Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Nation's Financial Crisis Creates Challenges, Opportunities for Defense

By Lawrence P. Farrell Jr.

These are tough times for the nation, and for defense.

The U.S. financial system is broken and the country is in dire fiscal shape.

The defense budget is under enormous pressure. The extent of future cuts is still unknown, so uncertainty abounds.

Much of the current circumstance is defined by existing problems. These can be assessed and analyzed. They are the “knowns.” But unanticipated events can also affect national security, finances and defense. These are “wildcards.”

We can posture more easily for the knowns. Wildcards are tougher. The best response to both knowns and wildcards is to develop robust and diverse capabilities. Robustness may be difficult to structure, but diversity has a robustness all of its own. One wonders what are the knowns and wildcards, and what do we do about them.


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25 comments:

  1. I would cut the defense budget but I would do it in a smart way that would leave us with a defensive capability:
    1)end the wars tomorrow and bring everyone and everything home immediately.
    2)Plan on keeping the current "war budget" for one more year and use the extra $300 billion or so to refurbish any equipment worn out during our recent wars and to buy replacement equipment and parts. In other words bring our military back to full readiness with everythiong working and ready to go.
    3)the following year cut the budget to "normal", i.e. enough to pay the salaries and training costs as well as the upkeep on equipment and material.
    Under this plan we could cut the defense budget by about $300 billion after one year.

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  2. The kids now have no Future, they are the Ninja Generation No Income, No JObs, No Assets adn I add No Future

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  3. AS always our god-king president has the answer.

    We should have a civilian defense force at least as well funded as the military. We could name them the SS and they could wear purple shirts instead of brown. Of course they would be answerable only to "the ONE". At the same time "the ONE" will make it illegal to own guns so that no one will be able to resist his new private army.

    This is a brilliant idea and has NEVER been tried before. It is truly an unprecedented idea. He is the smartest leader ever in the history of the cosmos. I think we should do what he says.

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  4. You are correct, there we are definitely in a slump. I mean seriously just google or yahoo search, Layoffs 2011
    You will see, things are not good.

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  5. Really 412, you are a genius, you just figured that out? I have been telling this to people since 2007, Look at the Empty stores everywhere, look at the Foreclosures, FOod stamps Participation reaching 50000, Homeless People everywhere, No jobs, You just reached this conclusion now?? This country is screwed and BTW Bush Created the TSA so blame him for the Brown Shirts.

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  6. oh my god. people i just came back to this web site after being away for almost a year, I actually left this web site because i thought things were picking up an you guys were just fear mongering.
    Oh my God The news today is horrifying? has anyone else noticed it's falling apart right before our eyes?
    I was in the bank the other day and two military suits in front of me were talking about a severe economic collapse by October and possible run on banks in the United states. They were talking quietly amongst themselves but i heard everything.

    Am i losing my mind or is this really happening?

    please tell me this is a dream!

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  7. 548 its a dream to you, go twitter facebook and dance with the stars, no problems here, just move along

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  8. 5 48
    everything is fine
    endless wars
    economey going into greatest deppresion in the world history
    and you will soon see everyone eating out of garbage cans looking for rats plump.

    o my god aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

    i have one question punk

    do you have gold
    god and ggggguuuuuuuu

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  9. Its interesting that some of you not all of you are trashing people that are warning us what is coming, yet you come back to this web site time and time again
    Fear mongering for some and truth for other.
    See how you preppers stab each other in the back.

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  10. The ones who cant see what is coming, deserve what happens, its plainly obvious that a big crash is coming, when we dont know but it cant be too much longer

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  11. I agree 1056, in this case ignorance is not bliss
    Those who do not believe tbat its coming do deserve it.

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  12. Gaddafi invested billion via Goldman Sachs. Now that we are at 'war' GS gets to keep 37 billion and line their pockets. I am sure GS had nothing to do with the last unprovoked Empire ware.

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  13. Hahaha bilion, chump change! Gaddafi, thats what he gets for dealing with bankers lol

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  14. Who REALLY wrote this article, Donald Rumsfeld? Knowns and wildcards? Defense imperatives? It should be called Offense not Defense, considering how many bases we have around the world and how many wars are underway. How about we END the wars, eh? There's a novel idea.

