At least he's good for a laugh once in a while...

In a dim, dirty hostess bar on a sultry backstreet in the Pham Ngu Lao district of Valhalla, a bunch of the tattered shades of the boys from the 66th NVA Regiment and the 1/7th Cav take a break from pounding warm "33" beer and talking shit about the ARVN to stand up, drop their khaki and OD trousers, and hang a collective moon on the guy who couldn't run from their war fast enough but now claims that he would rush a mad gunman barehanded.

Over at the corner table Trung sĩ Vo and Staff Sergeant Baker spit sourly on the filthy floor and yell at the hostess for another round, cold this time, goddammit, but Hạ sĩ Nguyen thinks that the idea of Five-Deferment Donnie as a rootin' tootin' heeeero is so fucking funny he spits beer out his nose and Private Bookwalter has to pound him on the back so hard that he hits his face on the table and the whole squad, including Loi the B-girl, breaks up laughing.

Intel Brief

(FYI, I'm just passing this on to the smart guys around here. My sum total of military intelligence wisdom was looking at the order of battle for our potential DPRKA enemies and remarking "That's a whole fecking assload of yellow Reds up there, hunh?"

Help from more intelligent intel types would be greatly appreciated.)

Looking for some help and advice from the crowd in the Pub (I think the new term for this is targeted Crowd-sourcing).

I am starting a Masters Program at DIA this week (National Intelligence University, formerly known as National Defense Intelligence College) for a Masters in Science and Technology Intelligence with a concentration in Information Operations and Cyber. I have to write a thesis, and the topic needs to somehow touch on Cyber, preferably with a foreign focus (meaning that the topic of study isn't the US infrastructure, but instead focused on the infrastructure or capabilities or a foreign entity). It can be classified, but I am fighting hard to keep my topic unclass so I can work it at home and for other obvious reasons of convenience.

There are plenty of topics out there that I can write some lengthy information papers about, but the purpose of this drill is to come up with a thesis question, make an argument, have a theory, etc. That is where I am struggling, I am used to identifying problems, analyzing them and proposing solutions. My professors want something that is "academically interesting" and they want me to posit a theory about something. Not the way I am wired to think. I don't care much for theories, I am used to focusing on solutions.

My original plan got shot down, so I am looking for some good ideas. I wanted to look at how Cyber Command and NSA are recruiting computer hackers, and compare that to that actual threat (for example, if Chinese will be the dominant language on the internet in 5 years, how many Chinese linguists are working computers at NSA). I still haven't gotten this sold to my professors because they consider this more of a Human Resources problem with some intelligence supporting the argument, and not truly an intelligence problem. I am arguing that resourcing intelligence operations is an "intel problem," but I haven't found a professor yet who agrees with me. Again, the difference in how I think as a senior leader in tactical intelligence, and how academics at the strategic level of intel think.

So, I need help, and need it quick. I am leaning towards something in regards to social networks and their future role. But I am open to any ideas at this point.

Thanks!

bg

FUO

Sorry to break in, but...

One of our contributors - Lisa, of RangerAgainstWar (as well as the Story Project and an author over at Big Brass Blog, among others) - is under the weather from the dreaded Fever of Unknown Origin (medspeak for "Fuck if I know...give 'em some antibiotics and hope it's some sort of infection.").

You might drop by RAW if you get a moment and send her a get-well card. Or a mash note. Something. She's good people, and isn't feeling quite the thing at the moment.

"Though I am wounded, I am not dead.
Lie me down to bleed awhile and I will rise to fight again."

New Bartender

I have asked Jim (whose gun chief Lisa is a member of the bar staff here) of RANGER AGAINST WAR to join the rest of the waitstaff here. Many of you know him as a long-time commenter here, and you may have encountered his verbal stylings at his own blog. He describes himself as "twice retired from the Department of the Army. His past incarnations include DAC/SME Training Specialist/Terrorism Counteraction/ SF Branch Officer, retired."

He adds that "Since retirement, he has unsuccessfully been attempting to become a feeling, sensitive being, like FDC himself." To which I can only reply that feelings and sensitivity are relative terms. The sensitivity of my feelings about, say, the fellow that used to post at the old Intel Dump as "Diogenes" can be summarized as a strong inclination to kick the man somewhere...sensitive.

But I welcome Jim here and look forward to his additions to our discussions.