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Did you know that the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), the most highly classified intelligence document in America, could become a political football? While it may seem like a behind-the-scenes bureaucratic shuffle, the decision of figures like Tulsi Gabbard to alter the PDB’s production deeply impacts the flow of critical national security information. Control over the *PDB*, specifically the allocation of resources and the interpretation of intelligence, is a high-stakes game. This move by Gabbard, transferring PDB assembly away from a trusted agency like the central Intelligence Agency to her own department, has raised serious questions. What does this shift mean for national security? Is it about efficiency, political maneuvering, or something more insidious? Let’s dive in and analyze the implications of this possibly seismic shift in the intelligence community.
Tulsi Gabbard said she was moving the assembly of the PDB away from the Central Intelligence Agency, which has traditionally been tasked with doing the work, to her own department.That may seem like a minor bureaucratic change, but it raised eyebrows among some in the intelligence community who have participated in the process.
Tulsi Gabbard said she was moving the assembly of the PDB away from the Central Intelligence Agency, which has traditionally been tasked with doing the work, to her own department. That may seem like a minor bureaucratic change, but it raised eyebrows among some in the intelligence community who have participated in the process.
the ghost of the Cold War is stirring. Forty years ago, annual military drills known as Exercise Reforger simulated a rapid deployment of NATO forces to confront the Soviet Union, a vital exercise designed to deter aggression. Now, with Vladimir Putin’s relentless expansionism echoing the anxieties of that era, should NATO dust off its old playbook and resurrect Reforger? This isn’t just a historical thoght experiment; it’s a strategic necessity. Putin’s actions, from invading Ukraine to meddling in elections, paint a chilling portrait of a leader indifferent to international norms. Could the show of force, logistical prowess, and unified strategy Reforger once embodied be exactly what’s needed to deter further conflict and safeguard Europe’s future? Recent global events and the current state of affairs begs the question: is it time to bring Reforger back to the forefront of European defense?
when I was a junior officer during the Cold war, the biggest North Atlantic Treaty Organization military training exercises – perhaps the largest in history – were annual drills called Exercise Reforger. The goal was to ensure NATO’s ability to deploy troops rapidly to West Germany if war broke out between the alliance and the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact nations. “Reforger” was a lose acronym of “Return of Forces to Germany.”
The first Reforger was held in 1969, and they ran annually through 1993, just after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Forces from every country in the alliance participated,although the bulk of them were American – drawn from the 400,000 U.S. troops stationed in Europe at the height of the Cold War.
At the time, only 16 countries were in NATO (today there are 32). The event was not just an exercise – it was an actual planning and execution demonstration of NATO’s defensive war plans. It required the forces to “marry up” with their huge stockpiles of equipment on NATO’s eastern flank,called Prepositioning of Materiel Configured in Unit Sets (POMCUS) sites.
U.S. Marines were also part of the flow of troops toward the potential combat lines, and the Navy’s Sixth Fleet (focused on the mediterranean) and Second Fleet (covering the North Atlantic) participated from sea. As a lieutenant junior grade onboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Forrestal in the fall of 1980,I remember our participation in air sorties in support of ground operations. Even though we knew it was a drill, we took it with deadly seriousness; the intent was to be prepared to “fight tonight,” as the saying went in those days.
With the demise of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, Reforger exercises were deemed needless.But given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to invade his neighbors, we should ask whether it is indeed time to bring Reforger back. If so, what might the exercises look like in today’s world? And are the NATO allies up to taking a larger role?
The reason for the original Reforger exercises was simple: to create deterrence in the minds of the Soviets. The sight of 150,000-plus allied troops, hundreds of combat aircraft and dozens of warships helped keep Moscow from getting any ideas about further conquests in Central and Western Europe. Today, three things argue strongly for a new Reforger series.
First is Moscow’s two decades of territorial aggression – notably the invasions of georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014 and 2022).
Putin has also sought to undermine free elections in various European countries and used hybrid warfare tactics to intimidate nations from Moldova to Armenia. Russia has threatened NATO’s Baltic states and is building up offensive capabilities on the border of new alliance member Finland.
A second reason for a new Reforger series is that Putin has turned his country into a war economy, devoting more than 7% of GDP to military spending (double the U.S. level) and pouring 35% of his annual budget into financing the war in Ukraine.
He is also recruiting mercenaries from around the world and has inveigled Kim Jong Un of North Korea to send him some 10,000 troops. Based on the rope-a-dope he is playing in negotiations with President Donald Trump over Ukraine, Putin seems unlikely to cease and desist anytime soon.
