Fighting to Win

 Posted by  Bill of Rights, Bush Administration, East and S.E. Asia, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Terrorism, U.S. Politics  No Responses »
Sep 252006
 

Some essential reading and a few thoughts on the War on Terror:

The One Percent Doctrine, by Ron Suskind.
Suskind is a former Pulitzer Prize winning journalist from the Washington Post. This is a phenomenally well-written account of the war on terror, as told by the CIA and FBI agents who fought the post-9/11 intelligence, counter-intelligence, and counter-terrorism battles. It begins with the 9/11 attacks, and ends with President Bush’s reelection in 2004, and is a harsh indictment of the Bush Administration’s leadership style, their repeated and conscious manipulation of poor intelligence, and the “get results now” mentality that lost us more battles than it won. It almost reads like a spy novel, although a few of the incidents are so bizarre that any editor worth his salt would dismiss them as too fanciful. And yet they actually happened, which is the really scary part. The title, by the way, refers to Vice President Cheney’s repeated statement that a one percent chance of being attacked is enough to justify extreme behavior in the war on terror; the idea being that we need to worry less about what we know and more about what we do. It’s an excellent prescription for running in place, and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing since 9/11.
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When The Boogie-Man Is Us

 Posted by  Foreign Policy, Latin America  No Responses »
Sep 222006
 

I just saw a report on CNN International which showed how President Hugo Chavez has gotten many people, especially among his urban-poor base, convinced that the United States plans to invade Venezuela soon. He has promised that he will burn Venezuela’s oil fields if that happens. He’s publicly stated that he is training the army in how to fight a guerrilla war. And he is urging his people to be prepared to take up arms against the coming imperialist occupier.

It is a win-win situation for President Chavez, and a brilliant short-term political strategy. He gets to claim credit for deterring us when we don’t invade. He can continue to proclaim hatred for the United States. And if we ever respond to any of his provocations, diplomatically or economically, he can claim this as evidence that we really do plan to invade, and therefore strengthen his own position as Venezuela’s protector. (Pat Robertson should have considered that before suggesting that we assassinate the man.) He can even claim that all of his political opponents are simply apologists for the Great Imperialist (and our twice-elected President Devil).
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Aid to Palestine

 Posted by  Foreign Policy, Israel and Palestine, Middle East  2 Responses »
Sep 222006
 

“I personally will not head any government that recognizes Israel,”

— Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh

And this is why there will never be peace in the Middle East.

Aids Testing

 Posted by  Healthcare, Issues  10 Responses »
Sep 212006
 

The CDC has now recommended that AIDS tests become standard as part of the yearly physical - similar to cholesterol tests. I appreciate what the CDC is trying to do here – getting people who have the disease tested so that they can get treatment. But this is a bad idea. The problem is that many people are simply not at risk for AIDS, and its a terrible waste of resources, and has the potential for great harm in the way of false alarms. Lets break these two arguments down: Continue reading »

The Myth of Safety

 Posted by  Bill of Rights, Bush Administration, Foreign Policy, Terrorism, U.S. Politics  No Responses »
Sep 212006
 

Fact: We cannot stop terrorist attacks from occurring. We can never, ever, be perfectly safe from terrorism.

Think about this. North Korea is ideally situated to protect itself. It is surrounded on two sides, east and west, by ocean. To its north lies its greatest ally and friend, and that border is relatively short. To its south lies an historical enemy, separated by the most protected, watched, and militarized border in the world. That border is also pretty short. It is a small, ethnically homogeneous country, with a police state, a notoriously paranoid dictator, and one of the largest armies in the world. North Korea trades with virtually no one and very few people ever go in or out of the country. And you know what? I have absolutely no doubt that a motivated terrorist organization could set off major attacks in Pyongyang.

The United States, meanwhile, is home to two of the longest land borders in the word. Additionally, several countries, one of them blatantly hostile, are within a short boat ride of our coast. We are the world’s leading economy, and a massive hub of goods and services. We live in a relatively free and open society, home to hundreds of millions of people of all races, creeds, colors, religions, and ethnic backgrounds. We will never come close to the security that the North Koreans possess (although security is an odd word when you live in constant fear of your government). And if they can never be safe, then what does that say about our vulnerabilities?
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