Monthly Archives: March 2009

War Report: documents and articles about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

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Archives of 14,000 documents and articles on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan compiled by the Project on Defense Alternatives. This site was begun in 2002 and has been archived as of 31 March 2009. Subsequent articles and documents on Afghanistan and Iraq are included in the Defense Strategy Review page.

http://www.comw.org/warreport/

Afghanistan Index by topic (2002-April 2009) — http://www.comw.org/warreport/#toc2

Iraq Index by topic (2002-April 2009) — http://www.comw.org/warreport/#toc1

Quadrennial Defense Review: The most pointless and destructive planning effort imaginable

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re: Is the QDR ‘a PR stunt’ or a sincere effort to reconcile posture and budget with strategy?

Came across this Tony Cordesman observation regarding the QDR (from a March 10, 2009 speech he gave at the National Defense University):

“If God really hates you, you may end up working on a Quadrennial Defense Review: The most pointless and destructive planning effort imaginable. You will waste two years on a document decoupled from a real world force plan, from an honest set of decisions about manpower or procurement, with no clear budget or FYDP, and with no metrics to measure or determine its success.”

for more see:
http://www.informationdissemination.net/2009/03/cordesmans-speech-to-ndu.html

Tony Cordesman’s Speech at National Defense University on 10 March 2009

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http://www.informationdissemination.net, 20 March 2009.

Excerpt:

Any meaningful strategy must be based on detailed force plans, procurement plans, program budgets, and measure of effectiveness.

If God really hates you, you may end up working on a Quadrennial Defense Review: The most pointless and destructive planning effort imaginable. You will waste two years on a document decoupled from a real world force plan, from an honest set of decisions about manpower or procurement, with no clear budget or FYDP, and with no metrics to measure or determine its success.

If God merely dislikes you, you may end up helping your service chief or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs draft one of those vague, anodyne strategy documents that is all concepts and no plans or execution.

If God is totally indifferent, you will end up working on our national strategy and simply be irrelevant.