But even if the president wanted to disengage from Syria, says a senior adviser, “His hands are largely tied because of the brutal executions by ISIS.” It’s considered quite likely that ISIS will continue the beheadings; no one is sure whether the point is to provoke the US into a difficult war, but that’s the effect. A participant in the discussions of US policy in the Middle East says, “As long as ISIS is beheading Americans there’s no way the president can stand up and say that Syria isn’t our problem.” This is an assumption, not a fact.
.. Though Hagel and Obama thought quite alike and respected each other, Hagel was probably not cut out for the Obama administration, or for what it’s evolved into. Though Hagel had, and used, a direct line to Obama—calling in frustration after a larger meeting where he felt he hadn’t been listened to, and over time largely wasn’t, Obama wasn’t as welcoming of diverse voices as he’d first indicated he would be.
.. Hagel particularly chafed at the White House’s governing style on national security policy. He believed—and in this he was far from alone within and outside the administration—that national security adviser Susan Rice is in over her head. And Rice’s admittedly abrasive style put off a large number of people. But she’s been close to the president from the days of the 2008 campaign, and that appears to be what matters most to him.
Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was True
President John F. Kennedy was surprised to learn, just a few weeks after taking office, about this secret delegation of power. “A subordinate commander faced with a substantial military action,” Kennedy was told in a top-secret memo, “could start the thermonuclear holocaust on his own initiative if he could not reach you.” Kennedy and his national-security advisers were shocked not only by the wide latitude given to American officers but also by the loose custody of the roughly three thousand American nuclear weapons stored in Europe. Few of the weapons had locks on them. Anyone who got hold of them could detonate them. And there was little to prevent NATO officers from Turkey, Holland, Italy, Great Britain, and Germany from using them without the approval of the United States.
.. While drinking beer in the executive lounge at Moscow’s Marriott Aurora during that visit, General Carey made an admission with serious public-policy implications. He off-handedly told a delegation of U.S. national-security officials that his missile-launch officers have the “worst morale in the Air Force.” Recent events suggest that may be true. In the spring of 2013, nineteen launch officers at Minot Air Force base in North Dakota were decertified for violating safety rules and poor discipline. In August, 2013, the entire missile wing at Malmstrom Air Force base in Montana failed its safety inspection. Last week, the Air Force revealed that thirty-four launch officers at Malmstrom had been decertified for cheating on proficiency exams—and that at least three launch officers are being investigated for illegal drug use. The findings of a report by the RAND Corporation, leaked to the A.P., were equally disturbing. The study found that the rates of spousal abuse and court martials among Air Force personnel with nuclear responsibilities are much higher than those among people with other jobs in the Air Force. “We don’t care if things go properly,” a launch officer told RAND. “We just don’t want to get in trouble.”
.. In retrospect, Kubrick’s black comedy provided a far more accurate description of the dangers inherent in nuclear command-and-control systems than the ones that the American people got from the White House, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media.
Kyle Murao: In Defense of Global Policing
I welcome Chinese assertiveness on the global stage…provided that it accepts that for at least the next 100 years, America and our allies will retain virtually complete control of the key waterways in Southeast Asia which are so critical to global economic prosperity.
.. But what the critics utterly, incomprehensibly, unforgivablyfail to grasp is how manymore wars American arms have prevented–and continue to prevent.
.. We don’t have an aggressive security policy simply because we like to be bullies. We have an aggressive security policy because as the world’s wealthiest country and one of its biggest exporters of culture and soft power, it is in the interest of ourselves and everyone else that we maintain security globally.
.. Bottom line: where they are deployed abroad, American troops are not disrupters of peace and tyrannical imperialists. They are all that stands between ethnic, religious and cultural conflicts that are hundreds of years old (if not thousands) and would almost certainly break out into open bloody wars if left unguarded.
.. But we need to keep in mind that acquisition of weapons systems (submarines, tanks, missiles, drones, stealth technology) is extremely expensive. And we need to continue to invest in hardware that is so far advanced that troublemakers will say, “Today is not the day to start a fight with the world’s policeman,” and those that are too foolish will be quickly slapped down.
What is US Marine Corps boot camp like?
There will always be the need for young men who are willing and able to run to the sound of eminent danger and many, to their death. Nations need this. You need this. It is a horrible thing, but the sanctity and security of every nation on Earth requires young men and women capable of doing this.
.. The most important single thing to know about boot camp is that it is 100% designed to reprogram children and civilians into warriors. It places within them a sense that they are expected to do important things, far more important things than could be expected from other 18 year olds.
.. you are kept isolated from contact from your family and friends and taught that everything you were before entering the Marines was weak and lacking any real value until you too are a Marine. Cults are made this way too.
.. Why is the haircut so important? It is part of the erosion of individuality. What? Yes, the erosion of individuality. Why should a warrior lose his individuality? It is what makes him special and unique. It is what makes him valuable. Well that’s the problem. Individuality makes them special and unique. It makes them feel that they might be above someone or something else. They are better than the orders they might receive. They are too good for something. Not at boot camp. From day one, everyone is the same
.. You go through the next few days running from place to place, doing this, that, this, that and you won’t even realize… you haven’t slept in three days. Yeah, you will go through about three days without sleep upon arrival.
.. Without realizing it, you start to believe that that which is being told to you is true, that there is a weakness in you and that you are less than perfect. In your current state you believe them and that you must change to be good enough.
.. Boot camp, and particularly that of the Marines, is made to psychologically change a child into someone capable of performing under combat situations.