Midrats

They share the hazards, smell the smells; all that is needed so that those at home may understand what their countrymen are doing in the far reaches of the world on their behalf.

The best know that to tell a story, you have to be in it. Sometimes, the story catches up with them.

Our guest for the full hour will be Kimberly Dozier,  foreign correspondent for CBS News Radio specializing in the Middle East from the disputed territories of Israel to the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

She reported on the war in Iraq from 2003 until she was injured by a car bomb in 2006. She recently returned to Afghanistan and Pakistan as an Intelligence/Counterterrorism correspondent for the Associated Press.

She is also the author of Breathing the Fire, the story of her recovery from her injuries in 2006.

It is often said that with crisis comes opportunity; that stress brings innovation - without the right leadership and vision though; crisis and stress can also bring about collapse.

As the traditional Western powers struggle with an unprecidented peace time debt crisis, and rising powers have challenges of their own for economic, resource and demographic reasons - each is looking for the best fleet shrinking budgets can buy.

What trends can we see in Naval development now, and what new trends are taking shaps?  What established platforms are being repurposed, and which ones are being left behind?

Join Sal from "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne from "EagleSpeak" as they discuss for the full hour with their guest Eric Wertheim.

Eric is a defense consultant, columnist and author specializing in naval and maritime issues. He was named to the helm of the internationally acknowledged, one volume Naval Institute reference Combat Fleets of the World in 2002.

This Halloween - what scares you most on the National Security Front?  Are today's worries any more - on aggregate - that what came before?

 

With time & experience comes perspective.

 

Join Sal from the blog "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne from Eaglespeak with their guest, Rone Tempest.

 

A journalist with over 40 years of experience including LA Times bureau chief stints in Paris, New Dehli, Beijing, Hong Kong. "Rone Tempest, a longtime foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, has reported from India, China, France, Afghanistan and Pakistan, among many other stories." He won the Pulitzer prize for reporting on Calif wildfires.

In the 14-months since his last visit to Midrats, the Afghan-Pakistan theater has changed in ways both good and bad depending on your goals and outlook; Haqqanni network, drones. OBL. the arrival of the slow withdrawl in 2014, and others.  

Where do we stand, and where are we trending?

Join Sal from the blog "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne of "EagleSpeak" with their guest for the full hour Bill Roggio, managing editor from the Long Wars Journal.

As the last few battles wind up to revove the last few pro-Gadaffi forces - for the Western & Arab nations who, literally, provided the top-cover for the advancing Libyan rebels - what are the lessons that need to be remembered?

Especially as economic and budgetary pressures add further pressure on defense budgets, are there important lessons that need to be brought to the front to influence plans & policy?

Join Sal from the blog "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne of "EagleSpeak" as they discuss the issue with Dr. Robbin Laird, co-founder of Second Line of Defense. 

Dr. Laird is a Washington and Paris based defense consultant and has worked with all of the US services on various strategic issues.  His most recent books are the Re-Norming of Air Power and 21st Century Air Capabilities.

Over a decade in to the war in Afghanistan and over three years in to the surge of forces - have we reached the point of diminishing returns?  Is the present AFG government stable enough to accept a transition?  Is the present withdrawl timetable right, wrong, or just right?

Join co-hosts "Sal" from the blog "CDR Salamander" and "EagleOne" from "EagleSpeak" to discuss the past, present, and future of the AFG campaign for the full hour will their guest Michael Barrett, co-founder of Diligent Innovations, a Washington consulting firm, former Navy Intelligence Officer and director of strategy for the Homeland Security Council under President George W. Bush.

This week is an encore presentation from this summer with our guest for the full hour, CAPT Thomas Fedyszyn, (Ph.D.), USN (Ret.) - Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and Chair of the Europe-Russia Studies Group as we discuss our relationship with NATO, Russia and the way forward in Eurasia.

Join Sal from "CDR Salamander" & EagleOne from "EagleSpeak" with their returning guest, author David Sears for the full hour to discuss his latest book, Pacific Air: How Fearless Flyboys, Peerless Aircraft, and Fast Flattops Conquered the Skies in the War with Japan.

For WWII and aviaition fans - this is a show you do not want to miss!

More and more the 21st Century looks to be not the American Century, not the Chinese Century - but a century that will be defined by how China and American grow to see each other from their side of the Pacific from each other from both a security and economic perspective.

Two linchpins will be how each nation decides to place their cards on the Taiwan question, and the growing aliance between China's neighbors who are uncomfortable with the dragon waking after a few centuries rest.

Join Sal from "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne from "EagleSpeak" as they discuss this for the full hour with one of the authors from The Project 2049 Institute's latest, Asian Alliances in the 21st Century.

Our guest will be Mark Stokes, the Executive Director of the Project 2049 Institute.

Previously, he was the founder and president of Quantum Pacific Enterprises, an international consulting firm, and vice president and Taiwan country manager for Raytheon International. He has served as executive vice president of Laifu Trading Company, a subsidiary of the Rehfeldt Group; a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and member of the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan. A 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran, Stokes also served as team chief and senior country director for the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Mongolia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.  He holds a B.A. from Texas A&M University, and graduate degrees in International Relations and Asian Studies from Boston University and the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker.

There are certain points in a nation's history that define a transition from one era to another.  These moments are so clear that you don't realize it in retrospect - you know it the moment it happens.  No one argues the fact that everything has changed; from all sides, everyone sees it.  September 11th, 2001 was one of those times.

911 was not just a national moment, but a global moment.

Our military has changed, our national strategy has changed, the way we perceive the tradeoff between liberty and freedom has changed - the international order has changed.

Where was our nation and the world on September 10th 2001, and how did the events the following day bring us to where our nation is a decade later?

This Sunday join co-hosts Sal from "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne from "Eaglespeak"  as they lead a panel discussion on the 911 Decade.

Panel members will include:

J. Michael Barrett, Partner at Diligent Innovations, Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and former Director, Strategy & Resources at the White House Homeland Security Council.  L. Thomas Bortmes, CAPT USN (Ret), research staff member at IDA, and former Executive Director, Office of Intelligence, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security. Claude Berube, LCDR USNR, instructor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy, Intelligence Officer in the Navy Reserve, author, and former Senate Staff member.