(148) 01-10-2015-to-01-16-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...16-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
(149) 01-17-2015-to-01-23-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...23-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
(150) 01-24-2015-to-01-30-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...30-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
(151) 01-31-2015-to-02-06-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...06-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
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Main Russia/Ukraine invasion thread - NATO: Russian Tanks and Artillery Enter Ukraine
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ian-Tanks-and-Artillery-Enter-Ukraine/page370
Pentagon 2008 study claims Putin has Asperger's syndrome
Started by Kathy in FL, 02-04-2015 07:48 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...dy-claims-Putin-has-Asperger-s-syndrome/page2
Russia's nuclear strategy raises concerns in NATO
Started by JohnGaltfla, 02-04-2015 03:57 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ia-s-nuclear-strategy-raises-concerns-in-NATO
China Voices Concern About US Missile Defense in South Korea
Started by imaginative, 02-04-2015 02:49 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ncern-About-US-Missile-Defense-in-South-Korea
FUNG ADVISORY : North Korea Vows Final DOOM for CONUS....
Started by doctor_fungcool, 02-04-2015 06:16 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...DVISORY-North-Korea-Vows-Final-DOOM-for-CONUS....
Russia Plans Joint Military Drills with N.Korea
Started by imaginative, 02-03-2015 07:01 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463278-Russia-Plans-Joint-Military-Drills-with-N.Korea
Obama Admits US Role in 2014 Ukraine Coup
Started by Possible Impact, 02-01-2015 05:29 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463165-Obama-Admits-US-Role-in-2014-Ukraine-Coup
China, India, Russia Call For 'New World Order'
Started by Dozdoats, 02-03-2015 04:16 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463230-China-India-Russia-Call-For-New-World-Order
China Announces New 'Silk Road' Through Russia, India
Started by Possible Impact, 02-02-2015 10:49 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-Announces-New-Silk-Road-Through-Russia-India
Gertz: "Top China analyst: Beijing has been duping the US since Mao"
Started by Used Camels, 02-03-2015 08:36 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...Beijing-has-been-duping-the-US-since-Mao-quot
IRAN MOVES TO CONTROL SUEZ CANAL AND YEMEN 1-21-2015
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-CONTROL-SUEZ-CANAL-AND-YEMEN-1-21-2015/page3
Pentagon loses control of US arms and military equipment worth $400m to Yemeni rebels
Started by JohnGaltfla, 02-05-2015 02:15 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ilitary-equipment-worth-400m-to-Yemeni-rebels
The Iran game (all of it)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?439024-The-Iran-game-(all-of-it)/page13
ISRAEL heating up again... update posts 335/338
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ating-up-again...-update-posts-335-338/page14
ISIS announced death of American girl (they're saying she was killed in Jordanian strikes)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ng-she-was-killed-in-Jordanian-strikes)/page2
Video of the Royal Jordanian Air Force doing the Job Obama Won’t Do against ISIS
Started by JohnGaltfla, 02-05-2015 06:05 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...rce-doing-the-Job-Obama-Won’t-Do-against-ISIS
BREAKING: As Promised, Jordan Says Will Execute All ISIS Prisoners Tonight LINK post # 14
Started by MC2006, 02-03-2015 05:07 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...All-ISIS-Prisoners-Tonight-LINK-post-14/page3
Isis kills Jordan pilot by burning in a cage, 20mins to die
Started by Old as dirt, 02-03-2015 10:16 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ilot-by-burning-in-a-cage-20mins-to-die/page4
ISLAM: ISIS Burns Jordanian Pilot Alive in Cage On Video
Started by Intestinal Fortitude, 02-03-2015 12:08 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-Burns-Jordanian-Pilot-Alive-in-Cage-On-Video
Main Islamic State (ISIS) thread
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?451597-Main-Islamic-State-(ISIS)-thread/page46
The Book " Day of Wrath" By william Forstchen, is chilling,what isis will do to children
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...hen-is-chilling-what-isis-will-do-to-children
Enemy in the Gates - Thursday, 02/05/2015
Started by Ragnarok, 02-05-2015 07:04 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463367-Enemy-in-the-Gates-Thursday-02-05-2015
Matt Bracken: Ending Islam's Threat To Humanity In One Simple Step
Started by Dozdoats, 02-05-2015 05:32 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...s-Threat-To-Humanity-In-One-Simple-Step/page2
Egyptian Magazine: "Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration"
Started by Trainman-2, 02-04-2015 05:34 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...herhood-Infiltrates-Obama-Administration-quot
BREAKING NEWS: 2 large explosions in central Cairo, #Egypt. (sound bombs? = 2 IEDs)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ntral-Cairo-Egypt.-(sound-bombs-2-IEDs)/page4
Islam and Appeasement
Started by Trainman-2, 02-05-2015 02:42 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463353-Islam-and-Appeasement
Perpetrators of Sudan’s Genocide Invited to the National Prayer Breakfast
Started by fairbanksb, 02-04-2015 03:51 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...cide-Invited-to-the-National-Prayer-Breakfast
9/11 Conspirator Admits Saudi Royal Family Funded Al-Qaeda Attacks (Reuters...)
