The Origins of Strategic Demands
A ‘Big Picture’ view, a reflection on ‘Another War’ brings together a ‘Surviving Victory’ conference in DC and proceeds to the launch of StrategicDemands.com & GreenPolicy360
* American Twilight: A Memoir of Another War *
by Steven Schmidt | Published by the Green Institute (2004)
Followed by…
Strategic Demands of the 21st Century
National Security Brief by Roger Morris & Steven Schmidt (2005)
American Twilight
Steven Schmidt/Strategic Demands: The work brought forward in American Twilight: A Memoir of Another War, was preceded by drafting of the 2000 founding platform of the US Green Party and, even as US Green Party politics imploded as a result of a takeover by an extreme faction, the 2000 platform became a model and force in the expansion of green parties in over 100 countries. A (lower case) modern green movement that came out of the latter half of the 20th century was finding support country-by-country, community-by-community. Environmental protection change across generations was becoming real. Although opportunities for a ‘peace dividend’ collapsed as the Soviet Union ended (as a Cold War 2.0 commenced with U.S. ‘nuclear modernization’), we continue to advance what we were calling a ‘platform in progress’.
American Twilight and Strategic Demands of the 21st Century carry on with politics and calls for an alternative politics. The ‘olden ways’ of hard power are failing with profound results and the times call for new vision, approaches, alternatives to constant war and conflict.
In the Introduction to American Twilight, a Memoir of Another War (published in 2004), the scope of the challenge take on dramatic dimension:
Twilight is falling across the American democratic dream. The so-called “Bush Doctrine” of preemptive war, spawned with disinformation and “shock and awe”, ushered in another war, escalating deepening costs of decades of U.S. war spending.
“Perpetual war for perpetual peace” policies have failed. Global U.S. outreach (some 800 military installations) have delivered innumerable incursions, conflicts, lost lives and lost opportunities, with generational legacies of bitterness and worse. The Middle East wars, provoked and lobbied by ‘the usual’ advocates have escalated far beyond the front line conflicts of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Strategic Demands & GreenPolicy360:
Origin of Strategic Demands
Steven Schmidt: The year was 2004. My friend and collaborator, Roger Morris, was pushing for a strategic ‘Security Brief’ following my writing in American Twilight. Our Conversations turned to a strategic blueprint and Roger, recalling his time on the U.S. National Security Council, brought his prodigious skills to the organizational next steps.
We envisioned New Definitions of National Security, a shift from the war-orthodoxies touted by neo-conservatives and neo-liberals of the Bush and Clinton era. We pointed at the failures of the orthodox politics and geopolitics and fast-rising security threats.
We pointed to nuclear proliferation and a climate crisis as existential realities that were being set aside at the nation’s peril.
We wrote a first Security Brief, Strategic Demands of the 21st Century, that became a foundation document and guide to organizing a Surviving Victory Conference in Washington DC. Soon after, the Green Institute transferred its online site to Steve Schmidt and soon after StrategicDemands.com was launched.
Then came the launching of GreenPolicy360. The work of StratDem and GreenPolicy are complimentary, the challenges of war and nuclear weapons, of eco-nomics and environmental protection go hand in hand.
Today, Strategic Demands & GreenPolicy360 continue to hold forth on the merits and need for new security definitions, new vision, and shared best practices. Our network is local/national/global. We are hopeful of making the world a better home for us all. We believe the future holds great peril — and promise.
Our banner is simple — A prospering future opposes the ripples of war and calls for us to make a positive difference now.
Onward!
New Definitions of National & Global Security
The “Surviving Victory” Conference in Washington DC was a founding initiative of Strategic Demands.
“Strategic Demands of the 21st Century“, written by Roger Morris and Steven Schmidt, introduced
StrategicDemands.com and New Definitions of National & Global Security
Update
A turn backward…
September 2025 – a “Department of War” returns
A generation ago, today’s “Department of Defense” was called a “War Department”
Today, as the U.S. president orders a new name for the Defense Department, the U.S. looks again for security in hard power — a trillion dollar+ ‘Department of War’ budget proposal.
____________________
September 3, 2025
“Maximum lethality”
By order of the President of the United States, a “Department of War” was officially recognized today via Oval Office ceremony… The new “Secretary of War”, Pete Hegseth, explained prior to the signing that “lethality” is the intent of the re-naming…
“We’re going to go on the offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality…”
The President in his comments added that the US ‘never fought to win since World War II’ and that a ‘wokey’ problem acted to prevent a more lethal mission.
The Executive Order authorizes the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense, and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as “Secretary of War,” “Department of War,” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in official correspondence…
As changing the department’s official name requires an act of Congress, legislation has been submitted in Congress officially to rename the Department of Defense. The president’s Executive Order literally does not rename the Defense Department, but allows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use the secondary titles “Secretary of war” and “Department of War”.
Fact of the Day:
An annual Trillion dollar + 2025 Pentagon/’War Department’ budget doesn’t begin to capture the extent of US wars and deep cost of wars.
A new Cold War and Nuclear Arms Race escalates as a 2026 announced trillion (USD) dollar+ budget is announced (a baseline on top of which is added other ‘supplemental’ and unannounced, secret program/project spending).
