Innovation-America's Path to the Future

The headlines this past week have been crowded with all manner of fearful predictions of the effect that cutting back federal spending by 1.5 trillion dollars over the next ten years. America seems to have reached a point where a growing majority of the population is reliant on the government to provide entitlements, which on its face reveals a tipping point where those who are successful, are asked to kick-in an even greater share of their success to fund those entitlements. It seems the only areas of real job growth in the United States is in the number of government workers; ranging from IRS agents, down to county social workers, who help struggling families that can no longer find sustainable work, or don't want too; get benefits, paid for by a shrinking pool of middle and upper class taxpayers.

Both Congress and the President trade broad-sides on who is to blame for what the White House warned was an end of America as we know it. Why? because as a country we are asked to again tighten our belts, and those making more must reach in their wallets for a few more bucks?

Last week everyone watched the Academy Awards, but how many realized that they were investors in films like Argo, Lincoln, Silver Lining Playbook and Dejango Unchained?

Those of you in California who paid state income tax should take a bow and get a sliver of the Oscar for providing $6.2 million in tax credits for the best picture winner Argo. Ditto for millions in tax credits given to Lincoln and Silver Lining Playbook, and a whopping $8.4 million in tax credits from Louisiana to the makers of Dejango Unchained. It seems beyond irony that most receiving such benefits, will stand before a public forum and lecture those who create sustainable wealth in small to large businesses, that they need to pay more taxes, as they themselves, reap the benefits of a cozy relationship with those in Washington.

After this rant, I would turn to what America can do to find her way to a sustainable path to the future. Regardless of the previous paragraph, the future is not to turn the country into a huge movie lot, benefiting a new class of oligarchy. It will only happen when the traits that made this continental island nation, the world leader of innovation and invention. America stands on the brink of the next industrial revolution as noted by Steve DeAngelis in this excellent post where he delves into 3D printing, and notes that even the President, regardless of Washington's fascination with Hollywood, sees the future lies with this technology.

In his most recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama stated, "Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can't happen in other towns. So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Department of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of 15 of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is made right here in America."

Steve's post has an excellent graphic that explains 3D printing, as well as explaining how it will affect America's future.

Read the whole post: The Future of 3D Printing

Getting America ready for the future is more that a few innovations like 3D printing, it is the trait of innovation that Americans have excelled in for the past three centuries of growth and discovery. Steve's blog Enterra Insights posted two excellent articles that examines the road to innovation and what America can do rediscover this essential trait.

"Innovation is a particularly sticky problem because it so often remains undefined," writes Greg Satell. "We treat it as a monolith, as if every innovation is the same, which is why so many expensive programs end up going nowhere." ["Before You Innovate, Ask the Right Questions," If you have read many of my posts about innovation, you will know that I'm a big believer in the notion that good solutions begin with good questions. Satell is also true believer in that dictum. He quotes Albert Einstein who stated (perhaps apocryphally), "If I had 20 days to solve a problem, I would spend 19 days to define it." I'm also a big believer in conducting experiments and using prototypes. Thomas Edison failed to find the right filament for his light bulb a thousand times. Edison didn't see this as 999 failures, but 999 steps in a 1,000-step process to success. Asking the right questions and being willing to conduct numerous experiments are surer paths to innovation than sitting in a room with a group hoping somebody comes up with a bright idea. In this post, I'll focus on the first of those methods -- asking good questions.
 

Read part one: The Road to Innovation is Paved with Questions and Experiments, Part 1

In part two, the process to innovation is examined.

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the importance of asking good questions at the beginning of the innovation process. Once good questions have been asked and the problem framed, serious work needs to be done to answer those questions. Although this post focuses on why experimentation and prototyping are important for the innovation process, they are only some of the tools available to answer questions. I agree with Tim Kastelle, who asserts, "I am always suspicious of one-size-fits-all solutions. They are very easy to sell in a book or a blog post, but they rarely work in the real world. There's too much variation." ["There Must Be Forty Ways to Innovate," Innovation for Growth, 5 November 2012] Too prove his point, Kastelle offers a list containing forty ways to innovate:
 

Part of the list is below:

Idea Generation

• get to the edge
• scratch your own itch
• be a genius
• blue sky R&D
• applied R&D
• ask your customers
• watch your customers
• ask your people
• brainstorm
• gamestorm
• think outside the box
• think inside the box
• co-create
• scenario planning

Read the whole article: Part Two-Innovation

Can Americans pull out of this slow glide to to becoming a fragmented shell of what was a great nation, fragmented into regional countries in a reincarnation of Europe EU style? That question remains to be answered. What America needs now, is a reincarnation of someone with the voice and foresight of a Washington, Lincoln, and the Roosevelt cousins; to inspire Americans to rediscover their national treasure of innovation and place as a continental maritime nation. My Boomer generation's national leadership has squandered much of the previous generations advances in maintaining a national narrative. It is up to the next generation to find the future.