Started by Possible Impact, 02-04-2015 08:07 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...Royal-Family-Funded-Al-Qaeda-Attacks-(Reuters...)
Getting Out Of Afghanistan: The Logistical Nightmare
Started by Dozdoats, 02-03-2015 07:39 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...g-Out-Of-Afghanistan-The-Logistical-Nightmare
Obama’s Taliban Tools and Treachery By Michelle Malkin
Started by BREWER, 02-02-2015 09:38 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...aliban-Tools-and-Treachery-By-Michelle-Malkin
Greece: Are You Finally Ready to Do the Right Thing and Leave the Euro?
Started by Dozdoats, Yesterday 03:24 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...eady-to-Do-the-Right-Thing-and-Leave-the-Euro
Security alerts and pipe bombs in Northern Ireland
Started by Lilbitsnana, 02-05-2015 05:50 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ity-alerts-and-pipe-bombs-in-Northern-Ireland
Security confab focuses on ‘collapse of global order’
Started by imaginative, 02-05-2015 07:39 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-confab-focuses-on-‘collapse-of-global-order’
Draft of Arrest Request for Argentine President Found at Dead Prosecutor’s Home
Started by BREWER, 02-03-2015 09:53 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ine-President-Found-at-Dead-Prosecutor’s-Home
Mexican opium farmers expand plots to supply US heroin boom
Started by BREWER, 02-02-2015 08:30 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...farmers-expand-plots-to-supply-US-heroin-boom
How is it "workplace violence" if Army to award Purple Hearts to victims of Ft. Hood?
Started by mzkitty, Yesterday 08:27 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...to-award-Purple-Hearts-to-victims-of-Ft.-Hood
How big a nuclear arsenal do we really need?
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...big-a-nuclear-arsenal-do-we-really-need/page3
Measles Alerts
Started by Plain Jane, 01-29-2015 05:39 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?462983-Measles-Alerts/page2
MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD February 2015
Started by BREWER, 02-05-2015 04:24 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463396-MAIN-EBOLA-DISCUSSION-THREAD-February-2015
'Medical mystery' still stumps doctors amid outbreak of poliolike paralysis - KC
Started by Coulter, 02-03-2015 04:16 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ctors-amid-outbreak-of-poliolike-paralysis-KC
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For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/the-white-house-releases-a-new-national-security-strategy/
The White House Releases a New National Security Strategy
The new document is meant to explain the purpose and promise of American power in the years ahead.
By Franz-Stefan Gady
February 07, 2015
Today, the Obama White House released its second and final national security strategy (NSS), outlining in broad strokes the strategic vision of the U.S. president and his national security team. Overall, the white paper places a premium on U.S. leadership in the world: “The strategy sets out the principles and priorities that describe how America will lead the world toward greater peace and a new prosperity.” The New York Times notes that the words “lead” and “leadership” are used almost a hundred times in the document, a hint that the administration is consciously trying to refute accusations by critics that the White House lack assertiveness on the international stage.
The NSS emphasizes that it is meant to clarify “the purpose and promise of American power.” The 29-page document, required by Congress, differs from its 2010 predecessor, which mostly centered on ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, finding a way out of the global financial crisis, and“resetting” the relationship with Russia. Today, in an event at the Brookings Institution, U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice, presented the NSS to the broader American public, and stated that, “2015 is a whole new ballgame [and] much has changed in the past five years (…) [yet] what’s missing in Washington is often a sense of long-term perspective.”
