Steve Deal
Now is the time to create the political will necessary for real change. The four-year election cycle dominates strategic thinking and capacity for change much as Soviet five-year planning models did during the Cold War. The only reliable springtime occurs quadrennially, before the presidential election, before cabinet confirmation season, and well before the year or so it takes for each newly chosen administration to find its collective way and cull any kind of coherence it might possibly achieve.
And so, it is in the area of national security where this lengthy run-up yet crucial moment of strategic fusion matters most. It is this realm that is historically most vital to the continuance of our sovereignty and way of life. Here precisely is where we must interrogate our past “idols of the tribe” and become deadly honest with ourselves: that our capacity for self-governance, backed up by our best current defenses, could be defeated by our adversaries. That our assumptions about the nature of the competition are likely wrong. Thus, we plan to win by first contemplating how or why we could lose. We learn what we can or need to do by realizing what we can’t, or without such needed change, what we won’t, and why.
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