How Badly Things Are Broken

FYIM&M

bit.ly links all go to War News Updates.

NB: I don't claim to have every word of every article to the very end. Just thought some here might appreciate these links.

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How Badly Things Are Broken With Our Defense -- Lt. Col. Robert Bateman (Esquire)
http://bit.ly/1c0h90V

"At the strategic and political levels of war, America is falling flat on its face."

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Meet The Super-Fast, Radar-Jamming, Unnervingly Intelligent Missiles Of 2030 (Foreign Policy)
http://bit.ly/1dVFZAc

Which has nothing at all to do with this, of course...

Russia's GPS System Wants To Have Monitoring Stations On U.S. Soil
http://bit.ly/1arBTjI

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I see Vic touched on this one:

Endless Afghanistan? US-Afghan agreement would keep troops in place and funds flowing, perhaps indefinitely (NBC News)
http://bit.ly/1cFN0Ed

"...the United States is prepared to maintain military outposts in Afghanistan for many years to come, and pay to support hundreds of thousands of Afghan security forces. The wide-ranging document, still unsigned by the United States and Afghanistan, has the potential to commit thousands of American troops to Afghanistan and spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars."

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After the Soviet Union fell, there was a great deal of action to wind down our military because the cold war was over. I thought that was foolish. I'm with this guy:

To a Philosopher-General in Israel, Peace Is the Time to Prepare for War (NY Times)
http://bit.ly/1h1KQUR

"General Halevi, 45, a triathlete and father of four... said his university studies in philosophy proved more salient to military leadership than courses in business administration. ... 'People used to tell me that business administration is for the practical life and philosophy is for the spirit,' General Halevi said. 'Through the years I found it is exactly the opposite — I used philosophy much more practically.

"'Philosophers that spoke about how to balance, how to prioritize principles in a right way,' he added, citing Plato, Socrates and Maimonides. 'This is something that I find very helpful.'"

About the inevitability of a next war he says:

"The interesting issue is how you create a longer gap between the wars.... It's not going to be a simple one. There are no simple wars. We are ready to pay this price to make a very decisive and strong war to make the gap as long as possible."[emphasis added]

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