Consequently, the focus of the 2015 NSS is on long-term challenges such as cybersecurity, global health, climate change, failing states, and energy security. The strategy also lays out in broad strokes the United States’ commitment to rebalancing to Asia and the Pacific region, pursuing a stable Middle East and North Africa by “reducing the underlying sources of conflict,” eliminating global poverty within 15 years, strengthening global alliances (especially with NATO and European allies given the Ukraine crisis and the worsening relationship with Russia), maintaining multilateral partnerships, reinforcing/updating international norms and institutions, preventing “mass atrocities,” and pushing nuclear non-proliferation.
In detail, the document mentions that the Obama Administration will endeavor to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, persist in the fight against al-Qaeda, ISIL, and their affiliates, pursue the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), carry on its campaign to battle Ebola through the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), continue to confront “the urgent crisis of climate change,” support countries such as Tunisia and Burma that are transitioning from authoritarianism “ in their quest towards democracy,” and “impose costs on malicious cyberactors,” among a host of other priorities. The strategy also calls for an end to “draconian cuts imposed by sequestration that threaten the effectiveness of our military and other instruments of power.”
As expected, the document does not outline detailed strategies and plans to accomplish the national security priorities mentioned in the publication. “It serves as a compass for how this administration, in partnership with Congress, will lead the world through a shifting security landscape toward a more durable peace and a new prosperity,” according to Bernadette Meehan, the National Security Council spokeswoman. “In their aspirations, generalities and rhetoric, they often resemble most a really, really long speech,” states a former White House official quoted by Reuters. Over at Foreign Policy, two former National Security Council staffers note that national security strategies “tend to lack the traditional attributes of strategy — that is, they do not spell out desired objectives, articulate the steps needed to achieve those ends, and then describe the resources necessary to carry out those steps.”
Yet, they also notes that the publication of the document is not a waste of time,”because drafting and publishing a National Security Strategy is one governmental exercise in which the process matters more than the product. In producing a NSS, foreign policy officials from across a variety of agencies and departments are forced to think deeply, if not always strategically, about the grand sweep of U.S. action in the world.”
However, pundits and organizations continue to criticize the absence of a proper national security strategy document, which they see as emblematic of a much larger problem. The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR), notes in a report that “the time pressures that an overburdened White House faces almost guarantees an inability to do deliberate, careful strategy formulation.” The report further notes: “Taken together, the basic deficiency of the current national security system is that parochial departmental and agency interests, reinforced by Congress, paralyze interagency cooperation even as the variety, speed, and complexity of emerging security issues prevent the White House from effectively controlling the system. The White House bottleneck, in particular, prevents the system from reliably marshaling the needed but disparate skills and expertise from wherever they may be found in government, and from providing the resources to match the skills.” Thus, perhaps it is no accident that the document fails to deliver specific plans how to implement the White House’s strategic vision.
___
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/united-states-wheres-the-strategy/
United States: Where’s the Strategy?
Looking for a coherent national vision? The National Security Strategy is not it.
By Andy Zelleke and Justin Talbot Zorn
February 05, 2014
447 Shares
20 Comments
In our troubled times, the White House’s imminent publication of its National Security Strategy might warrant some buzz—if not at the level of a new iPhone release or a Super Bowl commercial, at least that of a major presidential policy address. So where’s that buzz? A clue can be found in Bob Gates’ dismissive account in his memoirs: “Personally, I don’t recall ever having read the President’s National Security Strategy when preparing to become Secretary of Defense…. I never felt disadvantaged by not having read these scriptures.”
President Barack Obama may yet surprise in his second National Security Strategy document, expected any day. But recent history suggests that, whatever the document’s other merits, it won’t actually contain a strategy. Nor the plausible vision for which such a strategy would aim.
In recent years, Washington’s National Security Strategies have been a cross between laundry list—the many activities in which the U.S. is presently engaged—and wish list—numerous additional activities it behooves the nation to undertake, and the goals they support. It’s no doubt useful to have, in one place, a list of the president’s goals in important domains (such as a homeland secure from WMD attack, a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a denuclearized Korean peninsula, and a competitive and growing economy that can support a prominent global role); and a list of many things the government is doing and intends to do in support of those goals. But this isn’t strategy.
A serious national strategy would start from a cold-blooded assessment of the global landscape, and of the most likely (but unknowable) futures that may emerge. It would also start from an equally dispassionate assessment of the nation’s capabilities—its strengths and weaknesses—and how these may plausibly change over time.
