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Looking to Trim the Defense Budget? Start with the QDR.
Yesterday's announcement that the Department of Defense will form a "Strategic Choices Group" to identify priorities and risks ahead of $450 billion in potential cuts to the budget is the latest example of the worthlessness of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). A strategic document would necessarily identify risks and priorities, but since the QDR does neither, the Department of Defense has to establish an entirely new working group to do just that.
Here's a question to which I do not know the answer: how many tax dollars do the Department of Defense and its subordinate departments spend on the QDR? (Searching through the 2006 and 2010 QDRs, I could not find a figure.) Because if you're looking to trim costs, you can probably start there.*
*Yes, I know the QDR is mandated by the Congress. But if the end result does not yield a document the department can use to set spending priorities, perhaps the services can spend less time on it.
(For more on the QDR and other poor "strategy" documents, read Gulliver on Ink Spots.)
DOD Comptroller's office
DOD Comptroller's office provides budget justifications for past years. The FY2010 document says that OSD alone spend $6M in 2008 and nearly $11M in 2009 for analytical efforts. It's not much (for DoD).
For whatever it's worth, the
For whatever it's worth, the preparation of the annual DOD budget request package costs about $38K. So yeah, it ain't that much. (See page 4 in this pdf.) And thanks to steps taken by the last SECDEF, the next QDR report will contain an indication of how much it cost to prepare.
"A strategic document would
"A strategic document would necessarily identify risks and priorities,"
Ummmmm... just recently you said "It is the responsibility of elected officials in the executive and legislative branches -- not military officers of Department of Defense civilians -- to determine where and how to assume risk in our national defense posture and activities."
So which is it, should the elected officials identify risks, or should the DOD do it?
Identifying and choosing
Identifying and choosing risks are distinct activities. It is the military's responsibility to point out risks to Congress, and Congress' responsibility to choose which risks to ignore.
US Contractors to Libya at
US Contractors to Libya at $30M to look for Manpads. Guys it is too little, too late. Hillary screwed the pooch.
Sort of makes spending on the QDR look great.
Now this.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-uganda-usa-idUSTRE79D56D201...
Obama sends military advisers to Uganda
These advisers will not have to engage cause there is a proxy army in the area to make that happen. CIA has drone bases in the area.
Duh, are we stupid MR. P.
This is getting old, can not wait for 2012.
If you want programs to cut,
If you want programs to cut, start with missile defense bloat:
FEB 2011: President Barack Obama's administration and the Department of Defense announced a substantial increase to the 2011 Missile Defense Budget. The amount, $9.42 billion, equals a 6.13 percent increase from the 2010 budget. This increase, $577 million, recovers close to half the amount that was cut by the President and Secretary Robert Gates a year ago.
Who is the top beneficiary of this program, though?
US defence firm Lockheed Martin says it is optimistic a key NATO missile defence programme for which it is a primary supplier will not be hurt by budget cuts in the United States and elsewhere.
It's a standard congressional-military-industrial cash cow, easily defeated by modern missile technology and with a highly suspect test record as well. However, with Lockheed's lobbyists and Congressional backers with home state manufacturing programs backing it, it continues to suck up billions in taxpayer money every year.
The whole program should be flushed down the toilet. If they want to keep Lockheed afloat, come up with something more realistic - like contracts to build Martian spaceships.
"Identifying and choosing
"Identifying and choosing risks are distinct activities. It is the military's responsibility to point out risks to Congress, and Congress' responsibility to choose which risks to ignore."
Right here he said the QDR does not identify risks and priorities. On October 4 he said the QDR does (and should) do that. In his imaginary dialogue, DOD states the priorities (what it needs to do) and states the risks if it is not funded to do them.
Exactly a year ago, AM stated
Exactly a year ago, AM stated that sending US troops to East Africa to fight the LRA and arrest Kony was "the worst idea on the internet".
http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2010/10/worst-idea-internet-today....
As of today, we are doing that.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/14/world/africa/africa-obama-troops/index.htm...
"President Barack Obama is sending about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help hunt down the leaders of the notoriously violent Lord's Resistance Army in and around Uganda.
"I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield," Obama said in letter sent Friday to House Speaker John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army."
We now await AM's denunciation of Obama as a strategic imbecile who has launched yet another unconstitutional act of aggression.
Guys, it is not just
Guys, it is not just Kony.
There has been shift. Administration has gone from strategy to reactive. They are swatting at flies. Have you ever swatted flies? Have you ever ran out of flies?
Uganda. Kenya. Somalia. Libya. Yemen. Niger. Nigerian. Pakistan. United States.
What is going to stop it? Negotiation with a country? Sunset in legislation that started it?
Right now it is just an oversize economic stimulus plan with a lot of worn out reasons. Humanitarian and Terrorism.
Any who notice that Libya has BECOME a humanitarian problem. US made it one. Like most actions, the US is now paying to clean up after itself. Manpads. Libyan weapons in Egypt and all the neighbor countries. Thank you Hillary.
If GWBush created it, Obama has changed it for the worse.
The Al Jazeera interview: Al
The Al Jazeera interview:
Al Jazeera: "And colonel, how do you believe U.S. troops will be received in your country?"
Colonel Felix Kulayige: "Ummm... well... people say different things."
Let's ask the folks at U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany, what they think? No, that doesn't look the least bit colonialist, that address. Not at all.
The real agenda is probably aimed at opening a foothold for closer military and economic cooperation in the region, to be topped off with a bilateral trade deal orchestrated by the U.S. State Department which gives U.S. corporations priority access to the region's mineral resources. Human rights? Just a fig leaf hiding true intentions.
Along similar lines, it's now pretty clear that the Iranian plot is a dog turd propaganda effort by the DEA and the FBI.
The farce goes on.
"Keep From All Thoughtful
"Keep From All Thoughtful Men" - How economists changed the course of WW2, by forcing Marshall and the JCS to be realistic in their production quotas, and how that changed strategy; for instance moving the cross channel invasion back to 1944. Written by Army alumni. Very useful reading in this context.
Seldom will you hear me praise intelligentsia, especially economists.
I liked Jim Lacey's column
I liked Jim Lacey's column "Strategic Bankruptcy" at National Review -- thus I will read "Keep From All Thoughtful Men" with great interest.
I really like your article,
I really like your article, looking forward to your new blog
This is getting interesting.
This is getting interesting. Wonder what this is costing the US State Department.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/world/africa/kenyan-forces-enter-somal...
According to Kenyan security officials, several hundred Kenyan soldiers crossed into Somalia in a column of armored trucks and tanks, backed by helicopters, which have begun to bomb and strafe Shabab positions. More Kenyan soldiers are apparently on their way.
.
“They’re going all the way to Kismayo,” said one Kenyan security official, referring to a Shabab-controlled port city in southern Somalia. “We’re going to clear the Shabab out.”
Lets see. One hundred US advisers to Uganda to find Kony. More on the way. Just to find one person? Uganda is a player in Somalia, and the AU. CIA funded proxy war staffed up in Kenya. New CIA drone bases that cover the horn of Africa.
Yup. interesting.
I hereby extend a generous
I hereby extend a generous offer to DoD. I will begin work now to prepare the next QDR for the rock-bottom price of only $50,000 per month, plus an initial up-front payment of $500,000 to cover initial costs.
Picture is worth the cost of
Picture is worth the cost of a QDR
http://images.politico.com/global/cartoon/111018_cartoon_600.jpg
TEST
TEST
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nice article & important
nice article & important discussion
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