Five Good Reads

David Axe is discussing Medical Diplomacy and SOUTHCOM over at Danger Room. David is one of many bloggers who will be taking a trip on the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) as it begins its medical diplomacy deployment next week. We intend to cover that deployment as next weeks theme as long as we find live blogging from the event. This humble blogger was invited to participate in this excellent endeavor, and had to respectfully decline such an incredible oppertunity due to work schedule. Yes, we really do have plenty of time to work when not updating the blog, unfortunately plenty of time also means all the time for this sometimes exhausted small business owner.

EagleOne is discussing a real Littoral Combat Ship that has gone to sea with an Army crew. SOUTHCOM again, man do those folks get it. We really do like the capabilities the M-80 brings to the littorals, and we can't wait to see the evaluation the platform gets after this real world evaluation of the platform.

SteelJaw Scribe is discussing Navy Ballistic Missile Defense. We agree with his conclusion, the Navy has done an excellent job evolving the capability and it is nearing the point of production stability. The time is now to start thinking about, and talking about, the approach to put this capability into the fleet as a whole. The way we see it, the more the Navy does BMD as part of strategy, the less the nation needs to make political waves putting BMD capabilities in other countries, including Europe. When it comes to footprints in the 21st Century, less is more, but less footprint doesn't mean we have to settle for less capability. AEGIS BMD works.

Our observations regarding the evolution of Renaissance Networks appears to have legs among many people much smarter than this humble blogger. We note the existence of such networks exist as evidence of this discussion alone. Consider for a moment that armed with my public school high school diploma an idea from this generalist, generated as a result of professional experience in video games, gets disseminated by the professionals at places like The Complex Terrain Laboratory and NYU. If that isn't evidence of the theory in motion, what would be? The term is actually a decade old, I tell the story behind the term in the comments here, a great read. Many won't get it.

Off Topic: For the record, I agree with this list.