The U.S. spending in turn drives international spending, led by China, Russia and accompanied by collapsing arms control agreements and treaties with realignment of powers and regional wars.
A ‘Trump era’ doctrine of ‘America First’ protectionism are a shifting geopolitical stage as of 2025/2026.
A ‘Department of War’ comes amid global upheaval…
Looking back at failed wars in the Mideast and trillions spent…. for what?
American Twilight: A Memoir of Another War
by Steven Schmidt
Raytheon’s Tomahawk system of missiles
Replenishing inventory is a key to profit
(A Case Study – Excerpt from ‘American Twilight’, 2004)
Kissimmee, I always pronounce the city’s name wrongly. It’s Ki-sí-me, not Kissa-me. It’s located in Osceola county Florida and adjacent to Celebration, advertised as a perfect little town in which to live. Kissimmee and Celebration and the local outskirts of Orlando and Disneyworld are Americana picture-perfect settings, ideal places to “raise a family”. Celebration, built by Disney’s Development Company, is a planned community where most every single design element and ordinance is intended to nurture a quiet ‘n’ happy life. It is described in brochures and advertisements as “the quintessential American town.”
Located not far from Kissimmee, Celebration and Disneyworld, is Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons contractor. Lockheed Martin promotes itself in its online brochures, as having “a vision to be the best… the most respected global leader in every market and community we serve, through the pride, commitment and power of enterprising people.”
With missiles, air-to-ground and strike weapons with names like AGM-142, AUP, BLU-109, HAVE LITE, JASSM, LOCAAS, PYTHON 4 (and 5 and 6 on the way) and WCMD, Lockheed Martin has come a long way from its self proclaimed humble beginnings in 1956 as a missile factory located in a former cow pasture and orange grove. It draws it workforce now from the Kissimmee, Celebration, the Osceola area and, on the surface, all seems ‘good’ as industry growth is ‘up’.
The U.S. administrator for post-war Iraq, General Garner lived here before his relocation to Baghdad. For sales information on the product line of Lockheed Martin, visit the website, they’re evidently proud of what they do. The company claims “ethics is the essence” of their business… “Business without ethics is not the kind of business we want to be in. Business with ethics improves, strengthens, and clarifies all that we do. Ethics gives all our efforts a solid foundation and makes working at – and with – Lockheed Martin a pleasure.” Lockheed Martin cites its “Ethical Principles – Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility, Trust, Respect and Citizenship… [we’ll] obey all the laws of any country in which we do business, respect environmental concerns, and give back to the communities by improving and enriching community life.”
A thought here… are the products of Lockheed Martin ‘improving and enriching community life’? The colorful brochures present the upgraded MIM-104, PAC-3 and GEM+ Patriot missile systems being produced jointly by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
Raytheon’s annual billion-dollar-plus revenue from the Patriot program keeps paychecks in pockets as does Lockheed Martin’s “multi-barrel, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet, kinetic” Patriot “upgrade” package. The problem with the Patriot, from a marketing point of view, is usage, not enough of them are being fired off. Raytheon’s Tomahawk system of missiles is much more profitable, due to much more usage. Replenishing inventory is a key to profit. The ‘depletion of inventory’ during the second Iraq produces profit proportionately greater than stand-at-ready defense systems.
One of the latest upgrades in the weapons arsenal are “kits” to turn “dumb” free-release bombs into “smart, precision” bombs, “precision guided” by GPS/Global Position Satellite. To get a feel of this ordnance, let’s consider the reported impacts of one guided bomb as it is dropped – a “small” 2000 pound Mark-84 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition).
The software program directing the bomb to target is called “Bug Splat”. Following the JDAM as it hits the ground, its fuse ignites a priming charge which detonates 945 pounds of Tritonal, a silvery solid mixture of aluminum and TNT. The chemical reaction produces an expanding nucleus of gas the swells the bomb’s casing to double its size before the steel splits into a shower of white-hot fragments traveling 6000 feet per second and producing a shock wave of several thousand pounds per square inch. The fireball is 8500 degrees Fahrenheit and the explosion carves a 20 feet crater and hurls around 10,000 pounds of rock at supersonic speed. Some of the bomb metal fragments travel out three quarters of a mile, pieces of the bomb producing death and destruction within a radius of a mile and a half. This is a ‘small’ bomb dropped by nearly every aircraft that flew in the Iraq campaign. JDAMS can level a city block (as they did in Baghdad). It leaves a pile of rubble in a crater.
The reality of this resonates. I recall asking the engineer from Raytheon about the use of these weapons and “rationality” of destruction. I look back at his answer. “We go to war,” he tells me, “and we field test, we bring the test results back to the designers and engineers… upgrades are proposed to the Pentagon and Congress funds the upgrades… we learn as we go and we get better at war the more we go to war.” I realize he’s right. The U.S. has been conducting multiple “field tests”, to put it in engineering terms, and has had many opportunities to upgrade the arsenal over the past half century. The weapon designer agrees and points to the “Patriot” system as an example of the “benefits of going to war”. The Patriot’s failure rate against Scud missiles aimed at Israel during the first Iraq war led to an upgrade package of guidance enhancements and midcourse correction systems. He wouldn’t talk details, but the marketing teams at Raytheon and Lockheed later announce their new and better product to the world – field-tested and improved missile defense systems.
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