Re: US strike options on TSP

[abhishek_sharma]

The Truth About the World Trade Center

Seven years ago, when Ground Zero was just a hole in the ground and the world seemed convinced that nothing good would ever be built there, the author began the epic story of the rebuilding of downtown New York. Now, as the "Freedom Tower" reaches its full height, the inside story of boondoggles, self-dealing, common corruption, and why it's all taken so long.

[A_Gupta]

Another must-read on the way to understanding the US.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... _page=true

[Dipanker]

Though already posted in many threads, I am posting it here too, as this also provides a window into understanding US.

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating


Moral of the story, no matter who you are if you commit the crime you will do the time.

[svinayak]

Delusions

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/ ... 4A20120824

U.N. to invade Texas? "Ridiculous," says world body
UNITED NATIONS | Fri Aug 24, 2012 6:16pm EDT

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Maybe President Barack Obama should just settle it in a gun duel with a Texas judge, instead of calling on the United Nations to invade the state.

The United Nations scoffed on Friday at claims by a judge in Lubbock County, Texas, that U.N. troops could invade the southern U.S. state to settle a possible civil war, which the judge warned could be sparked if Obama is re-elected in November.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, when asked if the United Nations had any plans to invade Texas.

He later added: "No one, not even the United Nations, would ever mess with Texas."

He was responding to comments from Tom Head, a county judge in Lubbock who told a local Fox News station on Monday that taxes needed to be raised so the county could prepare for contingencies if Obama was re-elected for a second term.

"He (Obama) is going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N. What's going to happen when that happens? I'm thinking worst case scenario -- civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe," Head said.

"What's going happen ... if the public decides to do that? He's going to send in U.N. troops, I don't want them in Lubbock County. I'm going to stand in front of their armored personnel carriers and say 'You're not coming in here,'" he said.

And Head told Fox News that he has the backing of his local sheriff. "I've already asked him 'Are you going to back me?' and he said 'Yeah I'll back you.'"

[pentaiah]

It's kinda tough to laugh or cry

The hookers in tamapa the city in Florida where RNC convention is being threatened by hurricane Issac are praying that it hits the town and as a result can have booming business!

The above according to CNN

[Cosmo_R]

Though already posted in many threads, I am posting it here too, as this also provides a window into understanding US.

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating


Moral of the story, no matter who you are if you commit the crime you will do the time.

That's the great thing about the US system. No matter who you are, or how long it takes, you commit the crime and you do time within one's immediate lifetime.

We would do well to have this as part of our DNA especially WRT to dillibilli kittens who seem to mow down 'civilians', MPs 40% of whom have criminal records. Or, what will happen to those 'workers' who killed the manager at the Maruti factory.

Khandom is not a one trick pony

[abhishek_sharma]

>> Moral of the story, no matter who you are if you commit the crime you will do the time.

Except when the president pardons you in the interest of "national security". So much for the law-loving nation.

[Cosmo_R]

@Acharya ^^^:

"County Commissioner Gilbert Flores told KJTV he was "ashamed" of Head's remarks, and told the judge, "I think you better plan to go fishing pretty soon."

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-08-23/us/u ... unty-judge

OTOH, Mamata Bannerjee seems to have her own delusions:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... 817361.ece

I'd love for someone in the Indian media to have the guts to tell her to get on meds and go fishing.

[Cosmo_R]

>> Moral of the story, no matter who you are if you commit the crime you will do the time.

Except when the president pardons you in the interest of "national security". So much for the law-loving nation.

Ask Jessica Lal

[abhishek_sharma]

Why ask Jessica Lal? I thought we are praising the great law-loving kingdom of US? Why do we need to bring in examples from India?

And the wiki report on Jessica Lal shown below does not contradict my point.

Jessica Lal (1965–1999) was a model in New Delhi, who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a crowded socialite party when she was shot dead at around 2 am on 30 April 1999. Dozens of witnesses pointed to Siddharth Vashisht, also known as Manu Sharma, the son of Venod Sharma, a wealthy and influential Congress-nominated Member of Parliament from Haryana, as the murderer.
In the ensuing trial, Manu Sharma and a number of others were acquitted on 21 February 2006.
Following intense media and public pressure, the prosecution appealed and the Delhi High Court conducted proceedings on a fast track with daily hearings conducted over 25 days. The trial court judgment was overturned, and Manu Sharma was found guilty of having murdered Lal. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 December 2006.

