Friday War Picture (Updated)

Members of the Czechoslovak Legion in Vladivostok, 1918.

Update:  Check this out! (courtesy SWJ)

Doing as the Essence of Strategy (Updated)

Danger Room has a piece on Soft Power that’s worth reading.  It’s not terribly revelatory, but does make a necessary point:  A mere increase in Soft Power assets and capabilities does not amount to a strategy.

The Secretart of Defense, Robert Gates, recently said:

“We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the military,” Gates said in his speech at Kansas State University last year. “There is a need for a dramatic increase in spending on civilian instruments of national security — diplomacy, strategic communications, foreign assistance, civic action, and economic reconstruction and development.”

Obama is an empty suit…

…who’s judgement Changes based on the convenience.

Hand Salute:  tdaxp.