Contents
- “John McCain’s “100 Years” — putting the controversy to rest“, Moira Whelan, posted at Democracy Arsenal (30 April 2008) – This gives McCain’s actual words on the war, at various times and places.
- “In France, Prisons Filled With Muslims“, Washington Post (29 April 2008) — Another decline of the State special report.
- “Bluff and Bloodshed“, Christopher Dickey, Newsweek (1 May 2008) — “The Persian Gulf is more dangerous than ever. Will the U.S. and Iran go to war at sea?”
- “Barack in Iraq“, Michael Crowley, The New Republic” (7 May 2008) — “Can he really end the war?”
- “At least we know how the US financed its trade deficit in April (and March too)“, Brad Setser, RGE Monitor (2 May 2008) — “Record central bank financing continues.”
- Four important new articles about the food crisis, including one about about Wheat Leaf Rust appearing in the US.
Also — The government did not inflect African-Americans with Syphilis in the Tuskegee study. See the Wikipedia entry for details. How astonishing that this pernicious lie is so widely believed!
The articles, with excerpts
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The Presidential campaign rolls on in the seventh year since 9/11, with the only debate about the Long War being in which nations America should fight. We see this even the speeches of the most “liberal” candidate, Senator Barack Obama.
I recommend reading “The World Beyond Iraq”, his speech about national security given at Fayetteville, NC on 19 March 2008. He describes his plan for withdrawal from Iraq, but only to focus our efforts on Afghanistan … and Pakistan. This is doubling down when losing, known as the “gambler’s ruin.” {revisions to this are in red) This speech is a rhetorical masterpiece, providing strong and specific promises. He gets right to the point…
…while we have a General who has used improved tactics to reduce violence, we still have the wrong strategy. As General Petraeus has himself acknowledged, the Iraqis are not achieving the political progress needed to end their civil war…. When you have no overarching strategy, there is no clear definition of success. Success comes to be defined as the ability to maintain a flawed policy indefinitely. Here is the truth: fighting a war without end will not force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. And fighting in a war without end will not make the American people safer.
So when I am Commander-in-Chief, I will set a new goal on Day One: I will end this war. Not because politics compels it. Not because our troops cannot bear the burden- as heavy as it is. But because it is the right thing to do for our national security, and it will ultimately make us safer.
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What is next in Iraq? None of the leading candidates have expressed any intention of leaving Iraq - except in the distant and vague future. McCain intends to fight so long as (or until) we suffer few casualties, then stay for a long time (perhaps a hundred years, as McCain said here and here) ). Obama has been quite explicit, saying on his web site that …
Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.
This looks like an attorney being clever.
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This question surfaced during an email exchange with the always interesting Dan Tdaxp (here is his blog). We can only guess at the answer, but I believe blogs provide a valuable service for America — one that we will need in the difficult times ahead.
Blogs have many roles, but most importantly as a 21st century version of conversations at the local pub. Great things have grown from such beginnings (the New York Stock Exchange met at the Tontine Coffee House until 1817). Blogs expand the community discussion to global scale, but the subjects remain the same: gossip, war, politics, sports, business, and so forth. While the audience is global, the numbers remain like those of a local pub (blogs like this and Zenpundit have three or four hundred visitors per day).
Blogs circulate information and insights, helping us see and understand our rapidly changing world. Our news largely comes from giant organizations (e.g., corporations, governments, foundations, universities). Insights come from the big names (in 4GW, people like Martin van Creveld, Chet Richards, John Robb, etc). Blogs help us digest all this, combining information and insights in different permutations — allowing us to see things from different perspectives.
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