Ronald Reagan, A Personal Reflection

Death Valley Days

Ronald Reagan, 40th President of United States

Today, February 6, 2011 marks the centennial of the birth of Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States and by most historical opinions a transformational figure in American history. The number of truly transformational presidents can be counted on one hand, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan. These men all practiced reconstructive and transformational politics that lead the country away from stagnant and ineffective leadership. One can quibble over the politics of the men, but the fact that they were leaders as opposed to the status-quo, and sent the country on a different path to the future is a testament to their vision and leadership style.

I often tell my American History 1945-to-the Present, students that as opposed to using secondary sources to study a subject; as one would when looking back into the decades preceding World War II, that I stand before them as a primary source, since I have first-hand experienced much of the history we would be studying. This is the case with Ronald Reagan.
My first introduction to Reagan was unrelated to politics as I would be allowed to watch the General Electric Theater, which Reagan hosted, on Sunday evenings whenever there was school holiday on Mondays. Later, in my teens, he was a familiar figure with a cowboy hat that hosted Death Valley Days. Reagan made no impact on me in those early years and it was not until November of 1968 that I was introduced to his leadership style.

After Vietnam, I was married and stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. and were expecting our first child in April 1969. We decided to move the wife home to be near her parents and undertook a cross country drive to California. Just after sunset, three days later, we crossed over the Colorado River on I-10 and were met with two things that signaled that we were back in what at the time was the "Golden State." First, was the roadway, brightly lit as far as one's headlights carried, with little glass reflectors that were an invention of a Cal-Trans engineer named Botts. They had been installed after I had joined the army and California was the only state in the nation to have them. Driving in the desert that night, the first California radio station we tuned in was carrying a live interview with then Governor Ronald Reagan. As I drove along, and listened to him discuss the affairs of California and the state of the nation after changing leadership with the election Nixon a couple of weeks earlier, I was struck by the tenor of the way he presented his convictions. I was still naive about most politics and frankly had not formed any political affiliation, but listening to his positive message about individuality and the human spirit that night, left me with a very favorable impression. To reveal my ignorance about the history of Bott's Dots, I was initially left to credit Reagan with lighting our way across the California desert that night, only to learn later, they were approved the summer before he was elected.

Reagan as governor on a personal level did not really cross my radar. The economy of the early 1970's allowed me, just out of the Army and a student to purchase my first home while still a student. Being a Vietnam Veteran I shunned anti-war protests and was focused on re-entering the work force and remained non-political. Later, after Reagan left office and the decade dragged on to introduce double digit inflation and equally double digit interest rates, Reagan again appeared on my radar. The election of 1980, amid the Iranian Hostage Crisis saw the myth that has never been fully discredited that as soon as Reagan was sworn in and 20 minutes into his speech, the hostages were released in Tehran and flown to Algeria. The myth of what awaited the Iranians had they not released the hostages, persists to this day and has enhanced Reagan's reputation of being ready to use force to protect and project American power.

I can honestly attest that for this son of a broken home, who without financial support of family, put himself through college on the GI bill and by his own hand; the 1980's under Reagan, was a decade that saw me fulfill the American Dream. In that decade and its aftermath, I founded my own business, and saw my personal wealth grow far beyond that of my parents. Upon reflection, most Americans look back on that decade, decried by some as one of "greed" and see it as one of pivotal improvement in their lives.



As noted in the beginning of this post, Reagan was a transformational leader who changed the course of history. Perhaps the most telling of Reagan's legacy is that in 2008, the election of Barak Obama was hailed by some as a chance to add a sixth person to the club of transitional presidents. It has been accurately reported that President Obama is diligently studying Reagan's presidency and reading Lou Cannon's biography, "President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime."

HG's Saturday Night Gazette

Saturday Even Post 1949

Egypt in turmoil, 2011

Years ago, a famous magazine was the Saturday Evening Post which was a staple in millions of American homes offering up short stories and serials on pre-television evenings. The Post eventually faded from the coffee tables to now re-appear six times a year and  now on line. The blogs have taken over from the post and even the Main Stream Media in being source for stories and information. Keeping with the tradition started first by Benjamin Franklin when he ran the fore-runner of the post the Pennsylvania Gazette, this blog offers up reads of the week or for a Saturday evening.

Egypt continues to dominant the attention of most of the world less China where fear of similar protests has brought censorship of non-official new about Egypt.

As the popular uprising ends it's second week, attention already begins to turn to ask how the signals were missed. The New York Times reports that President Obama is already faulting our spy agencies for not reading the tea leaves.
Obama Said to Fault Spy Agencies

This post from Small Wars Journal points to information first published in 2004 that posed that question.

With the recent turmoil in North Africa and unrest in the Middle East, we decided to dust off and revisit several previously published articles by friends of Small Wars Journal. The intent is two-fold: 1. To determine if some of these events were predictable given open source research and analysis and 2. To better understand the causal factors leading towards small wars. In the Middle East, some of these factors are self-evident: oppressive regimes, lack of personal and religious freedoms, lack of jobs, and lack of hope in the future; however, scarcity of resources remains an understudied area.

