The situation today is murkier. There is great need to clarify the murk, and to provide clarity to the broader organization and to the country at large.

And they’re union workers — once they see their jobs are dependent upon freedom of navigation more than union dues, they’ll fall right in line and deliver the votes as a block.

Which, I can’t believe it hasn’t been done already, but the Navy isn’t known for great marketing campaigns.

– Max

We used to make fun of the old SAC slogan “Peace is Our Profession,” but on reflection, wise guys like myself were perhaps “too clever by half” in that we didn’t fully appreciate the extent to which that slogan conditioned the public to willingly accept pouring large amounts of their tax dollars into the purchase of weapons systems which never fired a shot and sat around a lot( or in the case of ICBMs, sat around all the time.) The general public seems to have understood the concept of deterrence well in the nuclear context–but less so in the conventional roles. Control of the air and the seas is the predicate for the ability of land armies to fight far away on foreign shores, but we have so dominated post WWII in these areas that such control is now taken for granted. Already much is made of the fact that the F-22 can’t drop bombs and hasn’t fired a shot in anger in Afghanistan by it’s critics. All of these expensive toys–ac carriers, submarines, F-22s, are like the hidden superstructure or skeleton/framework upon which the house is built and which allow the shingles, siding and paint to be attached. The public only sees the glossy paint, copper guttering and shaker-shingle roof–but all would collapse with out the hidden foundation and framework.

Now carriers and F-22s aren’t exactly hidden (save the subs ) but if they are not being used THIS VERY MINUTE their utility is cast into question.

The Navy and the Air Force need a new ad agency and some fresh creative thinking on how to better explain their vital functions (roles & missions) and the difference between deterrence and defense–and why the former is much to be preferred to the latter–and why the kinds of weapons one needs to but to achieve the former are often very different from those needed for the latter (think F-22 vs A-10.)

I think the Navy has a good idea of why it should exist, and what it should be doing. The problem is, the Navy hasn’t had a good advocate since John Lehmann…and he left office over 20 years ago.

Then add the effects of Goldwater-Nichols and the obsession with Iraq. Goldwater-nichols effectively put a muzzle on the services, forcing them to toe the DOD party line. And the Iraq obsession kept money flowing into Army and Air Force coffers, and let the United States avoid the painful rebalancing of forces that was indicated after the end of the Cold War. Toss in a risk-averse attitude toward any sort of public relations, and you have a recipe for Big Trouble.