Bug Out Now, says Obama…
All of this follows on the heels of revelations–more ‘leaks’– from Woodward’s soon to be published best-seller, “Obama’s Wars,” especially a specific and ‘bizarre,’ as Woodward calls it, statement by the President about the nation’s ability to ‘absorb’ another 9/11 type attack, and by inference, the inability of the US government (or any government for that matter) to safequard its citizens from the bombs, bullets, and bacteria that are terrorism’s stock-in-trade.
Here’s an interesting idea from Robert Wright, writing in The New York Times. The Palestinians should give up on negotiations, reject violence, and begin peaceful demonstrations asserting that they should be given the right to vote in Israel. This movement would “gain immediate international support” and in “Europe and the United States, leftists would agitate […]
Why do countries act like big babies? I bring this up in reaction to the U.S.’s walkout during Ahmadinejad’s UN speech last week. Now I know, he was suggesting that the U.S. government’s explanation of 9/11 might be inaccurate, and many Americans may view this as “hateful and offensive,” as Obama said. But Ahmadinejad was […]
As noted here in my last post, Avner Cohen has drawn an important contrast between Israel’s strategic position with respect to Iran today and its position when it first confronted the danger of an Iraqi bomb, thirty years ago. In 1979-80, Cohen correctly observed, Israel stood essentially alone: Though Saddam had started to mess with […]
Iran’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr will not be up and running until next year, according to reports from the Iranian atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi. Iran began loading Russian-made fuel rods into the plant in August with the expectation that the plant would be connected to the national power grid by October. […]
Coming from me, a defense of Barack Obama may surprise my readers. That’s because they may not have read the fine print! Some of his policies I haven’t exactly agreed with (principally, the expensive health care reform, which at a time of rapidly rising sovereign debt, was imprudent). I reluctantly supported Obama for president in 2008 […]
Last week I participated in a Department of Defense sponsored Bloggers roundtable. The occasion was the announcement of the first graduating class of the female Officer Candidate Course (OCS) for the Afghan Army. There were 29 graduates of the 20 week course and they will join the nearly 300 women already serving in the Afghan […]
This time it comes from John Bolton, who writes: One of Obama’s clearest aims in advancing “global governance” is drawing the United States ever more deeply into the International Criminal Court (ICC). Secretary Clinton lamented last year, as a “great regret,” that “we are not yet a signatory” to the treaty creating the ICC. In […]
–>Just wanted to pass on a heads up I received from PBS about a program being aired on their network this evening at 10 PM (www.pbs.org/pov/tvschedule). It’s THE OATH by Laura Poitras. Film synopsis: Filmed in Yemen and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, The Oath interweaves the stories of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, […]
China is an economically successful country. Growth rates of 8-11% per year. Fx reserves north of $2.4 trillion, closing in on 20% of US GDP. Investment rates that represent 40-50% of GDP (vs. 15-20% in the US). Private credit growth of 32.5% last year, vs. 5.6% in the U.S. A Human Development Index that now stands at 49.7, […]
In a recent post I expressed dismay about Jeffrey Goldberg’s “Point of No Return” article: its implicit suggestion that the United States should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities so as to save Israel the trouble of doing something so senseless and self-defeating, and the decision by The Atlantic to publish a piece of work that is […]
The Economist’s lengthy Special Report on Latin America last week is worth a read (see leader below), even though it failed to emphasize and adequately explain two critical causes of the region’s recent success — 1) the consensus among Latin American politicians that conquering inflation has benefitted the poor and strengthened democracy; and 2) the massive build-up in fx reserves that […]
Considering that war is perhaps the most horrific aspect of human society, one might think we’d some idea of why it happens. We’ve given it an honest effort. Much ink has been spilled and html text typed to attempt to get to the bottom of it. And there have been some valuable efforts, Stephen Van […]
The military has a process called “Lessons Learned”. Basically after the conduct of a major operation, be it an exercise or real world conflict, you study what worked and what didn’t. The purpose of the process is to constantly improve the way you do business by documenting what worked and what didn’t work. The hope […]
This is the new face of global organized crime–a criminal smorgasbord in which players energized by shifting motives still cooperate at intersections in their operational journeys, ‘hooking up’ for a day or an extra dollar when there are benefits all around.