Dateline: Holiday Inn Select, Military Highway, Norfolk VA, 3 August 2004
Got in late last night to Norfolk, thanks to the five-hour delay at Dulles due to weather. Nothing seemed to work for me yesterday, as United Express lost my bag for 24 hours so I got to go an extra day in my clothes today. Luckily, I was clad in all these ìtravel clothesî that Vonne has me trying out for China, or microfiber stuff thatís pretty much made to be worn for days on end without washing. Wonít test the theory too hard though. While I could get away with ìNewport casualî today at Joint Forces Command, tomorrow I keynote a conference on Security Transition and Reconstruction Operations, or STRO. See! And you thought Sys Admin Force sounded clunky!
Then again, if youíre involved in just a small operation of this sort, you could dub it STRO-lite.
Today was a weird sort of treat for me: non-stop command briefings that read me into all the experimentation going on in the J-9 directorate at JFCOM. J-9 is basically in charge of imagining the future force, so if JFCOM is the center of the uniform militaryís transformation efforts, then J-9 is the ground zero. The briefs ranged from fairly standard to downright fascinating (e.g., the official joint lessons learned effort on Operation Iraqi Freedom). Since I was an audience of one surrounded by about a half-dozen senior officers and/or contractors throughout, I got to ask all the questions I wanted, and was encouraged to pontificate at will. Weird for me, since Iím used to always standing up all the time in such meetings, and performing instead of being scrutinized for reactions. But you have to like a room where you enter to find half the guys holding a copy of your book, waiting for autographs, and the other half set to give you VIP-style briefings (their preferred term being Thought Leader for people such as myself, which sure beats Hot-House Flower or Lily of the Valley).
This day was a long-awaited tryout of sorts that was requested by the commander of JFCOM, Adm. Ed Giambastiani. I briefed the admiral and his senior flags back last fall, and theyíve been trying to get me back ever since. I was all set to come on 1 April, but then my dadís funeral interrupted, so it took far longer than either side wanted. But with the book thing now largely behind me, setting myself up as a Senior Concept Developer to JFCOM (a largely honorific title for me since Iím already DoD and thus wonít be paid as a contractor would) goes along nicely with my membership in the Strategistsí Working Group on the GWOT for Special Operations Command. Now, if I can just get Central Command to grant me some cool title, Iíll be officially titled in the three uniformed clubs that really matter right now in terms of military transformation: JFCOM, SOCOM and CENTCOM. In short, Iíve basically been given all the official entry I need to plead my case for the Leviathan-Sys Admin concepts with all the key players in the fieldóhaving done my thing in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Again to all those reviews that said my ideas werenít practical enough for serious consideration as policyóFoo on you! The simple reality is that PNM got me the invites to all three venues, which only provesóI guessóthat I know more about military grand strategy than the reviewers at Publishers Weekly.
Hmm, not exactly a high bar on that one.
Anyway, while I wonít take Michael OíHanlon advise to ìdeclare victoryî any time soon, I feel more and more optimistic that there are many allies to be had in this grand bureaucratic struggle, and I met more than a few of them today.
Yes, yes, theyíll have to pry my policy prescriptions from my cold dead fingers!
On to the news (no Times today) and then I want to catch ìThe Villageî at a local multiplex before it gets too late.
And yes, I have spoken to my webmaster about getting the article I mentioned in yesterdayís main blog up on my site. I am straining poor Critt with my megablogs as of late, so some patience is in order.
Todayís catch:
Who is Osamaís candidate for president?
ìBush endorses idea of intelligence czar: ëWe are a nation in danger,í he says,î by Judy Keen, USA Today, 3 Aug, p. 1A.
ìKerry criticizes Bushís pace in war on terror: Compaires his own ideas with those of 9/11 Commission,î by Jill Lawrence, USA, 3 Aug, p. 2A.
ìSecurity Alert as Double-Edged Sword: Some Democrats See Terror Issue As Tool Of Partisan Politics; Crying Worlf?" By Jackie Calmes and Jacob M. Schlesinger, Wall Street Journal, 3 Aug, p. A4.
ìKerry Acting Out of Necessity In Tackling the Terrorism Issue,î by John F. Harris, Washington Post, 3 Aug, p. A9.
The new normalcy raises its ugly head
ìAfter Warnings, Getting Back to Business,î by Ben White, WP, 3 Aug, p. E1.
ìWorkers stay positive, arrive at jobs as usual,î by Rick Hampson, USA, 3 Aug, p. 3A.
ìAttack Threats Cast Shadow On Forecasts,î by Nell Henderson, WP, 3 Aug, p. E1.
ìHuge net cast in terrorist search: Employee lists and thousands of delivery logs to be reviewed,î by Kevin Johnson and John Diamond, USA, 3 Aug, p. 3A.
"Preparing for the Terror Alert: Latest Warning Underscores How Little Many Have Done; The Case for Text Messaging,î by Andrea Petersen and Jesse Drucker, WSJ, 3 Aug, p. D1.
ìChurch Bombings Outrage Iraqis of All Faiths: Neighbors Express a Sense of Collective Injury,î by Pamela Constable, WP, 3 Aug, p. A1.
Civilian Sys Admin forces donít get medals or respect
ìCivilian Jobs in Iraq Pay Well but, Wives Find, Not in Respect: Halliburton, Others Help Out, But Spouses Learn They Must Do for Themselves,î by Jonathan Fig, WSJ, 3 Aug, p. A1.
The China-to-be sees a future worth creating
ìChina: Collision Course?î by Thomas A. Metzger, Hoover Digest 2004 (No. 3), found at http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/digest/043/toc043.html.