Thomas Ricks points out that this isn’t a war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Yemen, it’s starting to feel like a war against an entire region. Why doesn’t anyone ever tell me these things? I knew the United States conducted drone strikes a few years ago, including one that killed an American citizen on [...]
Iraq
What if the United States had captured Osama Bin Laden?
We can learn a bit from how they interrogated Saddam Hussein During the interrogation of Saddam, Piro conducted only 20 formal interviews; most of their daily interactions were casual. They talked politics, history, sports, arts, the Middle East, women, and family. "For me, it was important just to get to know him," Piro says. "I [...]
Ducking Responsibility
Bob Woodward takes over Thomas Rick’s blog and talks about Donald Rumsfeld’s memoir. Rumsfeld’s memoir is one big clean-up job, a brazen effort to shift blame to others — including President Bush — distort history, ignore the record or simply avoid discussing matters that cannot be airbrushed away. It is a travesty, and I think [...]
Rumsfeld’s memoir
Donald Rumsfeld has written a memoir. He places part of the problems in Iraq on Condoleezza Rice. What Mr. Rumsfeld offers is a far more believable account of events, one that holds individuals responsible for failures of execution. He describes a White House with internal problems, at the heart of which was a National Security [...]
When conditions change
Warren Kinsella has a good post titled TEN POINTS: WHEN DEMOCRACY LOSES ALL MEANING that you should check out. I was going to reply in his comments but after drafting up a reply, I decided to post here instead. Looking back at the decision that was made to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 2011, I [...]
The failed benchmark
I read Bob Woodward’s book, The War Within while on vacation a couple of weeks ago. In it Condoleeza Rice was constantly talking about providing electricity to the Iraqis as a key benchmark of success. Well according to the New York Times, the occupiers of Iraq have not done a very good job of doing [...]
Christmas Gift Ideas for the Emotionally Distant Father
A friend of mine/arch-nemesis has drawn her father and father-in-law for this year’s Christmas celebration and demanded a Christmas gift guide for them. While I am generally compliant towards requests from friends who have incriminating stories about me, this one is a hard one as I don’t have a relationship with my dad * and [...]
Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks
While in Chapters in Regina, I picked up a copy of Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks. It is a mesmerizing read if for just the amount of incompetence within the White House, the Pentagon, and the provisional government in Iraq (Paul Bremer comes across as an incompetent idiot). Basically it tells the story of intelligence [...]
Geopolitical Peak Oil
The New York Times on how the energy giants are being squeezed out of an already tight market. Part of the reason is political. From the Caspian Sea to South America, Western oil companies are being squeezed out of resource-rich provinces. They are being forced to renegotiate contracts on less-favorable terms and are fighting losing [...]
Rolling Stone on Profiteering in Iraq
You can read the gory details here. Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush’s war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude [...]
The War As We Saw It
A New York Times op-ed by some soon to be returning troops of 82nd Airborne. Here is just part of it but the entire op-ed is worth reading. Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality [...]
