Syria is changing as we speak, so let’s look around at some other notable pieces of the day…
Stanley Sloan, once of CRS, now at Middlebury College, uses the Syrian crisis as a lens on the U.S. pivot to Asia: “…the inability of the Obama administration to gather a European coalition behind its approach to Syria suggests that American leadership has already been seriously weakened, and history may show that the pivot policy played a key role in that process.”
Meanwhile, the Navy’s Adm. Jonathan Greenert is doing his best to promote mil-to-mil relations with his Chinese counterpart, even as — reports the Naval War College’s Andrew Erickson — China is working hard to practice on its own in the Gulf of Aden. (Meanwhile, China and Pakistan are one week into their annual bilateral Shaheen 2 air exercises.)
“Lazarus” at Information Dissemination says a return to verrry flexible manning could help the Navy boost forward presence.
And just for fun: Joshua Chamberlain’s Medal of Honor has turned up at a church sale in Maine.
Warlord’s Quote of the Day
“Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The Statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.” — Winston Churchill, My Early Life: A Roving Commission
Contributed by Col. (ret.) Joe Collins, AFJ contributing editor and a national security strategy professor at the National War College. From a list compiled by the Warlord Loop, a private email forum for national security experts.
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