Third, Europe is finally waking from a long period of denial about the threat Moscow presents on its doorstep.
The U.S. allies are boosting military spending and seem ready to put together a major annual exercise to show Putin that they have the capacity and the will to fight if attacked. Ursula von der Leyen, the leader of the European Union, and the new secretary general of NATO, former Dutch Prime minister Mark rutte, recognize that the moment is critical.
A new Reforger series could take some lessons from its illustrious predecessors. It should include forces from each of the 32 allies, including contingents from even the smallest nations like Iceland and Luxembourg. This time, the bulk of the troops, aircraft and warships should come not from the U.S.but from Europe, particularly France, Germany and Poland.Overall command and control should be vested in NATO’s supreme allied commander and run from the nuclear-proofed command bunker in Mons, Belgium – a place I know well.
Like the previous iterations, it should not be simply practice or a tabletop drill, but a real-time manifestation of current war plans giving commanders at all levels real authority over their troops.A potential breakdown of responsibilities in command and control: Turkey for land forces; Britain for maritime; Germany for air and missile defense; Belgium for special forces; Italy to protect the southern flank and the Netherlands on the northern flank.
The U.S. should focus not on manpower but on what it does better than any other country: providing intelligence, cybersecurity overwatch, satellite and space connectivity, artificial intelligence, and advanced drones and other unmanned vehicles. The U.S. Sixth and Second Fleets should be involved, but as support for carrier strike groups from the UK, France and Italy.
Above all, like its ancestor reforger, the new exercise should focus on the swift flow of logistics. smaller recent exercises have revealed infrastructure problems – particularly with highways, bridges and rail lines – that NATO has been working to remedy, especially in the newer Eastern European members. So much of war depends on getting the right troops,transportation and ordnance together at the point of attack. A new Reforger could demonstrate that vital ability – right in front of Vladimir Putin’s nose.
James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, former supreme allied commander of NATO, and vice chairman of global affairs at the Carlyle Group. He dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University,and he’s on the boards of Aon,Fortinet and Ankura Consulting Group,and has advised Shield Capital,a firm that invests in the cybersecurity sector.
When I was a junior officer during the Cold War, the biggest North Atlantic Treaty Organization military training exercises — perhaps the largest in history — were annual drills called Exercise Reforger. The goal was to ensure NATO’s ability to deploy troops rapidly to West Germany if war broke out between the alliance and the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact nations. “Reforger” was a loose acronym of “Return of Forces to Germany.”
The first Reforger was held in 1969, and they ran annually through 1993, just after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Forces from every country in the alliance participated, although the bulk of them were American — drawn from the 400,000 U.S. troops stationed in Europe at the height of the Cold War.
At the time, only 16 countries were in NATO (today there are 32). The event was not just an exercise — it was an actual planning and execution demonstration of NATO’s defensive war plans. It required the forces to “marry up” with their huge stockpiles of equipment on NATO’s eastern flank, called Prepositioning of Materiel Configured in Unit Sets (POMCUS) sites.
U.S. Marines were also part of the flow of troops toward the potential combat lines, and the Navy’s Sixth Fleet (focused on the Mediterranean) and Second Fleet (covering the North Atlantic) participated from sea. As a lieutenant junior grade onboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Forrestal in the fall of 1980, I remember our participation in air sorties in support of ground operations. Even though we knew it was a drill, we took it with deadly seriousness; the intent was to be prepared to “fight tonight,” as the saying went in those days.
With the demise of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, Reforger exercises were deemed unnecessary. But given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to invade his neighbors, we should ask whether it is time to bring Reforger back. If so, what might the exercises look like in today’s world? And are the NATO allies up to taking a larger role?
The reason for the original Reforger exercises was simple: to create deterrence in the minds of the Soviets. The sight of 150,000-plus allied troops, hundreds of combat aircraft and dozens of warships helped keep Moscow from getting any ideas about further conquests in Central and Western Europe. Today, three things argue strongly for a new Reforger series.
First is Moscow’s two decades of territorial aggression — particularly the invasions of Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014 and 2022).
Putin has also sought to undermine free elections in various European countries and used hybrid warfare tactics to intimidate nations from Moldova to Armenia. Russia has threatened NATO’s Baltic states and is building up offensive capabilities on the border of new alliance member Finland.
A second reason for a new Reforger series is that Putin has turned his country into a war economy, devoting more than 7% of GDP to military spending (double the U.S. level) and pouring 35% of his annual budget into financing the war in Ukraine.
