Archivo etiqueta «Fuerzas Armadas»
By Max Hastings (THE GUARDIAN, 28/04/08):
The Ministry of Defence is plunged into a grim process described as a “mini defence review”. Teams of service officers and civil servants are exploring every aspect of spending and procurement plans in a desperate effort to save money. Current year sums have been made to add up only by creative accountancy, pushing back some big bills to 2010. Whoever becomes defence secretary after an election that year will face a pile of yellowing, unpaid invoices.
Everybody knows that a major defence programme must be cancelled. The navy’s cherished aircraft carriers? These would be … Seguir leyendo
Por Juan-José López Burniol, notario (EL PERIÓDICO, 24/04/08):
Suele decirse que, al proclamarse la Segunda República, esta tenía ante sí cuatro graves problemas: el problema religioso, el problema militar, el problema agrario y el problema regional. ¿Desde cuándo se había convertido en problema el mismo Ejército que había contribuido de forma decisiva a la instauración del régimen liberal en España?
Coinciden muchos historiadores en que solo a partir de 1923 –y con el preludio significativo de las Juntas de Defensa en 1917– puede hablarse de una asunción del poder por el Ejército, aunque Carlos Seco matiza esta afirmación recordando … Seguir leyendo
Por Juan Díez Nicolás, catedrático de Sociología de la Universidad Complutense (ABC, 11/04/08):
Hace sólo unas semanas que se presentó el libro 170 españoles opinan sobre sus militares, elaborado por Adalede (Asociación de Diplomados en Altos Estudios sobre la Defensa Nacional) para conmemorar el XXX Aniversario (en 2007) de la creación del Ministerio de Defensa, una decisión con la que se inició de manera decidida la transición en las Fuerzas Armadas y la Guardia Civil. En efecto, durante el régimen anterior siempre hubo tres ministerios diferentes, Ejército, Marina y Aire eran sus denominaciones oficiales, y entre la muerte de … Seguir leyendo
Por Fawaz A. Gerges, de la cátedra Christian A. Johnson de OM, del Sarah Lawrence College. Autor de El viaje del yihadista. Dentro de la militancia musulmana, Ed. Librosdevanguardia. Traducción: José María Puig de la Bellacasa (LA VANGUARDIA, 02/03/08):
Al tiempo que la guerra de Iraq entra en su sexto año, una de las repercusiones en que menos se ha reparado es la presión sobre los combatientes estadounidenses que la libran. Las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses hacen actualmente gala de un superdespliegue en el planeta: guerras en Iraq y Afganistán, a la par que otras misiones importantes en la … Seguir leyendo
Por Pedro Baños Bajo (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 21/02/08):
El dirigente que suceda a Fidel Castro y las estructuras de gobierno que emerjan tras su retirada deberán cohabitar con una realidad incuestionable: el poder omnímodo de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias cubanas. Las FAR son la institución más poderosa, influyente, prestigiosa y mejor organizada de la isla y, a buen seguro, van a exigir que se cuente con ellas en el nuevo proceso que se avecina tras la renuncia de su hasta ahora comandante en jefe.
Con 50.000 hombres en activo y otros tantos en la reserva de alta disponibilidad, reforzados con … Seguir leyendo
By Laura Dempsey, a civil rights lawyer and a political consultant with the Empire Bay Group. She lives at Fort Drum, N.Y. (THE WASHINGTON POST, 19/02/08):
The U.S. Army recently announced that it would pay captains up to $35,000 in retention bonuses to stem the tide of junior officers leaving the Army, in part because of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bonuses may temporarily retain a few captains, but the problem will continue well into the future unless policymakers address a more fundamental issue: A military lifestyle makes the pursuit of a career nearly untenable for military … Seguir leyendo
By David Ignatius (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/02/08):
Traveling in Iraq and Afghanistan in late January, I kept encountering two themes that cut across the usual U.S. political debate about these conflicts: The hard-nosed operations of U.S. Special Forces are increasingly effective, and so are the soft-power tactics of provincial reconstruction teams.
The debate over troop numbers may be missing the point. What’s making the real difference isn’t how many Americans are on the ground but how they are being used. That’s true at both ends of the spectrum — hard power and soft. And, as commanders learn to use these … Seguir leyendo
By David Ignatius (THE WASHINGTON POST, 24/01/08):
As you approach the entrance to the Pakistani army’s general headquarters here, the dusty roads and traffic jams give way to the order of a military compound. Even the shrubs are manicured into the precise shapes of topiary.
