Statement from StratFor regarding state of the Army

[chiller1064]

Anyone have any thoughts or comments on this statement from the latest Stratfor Intel Report?

".....the United States simply lacks capability in the Army. In many ways, the U.S. Army is in revolt against the Bush administration. Army officers at all levels (less so the Marines) are using the term "broken" to refer to the condition of the force and are in revolt against the administration -- not because of its goals, but because of its failure to provide needed resources nearly six years after 9/11. This revolt is breaking very much into the public domain, and that will further cripple the credibility of the Bush administration."

-StratFor Intelligence Report 03/13/07

[RTK]

Anyone have any thoughts or comments on this statement from the latest Stratfor Intel Report?

".....the United States simply lacks capability in the Army. In many ways, the U.S. Army is in revolt against the Bush administration. Army officers at all levels (less so the Marines) are using the term "broken" to refer to the condition of the force and are in revolt against the administration -- not because of its goals, but because of its failure to provide needed resources nearly six years after 9/11. This revolt is breaking very much into the public domain, and that will further cripple the credibility of the Bush administration."

-StratFor Intelligence Report 03/13/07

Wonder what their source for that is. I haven't seen a lot of revolt (you know, other than people getting out, which is natural anyway).

I never went without in theater. There were things I wanted to have, but they were not necessary to the mission. I don't feel slighted or scr@wed in any way about it. Actually, it helped me become more adaptive.

[Old Eagle]

Who is StratFor?

I am at the Heart of the Army, and I haven't seen any revolts. We all know that we need to field and repair more and better equipment. We all know that we need to recruit/retain more personnel. We all know that the current OPTEMPO is stressing the entire Army. But revolt? That's just not our way.

[Jimbo]

Starfor is pretty good "anylsis" website out of austin Tex. They are very similar to Global security, excpet that they are for profit and focus on supporting the investment community. From what I have seen, are the uniformed services using some aspects of the politcal climate to enable a more rapid force modernization under the auspicies of equipment reset, you bet. Has the word "broken" been spoken by uniformed service memebers to enable this, yes. does this article by stratfor take that terminology out of context and draw a bogus as hell conclusion, yes you bet they do. I am glad that I only have about 2 and half more months in DC!!!

[Jedburgh]

Who is StratFor?

StratFor is George Friedman, his wife and a very small permanent core staff (not one of whom has an intel background) who churn out high quantities of journalistic reporting posing as "analylsis". The bulk of the work is done by university student interns. In my personal opinion, most of their international product is crap - what little there is of value to be found among the outpouring is readily available elsewhere. And where StratFor charges for access to much of their product, you can find much better (and real analysis, not journalism and commentary) for free elsewhere.

Where StratFor does do good work is more in the areas of monitoring domestic activist/radical groups and consulting on certain aspects of corporate security. Funny how they're known more for what they do worst....

[Old Eagle]

Thanks. Now I remember them. As I recall, they used to be free, then went "for profit" sometime after 9-11.

I do like a piece Geo did on international terrorism a few years back, but when they went "paid product" I went elsewhere.

[kaur]

George Friedman's books "Americas Secret war" and "The Future of War" are quite good.

When I started to read Stratfor in 1999 everything looked beautiful. Now I'm not so happy with them. Now there are so many other sources that give much better info about certain areas. For example about US Army there is good story by IISS

http://www.iiss.org/publications/str...ng-the-us-army

PS. Jedburgh, sorry, i still can't make those wonderful short links

[Armchairguy]

StratFor is George Friedman, his wife and a very small permanent core staff (not one of whom has an intel background) who churn out high quantities of journalistic reporting posing as "analylsis". The bulk of the work is done by university student interns. In my personal opinion, most of their international product is crap - what little there is of value to be found among the outpouring is readily available elsewhere. And where StratFor charges for access to much of their product, you can find much better (and real analysis, not journalism and commentary) for free elsewhere.

Where StratFor does do good work is more in the areas of monitoring domestic activist/radical groups and consulting on certain aspects of corporate security. Funny how they're known more for what they do worst....

Any links for these for free real analysis sites? I'd love to have them.