in early February was released Quadrennial Defense Review 2010, the first of the new Obama administration, document prepared by the U.S. Defence Department which sets the strategic lines for years to come. Together with two other documents relating to foreign policy (announced for the first time in 2009 under the direction of Hillary Clinton) and national security is at the heart of reference to navigate the vast sea of \u200b\u200bthe U.S. administration about the vast world of defense to know setting priorities, objectives and perspectives. The Italian players are certainly aware of the existence of these lines from that fateful September 11, 2001, but the first report was in 1997. Washington then estimated that by the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of an opponent's well known that fixed unambiguously the agenda of the threats, the world had become increasingly unstable and urgent was the need to regularly take stock of what had emerging threats against specifying the measures necessary to address them. You do not understand the need for a document of this kind, unless one considers that the armed forces to change mindsets and adapt to new tasks need years also must consider the mentality PLANNING U.S. and brakes made by the U.S. bureaucratic behemoth, with lines of resistance to any innovation that exceed the unimaginable. Consider, for example under the eyes of all, what it means to go from an army ready to face the Soviets with nuclear weapons, and even clashing with thousands of tanks on the plains of central Europe in the armed forces who have to cope with a multitude of enemies vague and confused as Somali pirates, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Iranian nuclear threat, the disastrous humanitarian emergencies such as Haiti, the attacks from cyberspace without, however, depleted the traditional strength, the marina must Always ensure freedom of navigation or the army that the world needs to respond to the challenges of a traditional enemy as possibly China. If you consider all these elements, which must be added the time frame of implementation of new weapon systems, we understand the twenty-year time horizon of the validity of such a document.
The next step for targeting is obviously that of the allocation of resources, thankless task on which you add up all the tension between proponents of a strategy rather than the other, because the operational missions abroad in distant theaters thousands of miles from home costs a lot of money and in times of crisis, the budget discussions are on the agenda. If you include the costs to finance the Afghan war in Iraq, since 2001 the Pentagon costs than in previous years it rose by 70%! And next year will instead be increased by a meager 0.2% (as indexed for inflation) for a total of 708 billion dollars. This means that military spending in 2011 will be 13% higher than during the Korean War, 33% higher than those of Vietnam, 23% of those during the era of Reagan, 64% more than during the Cold War and 15% of the post fall of the wall (all these data are available from a well-done document Center for a New American Security ).
In the document there are no big change from the past, but one of the most interesting is undoubtedly on small wars, wars against the onset and incidence. Until 11 September, the Pentagon was ready to support both "2 +1", ie two major conflicts and a secondary. Since that day, many things have changed, and the formula has been readjusted: because of the effects of globalization, fragmentation of the world due to its interdependence, growing urbanization, technological and military supremacy of the United Sati accompanied by a relative economic decline , make sure there are no competitors able to challenge Washington on the same floor, as more and more likely to have asymmetric conflicts maybe not the same strength of the Afghan and Iraq.
For a critical review of the positions, Defense News , Center for Strategic and International Studies , The Heritage Foundation,
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments .
Afghanistan
worth noting the excellent updated by the ' Institute for the Study of War the battle that began in Afghanistan around the city of Marjah. 'S operation Moshtarak ("together") is the first large-scale offensive carried out by the United States, by coalition troops and Afghan forces and aims to recapture the town in Helmand province held by the Taliban and became an important center production and trade of opium.
is an indication of a blog of a freelance correspondent in Afghanistan. E 'by a former Green Beret and in other news, including a report on U.S. bases and logistical difficulties of the war in Afghanistan, there are some nice pictures. We report an interesting
review a book promising
"The Insurgent Archipelago" Johma Mackinley of English, the author has two huge advantages, it is English, not American - as Kilkullen Rupert Smith and two who wrote the best recent books on the subject - and has over twenty years experience in the field of counter-insurgency operations in Borneo began commander of a group of Gurkhas. The greatest value to a last rapid is the onset of new types of analysis, global and inspired by religious motives, and counter measures to be taken, first of all, the battle of ideas.
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