[abhishek_sharma]

OTOH, Mamata Bannerjee seems to have her own delusions:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... 817361.ece

I'd love for someone in the Indian media to have the guts to tell her to get on meds and go fishing.

Indian media has been critical of Mamata Banerjee. Due to some reason, you (and people like you) fail to see these reports.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mamat ... ns/988770/

West Bengal CM’s intolerance and peevishness spills into an attack on the judiciary

[nakul]

Its been like that ever since she has stopped acting like a poodle to SG which stands in stark contrast to Mulayam Singh & Mayawati. That she has a better record than these two does not help with the media image either.

Poor Mamata, all she had to do was her head in agreement and would have the media fawning all over her and her achievements.

[svinayak]

This is a US thread not the thread for delusions of MB

[ramana]

Nightwatch wonders:

US: Special comment: US arms transfers to other countries nearly tripled last year to $66.3 billion, giving America a market share of nearly 80 percent, government researchers said Monday. The Congressional Research Service said the US figure for 2011 was the largest for a single year in the history of the arms export program.

In 2011 the only places where forces were in combat were in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Forces in combat buy ammunition, not modern weapons. That raises a question about who is preparing to fight whom, based on the arms sales and transfers. At first glance, it looks like Iran is the target against which states are buying weapons.

Yet the US SD will talk about everybody arming themselves etc while it s clear that 80% of the business is US fed.

[ramana]

Comment in NYT in the article on Dinesh D'Souza's film based on his book

Conservatives treat the Constitution the same way they treat the Bible. It is sacred, holy, and must be followed literally, with no room for interpretive variation. The Founding Fathers are God-like figures, prophets if you will, operating on divine inspiration just like the authors of the Bible. After all, the US is a Christian nation, founded by Christians for the sole purpose of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the connection between political and religious conservatives. Both groups are working toward the same goal which is a holy utopia of the past that never existed in the first place. Only by strictly following the "guidebook" can this mythical utopia be restored.

The reason both groups operate in the same fashion is because their minds treat both situations in the same manner. Religion and politics are the same type of problem which is analyzed by the mind utilizing the same mental processes. Deviating from the guidebook is blasphemy. Deviating from the party platform is treason.

[Lilo]

Rare color photos: Women at work in the 1940s US

[abhishek_sharma]

THE THROWAWAYS: Police enlist young offenders as confidential informants. But the work is high-risk, largely unregulated, and sometimes fatal.

[abhishek_sharma]

THE SECOND TERM: What would Obama do if reëlected?

[Philip]

The land of Bufoons! Celebrated TV producer Armando Ianucci lambastes the US in tghis riveting analysis.

Armando Iannucci slams American 'buffoons' for remake of Thick Of It

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... Of-It.html

Armando Iannucci says American remake of his political satire The Thick Of It 'was terrible'

Armando Iannucci Photo: PAUL GROVER 04 Sep 2012

The Thick Of It's creator Armando Iannucci has slammed the "buffoons" who remade his political satire in the US.

Iannucci, 48, acted as executive producer while trying to adapt the hit BBC show for an American audience.

Broadcaster ABC rejected it after viewing the pilot and Iannucci distanced himself, saying: "It was terrible ... conventionally shot and there was no improvisation or swearing."

Now he has told the Radio Times: "The mistake is to think that because America has this tremendous influence internationally, therefore all Americans are brilliant.

"When we were doing the pilot of The Thick Of It at ABC there were just scores of people working on it, all called vice president this and that, and a lot of them were buffoons."

Related Articles
Thick of It satire on Miliband’s rise to power
22 Aug 2012
The Thick of It star Peter Capaldi says Lord Leveson will influence new series
19 Jul 2012
The Thick Of It returns to BBC Two
12 Jul 2012
Since The Thick Of It, he has enjoyed more success in the US as the creator of Veep, starring Seinfeld actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus as US vice president Selina Meyer.

"What has been great with HBO (the makers of Veep) is that they are the opposite," Iannucci told the magazine.

"It's very much 'Let's keep it small and try to make it as good as it can be'.

"What you realise is that they are people at the top of their game, and you are actually benefiting from their experience."

The comedian and satire writer said of his experience of working in Los Angeles: "I get an absolute sigh of despair whenever I go to LA.

"I find it a huge, shapeless, heartless city full of people talking about television and films, morning, noon and night. I just wish they would shut up and read a book!"

Iannucci has previously hinted that something similar to the Leveson Inquiry might feature in his new BBC2 series of The Thick Of It, which is set to feature Government embarrassment, coalition rows and foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker.