It would prioritize ruthlessly among the many desirable policy goals; as strategy scholar Richard Rumelt has put it, “Good strategy works by focusing attention and resources on one, or a very few, pivotal objectives whose accomplishment will lead to a cascade of favorable outcomes….” A genuine strategy would address head-on the inevitable hard choices and tradeoffs to be made in the pursuit of the most-high value objectives; as strategy guru Michael Porter has emphasized, the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.
Moreover, a serious strategy would link these hard choices to budgetary consequences. The strategy would also scrutinize commitments made long ago, in different circumstances—including alliances—to ensure that they remain value-creating for the U.S. And it would anticipate other actors’ likely responses—and systemic reverberations—arising from the contemplated U.S. actions, starting from a deep understanding of those actors’ perceived interests and steering clear of overly sanguine assumptions.
And this strategy would explicitly support an achievable—and articulable—vision of the future.
The Obama 2010 National Security Strategy—like many of its predecessors—fell well short on these criteria. It contained little in the way of alternative futures—despite the National Intelligence Council’s extensive work on this. Perhaps most conspicuously, the 2010 NSS left a reader with the impression that China was (and was expected to be) nothing more than a “21st century center of influence” on par with India and Russia. While the 2010 NSS correctly emphasized that rebuilding the American economy and its competitiveness would be essential to global leadership, it simply listed the “to-dos” (improve education, get fiscal house in order, and so on) on the agenda—without considering a scenario in which a sizable gap between U.S. and competitor growth rates persists for many years.
There is little in the 2010 NSS that would offend or disappoint anyone, save for Al Qaeda, the Taliban and “Axis of Evil” governments. Part of Gates’ thinly veiled disdain for the generic NSS was, he noted, the fact that it was the outcome of a bureaucratic process in which many cooks needed to sign off on the broth. That reality—together with the fact that the NSS is prepared for Congress under the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, and released to the public—makes it an inherently political document, inclining presidents to steer clear of controversy. It’s not surprising that a serious strategy statement is unlikely to emerge from this process.
The problem for the nation, though, is far bigger than a poorly titled document. After all, there could be a classified version of the NSS that would do, strategy-wise, what the public NSS doesn’t. While the Goldwater-Nichols Act calls on the President to submit both a classified and unclassified version of the document, there’s no indication that any administration has produced a classified version in recent years. We suspect that, if a classified version existed, it would be in the White House’s interest to acknowledge it (as it does many other classified documents that don’t get released to the public).
Of course, there can be a full-fledged strategy without a document memorializing it; and in the era of WikiLeaks, there is risk in reducing anything to writing. But can Americans be confident that there’s a strategy—something befitting the title “National Security Strategy”—anywhere in the White House, even if it’s unwritten and resides in a small number of senior officials’ heads?
We are skeptical, for one principal reason. The formulation of a coherent, holistic National Security Strategy would almost certainly require a substantial process. And had such deliberations taken place, we believe the Administration would have made the public aware of that fact—as it did in enabling, as one example, The New York Times’ extensive reporting on the Obama Administration’s deliberations leading to the troop surge in Afghanistan.
Perhaps not since the Eisenhower Administration’s “Project Solarium” has a White House deliberated extensively at the “grand strategic” level as part of a structured process. We believe this is a serious mistake.
Crises from all corners of the globe come flying at presidents, and these shouldn’t be managed on an ad hoc and best efforts basis. Washington’s actions should be informed by a strategic concept in which a president has conviction and confidence—derived not from in-the-moment intuition, but from first-rate strategic thinking.
What would that process look like? It would create space for the president and his senior national security team to step back from the crises du jour: to raise questions rarely asked, challenge unexamined assumptions and “sacred cows,” draw on the best data from varied sources, hear unconventional perspectives, think creatively, reflect, and prioritize. In doing so, the White House can take some cues from other governments, and from the private sector.
Singapore, for example, has devoted impressive attention to national strategy. It employs diverse teams of civil servants—individuals with backgrounds ranging from computer science to fiction writing—to think rigorously about alternative futures and analyze data for signals about national risks and opportunities. The city-state’s Strategic Policy Office, located in the Prime Minister’s Office, is employed to “manage the commons” of futures thinking taking place throughout the government and create useful decision-making tools—like national scenarios, serious games, and SWOT analyses—for senior leaders.
