Cross-posted at The Conjecturer
Defense & the War
- My respect for Kilcullen continues to rise. I hope he can affect some sort of change in the Army. But, I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t. His thoughts on how our over-focus on states is what is leaving us behind are essential reading (though he is not by any stretch the first, or even one of the earliest, to say it, he is one of the first from inside the military establishment to say it, and that makes it significant). James Fallows rightly cautions against deifying Petraeus, with the same concerns I see about THE SURGE’s ultimate impact.
- Kevin Drum reads the debate over the word jihad incorrectly. By allowing the crazies to define themselves in terms of a righteous or holy struggle, we agree to define their struggle as righteous and holy—it is clearly not. A jihadist it not a bad thing; an Islamist, on the other hand, who had mutated his religion into a violent political ideology, is.
- Yeah, that NIE released yesterday amounts to very little, though I suppose it’s at least a positive step that they’ve begun to call out Pakistan.
- Ahh, the hilarious travails of living in Arlington… Actually I pass this building every day on my way to work, and seriously, given the number of spook agencies around here, the number of security officers loitering around outside all the time and shooing away anyone who tries to park on that stretch of road should have been a reasonable clue that the building was sensitive. It’s annoying that guy was hassled, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary or even very noteworthy in a larger sense.
- I have a hard time buying the argument that we’re losing support for the war because of the media’s agenda. Aside from the obvious question (which media?), it also has a backside, if you will—namely, that we were only winning support for the war for the same reason.
Around the World
- Over at Registan.net, I ponder the fates of presidential daughters, and the sad fate of Lake Balkhash.
- It’s like the Justice League, only without the humor. Anyone else looking forward to yet more pious speeches from well-known pious moralists Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Kofi Annan? Seriously—they call themselves “The Elders,” like we should all bow down before their sound wisdom and solid track records of effective governance. Drezner points out an even funnier angle: they were founded by Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel.
- It is often said that the poorest of the poor just aren’t a market, or it would take too much investment (including time) to make them a viable market. Except that’s not the case. I’m not talking about utopian micro-finance projects. I’m talking about Proctor & Gamble, which recently found that so-called “high frequency stores” (local shops in poor neighborhoods) constitute their largest customer. Solving poverty by creating wealth, not redistributing it. How novel.
- I’m sympathetic to the bind the British are in, especially when they might appear hasty or alarmist. But that doesn’t mean they should tolerate Russians assassinating dissident Russians on their soil. At some point, it has to stop, doesn’t it?
- The saga of the coal miners in Kazakhstan.
- I remember these terrible Soviet buses in Karaganda—especially those awful electric things. One of my friends said something hilarious when there were people pulling on the railings to squeeze themselves into the footwells—”that clearly violates every known safety rule.” I guess you had to hear it to find it funny. I’m glad, however, I never had to use one of these bathrooms; but I’d rather go there than at La Guardia.
Back at Home
- The silly Philip-Morris giveaways over clove-favored cigarettes (which apparently are to be distinguished from clove cigarettes) are just further proof that the government is alternatively run by morons and purchased by wealthy companies. Argh. That makes me sound like a lefty.
- Condoleeza Rice hates long term planning. That sounds about right.
- Gay-baiting at the NSA.
- Ted Kennedy murdered his young mistress 38 years ago today.
I just encountered the same Kilcullen article @ Small Wars Journal. I don’t agree that the size of our military vs. the size of our diplomatic corp is particularly meaningful, but otherwise he makes a lot of excellent points.
I’ve long held that Al Queda and the Irhabist movement have been doing nothing more than expoiting loopholes in the Westphalian system with their no-state status. It’s exciting to discover that someone who is actually smart and I agree about something.
yours/
peter.
It does, to an extent. Our biggest problem right now is that even our long standing allies, like Britain, are distancing themselves. That’s directly from, for lack of a better term, a lack of tact. Similarly, we really don’t make a strong case for the GWOT not being a war on Islam when our interactions with the Islamic world are all military. Ditto the argument that we actually are not an Empire (both propositions I agree with). We don’t send that message by front-loading the military so strongly we have to use them to accomplish things the State Department normally would.
I have to agree with you guys on Kilcullen, and his involvement in Petraeus’ efforts are a part of why I became convinced the change in tactics was real as opposed to a facade. It takes a certain kind of person to surround himself with the kind of independent thinkers that Petraeus does. They are not yes men, and steeped in the kind of thinking we need to see. By the way, it also speaks well of Pace, who has bucked all kinds of resistance in getting these people in key places. Also, his willingness to embrace them rather than act as if they were shoved down his throat. In all the talk of his incompetence, I don’t think it has been acknowledged.
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