The headquarters are only a 10-minute drive from the park where Benazir Bhutto was murdered in December. But in political terms, that is a world apart.
At its best, the Pakistani army has been a symbol of order and unity for this chaotic country in the 60 years since Pakistan was founded. At its worst, … Seguir leyendo
By Charles J. Dunlap Jr., an Air Force major general and the author of Shortchanging the Joint Fight?, an assessment of the Army’s counterinsurgency manual (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 09/01/08):
The relative calm that America’s armed forces have imposed on Iraq is certainly grounds for cautious optimism. But it also raises some obvious questions: how was it achieved and what does it mean for future defense planning?
Many analysts understandably attribute the success to our troops’ following the dictums of the Army’s lauded new counterinsurgency manual. While the manual is a vast improvement over its predecessors, it would … Seguir leyendo
Por Pablo Martínez Delgado, coronel (EL PERIÓDICO, 14/12/07):
Tradicionalmente se ha conocido como cuartel el lugar donde se aloja la tropa y realiza su instrucción militar. Lo mandaba un coronel que era el jefe del regimiento, por ser la unidad de encuadramiento y de instrucción por antonomasia en el Ejército español desde el siglo XVIII. Se ubicaba en un inmueble de las capitales de provincia, construido al efecto, o bien aprovechando antiguos conventos desamortizados al clero. Hoy quedan pocos de estos cuarteles, pues las necesidades y funciones del Ejército han evolucionado. La tendencia, sobre todo a partir de mediados … Seguir leyendo
By George F. Will (THE WASHINGTON POST, 09/09/07):
Officers studying at the Army War College walk the ground at nearby Gettysburg where Pickett’s men walked across an open field under fire. They wonder: How did Confederate officers get men to do that? The lesson: Men can be led to places they cannot be sent.
Today’s officers lead an Army that was sent into Iraq in 2003, and by 2004 the operation became, as an officer here says, “a deployment in search of a mission.” Since then, missions have multiplied. Today’s is to make possible an exit strategy. Gen. David Petraeus… Seguir leyendo
By William Rees-Mogg (THE TIMES, 03/09/07):
General Sir Mike Jackson is a soldier’s soldier. His doctrine, as told to The Daily Telegraph, is that “everything starts and finishes with the soldier”. He adds, ruefully, that he failed to persuade the Ministry of Defence of that doctrine when he was Chief of the General Staff. He has now written his memoirs that put the strategic blame, where it almost certainly belongs, on Donald Rumsfeld for the US failure to follow up their victory in Iraq with a postwar plan. He also recognises the weakness of British defence policy in its … Seguir leyendo
By Williams Rees-Mogg (THE TIMES, 27/08/07):
From August 10 the Ministry of Defence imposed a gagging order on the Armed Services. Members of the Forces are no longer allowed to discuss any matters relating to defence through any public means of communication. They cannot speak at public meetings, write letters to the press, write blogs or even take part in surveys. This gagging order applies to men and women of all ranks.
Can I ask two questions: Why now? For whose benefit? The new censorship is a reaction to low morale in the Services, which extends from top to bottom, … Seguir leyendo
By Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield (THE GUARDIAN, 18/08/07):
The deployment of the first armed battlefield robots in Iraq is the latest step on a dangerous path – we are sleepwalking into a brave new world where robots decide who, where and when to kill. Already, South Korea and Israel are deploying armed robot border guards and China, Singapore and the UK are among those making increasing use of military robots. The biggest player yet is the US: robots are integral to its $230bn future combat systems project, a massive … Seguir leyendo
By Gary Younge (THE GUARDIAN, 13/08/07):
Mom, I had another friend die today from a massive ied [improvised explosive device] and many more wounded with shattered bones and scrapes. We used to be in the same platoon. 1st platoon and the same squad when I first arrived at fort hood for a good 7 months or so. He was 17 then and barely a day over 19 now that he has passed away.It’s tearing me up so badly inside. I just can’t stand it. I can’t get rid of the feeling that I probably won’t make it home from this … Seguir leyendo