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While I don't think the location of this enterprise at the old Naval Prison in Portsmouth Harbor has a snowball's chance in hell, it is something to which our Congressional delegation should attend.
When it comes to the United States military, the line between defense and offense has been getting thinner all the time.
Over the last several months, I've made an effort to pay some attention to the United States Air Force as an institution that's very much involved in the continuing aggression on Iraq but whose activities are rarely covered on the evening news.
What I discovered was an organization that seems to have significant internal problems--a conclusion I reached on the basis of the fact that only a disfunctional organization would challenge budgetary allocations in public with the assertion that it would get the planes it wanted, regardless of what the civilian leadership considers prudent.
While I, personally, happen to think that the United States Air Force plans to set up a cyber command is a bunch of hooey, it seems worth noting that, in addition to our own Congresswoman, the Governor of Massachusetts is lusting after the location of this enterprise in his bailiwick.
As you may have noticed, it's my impression that the Air Force is an agency in search of a mission. Playing baby-sitter for our nuclear weapons is turning out to be a drag and "driving" drones carrying bombs and missiles over Iraq from consoles in Nevada doesn't seem to be particularly exciting either.
But, there's a new venue on the horizon. Cyberspace. The Air Force is going to extend its dominion over land, sea, air and outer space to cyber space. And, the headquarters may be coming to a base near you, soon.
The New Hampshire High Technology Council is one of the regional groups working on the Hanscom proposal.
"The New Hampshire High Technology Council would welcome the center as another indication that New England is the premier technology sector in the country," said Fred Kocher, president of NHHTC. "Right now, we are competing with Silicon Valley, the Triangle in the Carolinas and Austin, Texas, for that honor."
Somehow I think when I post diaries here they ought to be connected to New Hampshire. So, in response to a question the other day about why I focus on the Air Force, let me explain why I pay attention to what's going on up in the air.
When we lived in NH year-round back in the '70s, Pease was still a SAC base, the "Peace is our Profession" guys who took a mushroom cloud with wings as an icon of their mission. Once a year we took our kids to the open house at the base so they could get a closer look at the planes that seemed to consider our fields as the landmark where they turned for their practice landings, especially on the weekends.
Then the SAC base was closed down as part of the BRAC process--the same deliberations which slated the closing of missile bases in Western Europe and the relocation of their personnel to the Middle East.
Besides, it's the Air Force that's inflicting most of the damage on Iraq. That's why I put together the following (with links).