Iannucci told the magazine: "Inquiries? They've become the new black, haven't they? People will look back and think of 2012 as the 'summer of inquiries', you know. They all begin to blur into one...".

He added that Steve Coogan, who is starring in Iannucci's new Alan Partridge film, found it amusing that he and actor Hugh Grant, who both gave evidence to the inquiry, were seen as the new moral arbiters.

"Steve will say himself he can't believe that it's reached the point where he and Hugh Grant are the ones going 'This is... [too much]'," he said.

Despite creating shows about politicians, Iannucci said that he could never hold the job himself.

"I don't think I could survive. It's the whole idea of accepting the party line. I just can't have someone over me telling me what to do," he said.

"What a lot of politicians complain about once they are in office is that it's unstoppable - they haven't got time to kinda pull back.

"I think it affects your decision-making process because you're tired all the time. When I'm at home, for instance, I always have a 20-minute nap after lunch."

He told the magazine: "I am aware of the importance of time, so especially during the past four or five years, I've been very rigid: 'I stop at this time... I don't work at weekends.'

"If I'm doing a show in America, I make it clear that I'm not going to move to America and I don't want it filmed in LA."

Iannucci, who as a teenager read Hansard in his spare time, has co-written and is directing a slapstick movie based in London "about a guy who becomes famous for the wrong reasons on YouTube - just for something that somebody has filmed of him, and he wants to track down the person who shot it".

He also recently revealed that another possible TV project had been inspired by the new wave of young internet billionaires.

[abhishek_sharma]

Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” Verse 2: A Close Reading With Fourth Amendment Guidance for Cops and Perps

[Philip]

The US election is just around the corner.May we have a new dedicated thread "US elections" for the same please ?

Here's post 1.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 26161.html

For Barack Obama, all roads to the White House lead through Florida – and Israel
President battles to dispel Republican accusations as he woos the key Jewish vote

David Usborne Fort Lauderdale
Wednesday 12 September 2012

When Barack Obama spoke at a rally near Cape Canaveral two days ago to press home his support for the local space industry, a single heckler persistently shouted from the back of the crowd, "What about Israel?". It was a reminder – as if he needed it – that his hold on the crucial Jewish vote in South Florida may be in jeopardy.

For weeks now, the Mitt Romney campaign has been touting the notion that when it comes to Israel, the United States has not been the friend it is meant to be under President Obama. And it is being brazenly trumpeted up and down the interstate highways in this part of Florida with billboards proclaiming, "Obama… Oy Vey!"

In 2008 Mr Obama won the votes of 78 per cent of Jewish Americans; Mr Romney making inroads into that support could have important consequences, particularly in swing states with small, if significant, Jewish blocks like Ohio, Pennsylvania and especially Florida, where the margin of victory for either side might be very slim indeed. George W Bush took Florida in 2000 from Al Gore, with the help of the US Supreme Court, by 537 votes. Last night Bill Clinton was due in Miami to address grassroots supporters.

The sudden focus on the Jewish vote is a reminder that Mr Obama is in essence fighting multiple campaigns at once. There is the national platform with its overarching theme of defending the middle class, and beyond it there are sub-campaigns tailored to a wide range of key individual constituencies, including women, retirees, gays, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Jewish Americans, veterans (and, yes, even space industry employees). Appealing to those groups – each was assiduously wooed from the stage at the Democratic convention - is especially important in an election which hangs on a sliver of undecided voters in only seven or eight states.

Not everyone agrees that Mr Obama is guilty of forsaking Israel. Professor Robert Freedman, of Baltimore Hebrew University, points to increased military aid for Israel and the lengths the US went to last year to block efforts by the Palestinian Authority to use the United Nations as a forum to achieve statehood. "Mr Obama has been the best US president for Israel in history," he wrote in the Baltimore Sun.

However, it is an impression that the Republicans have nurtured, pointing to slow progress on Middle East peace and to Mr Obama's reluctance to support an Israeli strike against Iran. They also highlight the difficult relationship between the President and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The only thing they can try to talk about is to scare Jews on Israel," commented Marc Stanley, chairman of the National Democratic Jewish Council. "Because if they go to the other issues Jews care about – choice, education, poverty, health care, social justice, civil rights, equal rights – Jews resoundingly vote Democratic."

Random conversations with Jewish voters suggest he may be right. "Obama has done everything he could possibly have done [to support Israel and tackle Iran]," said Dan Goldstein, 67. "It's very easy for the Republicans to say anything negative about the Democrats."

