TSA: Thousands Standing Around

The Department of Homeland Security is a huge mistake. We have 200000 people in the Department of Homeland Security; that's probably 10 employees for every active terrorist...

Those are a couple of paraphrased quips from [link|http://www.thomaspmbarnett|Thomas P.M. Barnett] from a speech broadcast on [link|http://www.cspan.org/|C-SPAN] on 12/20/2004. It was about his book, [link|http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=7-0399151753-0|The Pentagon's New Map] that he is promoting in speeches to general, admirals, and policymakers.

I didn't hear the whole speech. There were some points that indicated he was a thoughtful realist, and others that made him sound like a crank. He can't pronounce "nuclear" either. :-/

His web site has exceeded its bandwidth limits. [link|http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail238.html|ITConversations] has some discussion and more links.

He advocates breaking up the Department of Defense into a "Leviathan" part that does the big warfighting jobs, and a numerically larger group that would be concerned with peacekeeping and reconstruction security, etc. As Brandioch liked to say, armies kill people and break things. As such, they're not the proper instrument to reconstruct a failed state, provide election security, train police, and the like. Some sort of organization needs to have that mandate as it does seem likely that conflicts in the coming years are more likely to be in places like Darfur than in the plains of Germany.

It's on my "things that I probably should read soon" list, but not quite in my shopping basket yet.

[edit:]

His site is up now. His [link|http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/|blog] explains why it was down. He also has an interesting letter about the effect of toys sent from the US to soldiers to distribute to children in Iraq.

The C-SPAN program will be rebroadcast 12/26/2004 at 4PM EST.[/edit]

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #187,775 by Another Scott 12/22/04 1:09:13 AM 12/23/04 1:37:51 AM Reply	TSA: Thousands Standing Around The Department of Homeland Security is a huge mistake. We have 200000 people in the Department of Homeland Security; that's probably 10 employees for every active terrorist... Those are a couple of paraphrased quips from [link\|http://www.thomaspmbarnett\|Thomas P.M. Barnett] from a speech broadcast on [link\|http://www.cspan.org/\|C-SPAN] on 12/20/2004. It was about his book, [link\|http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=7-0399151753-0\|The Pentagon's New Map] that he is promoting in speeches to general, admirals, and policymakers. I didn't hear the whole speech. There were some points that indicated he was a thoughtful realist, and others that made him sound like a crank. He can't pronounce "nuclear" either. :-/ His web site has exceeded its bandwidth limits. [link\|http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail238.html\|ITConversations] has some discussion and more links. He advocates breaking up the Department of Defense into a "Leviathan" part that does the big warfighting jobs, and a numerically larger group that would be concerned with peacekeeping and reconstruction security, etc. As Brandioch liked to say, armies kill people and break things. As such, they're not the proper instrument to reconstruct a failed state, provide election security, train police, and the like. Some sort of organization needs to have that mandate as it does seem likely that conflicts in the coming years are more likely to be in places like Darfur than in the plains of Germany. It's on my "things that I probably should read soon" list, but not quite in my shopping basket yet. [edit:] His site is up now. His [link\|http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/\|blog] explains why it was down. He also has an interesting letter about the effect of toys sent from the US to soldiers to distribute to children in Iraq. The C-SPAN program will be rebroadcast 12/26/2004 at 4PM EST.[/edit] Cheers, Scott. Edited by Another Scott Dec. 23, 2004, 01:37:51 AM EST Expand All History
Post #187,869 by a6l6e6x 12/22/04 4:46:29 PM Reply	Not always. Sometime they harass citizens. My wife and I flew up and back from Albany, NY this past weekend. On unpacking the luggage at home, I noted a love note from the TSA who had searched the luggage. Of course, I was asking for it. I had a PDA/GPS cradle with USB connector and charger brick. A GPS antenna - about half the size of mouse with a 8 foot thin coax cable. An auto cradle kit for the PDA/GPS with a speaker and plug for the cigarette lighter. And finally the charger for my cell phone. Perhaps one cable too many. Alex The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell
Post #187,913 by Another Scott 12/23/04 1:42:26 AM Reply	I had the same placard in a bag on my return from Canada. I had some Cat5 cable, spare batteries for my digital camera, etc. I was happy that they left the card - it would be creepy to have the bag rifled without some official notice left. And that nothing was missing. C'est la vie. Cheers, Scott.
Post #187,977 by mmoffitt 12/23/04 3:27:42 PM Reply	And you think they put the card in all the time? bcnu, Mikem Eine Leute. Eine Welt. Ein F\ufffdhrer. (Just trying to be accepted in the New America)
Post #188,010 by daemon 12/23/04 6:22:18 PM Reply	only if they are not stealing stuff Probably they have a quota of inspections, using X postcards per shift is a key indicator of meeting that goal. regards, daemon that way too many Iraqis conceived of free society as little more than a mosh pit with grenades. ANDISHEH NOURAEE clearwater highschool marching band [link\|http://www.chstornadoband.org/\|http://www.chstornadoband.org/]

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