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Ends, Ways and Means
I think it is possible and even appropriate to question whether or not this administration has gotten everything right in terms of the ends, ways and means in our strategy. But I appreciate the way in which this administration is actually trying to link the three. I was not terribly impressed by the lack of planning that preceded our intervention in Libya. But I have been impressed by the deliberate nature of the processes that preceded both the decision to surge in Afghanistan in 2009 and now, in 2012, the defense budgets for FY13-FY17.
Strategy ends and means?
Strategy ends and means?
"I think it is possible and even appropriate to question whether or not this administration has gotten everything right in terms of the ends, ways and means in our strategy."
And here I thought you were going to talk about using drone strikes to kill US citizens in countries where we haven't declared war (nor even "kinetic action", for that matter).
Being average in a world
Being average in a world where employers are increasing asking for above average performance, it is amazing that the solutions that come out of Washington rank and file are increasingly standard.
You have to know where you have came from to go forward, velocity is relative. Interesting graphic in 2005 dollars.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/~/media/Images/Reports/...
Exceeding performance lives in the Washington salaries and benefits paid for the level of performance given. Think about it, American just dumped over $4 Trillion in treasure and we purchased an Unstable Iraq and a Dead Ended Afghanistan. Most consumers would take those products back to the store as being defective. Minimum broken with warranty service requested. If those countries were mortgages, the Government backed Fannie Mae management would give themselves $12 Million in bonuses for a job well done, you know how hard they worked on reducing losses, about has hard as Leon Panetta does to ask his staff for a report that has "Defense Budget Priorities and Choices" as a title.
You take a $500 billion budget and cut $500 billion over ten years, that is a 10% annual cut. Then you increase the budget over the next few years. That is first boring, then magic.
The benefits handed out in any government job are pure gravy by current private employment standards, government benefits are right out of the 1950's. If you look at Tricare over the period from the 80s to now, then compare it to what Joe Plumber has seen in his benefit package there really is no increase in out of pocket Tricare contributions for military health benefits over time, they went backwards (really, what DOD is asking as an out of pocket increase is a joke and insult to the taxpayer with a private employer). For the guy that never got out from behind the wire, it really makes you wonder how he gets put in the same fantasy patriotic glory bucket for the people that end up outside the wire. The salary increase of the military administration, benefits are on steroids due to the pay scale increases. People that never stepped out of the Pentagon think they are are battle illuminated for life!
Guys the US Taxpayer has to foot the bill, that is enough to cause tax time PTSD. Maybe it is time to give life time benefits to those that served outside the wire and put the guys in the Pentagon in the same Medicare/SS bucket as the rest of America.
Private sector employees do not get GRANDFATHERed. They get bankrupted, off-shored, out-sourced, RIFed, and in general put over the barrel.
Benefits are 1/3 of the cost of the US defense budget, that is before you get outside the wire to shoot and defend. We haven't even talked about benefits for paper cuts at the IRS or Congress, the radical benefit reform discussion in America are limited to SS and Medicare. Congress keeps excluding itself !
Another thing that really amazes me, is the Pacific Defense Strategy which is the center of US concern (outside the ME). Americans buy Asian stuff, the Corporate Kings get the perks with offshore tax deferred with CONUS tax also deferred in a Cayman's Bermuda tax triangle, the shipping lanes protected by harm by all those US Destroyers frothing up the Pacific. All paid for with a loan from China. Yes, the Corporate King pin gets the same 1950 benefits as those in the Pentagon and Congress. We are not talking new age inequality, we are talking business as usual. If America made their stuff in the US, Americans would have less to protect in the Pacific. There would also be more in the US wage tax bucket for TriCare coverage for the soldiers that really get shot at.
Some days, I think that Americans are a bunch of lemmings that are herded like cattle for their purchasing power.
Do Harvard people, those that are suppose to be smart, purchase smart phones made in China (see NYT article link below) ? Is that smart? Dr. Ford where is your cell phone manufactured? Exum, how about yours? I made the technology, I do not have a cell phone ; )
BTW.... Visitor Redux on January 26, 2012 - 4:39pm
The date line on your Drone Story is dated.
These article are more current.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/us-david-rohde-drone-wars-idUS...
Waiting for the other shoe to
Waiting for the other shoe to drop Andrew?
You are getting your wish. A surge is happening right now, you just can't see it on your TV or read it in you newspaper. The lack of transparency on the deployment of US troops to Lybia from Europe is slightly concerning.
Saving a hostage in Somalia is fine and dandy to not tell the press about, till afterward, but when you deploy hundreds / thousands of US Troops to a country / conflict you said you would not be sending troops to, well, that's a little concerning. Isn't it? Or should people just not care and turn a blind eye to this surge you and the general public are obviously oblivious to?
What really needs to happen
What really needs to happen is for the DOD, CIA, and US State Department to present budget on the same day. Better yet in the same presentation, the speakers can put their inputs into one document.
There is a shell game happening with Defense Spending, a lot is classified.
Funny Enron and Madoff buried their spending too, not sure why.
Do you know why we got a
Do you know why we got a positive outcome in Libya?
because we were on the side of the "Islamists", eg the side of the Muslims for once.
you are gunna be so humilated in the annals of history.
pardon my gloat.
;)
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