Read more:
Revolt in North Africa, Was it Predicted?

This article seems to mirror much of what geo-strategist Thomas Barnett has been writing about since publication of the best selling The Pentagon's New Map that growing discontent in places like North Africa would occur as the youth bulge, begins to fray against the suppression of decades of suppressive didictatorship's. The past few weeks has seen Barnett on top of the developments as he share his experience in a series of posts and video links. Barnett called the root of the recent uprisings an outgrowth of the Big Bang theory.

For an up to date source of news about Egypt and other political boils, blisters and scrapes worldwide, I recommend Small Wars Journal's Roundup where major news stories are cataloged and linked at one source.

Finally, if watching the events in Egypt unfold didn't make you feel like a cast member of Sanctum , then read this next and final piece.

Gerry Garibaldi worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter and executive before becoming a high school teacher at an inner city high school. His story in City Journal.org  is depressing, and a mirror held up to society that reveals the bounty of a over indulgent society.

In my short time as a teacher in Connecticut, I have muddled through President Bush’s No Child Left Behind act, which tied federal funding of schools to various reforms, and through President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative, which does much the same thing, though with different benchmarks. Thanks to the feds, urban schools like mine—already entitled to substantial federal largesse under Title I, which provides funds to public schools with large low-income populations—are swimming in money. At my school, we pay five teachers to tutor kids after school and on Saturdays. They sit in classrooms waiting for kids who never show up. We don’t want for books—or for any of the cutting-edge gizmos that non–Title I schools can’t afford: computerized whiteboards, Elmo projectors, the works. Our facility is state-of-the-art, thanks to a recent $40 million face-lift, with gleaming new hallways and bathrooms and a fully computerized library.

Read on as the article drills into the reason that after all the above effort, it appears to be for naught.

Here’s my prediction: the money, the reforms, the gleaming porcelain, the hopeful rhetoric about saving our children—all of it will have a limited impact, at best, on most city schoolchildren. Urban teachers face an intractable problem, one that we cannot spend or even teach our way out of: teen pregnancy. This year, all of my favorite girls are pregnant, four in all, future unwed mothers every one. There will be no innovation in this quarter, no race to the top. Personal moral accountability is the electrified rail that no politician wants to touch.

Garibaldi pulls no punches in describing why this has become such a problem.

Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure, like a fireman or a police officer. During the last presidential election, much was made of Obama’s mother, who was a single parent. Movie stars and pop singers flaunt their daddy-less babies like fishing trophies.

Read on:

From the FBI: 63 percent of all suicides are individuals from single-parent households. From the Centers for Disease Control: 75 percent of adolescents in chemical-dependency hospitals come from single-parent households. From the Children’s Defense Fund: more than half of all youths incarcerated for criminal acts come from single-parent households. And so on.

And now if you have not run out of breath, read the whole story.
“Nobody Gets Married Any More, Mister”

HUMMMMMP DAY READS

Boston Tea Party

American Leadership

Today the recommended reads are few, but rich in content. First off, blog-friend Lexington Green, the nom de guerre of a rather brilliant barrister who hails from the windy city has in the words of the zenpundit made the big time ever since he penned a piece about the Tea Party and gained the attention of the likes of the MSM, Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Lex, has an article on the rightnetwork and begins with this about insurgency.

Mass political movements often begin with a single, striking event. The Insurgency began in the fall of 2008, when President Bush, Senator Obama, and Senator McCain appeared together to endorse the TARP bailout. At that moment the lights came on for many Americans. It was glaringly obvious that both political parties jointly operated the system, and the system existed to protect the well connected at the expense of everyone else. The public opposed the TARP bailouts; the banks got their money anyway. The Insurgency, long brewing, began.

The Insurgency is a movement of citizens directed against unsustainable government taxation and regulation, and spending, both of which benefit insiders rather than ordinary people. The target of the Insurgency is a leviathan in Washington, D.C. that will ruin us all if it is not dismantled.

The Insurgency is part of a long tradition of mass political movements in our history. It has the potential to make a fundamental change in American life-for the better.

Read more:
Enter Stage Right

These next recommended reads, come from two gentlemen who have dialed back on the blog posts and in return, are turning out what I deem extremely high quality observations and analysis.

Iranian Flying Boats

Galhran the master of Information Dissemination  has fired off a salvo on naval gunnery. Granted in the missile age, this seems out of touch, but wait until you read both articles then decide. Is a return to ships bristling with automatic crew served weapons, a nod to the last ditch defence against Kamikazes in the last months of the Pacific War?

It is very easy to look at this technology and be dismissive... but that our weakness isn't it? We are a technology society and look at the specifics of technology to form the basis for our judgments. It a technology doesn't conform to our conceptual expectations regarding capability, then 'it doesn't pass the smell test' and is usually dismissed with sarcasm. I expect there is plenty of sarcasm to be easy shared upon examination of this little piece of tech being fielded by Iran.

Read more:
The Swarm

Twin Ma-Duces

In this post about a recent gunfight, Galhran writes.