And, as we proposed in an article in Foreign Policy in 2012, a new Chief Strategy Officer role could be adapted from the corporate sector—not a Kissingerian “grand strategist,” but rather a process-focused individual charged with owning and managing the strategy formulation process. This process would facilitate the president’s and senior team’s ability to draw on all relevant analytical tools and perspectives, to challenge assumptions, and to identify blind-spots in national strategy development. The appointment of a CSO would address a core problem with strategy development in the U.S. government: that nobody below the president—who has a fair amount on his plate—or the national security advisor—often consumed with crisis management—actually “owns” the responsibility to orchestrate whole-of-government strategy.
Obama recently told The New Yorker’s David Remnick that he’s not interested in a new grand strategy, adding “I don’t really even need George Kennan right now.” While he may not need a grand strategist, like most presidents he could use better process for asking and answering core questions about the nation’s direction. Americans can live with a published National Security Strategy that disappoints. But they will be hurt if the White House lets itself make new high-stakes decisions—or mindlessly perpetuate old ones—without the benefit of a clear and achievable guiding vision and the best possible strategic thinking.
Andy Zelleke is the MBA Class of 1962 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Justin Talbot Zorn is a legislative director on Capitol Hill, and researched public sector strategic planning as a Fulbright Scholar in Singapore.
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...16-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
(149) 01-17-2015-to-01-23-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...23-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
(150) 01-24-2015-to-01-30-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...30-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
(151) 01-31-2015-to-02-06-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...06-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
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_____
Main Russia/Ukraine invasion thread - NATO: Russian Tanks and Artillery Enter Ukraine
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ian-Tanks-and-Artillery-Enter-Ukraine/page370
Pentagon 2008 study claims Putin has Asperger's syndrome
Started by Kathy in FL, 02-04-2015 07:48 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...dy-claims-Putin-has-Asperger-s-syndrome/page2
Russia's nuclear strategy raises concerns in NATO
Started by JohnGaltfla, 02-04-2015 03:57 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ia-s-nuclear-strategy-raises-concerns-in-NATO
China Voices Concern About US Missile Defense in South Korea
Started by imaginative, 02-04-2015 02:49 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ncern-About-US-Missile-Defense-in-South-Korea
FUNG ADVISORY : North Korea Vows Final DOOM for CONUS....
Started by doctor_fungcool, 02-04-2015 06:16 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...DVISORY-North-Korea-Vows-Final-DOOM-for-CONUS....
Russia Plans Joint Military Drills with N.Korea
Started by imaginative, 02-03-2015 07:01 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463278-Russia-Plans-Joint-Military-Drills-with-N.Korea
Obama Admits US Role in 2014 Ukraine Coup
Started by Possible Impact, 02-01-2015 05:29 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463165-Obama-Admits-US-Role-in-2014-Ukraine-Coup
China, India, Russia Call For 'New World Order'
Started by Dozdoats, 02-03-2015 04:16 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463230-China-India-Russia-Call-For-New-World-Order
China Announces New 'Silk Road' Through Russia, India
Started by Possible Impact, 02-02-2015 10:49 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-Announces-New-Silk-Road-Through-Russia-India
Gertz: "Top China analyst: Beijing has been duping the US since Mao"
Started by Used Camels, 02-03-2015 08:36 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...Beijing-has-been-duping-the-US-since-Mao-quot
IRAN MOVES TO CONTROL SUEZ CANAL AND YEMEN 1-21-2015
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-CONTROL-SUEZ-CANAL-AND-YEMEN-1-21-2015/page3
Pentagon loses control of US arms and military equipment worth $400m to Yemeni rebels
Started by JohnGaltfla, 02-05-2015 02:15 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ilitary-equipment-worth-400m-to-Yemeni-rebels
The Iran game (all of it)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?439024-The-Iran-game-(all-of-it)/page13
ISRAEL heating up again... update posts 335/338
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ating-up-again...-update-posts-335-338/page14
ISIS announced death of American girl (they're saying she was killed in Jordanian strikes)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ng-she-was-killed-in-Jordanian-strikes)/page2
Video of the Royal Jordanian Air Force doing the Job Obama Won’t Do against ISIS
Started by JohnGaltfla, 02-05-2015 06:05 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...rce-doing-the-Job-Obama-Won’t-Do-against-ISIS
