Such an interstellar ballet would explain many mysteries of the outer solar system – including the strange behavior of the recently discovered Sedna, the system’s most distant known object, which occupies a strange elongated orbit far beyond Pluto.” (New York Times )
French New-Wave Filmmaker Dies at 71. (New York Times ) De Broca’s 1966 King of Hearts, an antiwar twist on the time-honored theme of the inmates running the asylum, was a constant presence in my life, having an engagement at Cambridge’s Central Square Cinema in the ’70’s of more than five years in length. The City of Cambridge ought to do something to commemorate his passing; and now is a particularly apt time for a revival of the film.
By 2000, the Defense Department had been short-changed by an estimated $426 billion over actual requirements during the previous decade, mostly in deferred or cancelled procurement. Despite hefty increases in defense spending since then, the Defense Department and White House have grossly underestimated the actual costs for prosecuting the war in Iraq, allowing the dangerous trend to continue despite the apparent infusion of new funding.
It is not difficult to find evidence of the looming crisis in major defense program activities. As I noted in an article about the Navy several months ago (Navy’s Newest Heads for Troubled Waters, DefenseWatch, Aug. 28, 2004), barring a turnabout in new ship construction rates, the sea service is vanishing before our very eyes as the size of the fleet steadily declines from about 300 ships to a projected level of 120 in the next two decades.
My colleague, Senior Editor Paul Connors, revealed this summer a future massive downsizing of Air Force tactical aviation driven by the same budget pressures (Smaller Fighter Force On The Way, DefenseWatch, July 14, 2004). And it’s impossible to write about the Army or its reserve components nowadays without tripping over the multiple problems of deployment “overstretch” and unit manning woes that have occurred by shoving a 10-division ground force into a 20-division wartime operational requirement.
What is distressing to realize is that no one — the DoD civilian leadership, Joint Chiefs of Staff, congressional defense committees or even the White House — is taking this problem seriously. That is because correcting the lag in procurement, closing the end-strength personnel gap, and covering all wartime operating costs will require an order of magnitude increase in defense spending.” — Ed Offley (DefenseWatch)
Of course, while some will see this as an argument for massive increases in defense spending, it is much more an indictment of the Bush cabal’s military adventurism. The emphasis on the ‘deferred or cancelled procurement’ of the previous decade, which is intended to castigate the Clinton administration, made sense in a world where, for a brief period, capping the insanity of continued Pentagon spending became policy.
“The use of misleading information as a military tool sparks debate in the Pentagon. Critics say the practice puts credibility at stake,” says the LA Times And what credibility, pray tell, does the US have left to lose?
Stop wondering whether civil war will erupt in Iraq. It already has. Yglesias:
Most news accounts portrayed the fighting in Mosul — the result of an insurgent counteroffensive in the wake of the American assault on Fallujah — as part of a conventional narrative of insurgents versus combined U.S. and Interim Government forces. The reality is rather more troubling.
… (The fight) … was not between an American-backed government and anti-government rebels. It was, rather, a simple fight between Sunni Arabs and Kurds with ostensible agents of the Interim Government on both sides.” (The American Prospect )
“The 20 Best North American Districts, Downtowns, and Neighborhoods” (Project for Public Spaces (PPS))
Fimoculous gears up for its usual effort compiling best-of-the-year lists. Readers of FmH will recall that I love these lists, but it does not appear necessary to duplicate his effort.
