2014's Top-5 Environmental Factors

Over at USNews, our friend Mackenzie Eaglen has an important article to start the year out with, 5 Lessons for the Pentagon From 2013. A good alternative headline I could offer would be, "5 Forces Driving the Pentagon in 2014."

Her five are:
1. Sequestration's slow burn will continue, even with the recent budget deal
2. Hagel offers only a glimpse of the grim choices ahead for the Pentagon
3. Policymakers will continue to punt on serious bureaucratic reform at the Defense Department
4. Loss of traditional defense coalition on Capitol Hill will continue to hurt
5. Mission relief is not coming for the U.S. military as budgets fall

Of the five, the most unappreciated is #4;

While the bipartisan pro-defense coalition has been dwindling for years in Congress, many defense leaders at the Pentagon are only just now waking up to this new and unfortunate reality. Worse, this reliable group of informed members of Congress -- who took great interest in and care of national security -- is not returning anytime soon.

Read the whole thing. Plenty to chew on as you recover from last night.