A must-read here from Noah Shachtman at Wired's Danger Room, detailing Navy Secretary Mabus' difficulties in executing his signature alternative fuels effort. Secretary Mabus' problems on this front are entirely of his own making, and stem from his failure to effectively advocate for American Seapower. While some of the most consequential discussions on strategy and force structure were ongoing in the Pentagon, the Secretary chose to stress (repeatedly) Green Fuels, Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics Education, and Sexual Assault in his speeches--important subjects all, but not the stuff around which to build support for Seapower. Had the Secretary been a vocal proponent of the Navy and Marine Corps' unique and irreplaceable contributions to national defense, and had he been seen to be going the distance to save ships from the chopping block--it strikes me that he would likely have raised fewer eyebrows in his pursuit of a Green Fleet. He did not, and many in Congress tired of having to take on Navy advocacy for him. And now we will have a smaller fleet (than that of the FY 12 plan) and the Green fuels plan is in jeopardy, clearly a sub-optimal outcome.
Bryan McGrath
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