

The U.S. military has been as enthusiastic about information technology as U.S. businesses have been, making computers, email and instant messaging part of everyday life for troops in Iraq. But the question of whether IT makes people better at what they do seems just as mixed a picture in combat as it is in the office.

The goal in war has always been to get as much intelligence to headquarters as quickly as possible, then to process it and get it back into the field. So, obviously, when you’re in the military and living in the Information Age, you want to take advantage of whatever technology is available. Radio is still the primary means of communication. With email, though, if anybody writes something, it’s a lot easier to read it later.

Facts, Ideals, Leadership

OPINION: Liars’ Round-Up, On Security, Facts Matter, New York Post, By Ralph Peters, June 28, 2008, Pg. 19

Whopper No. 1: America is less safe today than it was on Sept. 10, 2001.

Whopper No. 2: Al Qaeda is stronger than ever.

Whopper No. 3: Success in Iraq is an illusion – the surge failed.

Whopper No. 4: Iran is stronger than ever.

Whopper No. 5: The US-European relationship is a disaster.

Whopper No. 6: As president, Barack Obama would bring positive change to our foreign policy – and John McCain’s too old to get it.

Whopper No. 7: Our troops are all coming home as psychos victimized by their participation in military atrocities.

Political systems usually result in sub-optimal outcomes, e.g. somebody wins, somebody loses. The long-term outcomes generally result in sustaining the status quo.

Breaking the cycle to achieve more optimum outcomes requires agreement on facts, ideals and common causes. Interpretation of the facts that range from the conservative (see Whoppers above) to liberal, should be recognized and overcome.

"Transformation" from the old paradigm to new requires Quality Leaders who can successfully manage and reduce variation.

N.Korea: Incremental Strategy

Bush Rebuffs Hard-Liners To Ease North Korean Curbs
(New York Times)…Helene Cooper, June 27, 2008

…In the internal Bush administration war between the State Department and Mr. Cheney’s office over North Korea, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top North Korea envoy, Christopher R. Hill, won a major battle against the Cheney camp when President Bush announced Thursday that he was taking the country he once described as part of the “axis of evil” off the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But the declaration falls short of the full accounting that the administration had sought, since it omits any information about North Korea’s suspected efforts to enrich uranium, or the extent of any of the North’s sharing of technology around the world.

Removing N. Korea from the terrorism blacklist is significant.

Always the hunter …

New Training Hones Marines’ Visual Skills
(USA Today)…Jim Michaels, June 27, 2008, Pg. 10

Combat hunter program is ‘a great example of outside-the-box thinking to defeat an adaptive and wily enemy.’

Faced with an alarming increase in sniper attacks in Iraq, Marine commanders in late 2006 began looking for ways to turn the tables on an elusive enemy. Among the experts they consulted: a renowned African big game hunter and a former big city cop.

The result is the combat hunter program, an experiment in training Marines to fight insurgents by making the Marines as wily as the enemy they face. The training combines outdoor skills culled from hunting and tracking with the street smarts developed by police and Marines who grew up in cities.

"The motto we … try to instill in these guys is Marines are always the hunter, never the hunted," says Ivan Carter, the safari guide and hunter — born in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe — who helped the Marines develop the program.

Army FCS: Accelerated Delivery

High-Tech Combat Equipment Expedited For Use In Iraq, (Washington Post)…Donna Borak, Associated Press, June 27, 2008, Pg. D4

The Army will deliver some key technologies to ground forces in war zones three years ahead of schedule as part of its $160 billion combat modernization program led by Boeing and SAIC.

Senior Army officials said Thursday that changes to the Future Combat Systems program will expedite the use of high-tech equipment, including unmanned sensors and robotics, to infantry brigades fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan by 2011.

Army: Support for FCS Restructure

Gates Believes FCS Restructure ‘Deserves Support’
(InsideDefense.com)…Daniel Wasserbly, June 26, 2008

The Army today announced its new plan for fielding the first iteration of Future Combat Systems equipment to infantry brigade combat teams, garnering support from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

FCS is the Army’s premier modernization program — it encompasses various manned and unmanned platforms, sensors and battle-command and high-speed networking tools, which it will provide to soldiers through three technology insertions, or “spin outs.”