Quote of the Day - Vice Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff on Differentiating our Secrets

In his keynote address, General James Cartwright of U.S. Marine Corps, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made it clear that, "We have to be able to differentiate between what we want to keep secret versus the perishablity of that information." Cartwright gave a specific example of sharing information between coalition partners specifically if you are in a combat situation. His message was that he felt that sometimes if you hold back your intelligence from those who are fighting with you side-by-side, even though they are not US forces, may cause lives to be lost.

Cartwright talked primarily about threats and the ability to plan for threats, not just today but in the long range future. "The incentive structures are inherently wrong. There is not a technical architecture that tells you what to do and there is not an incentive structure in place to help correct this." He was referring specifically to the working relationship between the government and private industry and I got the impression he was impatient with the way it works today. He also spoke frankly about our current situation in battling the insurgency both in Iraq and around the world. "There is not going to be a peace dividend in this war. You need to think of this in terms of the 100-year war."