In the missile age, it is noteworthy that with the exception of a single torpedo attack - we continue to see a series of gunfights of various natures define military combat at sea. Navy Times reported yesterday that just two weeks ago, the US Coast Guard engaged in one such firefight.

Read more:
Peacemaking: The High Seas Gunfight

Mumbai, 2008

Next?

And finally, today's news has been abuzz about the reported terror plot to launch Mumbai style attacks across Europe. Thomas Barnett, dialed back the volume of posts on his must read blog, and is now posting when he feels the need to provide an indepth review of major stories and trends. Barnett's analysis of the terror plot and how we handle the next one, makes this a spot-on piece to read and ponder. Tom begins by answering:

Why it's important to pay attention:

■It's long been my contention that extremists operating in NW Pakistan, most likely in some collusion with al Qaeda (not a big leap), will keep trying to make some big splashy strike in the West. Many experts saw the Times Square bombing attempt as a practice run using an expendable. Figuring how hard that is to pull off--in a relative sense, and with AQ and its net falling from our collective memory thanks to the economy, the default alternative for such groups to regrab the headlines is to do something easy and cheap like Mumbai II and to do it in Europe. So yeah, I find this whole logic believable. 

And I give you this his final thoughts with the link to read more.

Then tack on Obama's statement to Woodward that "We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan."  I guarantee you, the next scheduled-by-our-enemies response (when the drones aren't enough) will induce a serious calibration effort/opportunity with both China and India.

Read more:
Report: NATO members foil Mumbai-style wave of attacks on Europe

The common thread I found in all of these articles is the call for leadership; real inspired visionary leadership, like the kind that got us through crisis’s in the past. Lex, Galhran, and Tom are pointing out that amid all those layers of rhetoric and micro management of the current and recent administrations, that as a free people, we are collectively waiting for an unnamed and unseen leader who can provide the essence of visionary leadership the has served the world before.

Afghanistan, A Cause or A Curse?

Afghanistan, like the physical mass of her landscape, continues to defy the best intentions of military forces arrayed within her artificial borders to wrest a people who for the past 2500 years have chosen to live by a code dictated by conditions of tribal custom kept safe from intrusions by the geographic characteristics of a desolate landlocked society cutoff from outside influence. The challenge of trying to impose Western style democracy in the span of less than a decade is meeting with a resistance that first confounded the Bush Adminstration and continues to suck the Obama Presidency into it's moral and ethical quicksand.

The central question is Afthanistan a cause worth pursuing, or a curse that will continue to eat at the fabric of resolve until America and their allies quit leaving a vacumn for the Taliban to return? Will quiting become an example to others who see profit in the strategic defeat of the great powers. Can America singlehandedly manhandle 28 million people, 15 million of which are under 30, into the modern world without destroying the tribal culture. These questions have kept the midnight oil burning in Washington for over two months and right along side, the soft glow of monitors have reflected the thought of experts from all corners of the spectrum.

I am no expert and will not pontificate on what we should do or not do. It troubles me as someone who willingly fought for a cause that at the time seemed just, will again see thousands of American and families from many nations, stand over their childrens graves and wonder what hath their nation done to waste their childs life.

In a continuing effort to inform, I offer the following posts that reflect the breadth of this issue.
First from the field>Michael Yon who up until a short time ago was embedded with the 2 Rifles of the British Army in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The British became sensitive to Michael's honest reporting and ended his embed. He wrote this troubling post.

In 2008, I was trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal preparing for a return to Afghanistan. A message came from a British officer suggesting to end the trip and get to Afghanistan. Something was up, and I didn’t bother to ask what. Days of walking were needed to reach the nearest road. After several flights, I landed in Kandahar and eventually Helmand Province at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. The top-secret mission was Oqab Tsuka, involving thousands of ISAF troops who were to deliver turbines to the Kajaki Dam to spearhead a major electrification project. The difficult mission was a great success. That was 2008. During my 2009 embed with British forces, just downstream from Kajaki Dam, it became clear that the initial success had eroded into abject failure. And then the British kicked me out of the embed, for reasons still unclear, giving me time to look further into the Kajaki electrification failure.

READ MORE: Afghanistan: Electrification Effort Loses Spark

To illustrate that all is not lost, we turn to the United States Marines and this measurement of progress that prove the Marines the most innovative of our forces, have made since being deployed to the same Helmand Province that Michael Yon reported about above. It is heartening that the Marines are again proving as they did in Vietnam with their Combined Action Program (CAP) that success means getting up close and knowing the people you are tasked to protect.

There’s No Substitute for Troops on the Ground by Max Boot, New York Times Opinion

“I hope people who say this war is unwinnable see stories like this. This is what winning in a counterinsurgency looks like.” Lt. Col. William F. McCollough, commander of the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, is walking me around the center of Nawa, a poor, rural district in southern Afghanistan’s strategically vital Helmand River Valley. His Marines, who now number more than 1,000, arrived in June to clear out the Taliban stronghold. Two weeks of hard fighting killed two Marines and wounded 70 more but drove out the insurgents. Since then the colonel’s men, working with 400 Afghan soldiers and 100 policemen, have established a “security bubble” around Nawa. Colonel McCollough recalls that when they first arrived the bazaar was mostly shuttered and the streets empty. “This town was strangled by the Taliban,” he says. “Anyone who was still here was beaten, taxed or intimidated.”

