Straus Military Reform Project

More on the Joint Strike Fighter (Opinion)

November 20, 2009

The Defense Department's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter program continues to unravel, but - sadly - the Gates/Obama Pentagon seems inclined to give it the business-as-usual approach. Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler explains in a new commentary at The Huffington Post.

 Straus Military Reform Project

The Pentagon's Self-Dismembering F-35 (Opinion)

November 12, 2009

New reports show that cost overruns for the F-35 are not only "as bad" as last year's estimates, but perceptibly worse, indicating that no progress has been made to address the problems identified by the Joint Estimating Team (JET) in 2008, explains CDI's Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler in an updated commentary for Military.com.

 Straus Military Reform Project

Follow the Money (Opinion)

November 12, 2009

Despite hundreds of reports over three decades from both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the DOD's own Inspector General (DOD IG), The Department of Defense remains unauditable. In a recent investigation, DOD IG reported 13 "material weaknesses" in the Pentagon's financial management that still go unaddressed, reflecting the lack of accountability and progress in the DOD's financial performance, explains Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler in a new commentary on The Huffington Post Web site.

 Straus Military Reform Project

America's "Shadow Force" (Miscellaneous)

November 5, 2009

David Isenberg is the author of "Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq" from Praeger Security International publishers. While his work is hardly flattering to the Pentagon and its extra-national corporations that perform the work he describes, the Journal of the International Peace Operations Association (which has a board of directors that includes representatives from several security contractors) has published a review of David's book. The review takes issue with some of the author's work, but only regarding lesser issues, explains Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler.

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Review of New Book on Modern War(s) (Opinion)

November 3, 2009

Described in Army Magazine's review as "one of the smartest and most gifted armored commanders our Army has produced," Col. Douglas Macgregor, U.S. Army (Ret.), is the author of "Warrior's Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting." The book is not just a good read about the largest armored engagement of American forces since World War II but - more importantly - about the failure of command (and commanders) in the first war against Iraq; thereby necessitating the second. Even more to the point these days, many of the same concerns apply directly to Afghanistan, which the Army's commanders are today apparently equally incapable of bringing to a resolution that does not include additional years of quagmire.

 Straus Military Reform Project

Combat Aviation's Gloomy Future (Opinion)

October 29, 2009

The defense authorization bill signed into law yesterday by President Obama pretends a bright future for the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter. The program is fully funded, and Congress even added authority for the alternate GE engine, advice sure to be taken when the definitive DOD appropriations bill is finally enacted later this year. Meanwhile, in the real world, the F-35 program continues to fall apart. The latest - but hardly last - shoe to drop is a new internal analysis (breathlessly refuted by Lockheed Martin) that the cost-growth stage for this airplane is just beginning, explains Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler with SMRP Advisor Pierre Sprey in a new commentary on The Huffington Post Web site.

 Straus Military Reform Project

The Origins of the Second Iraq War (Miscellaneous)

October 23, 2009

In 1991 in Operation Desert Storm (the first Persian Gulf war), neither the U.S. Air Force nor the Army destroyed the single most important prop to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. That prop was the Republican Guard, which suffered only light to moderate damage from the 39-day air campaign and that, while sharply engaged on the ground by American armored units, managed to escape to Iraq sufficiently intact to brutally suppress a Shi'ite rebellion in Basra, thereby deterring further Iraqi revolt and ensuring the survival of Saddam's regime.

 Straus Military Reform Project

New Report on U.S. Contractors Overseas (Reports)

October 20, 2009

David Isenberg, an adviser to the Straus Military Reform Project, has written an important new report about the use of contractors "to circumvent...public skepticism about the United States' self-appointed role as global policeman." The report addresses issues that Americans clearly prefer not to think about, but need to. Indeed, there are many in and out of government who would prefer that we not think about these issues.

 Straus Military Reform Project

The Constructive Effects of Public Exposure (Opinion)

October 19, 2009

After the practice was publicly identified in debates in the U.S. Senate in July and September/October, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees seem to have severely reduced one of their own more obnoxious, anti-defense activities, explains CDI's Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler.

 Straus Military Reform Project

Support Our Troops: The Senate Porkers' Approach (Opinion)

October 9, 2009

Despite another voracious year of excess for the porkers in Congress, the end of an era for pork has a chance of emerging, explains Winslow Wheeler in The Huffington Post.