"The Republicans are very adept at inventing a story that suits their goal of stripping Mr Obama of his accomplishments," says Morty Esam, 76, who is more concerned with the economy and what he says has been Republican obstructionism. "The Republicans are committed to blocking anything that Obama might accomplish in Congress and they use that as fodder to say the Democrats haven't done enough."

The Democrats did not help themselves at the convention when they first failed to state in the party platform that "Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel". It was reinserted with a floor vote at the request of President Obama. That he felt the need to intervene was itself revealing: he knows that losing even a single Jewish vote is something he cannot afford.

[abhishek_sharma]

Stephen Breyer on Intellectual Influences

[Lilo]

You May Call It Cheating, but We Don't

This article from NYT was also reproduced in UndyTv site.

[abhishek_sharma]

Rural Minorities Ponder The American Dream From The Bottom Rung Of The Economic Ladder

[ramana]

The Gray Tsunami

[svinayak]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087 ... lenews_wsj

Are We Really Getting Smarter?
Americans' IQ scores have risen steadily over the past century. James R. Flynn

By JAMES R. FLYNN

IQ tests aren't perfect, but they can be useful. If a boy doing badly in class does really well on one, it is worth investigating whether he is being bullied at school or having problems at home. The tests also roughly predict who will succeed at college, though factors like motivation and self-control are at least as important.

We are the first of our species to live in a world dominated by hypotheticals and nonverbal symbols.
.Advanced nations like the U.S. have experienced massive IQ gains over time (a phenomenon that I first noted in a 1984 study and is now known as the "Flynn Effect"). From the early 1900s to today, Americans have gained three IQ points per decade on both the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales. These tests have been around since the early 20th century in some form, though they have been updated over time. Another test, Raven's Progressive Matrices, was invented in 1938, but there are scores for people whose birth dates go back to 1872. It shows gains of five points per decade.

[JwalaMukhi]

Can some one please explain what is the difference between these two incidents. Baggy pants v/s Blue jeans eh?
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09 ... r-daughter

Taylor Santos, a sophomore at Springtown High School, northwest of Fort Worth, Texas, told school officials that she didn’t know another student had copied her classwork, but school officials gave both girls two days of in-school suspension as punishment.

But what happened instead was the vice principal himself swatted Taylor while a woman was present in the room, despite school policy that states “corporal punishment shall be administered only by an employee who is the same sex as the student."

After learning who did the spanking and seeing the wounds on her daughter's body, Jorgensen said she was horrified.

"I came unglued," Jorgensen said. “It looked almost like it had been burned and blistered, it was so bad,” she said of her daughter’s bottom, adding that she took photos of injuries to prove how red they were.

Jorgensen called the vice principal to complain, but he told her it was perfectly normal for her daughter’s bottom to look like that. He reportedly added that he wasn’t aware of the school’s same-sex swatting policy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ap ... y-pakistan

The images, played yesterday on private television channels, show a burka-clad woman being pinned to the ground by two men while a third whips her backside 34 times. The woman is seen screaming and begging for mercy as a crowd of largely silent men look on. She is accused of having had an illegal sexual relationship, according to local law. Her brother is among those restraining her.
"Our constitution allows no space for such public brutality, and our civilisation and culture have no tolerance for it either," said Sherry Rehman, a former information minister .

[ramana]

The vice principal could be a pervert for meting that punishment.

Even otherwise the Texas law that allows such punishment is repugnant and not compatible with modern values.

At root could be Biblical attitudes towards women.

[Philip]

Why the US armed forces go on the rampage like Huns and Vandals abroad,committing war crimes ad nauseum especially rape,because they cover up the atrocities at home !

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... rapes.html

Service Members Sue Defense Secretary Over Alleged Military Rapes
Sep 28, 2012

Nineteen former and current U.S. military service members sued Leon Panetta and former secretaries of defense Friday alleging civil-rights violations—stemming from sexual assault accusations they say were not taken seriously by the military. Jesse Ellison reports.

Daniele Hoffman was 17 years old when she met the recruiter for the National Guard who she says eventually attempted to rape her. The child of a single mother, Hoffman says the man “became the fatherly figure in my life.” She signed up for service both to “give back to my country and to make him proud. I wouldn’t have joined if it weren’t for his influence.”

But then, she says, the recruiter began to touch her inappropriately, make physical advances, and eventually attempted to rape her, warning her not to tell anyone by saying, “I gave you everything you have, and I can take it all away.”

