Defense security/ To live in an era of too much uncertainty

…The year 2014 was supposed to the intermission. Remember? The time between eras, when the war in Afghanistan wound down and the military could get back to some fantasized version of itself that predated Sept. 11, 2001 – with training operations back at the bases, eased deployments, smaller forces and no more big land wars.

Instead the world gave chaos. At the Pentagon one year ago, not many people expected Russia to invade Ukraine, the Islamic State to take over half of Syria and Iraq, Western journalists to be beheaded one after another, Islamic extremists to attack civilians in Ottawa, Sydney and Paris, and half of the African continent to be embroiled in terrorism. By December, the mood around the Pentagon was one of exhaustion and exasperation at the never-ending stream of national security bad news.

State of Defense