Afghanistan

The case for staying in Afghanistan as presented by Biddle. In the end, there is much here that is convincing which is sad. Biddle is perhaps one of the best security specialists working today.

"Taking all this into account, advocates for withdrawal from Afghanistan certainly have a case. The stakes are not limitless, the costs of pursuing them are high, and there is no guarantee that even a high-cost counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan will succeed. But success is possible all the same, given our strengths and our opponents’ limitations. And failure could have potentially serious consequences for U.S. security."

Obama's Speech in Egypt

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How to Stop Pirates

Apparently, you can learn all you need to learn about Pirates from a video game. And boy did I love that game when I was a kid.

Hiliary Marginalized

This article made me very happy.

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is finding that her job description is dissolving under her feet, leaving her with only a vestige of the power she must have thought she acquired when she signed on to be President Obama’s chief Cabinet officer."

Sri Linka Civil War

Here are a few BBC summaries on the Sri Linkan conflict.

Basic summary and Q&A

Is End Near?

War and Peace

Battlestar

I heard a bit of snickering when I said I watch Battlestar Galactica. I snickered too when I first heard about it and avoided the show until three months ago. Yes, I do feel like a huge dork admitting I watch this show, but its really good and probably the best study of politics and warfare on TV in recent memory. Variety backs me up here.

USC and Sanchez

Great article on Mark Sanchez of USC and his role in the Latino community.

Slumdog

Here is an interesting article that calls Slumdog Millionaire the first movie of the Obama era. I would not go so far as to say that, but it was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. As the article points out, its shows the growing city of Mumbai in all its positive and negative lights. As global cities expand, there is the good: the tech industry, expanding business, but also the bad, the pimps, gangsters, and mafia of old preying on the unsuspecting poor. It is true though that Slumdog is an example of diversity in movies. The book was changed to make the main character a Muslim which adds a few interesting wrinkles to the portrayal of modern Indian life. It also does not utilize a common white face to sanitize the film. It is all around a great movie and something I encourage everyone who wants to have a global perspective to see and enjoy.

The first striking thing about this British-made film is its even-handed, generous spirit of universality. It is set in India and it's about Indians. There is no hint of Merchant Ivory decorum, the predicaments of rich westerners far from home, nor any notion that Boyle and his team were engaged in a David Lean-style imperial adventure in what was once one of the pink regions on the globe. Refreshingly, there is also no white character to "explain" the story (which needs no explanation) to western audiences.

Gaza, Gaza, Gaza

Here is an interesting NYTimes article on the war in Gaza and the tricks of urban combat. This conflict is hard to cover since both sides are using the media to cover up their activities. While I don’t support war at all, this article at least explains why Israel would attack civilian neighborhoods and schools.
“Hamas, with training from Iran and Hezbollah, has used the last two years to turn Gaza into a deadly maze of tunnels, booby traps and sophisticated roadside bombs. Weapons are hidden in mosques, schoolyards and civilian houses, and the leadership’s war room is a bunker beneath Gaza’s largest hospital, Israeli intelligence officials say.”

Military Weary of Obama

A good percentage of those who have served in the military are pessimistic about Obama as President. They are wary of having a leader who has never served in the military, but consider that only 10 percent of the entire American population has served in the first place, and a good percetage of that number includes WWII/Korea/Vietnam vets who were drafted.

Where is the change?

Where is the change? These two articles outline the problems with Obama’s choices so far. First of all, the choice of Hilary as secretary of state does not signal a departure from conventional foreign policy considerations. The retention of Gates and appointment of Clinton might in fact signal the return to the politics of the first Bush administration (not all a bad thing actually).

“Ironically, Obama is likely to show more fidelity to George H.W. Bush's approach to foreign affairs than did the former president's own son. That's change, maybe even change we can believe in, but it's not the change so many expected.”

This article also supports Richardson for secretary of state. The main argument should be, and is, that he is the most qualified to be secretary of state. He has served in a previous cabinet level post, was ambassador to the UN, served in the House, and was special envoy to many international problem spots. On top of that, the choice of Hilary over Richardson is insulting to Hispanics who choose to buck institutional leadership and go with Obama. It’s a slap in the face to so many who stuck their necks out for Obama. It is also a slap in the face to Latin America, which might have received greater engagement with Richardson had he been appointed.

“This isn't about Richardson, who might be very happy heading for ribbon cuttings in Toledo while Clinton heads for blue-ribbon summits in Tel Aviv. This is about something larger. Richardson is the nation's only Hispanic governor and the most prominent Hispanic elected official in the country. And the way he was treated doesn't say much about Obama's respect for the Hispanic community. Nor does the fact that Obama seems to have filled his top four Cabinet posts — justice, treasury, defense, and state — and couldn't find a single Hispanic to put in any of them. America's largest minority took a chance on Obama despite the fact that the president-elect had no track record in reaching out to them and didn't break a sweat trying to win their votes. They deserve better.”