Small Wars Journal sponsored this essay by Dr. Tony Corn. Toward a Kilcullen-Biden Plan?

At this particular juncture, the U.S. simply cannot afford a 500 billion dollar open-ended escalation. Nor can it opt for an incremental (“middle road”) strategy which would fail to create the psychological effects required in both the West and Afghanistan.

A temporary 40,000 surge is doable, but only if the core of the Obama strategy is a “Kilcullen-Biden” plan combining convocation of a loya jirga domestically with a regionalization of the Afghan question diplomatically. Let’s go massive for a limited time, and “clear, hold, and build” as much as we can. If it does not work, a regional negotiation provides ample cover for a drawdown.

Rounding out this weeks discussion is this post from It's The Tribes Stupid! where Steve Pressfield continues his interview with Afghan tribal leader, Chief Zazai. Here a little taste of this informative interview.

Welcome back, Chief Zazai, after last week’s break in our ongoing, multi-part interview. As you know, we took that space last week to post an open letter to Gens. Jones, Petraeus, McChrystal and Adm. Mullen, alerting them to your formation of a Tribal Police Force in the Zazi Valley and asking for help in aligning that force with the American troops (10th Mountain Division) whose Area of Operations (AO) includes your district. Respect for confidentiality prevents me from publishing particulars, but I’m happy to say that we got an immediate response and that it was just what we hoped for. The top U.S. commanders are listening. More on that as it develops– and as confidentiality permits. Now back to our talk!

READ MORE: Interview with a Tribal Chief #4: Warlords and Taliban

This week will bring more news and comment along with the solemn knock, followed by the mournful cry as another family learns that their son or daughter has fallen in the dusty gravel of far off Afghanistan. I learned first hand that war is every bit as exciting as Patton described, and as hellish as Sherman penned. For many in Afghanistan, the lure of conflict is a rite of manhood, exploited and provoked by both sides who seek to impose their own brand of governance on a people who have lived for centuries as if they were the only people on the earth. The answer lies somewhere far down the road, alas, a road strewn with the corpses.

Week in Review-Best Reads

Human Mind

Zenpundit

Clinton and Obama, Eye to Eye?

There were an exceptional number of posts this week that deserve consideration for top billing. So in order to be fair, I will say that they all will share that title.

To get our cognitive juices flowing we first turn to Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions who offers this insightful post. He begins by writing:

I'm fascinated by the workings of the human mind. Most people recognize that men and women use different thought processes, which is why Dr. John Gray was able to write a bestselling book entitled Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Thought processes are different for individuals as well as for genders. Mathematicians think differently than social scientists. Musicians think differently mechanics. Those of us who have never suffered from a mental illness can't really understand how some people can hear voices and see hallucinations.

Scientists continue to make discoveries about how the mind works. Yet even with all of the new discoveries, the mind remains pretty much a mystery. Learning more about our minds is important. After all, the thought is father to the act. In a world fighting crime, corruption, sexual perversion, and terrorism, the key to changing unacceptable acts may be understanding the thoughts that inspire them. In this post, I'm going to review a few recent articles I've collected about how we think and act. Let's begin with those impish little thoughts that can lead to bad behavior ["Why the Imp in Your Brain Gets Out," by Benedict Carey, New York Times, 7 July 2009].

Steve continues on, highlighting several articles that examine the latest in what science has learned about the human mind. A very worthwhile read for all interested in learning a bit about what rests between our ears.

Read more: More About Our Amazing Minds

After that bit of "brain food" we turn to Steven Pressfield of It's The Tribes Stupid! for tips on how to defeat the sinister roadblock Resistance, which has strangled more creative thoughts in the human mind, than all the murders in history.

If you’ve read The War of Art, you know that the thematic core of the book is the concept of Resistance. Resistance with a capital R, which the book defines as “an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”

Read more: Writing Wednesdays #12: Self-Talk and Self-Sabotage

Now that we have sharpened the understanding of our minds and steeled ourselves to defeat resistance, we are ready for some thought provoking posts that examine two parallel tracks; America's diplomatic and military future as they relate to the continued security of our nation.

Mark of Zenpundit penned this next piece that has garnered deserved recognition around the blogpsphere. Mark dubbed this a "quick "think" post," but after reading, I think you will find it to be anything but that. It offers real insight and sounds a warning that SOS Clinton, or more importantly, the Congress must act to save the office from becoming irrelevant, since it seems that the POTUS is not fully tuned into correcting this problem as long as his rivals (The Clinton's) reside in that office.

A quick ‘think” post.

It is generally a bad sign for a SECSTATE so early in an administration to have to come out and deny that they have been marginalized by the White House, as Secretary Clinton felt compelld to do the other day. The denial itself serves as confirmation of the fact.

