Free Republic

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Obama administration is considering creating a unified national security budget that would combine elements of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development with the Pentagon, according to a draft copy of a long-awaited foreign policy strategy review shared with Congress this week. Citing the joint planning required between U.S. military and civilian agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the proposal is one of several that would put the U.S. diplomatic corps and its lead global humanitarian agency on a stronger national security footing, according to a draft of the State Department’s first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and...

President Obama's push for health care raised more than a few hackles, including the ire of 19 state attorneys general. "On behalf of the residents in Florida, and the states joining our efforts," declared Bill McCollum, who is spearheading one of the lawsuits, "we are committed to aggressively pursuing this lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to prevent this unprecedented expansion of federal powers, impact upon state sovereignty and encroachment on our freedom." Questioning the constitutionality of Obamacare raises another question: Is flouting the law a pattern for how the president plans to govern? By law, the Pentagon...

There was a pretty interesting article in the Washington Post today about Hillary Clinton's tenure at State Department and it pretty much confirmed my suspicions about our Secretary of State - she's a great public diplomat and administrator, but not much of a strategic thinker. As Stewart Patrick noted, she struggles with priorities and questioned whether she has a "grand strategic vision." This was basically part of the deal when Obama picked her; Hillary would serve as a great "face" for America to the world; she would invest time and energy in public diplomacy, something that was critically important after...

In the early 1980s, the Army, with Air Force cooperation, came up with a warfighting concept known as AirLand Battle designed to rain punishing ground and air strikes on Soviet shock armies before they could steamroll NATO defenses. Today, the military is formulating a new concept called AirSea Battle designed to counter China’s rapidly growing arsenal of anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) weapons, such as aircraft carrier killing ballistic missiles, sea-skimming missiles, stealthy submarines, bristling air-defense networks, anti-satellite and cyber weaponry. The 2010 QDR directed the Air Force and Navy to jointly develop the concept to “guide the development of future...

WASHINGTON — U.S. troops are still in Iraq. More are headed into Afghanistan. Defense spending is up. Gay troops still can’t serve openly in the military. So where is the dramatically overhauled Pentagon that President Barack Obama’s opponents — and supporters — predicted not long ago? Just over a year after Obama took the reins as commander in chief, the most sweeping changes expected of the new president’s military policy haven’t taken hold. Despite two wars overseas, Obama’s focus has remained on domestic issues, such as the health care reform fight and the still-struggling economy. Military topics, while hardly an...

Abstract: The Obama Administration has proposed an FY 2011 defense budget that is inconsistent with U.S. security commitments and the Administration's own Quadrennial Defense Review. Under the Administration's current budget outline, total defense spending would decline from $722.1 billion (4.9 percent of GDP) in FY 2010 to $698.2 billion (3.6 percent) in FY 2015. Inadequate funding will lead to shortfalls in manpower levels, modernization, operational capacity, strategy, and/or force structure, thereby exposing the American people and U.S. friends and allies to an unacceptable level of risk. On February 1, 2010, the Obama Administration released its defense budget proposal as part...

Barack Obama may be playing defense on the domestic front, but he’s clearly taken the offensive in an area not normally a source of Democratic Party strength — national security and foreign policy. In recent days and weeks, administration efforts have resulted in the deaths of 12 of the top 20 al Qaeda leaders, the result mostly of attacks by pilotless drone aircraft over Pakistan; the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, number two Taliban boss in Pakistan and leader of the military campaign in Afghanistan; and the launch of a 15,000-troop attack against the principal poppy-rich Taliban stronghold in...

The Pentagon's long-awaited Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is out. By law, the major defense strategy must look forward 20 years and delineate how the U.S. will structure its armed forces. The QDR is supposed to outline the Pentagon's threat assessments, military strategy, force structure, and budgetary plans, and it should establish a road map for defense programs that will prepare for an uncertain future. Because defense policy is subordinate to foreign policy, the strategy must take its cue from the President's National Security Strategy (NSS). The President's foreign policy strategy must follow from the nation's vital interests rather than vice...

After the QDR, USAF will have fewer fighters, fewer options, and therefore tougher choices. The Air Force is poised to launch a dramatic restructuring of its fighter fleet. Anticipating years of flat budgets and a changing military strategy, the service will shrink its fighter force as much as 20 percent. There will be fewer squadrons and they will have fewer people. There will be newer machines—and the average age of the fighter fleet may stabilize after steadily graying for 20 years—but a portion of the inventory will be geared toward less demanding wars. The service has developed a matrix of...