BREAKING: As Promised, Jordan Says Will Execute All ISIS Prisoners Tonight LINK post # 14
Started by MC2006, 02-03-2015 05:07 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...All-ISIS-Prisoners-Tonight-LINK-post-14/page3
Isis kills Jordan pilot by burning in a cage, 20mins to die
Started by Old as dirt, 02-03-2015 10:16 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ilot-by-burning-in-a-cage-20mins-to-die/page4
ISLAM: ISIS Burns Jordanian Pilot Alive in Cage On Video
Started by Intestinal Fortitude, 02-03-2015 12:08 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-Burns-Jordanian-Pilot-Alive-in-Cage-On-Video
Main Islamic State (ISIS) thread
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?451597-Main-Islamic-State-(ISIS)-thread/page46
The Book " Day of Wrath" By william Forstchen, is chilling,what isis will do to children
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...hen-is-chilling-what-isis-will-do-to-children
Enemy in the Gates - Thursday, 02/05/2015
Started by Ragnarok, 02-05-2015 07:04 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463367-Enemy-in-the-Gates-Thursday-02-05-2015
Matt Bracken: Ending Islam's Threat To Humanity In One Simple Step
Started by Dozdoats, 02-05-2015 05:32 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...s-Threat-To-Humanity-In-One-Simple-Step/page2
Egyptian Magazine: "Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration"
Started by Trainman-2, 02-04-2015 05:34 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...herhood-Infiltrates-Obama-Administration-quot
BREAKING NEWS: 2 large explosions in central Cairo, #Egypt. (sound bombs? = 2 IEDs)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ntral-Cairo-Egypt.-(sound-bombs-2-IEDs)/page4
Islam and Appeasement
Started by Trainman-2, 02-05-2015 02:42 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?463353-Islam-and-Appeasement
Perpetrators of Sudan’s Genocide Invited to the National Prayer Breakfast
Started by fairbanksb, 02-04-2015 03:51 PM
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http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/the-white-house-releases-a-new-national-security-strategy/
The White House Releases a New National Security Strategy
The new document is meant to explain the purpose and promise of American power in the years ahead.
By Franz-Stefan Gady
February 07, 2015
Today, the Obama White House released its second and final national security strategy (NSS), outlining in broad strokes the strategic vision of the U.S. president and his national security team. Overall, the white paper places a premium on U.S. leadership in the world: “The strategy sets out the principles and priorities that describe how America will lead the world toward greater peace and a new prosperity.” The New York Times notes that the words “lead” and “leadership” are used almost a hundred times in the document, a hint that the administration is consciously trying to refute accusations by critics that the White House lack assertiveness on the international stage.
The NSS emphasizes that it is meant to clarify “the purpose and promise of American power.” The 29-page document, required by Congress, differs from its 2010 predecessor, which mostly centered on ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, finding a way out of the global financial crisis, and“resetting” the relationship with Russia. Today, in an event at the Brookings Institution, U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice, presented the NSS to the broader American public, and stated that, “2015 is a whole new ballgame [and] much has changed in the past five years (…) [yet] what’s missing in Washington is often a sense of long-term perspective.”
Consequently, the focus of the 2015 NSS is on long-term challenges such as cybersecurity, global health, climate change, failing states, and energy security. The strategy also lays out in broad strokes the United States’ commitment to rebalancing to Asia and the Pacific region, pursuing a stable Middle East and North Africa by “reducing the underlying sources of conflict,” eliminating global poverty within 15 years, strengthening global alliances (especially with NATO and European allies given the Ukraine crisis and the worsening relationship with Russia), maintaining multilateral partnerships, reinforcing/updating international norms and institutions, preventing “mass atrocities,” and pushing nuclear non-proliferation.
In detail, the document mentions that the Obama Administration will endeavor to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, persist in the fight against al-Qaeda, ISIL, and their affiliates, pursue the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), carry on its campaign to battle Ebola through the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), continue to confront “the urgent crisis of climate change,” support countries such as Tunisia and Burma that are transitioning from authoritarianism “ in their quest towards democracy,” and “impose costs on malicious cyberactors,” among a host of other priorities. The strategy also calls for an end to “draconian cuts imposed by sequestration that threaten the effectiveness of our military and other instruments of power.”
