Center for a New American Security

Does President-elect Obama read this blog, too?!? AM and Charlie are fairly sure that no one loves the SecDef like they do.

Charlie apologizes for her absence...she's only recently returned from The Flatlands and has just begun to unbury herself. But the last week has brought two Bill Caldwell related notes that she just *had* to share with her loyal readers. (It should be said that we here at Abu M are officially in the bag for LTG Caldwell.)

First, while the good general is well known as an advocate of increased (and improved) blogging by soldiers, it turns out he's turned this into a graduation requirement for the majors attending CGSC at Ft. Leavenworth. At least, that's what he told Charlie. If she can figure out a way for you fine field grade officers to get credit for blogging here, she'll be sure to let you know.

Second, one deep bit of inside baseball from the world of professional-military education (affectionately known as PME) is the difficulty in recruiting foreign services officers as students in the intermediate courses (like CGSC or its Marine equivalent at Quantico). While these schools are geared toward military officers, there is a noticable interagency presence as well. FSO's, however, are more commonly found only at the "top-level schools" like the National War College). Now, astute readers of this blog will know that's because State is miserably under-staffed. (Insert military band comparison here.)

So, LTG Caldwell has once again put his money where his mouth is: he's offered to cough up one officer for each FSO the State Dept. sends to CGSC. (Charlie's guessing these officers take up slack at Main State, not in the Embassies, but she's willing to be corrected on this score.) This is exactly the kind of wealth transfer Secretary Gates has been calling for: using the vast resources of DoD to enable more flexibility at State.

Bill Caldwell: our favorite three star.

Over at Danger Room, Noah is surprised that Obama advisor Richard Danzig wants SecDef Robert Gates to stay on in an Obama Administration. Charlie saw this a while back in the LA Times. Her first thought? Not at all surprising. Why's that?

BECAUSE DANZIG READS THIS BLOG!

And we couldn't agree with him more. No, really. We couldn't.

We've long known that Secretary Gates is a regular reader of this blog. Now we can add Obama advisor Richard Danzig to the list!

He said that another lesson about terrorists can be learnt from studying violent football fans. “One of the best books I’ve read on terrorism in recent years was not about terrorism at all,” he said. “It’s Bill Buford’s book Among the Thugs, which is a description of soccer violence in Britain.

“Buford became absorbed by soccer violence. He describes the most appalling examples of soccer violence by fans against fans. But he describes with relentless honesty how he finds sickening things attractive. He says violence lets the adrenaline flow; it’s like sex, you live in the moment.”

Footy + terrorism = foreign policy analysis? Where else would you find that sh*t besides the world famous Abu M? Whole lotta nowhere, that's where. One step closer to blogger world domination.

PS Dick, check out these reading recommendations before your next CNAS poetry reading. (And check out these before settling in at the National Security Council.)

Charlie is glad to see that, like Sec. Gates, the Air Force reads this blog. Or at least it used to. Seems we've hurt their feelings. Which she can assure you we feel really bad about. Honestly. No really, we do. So they've taken their $2b ball and metaphorically gone home. Danger Room reports that USAF Cyber Command has blocked all webpages with "blog" in the title.

The Air Force is tightening restrictions on which blogs its troops can read, cutting off access to just about any independent site with the word "blog" in its web address. It's the latest move in a larger struggle within the military over the value -- and hazards -- of the sites. At least one senior Air Force official calls the squeeze so "utterly stupid, it makes me want to scream."

Lots more over at Danger Room. Don't worry, we'll continue to snark at will over here.

Update: Amusing commentary from the folks at DR about what gets through and what doesn't. Can any blue suiters out there confirm our redacted status here at AM?

Defense Secretary Gates is clearly on board for the big win in The Long War. If we here at Abu Muqawama had t-shirts, he'd totally wear one to work (possibly under his suit, Superman style). And he appears to share our utter disdain for the Air Force:

"The reality is we are fighting two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the F-22 has not performed a single mission in either theater. So it is principally for use against a near peer in a conflict, and I think we all know who that is," Gates said. "And looking at what I regard as the level of risk of conflict with one of those near peers over the next four or five years until the Joint Strike Fighter comes along, I think that something along the lines of 183 is a reasonable buy."

Translation: we're not going to war with China anytime soon so kwitcher bitchin' about the damn planes.

Charlie could not agree more. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be reflected at all in the current budget, where USAF, Navy and Army all get equal shares of the appropriations pie, despite the Army and Marine Corps shouldering the vast majority of the burdens of war. Such static and equal percentages are a good indicator that something other than a detailed needs/strategic assessment is driving the budget allocations. I know, we're shocked, just shocked! (But check out Danger Room's extended analysis of the ongoing saga with the F-15s and the need for some sort of fighter upgrade.)

Charlie's out of pocket for the weekend, as she meets up with the COIN mafia in NYC to see George Packer's new play. Back Monday with a review.