News Brief, A.D.S.R.M.! Edition
Posted by Joshua Foust on 26 Sep 2007 at 1:44 am | Tagged as: Notes on the war, Military Matters, Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Domestic Politics
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War
- This look at PMCs, from late August no less, is pretty close to my views. Recognizing the impracticality of removing all PMCs in the lack of any ability to regrow military capacity for at least a decade, we’re stuck with them. But some groups, such as Blackwater, have acquired such a terrible reputation among locals that their presence is counterproductive. For the rest, explicit rules about conduct and consequences is key to ensuring, say, the embassy doesn’t willfully ignore or discount any more incidents.
- The former head of DARPA wonders why the DoD doesn’t introduce more COTS tech into warfighting. Too many acronyms? Think of it this way: why does a RQ-1 Predator, the pilotless drone in use in countless warzones, cost almost $5 million each, while Commercial, Off The Shelf technology makes similar systems (though obviously at a much smaller scale) available for under $2000? There is no sense of proportion—and the Predator is not that advanced, save perhaps its targeting systems for the optional Hellfire missiles and optics for the surveillance cameras. There is no reason it can’t cost far less… were it designed with pre-fabricated parts, instead of designed from scratch. That is the fundamental conceit of the military: it builds things from scratch when it doesn’t need to, and in the process duplicates an entire economy’s-worth of innovation and testing… wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
- Related: the new Ford-class CVN carriers will dramatically exceed their contracted cost… with no consequences. There is no incentive to keep things on budget, or even to forecast budget accurately—whoever wins these huge cost-plus monstrosities (I’m looking at you, Lockheed Martin) is basically given a license to print money.
- And why bother putting your new African Command in Africa? It’s not like policymakers will somehow magically start caring about the continent anyway.
- One thing I am tired of: the case for war being based solely on ill-defined progress (didn’t we used to fight to defend “truth freedom and the american way”?) and an assumption that small, local successes are in any way generalizable. That isn’t to deny those successes when they happen—they matter, and we should celebrate them. But there remains no evidence that progress is spreading… or that it can spread with the current troop levels, to say nothing of what happens when they’re drawn down next April. Since even Petraeus is in effect quitting halfway through (by withdrawing the surge as the extended, 15 month deployments wind down)… why do we bother with not going all the way and just cut all our losses?
Around the World
- My latest roundup for Global Voices Online, as well as thoughts on who Russia might be modeling their new foreign policy after at Registan.net. And, for good measure, Nathan takes aim at a capricious (and corpulent!) Russian exile plutocrat, who also happens to be after a big share of The Arsenal… and Craig Murray, heh.
- A disturbing trend: marketing skin lightening as the only way to get ahead in South Asia.
- I actually thought Mahmoud’s visit was incredibly smart of him—he made Iran seem harmless, a paradise of fools, while we debate our own freedoms and forget the lack of Iran’s. And we played right into it. Jesse Walker disagrees, and thinks this sort of thing—in a way, exposing and humiliating the figurehead of a hostile country—advances the debate. It could, I’ll grant that much… but I think Ahmadinejad ultimately wound up on top. Roger Williams points out the rather salient fact that, contra Bollinger, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is, in fact, not a dictator, but a figure head.
- Is Rwanda the most improved nation in Africa? I couldn’t say. But it is wonderful to see some signs of hope there.
- On the verge of a harsh crackdown, Bush plans to “pressure” Burma. Umm. What?
- Remarkably, just as troops were pulled from Afghanistan to surge in Iraq, the Taliban surged in Afghanistan.
- John Bolton is still recklessly beating the drum of a phantom nuclear collaboration between Syria and North Korea, despite having nothing but assumption to back it up. I’m glad he gets op-ed space!
- Why is Russia strong-arming India, with whom it has traditionally enjoyed warm relations? Because a strong Russia is in Russia’s best interests.
Back at Home
- We can mock Bush’s pronunciation guide as much as we want, but I don’t mind that he has one… I do, however, mind that he never uses it. I rather take James Fallows’ approach: applaud the man for refusing to call it Myanmar.
- The NSA hates your freedoms.
- The consequence of coal mining in West Virginia. They want to power your cars using the same technique, if they can trick Congress into subsidizing liquified coal… while claiming there is a “natural market” for the stuff (which would imply it doesn’t need subsidization, but whatever, right?). Meanwhile, what does it mean when West Virginia comes off as far more enlightened and tolerant than my own regular Virginia?
- Even though I barely use it, I do support Apple’s iTunes Music Store… in concept. Now that they finally released some DRM-free tracks, despite the added cost, there is a reason to eschew the $9.99 physical CD you can buy from Amazon. Well, except now Amazon has a store that pops out DRM-free MP3s with fewer restrictions than ITMS. And it looks like their albums are a dollar cheaper at $8.99. I’m inclined to use Amazon over iTunes at this point… and that’s coming from a dedicated Mac-head.
- Oooh, in other words, we’re back to where MP3.com was, only five years later and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in lawsuits that ultimately came to nothing. But blame pirates for running the record companies out of money!
- A fascinating look at how blogs challenge Big Media. I’m sympathetic to this take, though I desperately rely on Big Media for things to blog about. My life is too boring (and I’m too shy) to post a diary-like thing.
- It is really difficult to escape my fundamental dislike of the police for being petty, power-mad, and corrupt, when I see things like websites complaining about cops writing fellow officers of the law traffic tickets. Because what’s the point of being a cop if you can’t flagrantly disregard inconvenient laws while punishing office workers for going out to lunch? You can of course find more about how brazenly cops enjoy breaking the law at copwatch.net.
One Response to “News Brief, A.D.S.R.M.! Edition”
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Hi,
Helpful to know who this guy really is and what he really believes.
Who is the REAL Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
Peace!
Steve