It is tempting to write this off as another example of traditional, politically-motivated, battles between White House staffers, determined to protect the authority of the POTUS over foreign policy and the bureaucracy at State. We have seen this struggle in the past with Al Haig, Cyrus Vance, William Rogers, Cordell Hull, Robert Lansing and other SECSTATEs who sooner or later found themselves sidelined and excluded from key foreign policy decisions by the president. However, this is not just a case of Obama insiders distrusting and attempting to “box in” the Clintons as political rivals, by using other high profile players ( though that has been done to Clinton).

Read more: The Incredible Shrinking State Department must Evolve or Die
Related posts: Featured at the Atlantic Council

In this post, from Thomas Barnett from his weekly column in the War Room at Esquire. Barnett, voices obvious flustration at the attention span of the Amerian public during these critical times. Something that Ted Turner, founder of CNN has called the "pervert of the day" focus of the news media. Barnett's first sentence says it all.

Now that we know the damn kid was sleeping in his attic, can we return to Topic A? As in Afghanistan (and, lest anyone in the administration forget, Pakistan), for which Vice President Biden has been getting a lot of attention: Arianna Huffington is calling for his head, Newsweek is hailing him as a soothsayer, and most of America is wondering when the hell President Obama's going to make up his mind on "his war."

As I detailed here last week, it's a dangerous path for Obama to tread somewhere between "all-in" (Stanley McChrystal's method of controversy, with more troops, more nation-building, and more counterinsurgency) and "strategic disengagement" (Biden's weapon of choice, with more drones, more nation-leaving, and a refocusing on counterterrorism). On the one hand, I can almost see why the president would side with his veep: By essentially shifting "the good war" from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Obama purportedly saves money, lives, and support from an increasingly frustrated electorate.

Barnett ends his column by noting that if President Obama sides with Biden that he must turn to the very person he has been trying to marginalize to save our bacon.

So if Obama rallies behind Biden's somewhat precious definition of the "great game," he better be ready to dispatch Hillary Clinton pronto to a host of great-power capitals — not those of our NATO allies, but to those of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states (Moscow, Beijing, and the "observers" in New Delhi and Tehran) — to determine the price they'll be willing to pay to make this enduring problem go away for good. By that point, of course, Al Qaeda will already be back in the saddle in Kabul.

Read more:Why Joe Biden's War Plan Spells the Rebirth of Al Qaeda

And finally, from Michael Yon this piece he wrote back in December 2008 and just published this week.
Afghan Lunacy

September 11, 2001 in The Rearview Mirror of Time.

September 11, 2001

Rick Rescorla, singing to the evacuees of WTC South Tower

1st Cavalry Division patch

Lt. Rick Rescorla, LZ Xray, 1965

2nd Lt. Mark Daily, Mosul, Iraq 2006

Major Robert Soltes, OD, USAR

The images seared into the minds of all who saw the events of this date continues to fade from the collective memory of many Americans as the years roll by and the toll of those who have given their lives in the long war that began that day, overtook the numbers that then, shocked the world. My small tribute to that day, links three men whose lives are connected to the yellow and black shield of the First Cavalry Division, America's First Team. This division's storied history reaches back through Vietnam, Korea and World War II to the middle years of the 19th century on the American Frontier. Our story begins with a man who saved thousands from sure death on September 11.

Cyril Richard Rescorla was Vice President of Security at Morgan-Stanley the largest tenant in the World Trade Center on that day. When the first plane struck, Rescorla implemented an evacuation plan and was able to get almost every employee from 44th to the 74th floors in the south tower out, before the next plane struck. After getting all his people out Rescorla headed back to help others escape. The tower fell and his body was never found. His story, is told better by his wife who dedicated this web site to his memory, Rick Rescorla.

Rescorla was no stranger to stepping up and doing his duty. His image graces the cover of the book, We were Soldiers Once...And Young by Harold Moore and Joe Galloway taken during the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in November 1965. Rescorla, wore that big yellow and black patch and led a company in the battle and also battle at LZ Albany, a day later.

This coming January 15, will be the third anniversary of the death of Lt. Mark Daily, a soldier in the 1st Cavalry Division, who was killed along with four others in a massive roadside bomb while on patrol in Iraq. I wrote about Lt. Daily last year, REFLECTION ON A NOBLE SOUL. His unit, the 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry was the same unit Rescorla, came to support back in 1965.
Read more:http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/mjdaily.htm

A couple of years ago, I needed to go get my eyes checked. Looking over the list provided by the insurance company I selected one, a Dr. Soltes and made an appointment. I was escorted into the exam room and awaited the doctor. The door opened and a women entered and introduced herself as Dr. Dang. As it turns out, Dr. Robert Soltes had been killed in Iraq while serving with the 426th Civil Affairs Battalion, an Army Reserve unit from California. Dr. Dang was his wife, and learning that I was a Vietnam Veteran, told me the story of Major Soltes, and how his father, also a Vietnam Veteran had served with the 1st Battalion 9th Cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Division as a gunship pilot. We ended talking for some time, and my soul was forever touched by learning about this man and his commitment to family and country.
Read more:http://www.robsoltes.com/
and http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/soltesjrcharlesr.html

The link that these three souls share is to that black and gold shield, for two, it was membership, for the last, it was the link from a father, who instilled a sense of honor and service in his son. The First Team as they are called seems to have a special mojo for taking responsibility that infects those who have served in their ranks. It seems in the case of Dr. Soltes, to have been passed from father to son.

