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t has come to light that the 12 Republican senators who threw their support behind the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act” (RMA) were swayed by cash and political clout wielded by a group of prominent donors, several of whom identify as “gay.” At least ten GOP senators were needed to join Senate Democrats to reach the required 60-vote threshold for passage of the bill, which mandates that all 50 states must recognize same-sex “marriages,” even in the event that the Supreme Court overturns its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision. The New York Times reported: Behind the scenes, a group of...

Vote's implications unclear but likely to be far-reaching. Citing an effort to save money and eliminate job duplication, Bexar County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to undertake management of the day-to-day operations of San Antonio's only tolling authority. The vote will now bring the decisions of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority “closer to an elected body,” said Commissioner Kevin Wolff, who made the proposal. The RMA board remains intact for now. The commissioners already appoint the entire RMA board, and the governor names the chairman. “If we would merge at the very least the operational aspects of the RMA today and...

“Ideas matter.” So says the first sentence in the Army’s newly published Capstone Concept, titled Operational Adaptability: Operating Under Conditions of Uncertainty and Complexity in an Era of Persistent Conflict. It bears the imprimatur of its primary author, Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a revolutionary thinker. Not surprisingly then, its the most revolutionary document the Army has produced in a long time because it discards two very big ideas – actually it discards one and demolishes the other — that have driven Army doctrine and weapons buying over the past three decades. The first idea retired by the new capstone concept...

April 15th is the National Day of Shouting. (This is not for the IRS reason.) The National Day of Shouting is being observed in many public high schools across the nation. Students, faculty and staff are asked to shout in all school situations to draw attention to the ignorance, apathy and injustice of our society toward those who are RM (Racially Misassigned). An unnamed representative of the RMA (Racially Misassigned Americans) explains racial misassignment thusly: “We are not talking about the fact that most all of us Americans are of varied racial backgrounds, we are talking about the fact that...

The future of an interstate planned to run through Victoria appears murkier than ever. Harris County, a key point along the proposed Interstate 69 route, pulled out of the I-69 Alliance in mid-May. In an article in the May 15 Houston Chronicle, Bill Murphy and Rad Sallee wrote that Harris County pulled out of the I-69 Alliance after county commissioners decided too much was spent annually in membership costs. The county hopes that a bill in legislation right now is passed, because it would give them access to build a toll road as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor parallel to...

War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today. By Max Boot. Gotham Books, 2006, 640 pp. $35.00. Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy. By Frederick W. Kagan. Encounter Books, 2006, 432 pp. $29.95. The idea of a "revolution in military affairs" (RMA) based on new information technology (IT) has sparked the imagination of defense intellectuals and policymakers for nearly three decades. In that time, it has also guided a sizable chunk of the U.S. Defense Department's experiments and investments in new technology. The related but ill-defined notion of a "military transformation" even...

The subject of technology in modern warfare has been covered by many scholars and soldiers before. But Max Boot takes a refreshingly novel approach in "War Made New." He uses battles as metaphors to demonstrate that revolutions in military affairs, or RMAs, have a pedigree. Tracing the history of warfare from the French invasion of Italy in the late 15th century to Afghanistan and Iraq today, Mr. Boot contends that RMAs are the preserve of Western militaries or of non-Western militaries, like Japan's, clever enough to mimic the Western style of war. These RMAs, he says, have been decisive agents...

China is modernizing its military forces faster than anyone expected, escalating the potential danger to the island of Taiwan, to American forces and bases in Asia, and to the overall balance of power in the region. "China adheres to the military strategy of active defense and works to speed up the revolution of military affairs (RMA) with Chinese characteristics," says the white paper Beijing issued in December. It points to "leapfrog development" in high-tech weapons for its missile units, navy, and air force. Where many American and Asian analysts said before that China would be able to mount a credible...

* * * [asterisks indicate omitted text] The challenges facing the military today, however, are no less daunting than the opportunities are promising. Most leaders and observers agree that the U.S. military will have to "transform" itself in order to maintain its lead as well as to be able to meet the challenges of the present and the future for which it was not designed. At the same time, the U.S. is engaged in a war on terrorism, in peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, and in a massive peacekeeping, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and reconstruction effort in Iraq. Tensions over...

THE DEFENCE MATRIX (Australia) Australia's national defence strategy, outlined just over two years ago, has been rendered obsolete by the rapidly changing nature of war. A special investigation by Max Walsh and Fred Brenchley reveals that the lessons of the war in Iraq demand a revolution in defence policy. When modern wars are fought on television, image can be everything. And the recent war in Iraq contained many of them. From the convoys of tanks racing across the desert towards Baghdad, through to the high-tech weaponry and symbolic toppling of statues of Saddam Hussein, the conflict showed just how rapidly...

OUR CRAFT IN DEMAND Australian ocean-going technology is to the fore as the US military seeks a fleet of mini aircraft carriers. The United States military is trying to interest Australia in joint development of a mini aircraft carrier. Ironically, the idea is Australian, an extension of the successful high-speed ferry. Incat, the Tasmanian builder of wave-piercing catamaran ferries, already has two on lease to the US, both in service in the Persian Gulf, and a third will be delivered in September. Austal Ships in Perth has a 101m fast-ferry in service with the US Marines in the western Pacific,...

Interesting site with this informative outline re Asymmetic Warfare, its conundrums, some of our options, etc. http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/02spring/gray.htm

This article explains 4th Generation Warfare (4GW), one aspect of the new modernization program Rumsfeld and others are touting. What is 4GW? What are the core principles underlying it? How does it connect to Weapons of Mass Destruction? Where can I get a quick, efficient primer? Right here on Winds of Change.