XIV. US Congress, You're Way Off Base!

     As Congress looks forward to reconvening in January, 2015, Senator McCann, among others on the Republican side (in control), will no doubt seek to overcome the effects of sequestration as it pertains to the military.  My Whack-O Theory is that the policy has had an enormous motivating effect in bringing about a virtual revolution in military tactics due to innovation and advances in technology that are only now being applied to the military.  It is bringing the US military into a new cyber world that is available to it, largely due to the US Navy and the Chairman's Office, Joint Chiefs of Staff.  The Navy should be given the go ahead through Congressional encouragement to achieve specific applications of the revolutionary methodologies throughout all military branches of service for the sake of the country.

     Ever since the ancients, ground forces have been the major thrust of military might--to conquer lands and to sweep over civilizations.  Those days are gone forever!  Now, quickness of movement, e.g., in the Desert Storm Campaign, have heralded new methods and tactics.  Let China and Russia remain committed to those olden-day ways of warfare.  The US must move on.  It means restructuring how the military operates.

     I am thankful that over these several years I have encouraged military acceptance of today's   technological revolution, which, be it obvious to reference the commonplace, is typified by the cell-phone and the Internet, bringing about a radically new world in communications. In the military realm, there is a significant start toward change--the coming of the age of drones, for example.  But this is just the start of the revolution in military, heralding an epoch of different strategies and new technologies.  The importance of this start has been in revealing that this revolution embraces reliance upon much cheaper (i.e., inexpensive) contrivances and materials and the deployment of far fewer military personnel.  That is to say, there's much to be said for a leaner armed military on the "battlefield" (newly defined).

     But I am sad to say that rightfully-vilified countries like North Korea are on that same wave length of looking to harness technological advances avidly, while many traditionalists in the West still want to hold on dearly to the old and the deteriorated methods of the past.  Listen, Congress, to the appeals of our Western venture capitalists, for one, to unleash new ways to victory and protection of our shores, though it means to abandon the old, yet accomplished, well-worn paths in the US past.

    I am also thankful at this Holiday Season that the US continues to support and defend peace around the world through maintaining its US military presence in some 200 countries with over 700 installations!  (A fact that gnaws at the Russians, perhaps the Chinese, too.)