As the years turn to decades and the image seared into the mind of that day, begins to fade in the mist of time and the faces of Rick Rescorla, Mark Daily and Rob Soltes standing along side the long road that had led from that place, being to fade in our rearview mirror, I vow to never forget, and will always remember these men for their love for this country and their sense of duty and service.

The words that have come to haunt me, are the ones spoken by President George W. Bush when he told the American people in his famous speech after September 11, that the losses from combat in this new war would be less than those lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. How wrong was his vision, and how many more will fall before the inevitable next attack comes. The only sure thing is that in the future, other's will step forward to serve their fellow citizens and in doing so will forfeit their lives.

Studying History from this POV

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Example of the lack of historical knowledge

Mark Safranski master of Zenpundit has posted what I would deem the read of the summer. His post comes at the end of a week that gave the world the chance to reflect on two important dates that occurred back to back and marked the beginning and the end of the most horrific event of modern history, A “Teachable Moment”, 70 Years On and Thank you Greatest Generation. These two events, have slipped the pages of memory for most, and are retained amid the shrinking cadre of people who count history as an important craft to be followed or taught.

Mark found the seed for his post in a post, September 1, 1939 by fellow blogger Lexington Green who invited readers to list their favorite book on World War II. Mark drew on Lex's post to pen an important piece on the state of teaching history in our public schools.

The ideological Marxoid craziness of which Lex writes does indeed exist, though it is far more common in university courses than in secondary school classrooms ( Oak Park, though, is a pretty liberal UMC burg) and more common in urban school districts on the coasts than in the Midwest or South. In particular, I have seen firsthand at national conferences, teacher-zealots from California who appear to have been kicked out of Trotskyite Collectives for excessive radicalism and who are more like the mentally unsound homeless than someone entrusted with the education of children. They are largely scary exceptions though. The main problem with the teaching of history in our public schools is that as far as subjects go, history is a tertiary concern of government officials, administrators and school boards; as a result, most of history instructors are hard working and well-meaning people who are by education, totally unqualified for the positions they hold.

Sadly, Mark's observations are on target with laser clarity. Each year the number of students failing to graduate high school continue to fall. Enrollment in colleges and universities have undergone a demographic shift that causes one to ask, Where have all the young men gone?

Can it be that young men, once allowed to read about the acomplishments of their ancestors, have been made content to learn that those forefather's surpressed every other race, creed and gender, leaving them with a inner sense of self-loathing. No wonder that when compared to many men today, the site The Art of Manliness looks foreign.

Mark continues:

Aggravating matters, even if a prospective teacher did major in history in college, fewer of their professors were full-time history instructors than ever before, meaning that even the quality of the small minority of teachers who are history majors is going into decline! NCLB scorns history as a subject, so school districts across the nation will continue to starve it. Poorer districts will fire all the social studies teachers in coming years and parcel out the history sections to unwilling English teachers in order to save the jobs that will preserve reading scores (assuming those are making AYP in the first place). After that, the science teachers will start to get the axe.

Read more:American Public Schools and History

As I finished reading this post and began to read the growing list of 41 Comments », I was struck with the impression that much of what Mark was warning about was being illustrated right before my eyes. The majority of the comments began to focus on a debate over the legitimacy of interning people of Japanese ancestry during the war. As much as the debate was lively and civil from both sides, it took away from the main point of Mark's post that history as taught in American schools is barely taught let along, focusing more on the social aspects of history instead of the consequences and effect on civilization. Americans are taught that our government failed to protect the rights of all citizens, at the same time, no mention is made of the interment and torture of foreign nationals by the Japanese government during the same time, or the the 20,000 Japanese-American citizens living in Japan being forced to renounce their citizenship at the point of a bayonet.http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/reviewsw109.htm. and http://home.comcast.net/~winjerd/CivCamps.html.

Mark's respondents are a rather astute crowd whom do not reflect the average young American, who for the most part remains ignorant of many of the major events of history. But, many of them, became hung up on discussing a finite point, instead of addressing Mark's original thesis, that history is an almost non-existent subject, or at best used as a medium to chastise and reinforce the negative aspects of American and European history over any achievements.

What I have found in many of the classes I teach, is that the older students who are re-entering, have learned most of their history from watching the History Channel, or a series like Band of Brothers on HBO, and seem to be more receptive and interested in learning and discussing history. If I had a penny for every time one of my students said, "I saw that on the History Channel." I would have a jar of pennies. At least I get that from them, younger students, essays are filled with comments, like "corruption, lies, robbing the poor, crushing the dreams of the people, and a president worse than Hitler," when describing American government. If you try and ask the student to explain their rationale, they respond that it is the truth as they have learned from their history classes in high school and by watching John Stewart and Bill Mahr. It is revealing that during a discussion about World War II, General Patton, was only remembered for hitting a soldier, not his brilliant relief of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge.

