House on Dubai Port Deal
The US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee just voted 62-2 to block the Dubai Port deal. Apparently Barnett hasn’t given his brief to that body.
“Our Army is in Danger”
Gary Hart has one of the scariest quotes ever read in this piece –
“Our army is in danger,” he said. “If all-out civil war breaks out, we could lose our army. If Sunnis and Shiites take to the streets by the thousands, it could literally be impossible to get [the soldiers] out. … I know that sounds apocalyptic, but it’s not out of the question. We need an exit strategy. We have no choice. We’re making things worse. Ninety percent of the insurgents are Iraqis who don’t like the fact that we have occupied their country. …
It is important to remember we have already lost the war. Reconstruction efforts are doomed, underfunded and guided by an age old broken system of top down nation building. It is just a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.
Cocaine For Guns
In this interesting piece [1] ISN discusses the drugs/weapons intersect in Colombia and discusses the inability for the state to react to the situation appropriately –
In fact, the FARC is stronger now than ever. Supply for cocaine has not diminished, nor have prices soared as originally planned. In fact, increased militarization in Colombia has exacerbated the problem, stimulating the demand for black market guns in Colombia. Militarization is the leading policy for Mexico, Brazil, and Central America, where organized crime and street gangs are running amuck.
The escalation of violence is the only outcome for military solutions to what are essentially social problems. More violence demands more guns, more guns means more cocaine, and so on. This cycle has continued for decades, and will only get worse until leaders work together to seek alternative policies to deal with a massive black market that is quite clearly out of control.
- http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=14921
al-qa’idun ‘an al-jihad
Jamestown’s Stephen Ulph has an interesting piece on attempts by Jihadis to gain the intellectual high ground. It outlines a struggle on the part of the enemy to gain support through intellectual support while it has spent a majority of its time focusing on core competancy – faith based support.
In short they’re attempting to break free of the constraints placed upon them as remaining as Muslim jihadis. They are struggling to expand their base of support from its current iteration – maligned Muslims – to something broader and more effective at destroying the enemy – connectivity. Incremental innovation will only work for so long – as discussed here – and radical innovation will kick in. Attacking global connections and limiting the efficiency of the nation state (ie Global Guerrillas) will increase their base of support more than their current tactics can.
I sincerely hope Barnett and Robb are not looking to print their ideas in Arabic. Moreso the latter.
GG’s on Page 18A
I just thought it was interesting that only page 18A of the Dallas Morning News
Luckily this is offset by the article Robb in the new issue of Fast Company –
Which he describes as “[focusing]on how inexorable global trends will change our notions of what security means and who provides it.” Can’t wait to get my hands on it.