He is also recruiting mercenaries from around the world and has inveigled Kim Jong Un of North Korea to send him some 10,000 troops. Based on the rope-a-dope he is playing in negotiations with President Donald Trump over Ukraine, Putin seems unlikely to cease and desist anytime soon.
Third, Europe is finally waking from a long period of denial about the threat Moscow presents on its doorstep.
The U.S. allies are boosting military spending and seem ready to put together a major annual exercise to show Putin that they have the capacity and the will to fight if attacked. Ursula von der Leyen, the leader of the European Union, and the new secretary general of NATO, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, recognize that the moment is critical.
A new Reforger series could take some lessons from its illustrious predecessors. It should include forces from each of the 32 allies, including contingents from even the smallest nations like Iceland and Luxembourg. This time, the bulk of the troops, aircraft and warships should come not from the U.S. but from Europe, particularly France, Germany and Poland. Overall command and control should be vested in NATO’s supreme allied commander and run from the nuclear-proofed command bunker in Mons, Belgium — a place I know well.
Like the previous iterations, it should not be simply practice or a tabletop drill, but a real-time manifestation of current war plans giving commanders at all levels real authority over their troops. A potential breakdown of responsibilities in command and control: Turkey for land forces; Britain for maritime; Germany for air and missile defense; Belgium for special forces; Italy to protect the southern flank and the Netherlands on the northern flank.
The U.S. should focus not on manpower but on what it does better than any other country: providing intelligence, cybersecurity overwatch, satellite and space connectivity, artificial intelligence, and advanced drones and other unmanned vehicles. The U.S. Sixth and Second Fleets should be involved, but as support for carrier strike groups from the UK, France and Italy.
Above all, like its ancestor Reforger, the new exercise should focus on the swift flow of logistics. Smaller recent exercises have revealed infrastructure problems — particularly with highways, bridges and rail lines — that NATO has been working to remedy, especially in the newer Eastern European members. So much of war depends on getting the right troops, transportation and ordnance together at the point of attack. A new Reforger could demonstrate that vital ability — right in front of Vladimir Putin’s nose.
James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, former supreme allied commander of NATO, and vice chairman of global affairs at the Carlyle Group. He dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and he’s on the boards of Aon, Fortinet and Ankura Consulting Group, and has advised Shield Capital, a firm that invests in the cybersecurity sector.
KABALE, UGANDA – State Minister for Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives David Bahati didn’t just win in a political earthquake that rattled Kabale on Friday; he obliterated his opponents, retaining his seat as Kabale District NRM Mainstream Chairperson in a landslide victory that redefined “dominance.”
His closest rival, Andrew Aja Baryayanga, was left in the dust, securing a mere fraction of Bahati’s colossal vote count.
The electoral massacre unfolded at Kabale Main Stadium, presided over by Kabale District NRM Elections Officer Ms. Badra Ainebyoona and her assistant, Mr. Medard Ntegyerize.
When the dust settled and the ballots were counted, Bahati emerged with a staggering 528 votes. Baryayanga, despite his efforts, limped in with a paltry 49 votes—while Ronald Christmas managed a single, solitary vote.
To put Minister Bahati’s overwhelming mandate into perspective— his closest rival—Baryayanga would have needed to multiply his vote tally by more than eleven times just to match the minister’s formidable lead. It was a chasm he couldn’t even begin to bridge—exposing a gaping void in his political support.
Adding a layer of intrigue to this political drama— Mr. Eliab Mporera, Bahati’s anticipated opponent in the upcoming Ndorwa West constituency elections, was reportedly the mastermind and primary financier behind Baryayanga’s embarrassing campaign.
The dismal 49-vote showing by Mporera’s protégé now casts a long shadow over his own political aspirations— raising serious questions about his strategic prowess and the strength of his ground game.
After being declared the undisputed victor by Registrar Babra Ainebyoona, Minister Bahati— radiating confidence, extended an olive branch, pledging to reconcile all party members. His goal: to forge a united front and ensure the NRM’s unwavering success across the district.
“I am grateful to God and to the people who re-elected me as the Kabale District NRM Chairperson,” Bahati declared, his voice ringing with conviction. “This shows that the NRM party remains strong. Members rejected my opponent because they were unsure of his intentions—he had only recently joined the party. We were elected because the NRM has delivered in Kabale. I will work with everyone to ensure President Museveni wins the 2026 general election.”
Bahati further cemented his commitment— vowing to collaborate closely with party leaders to meticulously implement government programs. His ultimate aim: to relentlessly pursue the eradication of poverty and spearhead development, ushering in an era of prosperity for every resident of Kabale District.
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