A few months ago I was privileged to lead a reading group discussing Thomas Barnett's book Great Powers: America and the World After Bush. The touchstone chapter that set the stage to understand America's role in the future can be found in Chapter 3, where Barnett looks back at American history and in the space of seventy some pages outlines the accomplishments that are now for the most part overlooked in high school classrooms. I wrote a post that described my view on that subject, A Few Thoughts on the Importance of Teaching American History, it still has merit and deserves review.

Reads of the Week

A writer finding his voice

Steven Pressfield

Cpl. Joseph Etchells from 3 Plt, 2 Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attached to 1 Plt, 2 Rifles

Cpl. Benjamin Kopp, United State Army Ranger

This weeks recommended reads will take you from how to put your thoughts to pen, to the challenge of Afghanistan and our growing peer competitor China. Then on to the sea, before pausing to ponder the personal cost of war.

It's The Tribes Stupid! founder, author Steven Pressfield has been offering up priceless jewels that anyone who wants to write well can take to the bank. For a taste I am highlighting and link the latest.

Steven begins:

I’ve been lucky in my career in having a few really terrific mentors–just guys who’ve taught me stuff about writing and work. The best is Norman Stahl, the cosmically brilliant documentarian, novelist and military historian. Do you know people who’ve got a lot of bullshit? Norm has the least of anybody I’ve ever known. In [...]

Read more:

“Writing Wednesdays” #4: On Research, Or What I Learned from a Single Sheet of Fool’s Cap

And this week he serves up a lesson in finding your "writer's voice."

How do you find your writer’s voice? A lot of humbug has been written on this subject. The myth is that in finding that voice, the writer achieves a kind of personal enlightenment. She discovers “who she really is.”Not in my experience.This is not to say that voice is unimportant. It’s crucial, make-or-break. Without [...]

Read more:

“Writing Wednesdays” #5: The Writer’s Voice

Weighing in on today's election in Afghanistan is Thomas Barnett direct from his World War Room at Esquire.com with his thought provoking views.

Because Karzai's probably going to win, and Obama's still going to trust another puppet. Because so-called democracy may take the vote, but the Taliban's still going to rule many hearts and minds. Because more U.S. troops may fight harder, but Pakistan's got the last word. To America, at least, Thursday is just another day in another long, unpopular war. And that's why Obama should be worried.

Read more:

Why the Afghanistan Election May Not Really Matter

Turning to China, Tom links an article by Henry K Kissinger that follows by 2 days a similar piece by Barnett.

Read more:

HAK on the Pacific

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions can always be counted on to produce some of the most thought inspiring and informative posts. In this one he tackles to sea.

William Shakespeare once penned: "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give thee, the more I have, For both are infinite." We are fast learning that Shakespeare might have been right about love but he was wrong about the ocean. Neither the sea nor its bounty is infinite. Since a portion of my business involves port and harbor security and international supply chains, I pay attention to events in the maritime realm as well as events on land. For example, in another post that drew from Shakespeare entitled A Rose by Any Other Name Might Smell as Sweet, but Would It Sell? Consider the Slimehead, I discussed the issue of collapsing fish stocks in the world's oceans.

Read more:

The Not So Infinite Sea

Michael Yon closes out tonight's recommended reads with this reminder of the sacrifices made by men most of us did not know, but own a moment to pause and reflect on their lives.

Benjamin was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates quietly attended the funeral, as did my good friend, Colonel Erik Kurilla, the new commander of Ranger Regiment, where Kopp served until America lost one of its finest Sons.

Yet the effect of Corporal Kopp did not end on the battlefields of Afghanistan; he only regrouped and continued to serve. Corporal Kopp had volunteered as an organ donor and his heart was transplanted. Two days after most people would have died, Benjamin Kopp’s heart was transplanted into Judy Meikle. According to the Washington Post, Meikle said, "How can you have a better heart?" said a grateful Judy Meikle, 57, of Winnetka, Ill., who is still recovering from the surgery. "I have the heart of a 21-year-old Army Ranger war hero beating in me."

Other organs were also donated for other recipients.

And of Joseph Ecthells:

On August 11, I attended a small ceremony for a British soldier from this base in Helmand who was killed in combat the day after Benjamin passed. His name was Joseph Etchells. I was told how Joseph died in a bomb ambush, and that his last request was to be cremated, loaded into a firework, and launched over the park where he used to play as a kid. When Joseph’s last request was explained, I burst out laughing and the British soldier who told me also was laughing. The absurd humor of Joseph’s request was familiar, and it was as though Joseph were standing there with us, laughing away.

Steel your hearts and read more as you gaze on the incredible photos that accompany this post:

The Kopp-Etchells Effect