Americas Defense Meltdown - IT Acquisition Advisory Council

52 • Shattering Illusions: A National Security Strategy for 2009-2017Gordon IV, War by Other Means (Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation, 2008). Insurgenciesmay also fail against brutal, incompetent dictatorships, of course.48 Gompert and Gordon 2008, 34. See also Richards, If We Can Keep It, 50-52.49 Martin van Creveld, The Transformation of War (New York: Free Press, 1991), 225.50 “To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel; to letthat opponent kill you is unnecessary and therefore foolish,” “Why Iraq Will end Like VietnamDid,” http://www.defense-and-society.org/creveld/why_iraq_will_end_as_vietnam_did.htm51 To illustrate, one way to jump start an economy is for the developed world to begin buying thingsfrom it. Initially, these will often be agricultural commodities. Unfortunately, such a policyruns into opposition from domestic constituencies and leads to a variety of obstacles includingagricultural tariffs and subsidies, “Buy American” provisions, and the desire of senior politiciansto reward American contractors. For a discussion, see Thomas P. M. Barnett, Blueprint for Action(New York: Putnam, 2005), 244. Note that dividing a country along ethnic lines – sometimesoffered as a solution for problems in developing countries – may exchange a single repressiveand incompetent government for a set of them.52 Martin van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive, (New York: Public Affairs/Perseus, 2002).53 The new administration may come under some pressure to consider a goal of nuclear disarmament.Several figures of the foreign policy establishment from both parties, including HenryKissinger and Sam Nunn, are advocating such an approach. See Carla Anne Robbins, “Thinkingthe Unthinkable: A World Without Nuclear Weapons,” The New York Times, June 30, 2008.54 Ottaway 2008, 4.55 Information reports, particularly raw reports of the type so often cited in the neoconservativepress as evidence of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons or his close cooperation with Osamabin Laden, are notoriously unreliable. On any given day, for example, there are hundreds ofreports of flying saucers, space aliens and Bigfoot. It is the job of intelligence to find the nuggetsof legitimate information in the mound of reports that stream in.56 “Executive Order: Further Amendments to Executive Order 12333, United States IntelligenceActivities,” Office of the White House Press Secretary, July 31, 2008. The term “update” wasused by the press secretary in the “fact sheet” issued with the executive order.