Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Air Force & OSD: Different Takes On Transformation?
Issue Brief
On August 23, the Defense Department’s Under Secretary for Intelligence, Stephen Cambone, will brief President Bush on military transformation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. This isn’t the first time Dr. Cambone has journeyed to Crawford to give [Read More...]
Weapons: Kerry Should Say What He Supports
Issue Brief
According to political analyst Andrew Kohut, the decision of voters to remove a sitting President unfolds in two steps. First, voters have to decide the incumbent has made major mistakes. Then they have to decide the challenger can [Read More...]
Pentagon Transformation Plans Begin to Unravel
Issue Brief
If there is a season of discontent for Bush Administration defense planners, it must surely be summer. In the summer of 2001, terrorist attacks undercut any pretense that the administration was better prepared than its predecessors for the [Read More...]
Missile Defense: What Are The Next Steps?
Issue Brief
Sometime this summer or fall, the Pentagon will announce that the ballistic-missile defense system the Bush Administration has been building in Alaska and California is operational. That declaration will be greeted with a great deal of partisan rhetoric [Read More...]
Secret Sub Study Raises Intelligence Issues
Issue Brief
If you walk the hallways of the Pentagon these days, you can sense the power of Donald Rumsfeld’s team ebbing away. The military senses it too, and has become perceptibly less concerned about the opinions of political appointees. [Read More...]
Indian Air Force Defeats U.S. Fighters in Exercise
Issue Brief
In February, U.S. fighter pilots participated in their first air-combat exercise with the air force of India. The results were shocking. According to comments made the same month by Representative Randy Cunningham (R-CA), Indian fighters defeated America’s top-of-the-line [Read More...]
Who’s the Biggest Disarmer of the U.S. Military in Recent History? Not Who You Might Think
Article Published in The Baltimore Sun
WASHINGTON – Ever since Sen. John Kerry became the likely presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, Republicans have been trying to undercut his military credentials. Their basic message is that Mr. Kerry is a [Read More...]
Rumsfeld’s Troubles: A Chance to Rethink Priorities
Issue Brief
Donald Rumsfeld will survive the Iraqi prison scandal, but his freedom to deal with Congress as he wishes will not. Rumsfeld has been blessed with a passive Congress controlled by Republicans who were loathe to challenge their administration [Read More...]
Losing Rumsfeld: What Would It Mean?
Issue Brief
Donald Rumsfeld’s skillful mix of reason and regret before the congressional armed services committees may briefly restrain his critics, but his future as defense secretary remains uncertain. Military sources say there is more to come concerning the abuse [Read More...]
Missile Defense: Kinetic Intercepter A Big Plus
Issue Brief
The Pentagon is completing strategic planning guidance for the preparation of a 2006 defense budget, and some important changes are apparent. Gone is the notion that the U.S. is in the midst of a “strategic pause” during which [Read More...]