Hoffman’s story, and the subsequent harassment and sexual assaults she says she experienced while deployed in Iraq, are detailed in a lawsuit “Daniele Hoffman, et al., v. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, et al.,” filed Friday, morning in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Case No. C12 05049 DMR), on behalf of 19 current and former Army and Air Force service members against the current and former secretaries of defense, alleging ongoing violations of their civil rights. The lawsuit’s second plaintiff, Kole Welsh, a former Army cadet, says he was raped by his staff sergeant, and was infected with HIV as a result of the assault.

The key problem, the lawsuit says, is “permitting the ‘chain-of-command’ (i.e., a single individual) to control which sexual assault allegations are fully investigated and prosecuted. They have not eliminated the ability of a single officer to prevent a victim from accessing the military’s judicial system. The reality is that this officer may well be a sexual predator himself.”

The case is the fifth of its kind brought by the Washington, D.C., attorney Susan L. Burke. Like the previous cases, all of which are pending in the district or circuit courts, it alleges that defendants knew the military was violating the constitutional rights of men and women who reported rape and sexual assaults, that they presided over dysfunctional systems in which a tiny fraction of sexual assault charges are investigated, and that they repeatedly refused to do anything to fix the problem. “Each Defendant repeatedly cites a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ and systematic reform regarding rape and sexual assault,” the suit reads. “Yet this rhetoric has failed to change the misogynistic culture of the Army and has not resulted in any meaningful reform or reduction in sexual assaults.”
Was6928393

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta listens during a Pentagon press conference on Sept. 27, 2012, in Washington, D.C. (Paul J Richards / AFP / Getty Images )

According to current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, some 19,000 sexual assaults are alleged to have occurred in the military last year alone, but because of fears of retaliation, only 20 percent of those are reported. On Thursday night, Panetta was interviewed on NBC about the issue, which he called an “outrage.” He once again pledged his commitment to confronting the issue, as he has repeatedly in the last year, announcing a slew of new measures, including the establishment of special victims units within every branch, new policies that would allow victims to transfer into a different unit, and—as of just this week—he ordered all branches to review their sexual-assault training and response programs.

But according to Burke and others, the changes don’t go far enough. “The reason we keep bringing more is because, despite the rhetoric and the show of good faith from Panetta, we still haven’t seen any obvious fixes,” Burke told The Daily Beast. “And they’re continuing to deprive people of their constitutional rights.”

“After being raped or sexually assaulted by uniformed colleagues, these survivors reported the crimes … instead of their perpetrators being punished, the victims were intimidated, isolated, and retaliated against.”

On Wednesday, the Army announced it was bringing charges of forcible sodomy, adultery, and sexual misconduct against Jeffrey Sinclair, a brigadier general who has served in the Army for 27 years. “He’s exactly the kind of person that was the intermediary between victims and the justice system,” Burke says. “How many rape investigations did he pass on?”

Burke, Hoffman, and Welsh were joined at the announcement by California Rep. Jackie Speier, who has been one of the leaders of reform efforts on Capitol Hill. “The service members who have bravely joined this lawsuit are demanding nothing more than the justice they could not gain through the military’s grossly deficient judicial system that is inherently biased against victims,” Speier said in a statement, noting that next week she will travel to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, to investigate an unfolding sexual assault scandal, now allegedly involving 19 instructors and 43 victims. “After being raped or sexually assaulted by uniformed colleagues, these survivors reported the crimes committed against them. But instead of their perpetrators being punished, the victims were intimidated, isolated, and retaliated against.

[ramana]

Philip:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 11,00.html

[abhishek_sharma]

Should We Have a New Constitutional Convention? John Paul Stevens

[g.sarkar]

http://www.samachar.com/Pakistans-paran ... ended_news
"For years, Congressman Brad Sherman, California Democrat, a senior member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the ranking Democrat on its Subcommittee on Terrorism [ Images ] has enjoyed the largesse of the Indian American community that has contributed generously to his campaign coffers.
At various India [ Images ]n American community events or related functions that deals with India, he has always conspicuously and smugly declared how he's a member of long-standing with the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, and then gone into the usual patronising spiel about the greatness of India and the impact that Mahatma Gandhi [ Images ] has had in India and worldwide, as if it's his duty to educate the audience about Indian history.
But when its come to a push, he's been quite biting in his criticism of India, like India's relations with Iran and during the run-up to the vote on the US-India civilian nuclear deal -- although he ultimately voted for the accord -- he joined then senior colleague on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the late Congressman Tom Lantos, in warning the then Bush administration, that if it didn't convince India to peddle back it's close relations with Teheran, Delhi [ Images ] could forget about the nuclear deal.
Last month, Sherman was once again engaged in some India-baiting during the hearing on 'Combating the Haqqani Terrorist Network,' when he kept needling the witnesses and arguing that Pakistan may have a point in its paranoia vis-à-vis India's role in Afghanistan, and even though the expert analysts said Islamabad's [ Images ] arguments had no merit, the lawmaker was insistent that it couldn't be dismissed....."
Gautam

[Kati]

DHS collecting trashy info......

