Topic: Chuck Spinney

"America's Defense Meltdown" is the title of a new book on military reform, edited by Winslow Wheeler and published by the Center for Defense Information. In it, some of the leading figures from the U.S. military reform movement of the 1970s and 1980s update their work and relate it to today's challenges, including those posed by Fourth Generation war.

Since the start of President George W. Bush's first administration in 2001, while remaining shrunken, the overall U.S. Air Force inventory has aged further.

Since early 2001 the U.S. Air Force has received more than $200 billion above and beyond what was then planned for it in the medium-term future. This $200 billion "plus-up" does not include any of the approximate $80 billion that the Air Force has received to support its operations in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At a recent book party for Winslow Wheeler's new history of the military reform movement of the 1970s and 1980s, I was asked for my views on the prospects for genuine reform. I replied, "So long as the money flow continues, nothing will change." Chuck Spinney, a reformer who spent decades as a polyp in the bowels of the U.S. Department of Defense, agreed.

Despite Monday's announcement that U.S. intelligence agencies now believe Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, officials continue to insist that "all options are on the table" with regard to Iran.