We Just Lost the Initiative.....

After attending the Middle East Strategy Task Force security working group meeting, there is a definite need to re-look American strategy in the Middle East. Find ings f rom the working group, in conjunction with rec ent terr orist activity in Lebanon and France, spurred my own thoughts on the strategy that the U.S. needs to pursue in the fu ture. I know that some of my thoughts will be consistent with current public opinion while other ideas will be seen as heretical from an American viewpoint.    The United States' engagement in the Middle East, since 2001, has been primarily military interventions centered on counter-terrorism operations and regime change with undefined objectives. But for all of the military and economic resources pumped into the region, what have been the results? Iraq disintegrates into a sectarian quagmire, Syria embroiled in a protracted civil war, refugees flood across borders creating instability in Lebanon and Jordan and creating policy and econo

Can we, yes I mean the U.S. and to a larger extent the world, finally make a concerted effort to fully engage ISIS and to end the Syrian civil war? The global community has neglected our humanity. Instead of actually doing something to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people, either through inaction or bias we have left the situation unabated and civilians (innocents) are dying to try and escape to a better life. * image courtesy of indianexpress.com Now look at Aylan! He is the result of a cowardly U.S. political establishment and an Administration that neglected to act when Assad crossed "the red line in the sand." What we see of our American politicians is a cowardly group that has abandoned a region torn apart by conflict and a mass forced migration, and an American public who are more interested in the latest Kardashian news. But America is only one of the many accomplices to have failed. Europe and Turkey have also failed Aylan. A biased and stereotyped atti

To plagiarize and bastardize an old saying: Libya disintegrates as the world fiddles. UN Security Council Resolution 1973 authorized countries to take "necessary action" to protect civilians from pending attack by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. NATO, seeing a potential southern security risk, engaged in a bombing campaign and enforced a no fly zone that balanced the field to allow rebellion to flourish that ended with the execution of Gaddafi. The end of Gaddafi should have ushered a new era for Libya. Or so we thought.   In the four years since the dawn of the Arab Spring, Libya has become another African basket case - a failing state that is headed towards disintegration and a possible forerunner to a region that harkens back to precolonial boundaries thus ending the Westphalian state in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region and sub-Saharan Africa. Sectarian and tribal allegiances is becoming the preeminent political force instead of the nation-state.  But

This post is a continuation of the previous military transformation post. The ideas advocated in this post, are based in the new Service Component construct: Land, Air, Naval, and Special Operations. Force restructuring descriptions defined in one Component is applicable across all Components.    The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they're protecting us. - Tom Clancy Since the military is an all-volunteer force, Americans have lost sight of the sacrifices these men and women make on a daily basis. And let's be frank - a majority of Americans view the military as a necessary evil to be kept in the background until, begrudgingly, it is needed. Unless the military is re-entrenched in American society, it will end up like the Roman legions  - isolated and mercur

“Unless you are prepared to give up something valuable you will never be able to truly change at all, because you'll be forever in the control of things you can't give up.” - Andy Law  Transformation:  a complete or major change in someone's or something's appearance, form, etc . Transformation may be a necessary occurrence when presented with external and/or internal stimuli. But stimuli, in and of itself will not push a complacent organization to adjust to new circumstances or to "whither on the vine." It also takes a charismatic and innovative leader, who has courage and political capital, to take on an entrenched bureaucracy and navigate through the "because that is how it always has been done" mindset.  In the context of national security, an evolving geopolitical environment necessitates a re-evaluation of the threat. Force on force direct action will always be a national security concern but is limited to a couple of nation-states, Ch

American social fabrics is fraying at the seams. Bucketheads and interest groups dominate the political landscape, pandering to the extreme wings of the political spectrum and driving a wedge through American society. Race, religious affiliations, gender, and sexual orientation are exploited by these bucketheads as they spew their venom in extremist echo chambers.  And even though this social fabric is eroding, there is a movement to expand the social safety net encompassing more of the American purse. Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, food stamps, subsidies to special interest groups, and now Obamacare, are entrenched as generous gifts to Americans. There is a lot of anger in portions of American society because it is seen that these programs benefit freeloaders who are drain on society. So let's blunt the criticism of the bucketheads. What we need is an American compact that ensures that the general public has more "skin in the game" in receipt of safety net benef