As expected, the document does not outline detailed strategies and plans to accomplish the national security priorities mentioned in the publication. “It serves as a compass for how this administration, in partnership with Congress, will lead the world through a shifting security landscape toward a more durable peace and a new prosperity,” according to Bernadette Meehan, the National Security Council spokeswoman. “In their aspirations, generalities and rhetoric, they often resemble most a really, really long speech,” states a former White House official quoted by Reuters. Over at Foreign Policy, two former National Security Council staffers note that national security strategies “tend to lack the traditional attributes of strategy — that is, they do not spell out desired objectives, articulate the steps needed to achieve those ends, and then describe the resources necessary to carry out those steps.”
Yet, they also notes that the publication of the document is not a waste of time,”because drafting and publishing a National Security Strategy is one governmental exercise in which the process matters more than the product. In producing a NSS, foreign policy officials from across a variety of agencies and departments are forced to think deeply, if not always strategically, about the grand sweep of U.S. action in the world.”
However, pundits and organizations continue to criticize the absence of a proper national security strategy document, which they see as emblematic of a much larger problem. The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR), notes in a report that “the time pressures that an overburdened White House faces almost guarantees an inability to do deliberate, careful strategy formulation.” The report further notes: “Taken together, the basic deficiency of the current national security system is that parochial departmental and agency interests, reinforced by Congress, paralyze interagency cooperation even as the variety, speed, and complexity of emerging security issues prevent the White House from effectively controlling the system. The White House bottleneck, in particular, prevents the system from reliably marshaling the needed but disparate skills and expertise from wherever they may be found in government, and from providing the resources to match the skills.” Thus, perhaps it is no accident that the document fails to deliver specific plans how to implement the White House’s strategic vision.
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http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/united-states-wheres-the-strategy/
United States: Where’s the Strategy?
Looking for a coherent national vision? The National Security Strategy is not it.
By Andy Zelleke and Justin Talbot Zorn
February 05, 2014
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In our troubled times, the White House’s imminent publication of its National Security Strategy might warrant some buzz—if not at the level of a new iPhone release or a Super Bowl commercial, at least that of a major presidential policy address. So where’s that buzz? A clue can be found in Bob Gates’ dismissive account in his memoirs: “Personally, I don’t recall ever having read the President’s National Security Strategy when preparing to become Secretary of Defense…. I never felt disadvantaged by not having read these scriptures.”
President Barack Obama may yet surprise in his second National Security Strategy document, expected any day. But recent history suggests that, whatever the document’s other merits, it won’t actually contain a strategy. Nor the plausible vision for which such a strategy would aim.
In recent years, Washington’s National Security Strategies have been a cross between laundry list—the many activities in which the U.S. is presently engaged—and wish list—numerous additional activities it behooves the nation to undertake, and the goals they support. It’s no doubt useful to have, in one place, a list of the president’s goals in important domains (such as a homeland secure from WMD attack, a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a denuclearized Korean peninsula, and a competitive and growing economy that can support a prominent global role); and a list of many things the government is doing and intends to do in support of those goals. But this isn’t strategy.
A serious national strategy would start from a cold-blooded assessment of the global landscape, and of the most likely (but unknowable) futures that may emerge. It would also start from an equally dispassionate assessment of the nation’s capabilities—its strengths and weaknesses—and how these may plausibly change over time.
It would prioritize ruthlessly among the many desirable policy goals; as strategy scholar Richard Rumelt has put it, “Good strategy works by focusing attention and resources on one, or a very few, pivotal objectives whose accomplishment will lead to a cascade of favorable outcomes….” A genuine strategy would address head-on the inevitable hard choices and tradeoffs to be made in the pursuit of the most-high value objectives; as strategy guru Michael Porter has emphasized, the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.
Moreover, a serious strategy would link these hard choices to budgetary consequences. The strategy would also scrutinize commitments made long ago, in different circumstances—including alliances—to ensure that they remain value-creating for the U.S. And it would anticipate other actors’ likely responses—and systemic reverberations—arising from the contemplated U.S. actions, starting from a deep understanding of those actors’ perceived interests and steering clear of overly sanguine assumptions.
And this strategy would explicitly support an achievable—and articulable—vision of the future.
The Obama 2010 National Security Strategy—like many of its predecessors—fell well short on these criteria. It contained little in the way of alternative futures—despite the National Intelligence Council’s extensive work on this. Perhaps most conspicuously, the 2010 NSS left a reader with the impression that China was (and was expected to be) nothing more than a “21st century center of influence” on par with India and Russia. While the 2010 NSS correctly emphasized that rebuilding the American economy and its competitiveness would be essential to global leadership, it simply listed the “to-dos” (improve education, get fiscal house in order, and so on) on the agenda—without considering a scenario in which a sizable gap between U.S. and competitor growth rates persists for many years.
