Special guest Chris Dougherty joins Chris and Melanie to discuss his recent War on the rocks article, “Gradually then suddenly: Explaining the Navy’s strategic bankruptcy.” Dougherty notes that “a decades-long series of decisions (and indecisions) have supported the Navy in a wedge of budget and force planning,” and he describes competing interests that lead to different force needs ( and rarely complementary). What decisions are most needed to get the Navy back on track? And what practical steps can be taken now to close the gap between the many demands placed on the Navy and the Navy’s ability to meet those demands? Chris Preble is angry with people who spread malicious disinformation, Melanie bemoans the decline of human civilization as evidenced by the Associated Press’s erroneous ruling on the possessive plural, and Chris Dougherty complains about people who complain about the 2018 National defense strategy (but I don’t know what they are talking about). Well done to the Cuban people, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Wally Funk and General David Berger, commander of the Marine Corps.

Connections

• Christopher Dougherty, “Gradually then suddenly: explaining the strategic bankruptcy of the Navy”, War on the rocks, June 30, 2021
• Andrew Restuccia and Sarah E. Needleman, “Biden’s attack on Facebook followed months of frustration inside the White House”, the Wall Street newspaper, July 18, 2021
• Colleen Sinclair, “10 Ways to Spot Misinformation Online”, The conversation, March 27, 2020 (updated September 17, 2020)
• Elaine Luria, “Look to the 1980s to inform today’s fleet”, War on the rocks, June 14, 2021
• Claude Bérubé, Twitter, July 18, 2021
• Blake Herzinger, “The Budget and the Fleet That Could Have Been”, War on the rocks, June 10, 2021
• Jack Reed and Jim Inhofe, “Providing and Maintaining a Navy: Understanding the Navy Shipbuilding Industry”, Procedure, July 2021
• Caitlyn O’Kane, “Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are both now in space. Here’s the difference between their Blue Origin and their Virgin Galactic flights,” July 20, 2021, CBS News

Image: US Navy (Photo by Mass Communication Spc. 3rd Class Daniel Serianni)