Dateline: SWA flight from BWI to Providence, 29 July 2004
Struggling after a long day and two lengthy briefs yesterday.
Got up at 5:30 and headed out into the pouring rain to Providence for a SWA flight (my usual) to BWI. Then hop in a rental and off to the DC headquarters of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a big consulting/contracting/R&D firm that does work all over the dial, to include plenty for the Defense Department. I’m not there on official business, but as a private speaker giving a speech to a host of senior execs and analysts. SAIC likes the book and wants to hear more. Since I don’t/can’t really do individual corps one-on-one as part of my War College duties (although private companies are free to catch my act at conferences open to the public), this trip has to be done while on personal leave. A decent honorarium to cover costs, but nothing more.
Why bother? The trip is not so much for SAIC as it is for an opportunity to brief the Kerry camp. I mean, I’m certainty happy to brief such a distinguished firm and I’m sure I’ll sell some books in the process, but given how little personal leave I have after my Dad’s long decline and passing, I wouldn’t have made this trip if not for the additional request made by the Kerry camp’s foreign policy task force that’s focused on the Pentagon and DoD. In effect, SAIC covers my travel and gets a free brief while I donate my time to the Kerry campaign tonight.
Why brief the Kerry camp? Besides being a Democrat, I believe it’s always important to reach across party lines to any potential incoming administration. These sorts of briefs are standard-issue in election years, especially in the national security community because, you know what? We’ve got to live with each other administration after administration. The guys I brief tonight will be plenty familiar from the Clinton years, just like the guys who got briefed back in 2000 on the Republican side were plenty familiar from the first Bush Administration. If Kerry wins, the Bush people will go into exile at all the think tanks and the Kerry people will come out of exile from all the think tanks. If Bush wins, then that normal switcheroo gets delayed for at least four more years. But in the end, we’re always talking about—and to—the same basic pool of people, so the national security community is a lot more bipartisan than you might imagine, not to mention a lot smaller.
The brief at SAIC was the full-up version for about 40 staff. Not the strongest connection there, and certainly not a bunch that laughs easily. It felt like briefing my old crowd at the Center for Naval Analyses—just must be something about having all those INTJs in one room together.
The real fun was briefing the Kerry crowd last night in Chevy Chase, at the home of an old friend of mine. This guy is just A GUY, but he's also someone who talks to THE GATEKEEPER on this subject, who in turn talks to THE INSIDER, who advises THE MAN himself on national security (as does THE GATEKEEPER himself, naturally). Of course, THE INSIDER and THE MAN were in Boston, but still, even getting THE GATEKEEPER to show up at A GUY's house was quite a trick, simply because he's a seriously-connected gatekeeper and gatekeepers around THE MAN right now are in extremely high demand. Everyone wants to get to the gatekeepers, because these people can get you face time with the INSIDERS—just one step removed from THE MAN!
You just know I was tingly all over.
Brief went very long but very well. Felt like I was presenting to a bunch of early Christians hiding out in some catacombs; I just felt like some authorities would bust in at any moment and arrest us all.
In the free-flow discussion that goes deep into the night (leaving me with a late drive to BWI and a rousing 3-hour sleep in my hotel bed before getting up at 4:30 to catch my sunrise flight back to the college for my workday), I make my pitches here and there for what I think the Democrats' message can be on defense. Nothing you haven't heard me say here or on TV (or frankly, to the current administration over the past three years), just a bit more emphasized by the material I presented in my brief.
Bottom line: the vision I push is as much acceptable to the Kerry crowd as it is to the Bush crowd. But the Kerry crowd, while seeing so much of what they believe expressed in this vision, are a bit wary of looking like they want to engage in "nation-building" (the new "N" word in national security) any more than the neocons allegedly do. Why? It's because of all those nasty polls that say Americans want out of Iraq. But frankly, those polls only say that Americans hate to see their sons and daughters die in a situation that's badly explained and features a murky sense of both progress and outcome. If it has been a successful war followed immediately by a successful occupation/rebuild, we wouldn't be having these discussions or seeing those poll numbers today. So my line is a simple one for Kerry:
As President, I assure you that I will never send American soldiers overseas into harm's way unless we can win both the war and the peace. I believe we have the capacity within our current armed forces to succeed on both sides of that equation: not just to wage war without parallel but to wage peace without parallel. Because if we cannot secure the victory, we will find no wars worth waging in the global struggle against terrorism.
Moreover, until we strengthen our ability to win the peace that must inevitably follow wars, we will continue to fail in our attempts to attract allies to our cause. We know that smaller states around the world need to see a winning hand in any American-led military intervention overseas before they are able and willing to join. In short, they need to see our strength and commitment demonstrated before they can act with confidence—they need our leadership when it counts most. I will work with the U.S. military to ensure that winning hand, not just in the warfighting phase in which our troops perform so ably, but likewise in the peacekeeping phase where our armed forces need far more support from both the White House and Congress in terms of funding and manpower.
