In an era when public opinion and perceptionmatter, when social networks are more important than military networks,
and the resulting interconnections can form terrible insurgencies, why
are we not acknowledging the power of media? The demise — or cutbacks
if you’re an optimist — of the VOA inspite of a proven track record is
short sighted. A full frontal cultural and media attack, sublte and not
sublte, is necessary to counter perceptions and understandings of the
West.

Link: Foreign Affairs – Pitch Imperfect – Sanford J. Ungar.

Summary: The Voice of America — the United States’ best tool of public diplomacy — is being subjected to systematic cutbacks, even as the country’s international image is suffering. Washington must reverse the trend or face even greater hostility abroad.

Not much to say on this, I need to get busy on other things, but in case you didn’t see…
Link: Radioactive rockets ‘for sale’ in breakaway Soviet republic – Sunday Times – Times Online.

“It clearly demonstrates why Russian and British intelligence links have got to receive priority.”

Besides the obvious issue ofimproperly preparing troops for duty, the trend of the forced war on
the military — the military you go to war with not the military you
want to go to war with — is simply going to hurt the US in the mid run
(i.e. not even so far out as the long run). Moral will be hurt,
national guard enlistments ("I didn’t sign up for this") have been hit
hard, what does the government not see that we don’t? Not addressed but
certainly just as important is the impact of private contractors
filling roles previously held by military personnel: cooks, drivers,
etc. The old news now is there are no more rear areas:

One
of the biggest lessons to be relearned from Iraq is that there is no
safe place on the battlefield for soft-skinned or poorly-trained troops.