Building the Sysadmin-Industrial-Complex
by tdaxp ~ August 4th, 2008
A very good post from Tom on Enterra’s work. Tom’s echoing what I wrote about in describing the need for 5GW — we cannot expect a conscious grand strategy to take us where we need to go. We need to build the conditions such that we win anyway.
“Charlie Wilson’s Peace” with the right ending! (Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog)
And the dream, which Steve helps each other to discover and then Steve implements like some genius “mad man” (see the series) through his stunning efforts in Kurdish Iraq, begins to take real shape.On that level, I say, f–k grand strategy in the official sense (but God bless Bob Gates for every day he stays in office). Steve and I have decided to have our own foreign policy, not waiting on the USG but wanting it to catch up ASAP.
That’s why both Steve and DiB are major characters in Great Powers. It’s “Charlie Wilson’s Peace” with the right G.D. ending!
The Sysadmin Industrial Complex will do for nation building what the Military-Industrial-Complex did for government-destroying. Tom’s very lucky to be in at the ground floor.
April 14th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
[...] Barnett unpacks it and throws a few elbows along the way. In response to his “radical” vision, Gates is preparing for the Know Nothings — those same national-security figureheads who have long sung his praises from the Capitol — to put him through the meat grinder. He will be dubbed, with all appropriate indirectness, “naïve” and “reckless.” His opponents, all of whom fear that the loss of home-district defense jobs will ultimately end their congressional careers, will suddenly accuse Gates of disregarding this or that “disturbing trend.” Try not to laugh out loud when you spot these security neophytes on TV, spouting absolute nonsense fed to them by staffers smarted-up by Google searches. Of course, the organizations that can start getting Congressmen and women to have a stake in the fight because of jobs in their district building the equipment used in all the “little” wars will begin cleaning up in this scenario (as they will be rowing with the tide). In other words, Senator, if you want to assure your reelection, then learn to love the SysAdmin Industrial Complex. [...]