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The Pentagon May Retire "Yoda," Its 92-Year-Old Futurist

Daniel_Stuckey writes "Of all the weapons the Pentagon relies on to defend the United States, one of the strangest and most secretive is Andrew Marshall, a 92-year-old man who's spent the last 40 years staring into the future trying to predict the next big threat to America. Known fondly as "Yoda" to his many fans in Washington, Marshall heads up the Office of Net Assessment—the Defense Department's think tank tasked with taking a long view, out-of-the-box approach to defense strategy. In his role as the Pentagon's visionary sage, Marshall is credited with predicting the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of China's global prominence, the role of autonomous weapons and robots in warfare, and even helping end the Cold War. Now, facing budget cuts, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is considering reorganizing or possibly even shuttering the futurist think tank, Defense News recently reported."

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  1. Re:No problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The right wing dingbats are cool with it, after all when they win the next election they'll be using Obama's powers to silence liberals just like Obama used Bush's powers (enjoy your unstoppable unitary executive commander in chief)