person:dov zakheim

Committee for the Liberation of Iraq Members on Iran Deal « LobeLog
▻http://www.lobelog.com/committee-for-the-liberation-of-iraq-members-on-iran-deal

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“Many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal,” President Obama observed August 5 at American University in perhaps his most forceful and aggressive speech in favor of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

There really is no question regarding the fundamental truth of that assertion. Virtually all of the political appointees who held foreign-policy posts under George W. Bush—from Elliott Abrams to Dov Zakheim, not to mention such leading lights as Dick Cheney, John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Eric Edelman, and “Scooter” Libby—have all assailed the agreement as a sell-out and/or appeasement with varying degrees of vehemence, if not vituperation.

#assassins

Israel Seeks Increase in Annual US Aid | Defense News | defensenews.com
▻http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130815/DEFREG04/308150008/Israel-Seeks-Increase-Annual-US-Aid

“QME, which pertains to Israel’s ability to defend itself by itself against any combination of Mideast adversaries, was always implied but never explicitly linked to long-term FMF agreements or security assistance planning,” said Dov Zakheim, a former Pentagon comptroller and undersecretary of defense.

Since then, however, Washington’s decades-long, de facto commitment to Israel’s QME has been codified into US law, and bilateral working groups tasked with laying the foundation for the new accord are taking a more “holistic” view of Israeli security concerns, said Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the US.

“I don’t know how big of a role, if at all, QME played in the previous round of negotiations. But the nexus between QME and FMF has become stronger,” Oren said.

The Last Word on Wartime Contractors? - Miller-McCune
►http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/the-last-word-on-wartime-contractors-37749

It left behind a report that is arguably the most comprehensive examination yet of the fraud, waste, and abuse rife among contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Looming just as large in the report is the unprecedented demand for contractors. “We rely on contractors too heavily, manage them too loosely, and pay them too much,” former commissioner Dov Zakheim testified on Oct. 19 before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness.

The commission has endorsed Tierney’s bill. As Shays has said, contractors represent U.S. policy during times of crisis and conflict and they are essential to wartime operations. Yet, while contractors now make up half the personnel in war zones, “The Defense Department has never treated oversight of contractors as a core function.”

Certainly most contractors play by the rules, and all contractors are driven by the bottom line. What is more, the contractors control many of the levers of defense, and on that front, the Commission on Wartime Contracting was blunt: “National security is not a business decision.”

#militarisme