Is this really what we voted for? While I support the choice of Gates on practical grounds, it will not be the choice that will push for withdrawal from Iraq like so many expected and hoped. Clinton is an effective choice for the State department if Obama wants a free hand to deal with internal economic problems, but she does not represent the choice that many of us hoped for when we were expecting a new and different vision of American external relations. So I will ask again, where is the change? Why should we have hope if things will just remain the same with the same old people in charge? Don’t go to D.C. in January 2009 to celebrate the election of our first black president, go to D.C. to celebrate the retention of the old guard and the state quo.

Jobs for Lawyers

Here is an article last year on the state of the market for lawyers. Things have probably gotten worse since then. Send me any other articles you would like to post so everyone can have full information.

Here is another article from last year with stats. Keep them coming

The World Says Elect the Black Guy

The Economist endorsing Obama. They also have a good bit on Senator McCain versus Candidate McCain.
Is Mr Obama any better? Most of the hoopla about him has been about what he is, rather than what he would do. His identity is not as irrelevant as it sounds. Merely by becoming president, he would dispel many of the myths built up about America: it would be far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan if it were led by a black man whose middle name is Hussein; and far harder for autocrats around the world to claim that American democracy is a sham. America’s allies would rally to him: the global electoral college on our website shows a landslide in his favour. At home he would salve, if not close, the ugly racial wound left by America’s history and lessen the tendency of American blacks to blame all their problems on racism.

DNI speaks, the world trembles

Sometimes I just wish policy analysts and professionals would read an article or two not spout off on what they think the causes of conflict will be based on narrow perceptions.
"Strategic rivalries are most likely to revolve around trade, demographics, access to natural resources, investments and technological innovation. There will be a struggle to acquire technology advantage as the key enabler for dominance," he said.
*The above factors are not likely to cause rivalry future and have not in the past. It is possible that these issues will become important to rivals, but that is only after the rivalry starts in the first place.

The 'Other' as the President

I don't know how I could be more offended by this. What does it mean to be a 'typical American?" What does Mark Penn mean? Is it wrong to have different views in the American melting pot?

"Penn, the presidential campaign’s chief strategist, wrote in a memo to Clinton excerpted in the article: “I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.”

War Powers Act

There is a new debate about War Powers Act and how to reform it. Here is an op-ed piece in the NYTimes and here is the link to the full report produced by Warren Christopher and James Baker.

First Strike

This is scarier than Cloverfield.
"The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world"."

Obama solving Kenya's problems

The fact that Obama took time off during his campaign to make this call goes a long way in my book:

"The political crisis here, which has claimed at least 486 lives and probably many more, seems to be raising wider concerns, with President Bush issuing a statement urging “both sides to engage in peaceful dialogue” and Senator Barack Obama speaking to opposition leaders by telephone.

Mr. Obama, Democrat from Illinois who is running for president, has close ties to Kenya. His father was Kenyan and a member of the same ethnic group as Kenya’s top opposition leader, Raila Odinga. Mr. Obama took a short break from campaigning on Monday and asked Mr. Odinga to meet directly with Kenya’s president without preconditions, a spokesman for Mr. Obama said."

Multiculturalism and Foriegn Policy

I can hardly have said it better myself:

Obama’s argument is about more than identity. He was intelligent and prescient about the costs of the Iraq War. But he says that his judgment was formed by his experience as a boy with a Kenyan father—and later an Indonesian stepfather—who spent four years growing up in Indonesia, and who lived in the multicultural swirl of Hawaii.

I never thought I’d agree with Obama. I’ve spent my life acquiring formal expertise on foreign policy. I’ve got fancy degrees, have run research projects, taught in colleges and graduate schools, edited a foreign-affairs journal, advised politicians and businessmen, written columns and cover stories, and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles all over the world. I’ve never thought of my identity as any kind of qualification.

But any insights I have are thoroughly informed by the perspective and judgment that I’ve gained from being first a foreigner, then a foreign student, then an aspiring immigrant and now an American. My biography has helped me put my book learning in context, made for a richer interaction with foreigners and helped me see the world from many angles. So I understand what Obama means when he talks about his life and its lessons.

Wow, a candidate who can speak well

From the NYTimes, Romney speaking about Obama
“He just trounced her there because all that experience isn’t what they wanted to hear about — they wanted to see somebody who said they would do something new and change Washington,” Mr. Romney said. “And,” he added, “we cannot afford Barack Obama as the next president. He’s a very nice fellow and he’s a well-spoken fellow, but he’s never done it.”

I think I threw up a little in my mouth when I read that. What do people expect from Obama? When is the covert racism and lowed expectations going to end?