Of MICE and Men: Rumsfeld for the Defense
On Sept. 10, 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was the man the MICE — the Military-Industrial-Congressional Empire — loved to hate. Today, after nine months as everybody’s favorite “secretary of war,” the MICE are chewing on him again. The reason, then and now: “transformation,” or Rumsfeld’s attempt to drag America’s defense establishment, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. The Read More ›
Will Iraq Be the Next Vietnam?
Against All Terror
The Afghan war drags on. Nobody knows where the next war or terrorist strike will come, or how soon, or how bad it will be. Nobody knows where the defense budget is going, except up, up and away. America remains steadfast. But increasingly, America wants explanations and answers. Enter Against All Terrors: This People’s Next Defense. This is one of Read More ›
Presentation to the World Affairs Council of Seattle on Defense Transformation
Tribunals are American Way
This war is full of surprises. And among the strangest so far has been the reaction to President Bush’s decision to establish military tribunals to try certain terrorist suspects. To our knowledge, none have so far been held. Procedures are still being worked out by a Defense Department that regards the assignment with considerably less than total enthusiasm. Only suspects Read More ›
Presentation to the Seattle Rotary Club on the ‘Wars of the Ways’
Rumsfeld’s Revolution
Spy IQ
Give Ronald Reagan the Nobel Peace Prize
On a pleasant October day in 1982 the Theodore Roosevelt Association was in Washington, DC to place on permanent display in the White House the medal for the Nobel Peace Prize that TR was awarded in 1906 for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. Welcoming a commemorative luncheon group to the Roosevelt Room, President Ronald Reagan quipped that as he had earlier Read More ›