There is little in the 2010 NSS that would offend or disappoint anyone, save for Al Qaeda, the Taliban and “Axis of Evil” governments. Part of Gates’ thinly veiled disdain for the generic NSS was, he noted, the fact that it was the outcome of a bureaucratic process in which many cooks needed to sign off on the broth. That reality—together with the fact that the NSS is prepared for Congress under the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, and released to the public—makes it an inherently political document, inclining presidents to steer clear of controversy. It’s not surprising that a serious strategy statement is unlikely to emerge from this process.
The problem for the nation, though, is far bigger than a poorly titled document. After all, there could be a classified version of the NSS that would do, strategy-wise, what the public NSS doesn’t. While the Goldwater-Nichols Act calls on the President to submit both a classified and unclassified version of the document, there’s no indication that any administration has produced a classified version in recent years. We suspect that, if a classified version existed, it would be in the White House’s interest to acknowledge it (as it does many other classified documents that don’t get released to the public).
Of course, there can be a full-fledged strategy without a document memorializing it; and in the era of WikiLeaks, there is risk in reducing anything to writing. But can Americans be confident that there’s a strategy—something befitting the title “National Security Strategy”—anywhere in the White House, even if it’s unwritten and resides in a small number of senior officials’ heads?
We are skeptical, for one principal reason. The formulation of a coherent, holistic National Security Strategy would almost certainly require a substantial process. And had such deliberations taken place, we believe the Administration would have made the public aware of that fact—as it did in enabling, as one example, The New York Times’ extensive reporting on the Obama Administration’s deliberations leading to the troop surge in Afghanistan.
Perhaps not since the Eisenhower Administration’s “Project Solarium” has a White House deliberated extensively at the “grand strategic” level as part of a structured process. We believe this is a serious mistake.
Crises from all corners of the globe come flying at presidents, and these shouldn’t be managed on an ad hoc and best efforts basis. Washington’s actions should be informed by a strategic concept in which a president has conviction and confidence—derived not from in-the-moment intuition, but from first-rate strategic thinking.
What would that process look like? It would create space for the president and his senior national security team to step back from the crises du jour: to raise questions rarely asked, challenge unexamined assumptions and “sacred cows,” draw on the best data from varied sources, hear unconventional perspectives, think creatively, reflect, and prioritize. In doing so, the White House can take some cues from other governments, and from the private sector.
Singapore, for example, has devoted impressive attention to national strategy. It employs diverse teams of civil servants—individuals with backgrounds ranging from computer science to fiction writing—to think rigorously about alternative futures and analyze data for signals about national risks and opportunities. The city-state’s Strategic Policy Office, located in the Prime Minister’s Office, is employed to “manage the commons” of futures thinking taking place throughout the government and create useful decision-making tools—like national scenarios, serious games, and SWOT analyses—for senior leaders.
And, as we proposed in an article in Foreign Policy in 2012, a new Chief Strategy Officer role could be adapted from the corporate sector—not a Kissingerian “grand strategist,” but rather a process-focused individual charged with owning and managing the strategy formulation process. This process would facilitate the president’s and senior team’s ability to draw on all relevant analytical tools and perspectives, to challenge assumptions, and to identify blind-spots in national strategy development. The appointment of a CSO would address a core problem with strategy development in the U.S. government: that nobody below the president—who has a fair amount on his plate—or the national security advisor—often consumed with crisis management—actually “owns” the responsibility to orchestrate whole-of-government strategy.
Obama recently told The New Yorker’s David Remnick that he’s not interested in a new grand strategy, adding “I don’t really even need George Kennan right now.” While he may not need a grand strategist, like most presidents he could use better process for asking and answering core questions about the nation’s direction. Americans can live with a published National Security Strategy that disappoints. But they will be hurt if the White House lets itself make new high-stakes decisions—or mindlessly perpetuate old ones—without the benefit of a clear and achievable guiding vision and the best possible strategic thinking.
Andy Zelleke is the MBA Class of 1962 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Justin Talbot Zorn is a legislative director on Capitol Hill, and researched public sector strategic planning as a Fulbright Scholar in Singapore.
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