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  15. Sheeple mentality

    The odds of your home burning home is .002%, but you pay for fire insurance.

    The odds of you being starved to death are very high, but you won't buy $200 in extra canned food and tuck it in the bottom of a closet to keep yourself alive.

    Sheeple are told what to do and they do it. They don't reason anything out themselves.

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  16. Bankers start wars to create debt. Debt equals control. Presidents don't start wars. They are about as much a part of the process as a paperboy is to a newpaper conglomerate.

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  17. Enough already with the fancy smancy qoutes and the I know better then you attitude coming from a select few. I can feel alot of frustration in some of these blogs.
    Things are never going to be like they were and most of you are losing your ability to make money and prosper like you did in the past.
    You like many have lost almost everything, and your not getting any younger. For others the game is ove, so now is the time to see who you teally ate and ask yourselves what is it that I can do to make tjos a better world for your family, nieghbors anf ftiends

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  18. Sounds like a much better idea. Some people get off on the activity of telling the world how dumb they are and how much smarter they are for stocking up on food, for instance, like they are the only person in the world to ever have that idea.

    As for bankers, that is a simplistic explanation actually. Yes banks usually play a role, and they create debt and obtain usury. But unfortunately the world is much more complex than you portray it to be and they are only part of the puzzle. Think for example about oil, gold, and other natural resources. Think about how powerful nations always seek to maintain or achieve more power. I know certain websites boil it all down to the notion of evil bankers only. If you want to blame it all on some financial CEO's sitting in board rooms, though, you will be left behind sitting at the bus station.

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  19. I agree with 4:31 and 4:55 they have the right attitude about things and things they sure are a changing.
    Some others on here however are so arrogant and self righteous especially towards the newbies, It's no wonder that everyday people, who might have a chance to come to our lord, prepare for what is to come before all this takes place, get turned off by some of these self righteous preppers called religious zealots who carry guns and swear by God they are gonna cut the rich man down.
    What a turn off.
    Thank God for good hearted Christians!
    May they fill the earth after the crash

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  20. People, the writing is on the wall. And its been there for years. We need to stop making since of this and start preparing for inevitably.

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  21. I went to the original website of the article and posted a comment that we just passed a gigantic defense bill. Meanwhile the politicians are complaining that the poor aren't doing enough to help the country. How fucked up is that?

    Also, just saw a headline that inflation is down to 4% because the price of toys and TVs went down. Try eating a toy.

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  22. We are in a full bore depression, by comparison this will be a million x worse than the last one, when the sheep wake up it will be too late and there will be blood in the streets

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  23. I think if we can all connect on a higher consciousness level and start to think
    "happy thoughts" about our country and our land and our president, we can all make for a better life .
    It takes a little bit of quiet time.
    Let me explain just a little bit if i may.

    I being a young single MOM, and taking care of two teenagers (and it is not an easy job folks).
    I have found that when you get an opportunity to have some down time, away from hustle and bustle of the noise out there on the TV, the local town gossip, the internet, and if you start to use that free time to think of pretty places, like:
    beaches
    a warm summer stroll in the neighborhood,
    sitting down by a cool running stream tossing rocks.
    Those can be your happy thoughts too!

    Don't you all agree that it's just a matter of frame of mind?

    I am no better off Now then i was when the so called economy was "booming" and everyone was making money flipping houses.
    i am still struggling at a local dinner here in Memphis, TN.
    So what has changed for me you ask?
    well for one food is more expensive, but we eat less.
    Gas is more expensive but we take public transportation more and my two sons are riding bikes to their part jobs.
    As a family of three we bring in the same amount of money we did 8 years ago, $650 a week.
    OK i know, OK it ain't great but it pays the bills.
    Let's stop all these negative mental attitudes and start thinking happy thoughts!
    I bet you it would make a difference?

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  24. Single mom sounds like a good plan, but in actuality it is more like an Ostrich with his head in the sand. Dreaming about better times wont make a difference. Start storing extra food, water and protection now, otherwise when the storm comes and it will you wont be caught unprepared.

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  25. Thank you for this article. That’s all I can say. You most definitely have made this blog into something special. You clearly know what you are doing, you’ve covered so many bases.Thanks!

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Everyone is encouraged to participate with civilized comments.