Not really… considering the vast majority of those 6.5 billion are born into a level of poverty that we in the Developed/Industrialized world cannot imagine.
Send this to Friends
Monthly Archives: February 2006
US Nuclear Primacy and Vietnam-era War tactics in Iraq
From the Council on Foreign Relations online magazine at ForeignAffairs.org
First, the issue of Nuclear Primacy… I know many people who still think of Nuclear War in the “MAD” sense. That is… if one country lobs a nuke… everyone else will too, thus plunging our planet into nuclear winter.
Since the Cold War’s end, the U.S. nuclear arsenal has significantly improved. The United States has replaced the ballistic missiles on its submarines with the substantially more accurate Trident II D-5 missiles, many of which carry new, larger-yield warheads. The U.S. Navy has shifted a greater proportion of its SSBNs to the Pacific so that they can patrol near the Chinese coast or in the blind spot of Russia’s early warning radar network.
….
Russia has 39 percent fewer long-range bombers, 58 percent fewer ICBMs, and 80 percent fewer SSBNs than the Soviet Union fielded during its last days. The true extent of the Russian arsenal’s decay, however, is much greater than these cuts suggest.
….
China’s nuclear arsenal is even more vulnerable to a U.S. attack. A U.S. first strike could succeed whether it was launched as a surprise or in the midst of a crisis during a Chinese alert.
It’s an excellent, in depth, article. Which basically concludes that the US has achieved and is intent on keeping Nuclear and Conventional Primacy in the world. What’s more.. it’s made me rethink the purpose of the BMD program. In todays world.. were the US to launch a nuclear attack.. or even be attacked preemptively, the BMD system need not have a massive defense system that is 100% effective. All it needs is something that is a) good enough to act as a deterrent.. or an instigator, depending on the enemy
b) good enough to take out a few missiles lobbed at North America. Since there is no country in the world that could “wipe out” the US like the Soviet Union once could… even one or two nukes make it through, in the grand scheme.. it won’t matter, because the US will be able to “glassify” pretty much anyone else in response.
The other article deals with strategy in Iraq… and how it is following Vietnam-era thinking, when it should be doing something completely different.
As it is in 2006, in 1969 Washington’s strategy was built around winning hearts and minds while handing off more and more of the fighting to indigenous forces. …
In 1967, allied forces distributed more than half a million cakes of soap and instructed more than 200,000 people in personal hygiene. By then, thanks to U.S. pressure, elections at all levels of government had taken place throughout South Vietnam. The plan was to undermine the Vietcong by improving the lives of the South Vietnamese through economic development and political reform.
A Maoist people’s war is, at bottom, a struggle for good governance between a class-based insurgency claiming to represent the interests of the oppressed public and a ruling regime portrayed by the insurgents as defending entrenched privilege.
Communal civil wars, in contrast, feature opposing subnational groups divided along ethnic or sectarian lines; …. In such situations, even the government is typically an instrument of one communal group, and its opponents champion the rights of their subgroup over those of others.
Whereas the Vietnam War was a Maoist people’s war, Iraq is a communal civil war. This can be seen in the pattern of violence in Iraq, which is strongly correlated with communal affiliation. The four provinces that make up the country’s Sunni heartland account for fully 85 percent of all insurgent attacks; Iraq’s other 14 provinces, where almost 60 percent of the Iraqi population lives, account for only 15 percent of the violence.
This is an incredibly timely article and really turns a light on in terms of explaining what is happening in Iraq.
Send this to Friends
Breaking News! US Commanders grab a clue
From todays Washington Post:
Current U.S. military commanders say they have come to understand that they are fighting within a political context, which means the results must first be judged politically. The pace and shape of the war also have changed, with U.S. forces trying to exercise tactical patience and shift responsibilities to Iraqi forces, even as they worry that the American public’s patience may be dwindling.
That’s right folks, the light that you saw rising in the East this morning wasn’t the sun… it was the collective lightbulb of “US Commanders”.
Unfortunately it probably won’t make a whit of difference at this point… but hey, god bless’em for learning on the job, eh!
Hooah!!
Send this to Friends
Don Knotts Passes Away
One of my all time favourite actors when I was growing up was Don Knotts.
I loved Barney Fife… and Don was the only reason I watched Threes Company.
We should treasure those people who make us laugh.. there seem to be so few of them sometimes.
Rest in Peace Barney.
Send this to Friends
The Sound of Civil War
Last night I posted the commentary of an Iraqi in Baghdad, but I missed an audio file that he had also posted.
Listen to It he recorded it from his home… on his cellphone.
Here is his original written account.
Also today, reaction from a woman in Basra. Through a contact in the US.
Here — I mean in my area — is much more quiet than that. But last night around 7:30pm, we went out to buy some food. We saw strangers on the streets. They were wearing all black clothes with scarves on their heads in a strange way. [These were probably militia, not jihadis]
….
Fayrouz describes it like so…
Best Description of The Iraqi Situation:
“Everybody seems to be imprisoned in their own sectarian or political affiliations. They don’t seem to be able to rise above these things.”
– Adnan Al-Pachachi
I could have not said it better than Al-Pachachi. This has been Iraqis problem for many centuries. I don’t believe it will diminish in the near future.
Christopher Allbritton at Back to Iraq has had enough with the US Administrations “head in the desert sand” attitude.
In Washington, the State Department insisted that US policy in Iraq was succeeding and denied that political negotiations had collapsed, only that they had paused. “Come on, let’s not blow this out of proportion,” said spokesman Adam Ereli.
Enough already. Shut your mouths; you people in Washington have caused enough damage already.
Indeed… what Americans, and Iraqis, deserve now is honesty. Of course, they’ve always deserved. I just happen to think that the situation in Iraq will soon demand it… or they will demand the withdrawal of foreign troops. I expect the latter to happen before the former.
Send this to Friends