Two reviews outlining the Obama administration’s defense and security strategy have avoided any mention of anti-Muslim labels, reported the Washington Times on Friday, February 12. "(President Barack Obama) had made it clear as we are looking at counterterrorism that our principal focus is al Qaeda and global violent extremism,” David Heyman, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy, said. “And that is the terminology and language that has been articulated." A 108-page review by the Homeland Security Department has dropped any reference to words such as “Islamists” and “Islamic”. Instead, the document used the terms of “Al-Qaeda”, “terrorist”, “extremist” and “violent...

The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report gives unprecedented attention to the issue of climate change. Previous QDR reports did not identify climate change, global warming, or other environmental issues as major concerns for U.S. security. The 2010 QDR, by contrast, dedicates three of its 105 pages (plus executive summary) to the issue, highlighting it (along with energy) in a section dedicated to its impact on the "future security environment." All in all, the report mentions "climate change" 19 times. China is mentioned only eleven times, Iran five times, Russia four times, and North Korea three times. It seems that the...

The Obama administration’s latest Quadrennial Defense Review relies on flawed climate science. The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report gives unprecedented attention to the issue of climate change. Previous QDR reports did not identify climate change, global warming, or other environmental issues as major concerns for U.S. security. The 2010 QDR, by contrast, dedicates three of its 105 pages (plus executive summary) to the issue, highlighting it (along with energy) in a section dedicated to its impact on the “future security environment.” All in all, the report mentions “climate change” 19 times. China is mentioned only eleven times, Iran five times,...

With nearly $12.5 billion in the proposed U.S. Navy and Army rotorcraft budget for Fiscal 2011, it would seem the services are flush with funding. And yet there is an eerie theme common to the programs receiving dollars: None of them is new. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), released Feb. 1 in conjunction with the Fiscal 2011 budget request, puts availability of rotary-wing assets at the top of its list to ensure success in counterinsurgency, stability and counterterrorism operations. The UH-60M Black Hawk is the big winner for the Army, with $1.25 billion requested to sustain production of 74 aircraft....

The Pentagon's new four-year strategy review seeks to advance the Obama administration's effort to make climate change a key element of its domestic and international policies. The Quadrennial Defense Review report, which is meant to guide defense and military policies and weapons purchases, lists global warming and energy security as among the four most important security priorities, despite recent reports suggesting the science behind climate change has been skewed. Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, presented a less alarming view in his statement to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday. He noted that U.S. intelligence...

The Navy is willing to make trade-offs to pay for its strategic decision to move a nuclear aircraft carrier to Florida, according Rear Adm. Bill Burke, who ran the Navy’s portion of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Burke told reporters this week that the QDR, a sweeping review of military strategy and capability, reached the same decision the Navy reached a year ago, because it makes “good sense.” It also made “good sense” at the highest levels of the Pentagon, Burke added. To pay for the move, the Navy could have to make some tough financial decisions down the line....

President Obama's foreign policy agenda may have "run out of steam" and he must now take risks and provide effective leadership, former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said Friday. In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Brzezinski said Obama's foreign policy agenda is suffering from gridlock in Washington. "I have the feeling that because of domestic problems, he has run out of steam, and I don't know really how determined he is to resume what he started doing so well, which is to engage the world constructively," Brzezinski said. Brzezinski, who is now at the Center for Strategic and...

The U.S. Navy and Air Force are beginning to work out the details of a joint battle concept given high priority in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). “We felt the two services ought to get together and pool our capabilities against anti-access threats across a range of operations,” Rear Adm. William Burke, director of the Naval Integration Group for the QDR, told reporters Feb. 4 at the Pentagon. “We want to see if we can do things better, more efficiently and effectively.” Burke noted the two services have a range of complementary capabilities worth expanding. Synergy is “probably the...

Taking note of India's 'growing influence' in global affairs, the United States has said the country will be a net provider of security in the Indian Ocean and beyond with the growth of its military capabilities. "The distribution of global political, economic and military power is shifting and becoming more diffuse. The rise of China, the world's most populous country, and India, the world's largest democracy, will continue to reshape the international system," said the Quadrennial Defence Review report released by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. The once-in-a-four year report, which shapes the policy of the Pentagon for the next...

This year’s report reflects the naval capabilities projected to meet the challenges the nation faces over the next three decades of the 21st century. The structure requirements articulated in this report are based upon the 313-ship force originally set forth in the FY 2005 Naval Force Structure Assessment that was reported to Congress and referred to by the Chief of Naval Operations in his FY 2009 budget testimony, as amended by decisions made by the Secretary of Defense in the FY 2010 President’s Budget as well as decisions made during the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). As such, the battle...

I haven't reaad it yet - just got the link this morning. Enjoy