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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."
What an amazing visionary! Envisioning the implosion of a corrupt, bankrupt police state? Brilliant! Most populous country on Earth is in the ascent? Wizard! Robots becoming more useful? Astounding perception!
The average Mechanics Illustrated article is just about as precognitive.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
and apparently he's been senile for the last 15 years...
Be seeing you...
He came up with the concept of Air-Sea Battle, which is a new method to coordinate the Air Force and the Navy in a future maritime war.
Likely with China, as he predicted their rise to challenge US dominance back in the 80's when they were still weak.
He predicted in the 70's that the Soviet Union's economy was in terrible shape despite them seeming robust and strong at the time.
He predicted the need for precision weapons in the 60's, back when carpet bombing in Vietnam was still the norm.
In 2003 during an interview he discussed the use of predator drones moving from surveillance to a strike platform, which really began in earnest in 2009-10.
Not a bad track record.
Not a bad record all depends on the outcome you were looking for.
Here, let me give you an example. Our future government will be nothing more than a group of evil men controlled by corporations (lobbyists), whom at the drop of a hat will serve as judge, jury, and executioner for anyone or anything that is within the range of their drone army. This will all remain or become legal under some sort of anti-terrorism Act that is allegedly here to make you safer and secure your Rights, all while making you an unwilling participant within the massive Surveillance States of America.
Oh, wait, sorry. That's kind of already here. Today. Now. We're too blind and ignorant to see it.
George Orwell did some rather nice predictions too. Doesn't mean we are better off for it.