As President, I will assure that needed support will flow to our armed forces, and by doing so, America will have the military it truly needs to win this global war on terrorism, one that can not only engage in drive-by regime change but can also work—with allies, the United Nations, and the local citizens themselves—to generate lasting security in those regions around this world that otherwise will continue to breed the terrorists who will seek to do us harm. That's how I will make America not just secure, but respected around the world as a global leader for peace and justice.
Upshot of the meeting? THE GATEKEEPER approves of the notion of taking the next step. Will it happen? I worry about that no more than I've ever worried about the next brief up the chain with the current administration. It happens when it needs to happen, and I'll be ready when I need to be ready. I'm no more interested in THE JOB with that crew than I am with the current one.
As a visionary out to change the world, I don't need no stinkin' badges! I need converts. So I'll travel to any states—blue or red.
Here’s today’s and yesterday’s catch, put together in snippets of time here and there:
Kerry’s foreign policy: topic of the day not just for me
“Kerry Must-Sell: A Tough Foreign Policy: He Seeks to Portray Party as Steadier Than G.O.P,” by Roger Cohen, New York Times, 28 July, p. A1.
“Kerry’s Foreign Policy: Broad but Vague: Strategy Is to Present a Small Target for Bush, While Emphasizing Vietnam Record,” by Carla Anne Robbins, Wall Street Journal, 28 July, p. A4.
“A Nostalgia For The Consensus Of the 1990s,” by John F. Harris, Washington Post, 29 July, p. A1.
“The Wrong Way to Be Right,” by Richard Cohen, WP, 29 July, p. A23.
The first seeds of a shrinking-the-Gap strategy
“Farm Subsidies Again Take Front Seat at the W.T.O.,” by Elizabeth Becker, NYT, 28 July, p. W1.
“Failure in Cancun Haunts WTO: Trade Leaders Meet in Effort to Patch Difference Between Rich and Poor Nations,” by Paul Blustein, Washington Post, 28 July, p. E1.
“WTO Farm Pact Wouldn’t Be Panacea,” by Scott Miller, WSJ, 29 July, p. A11.
“Panel Sees No Unique Risk From Genetic Engineering,” by Andrew Pollack, WSJ, 28 July, p. A13.
More casualties in terrorists’ anti-access, area-denial asymmetrical strategy
“Jordanian Company to Quit Iraq to Save Lives of 2 Hostages: Powell warns that those who plan to stay must ‘not get weak in the knees,” by Ian Fisher, NYT, 28 July, p. A3.
“Killings Drive Doctor Group To Leave Afghanistan,” by Carlotta Gall, NYT, 29 July, p. A6.
“70 Are Killed By Car Bomber In an Iraqi City: Worst Attack in Month Since Power Transfer,” by Khalid Al-Ansary and Ian Fisher, NYT, 29 July, p. A1.
“Saudis Propose Islamic Force in Iraq: Idea Pushed as War to Expedite Pullout of U.S.-Led Military Coalition,” by Robin Wright, WP, 29 July, p. A16.
The biggest rule-set changes China generates are internal
“New Boomtowns Change Path of China’s Growth,” by Howard D. French, NYT, 28 July, p. A1.
“China’s MIT Upgrades Itself: Tsinghua Tries to Keep Pace With Nation’s Global Ambitions,” by Philip Tinari, WSJ, 28 July, p. A11.
Francis Fukuyama wants his Sys Admin force
“The Art of Reconstruction,” by Francis Fukuyama, WSJ, 28 July, p. A12.
Connectivity with an Islamic twist
“Techs Awaken to the Muslim Market,” by Jeremy Wagstaff, WSJ, 29 July, p. B4.
“Immigrants Keep Islam—Italian Style: ‘Modern Muslims’ Forge Hybrid Culture,” by Daniel Williams, WP, 24 July, p. A15.
Europe as the center of the go-slow ideology
“Love of Leisure, and Europe’s Reasons,” by Katrin Bennhold, NYT, 29 July, p. A8.
Would you invest in these Gap countries?<blockquote>
“At Colombia’s Congress, Paramilitary Chiefs Talk Peace,” by Juan Forero, NYT, 29 July, p. A3.
“Losing Energy and Investors: After Years of Growth, Bolivia’s Gas Industry Faces Hurdles,” by Juan Forero, NYT, 29 July, p. W1.
South Africa: And then there's AIDS . . .
“As AIDS Continues to Ravage, South Africa ‘Recycles’ Graves,” by Michael Wines, NYT, 29 July, p. A1.
Making globalization global = freeing the women in the Gap
“Her Virtual Prison: ‘Inside the Kingdom’ by Carmen bin Laden,” by Danielle Crittenden, WSJ, 29 July, p. D8.
“The New Macho: Feminism,” by Barbara Ehrenreich, NYT, 29 July, p. A27.
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