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/20 ... s#comments

[Ravi Karumanchiri]

The Khans recently swapped-out ambassadors to the TSP. With only a few days left on the payroll at the US DoS, he engaged in almost 90 minutes of public comments and responses to questions (including one from a PTI reporter), concerning his two-year deployment to Islamabad. Rakshaks might gain an insight or two into the deeply flawed US "thinking" on the TSP.

Mr. Cameron Munter, Former US Ambassador to Pakistan, 2010-2012. VIDEO Remarks of September 25, 2012

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/308400-1
Be forewarned; he gets a 5-minute intro (which you can skip); but speaks as "frankly" as possible for a US official, albeit one who is *institutionally deluded* about the TSP.


Also of interest might be the remarks of Mr. Ryan Crocker, Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, 2011-2012, and Iraq 2007-2009. VIDEO Remarks of September 17, 2012

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/308224-1
UPDATED LATER: I have watched the first hour of this 105+ minute talk, and am contemplating downloading the MP3 version for 99 cents. It is one of the most tragic stories I have ever heard, told by a man who was 'in the room' for a lot of it. In this talk, Ambassador Crocker details the tragic-strategic mistakes of US foreign policy towards Iran, among other states. He also alludes many times to the insanity of it all, so much so that one wonders if his work has lead him to seek psychiatric counselling, and no one could fault him if it did.

After that first hour (whereupon the stream stopped and disallowed further viewing), I am left with the impression of a declining, self-defeated 'hyper power' whose reach faaaaaaar exceeds its grasp.

I have to wonder if, all those years I've been cursing the devilish nature of American foreign policy, if I was actually giving them undeserved credit (for being calculating if not actually smart).

I wonder if it's more like extreme naiveté racing towards outright stupidity, facilitated by unprecedented economic and military dominance. It is truly a recipe for woe writ large.

IMO, it is dubious whether they can recover (geopolitically, economically and socially-internally) from this mess they've made.
I worry if the world can recover (environmentally) from the US-lead global trade regime which favours US-based MNCs.

I hope people everywhere, but especially people in the United States, can figure out a better way to go about things, because along this trajectory, we're all in for a rough ride.

JMT, which I am getting the impression is shared by many in the US DoS, but still they go-on doing what they're gonna do.

[svinayak]

I have to wonder if, all those years I've been cursing the devilish nature of American foreign policy, if I was actually giving them undeserved credit (for being calculating if not actually smart).

I wonder if it's more like extreme naiveté racing towards outright stupidity, facilitated by unprecedented economic and military dominance. It is truly a recipe for woe writ large.

IMO, it is dubious whether they can recover (geopolitically, economically and socially-internally) from this mess they've made.

you are in the right track. Start thinking about the experience of the baby boomers and what is in their mind.

More later...

[abhishek_sharma]

Obamacare and the Court

[abhishek_sharma]

US Supreme Court Justices

[devesh]

anybody watch the VP debate? while Obama seemed to be confused about whether looking at Romney was OK, his lieutenant seems to think that being an obnoxious jerk is a winning formula. seriously, I've been following the last 3 elections campaigns in US pretty seriously, and never yet seen a debate with such total lack of decorum and a candidate going completely out of his way to jeer, scoff, smirk, guffaw, yelp, sneer, and disdainfully dismiss his opponent...

it'll be interesting to see how the people react. I have a feeling that once people forget the substance of the debate, they will overwhelmingly remember Biden's disastrous behavior and it will linger in their minds for weeks. this performance in mid-October is not a good sign for Obama.

[devesh]

My old adviser, a staunch Democrat, used to say that disbanding the Iraqi Army was the biggest mistake made by Bush. "there is some General out there who you should be talking to". he repeated this quite often. in hindsight, was it even possible for US to achieve its objectives if they had left the Iraqi Army standing? if for nothing else, charting the progression of how US got into the Iraq morass is interesting from an educational perspective. kind of like analyzing the do's and don'ts of "great powers".

on one hand we had Powell asking for 300,000 men in the initial phase to make sure that the beginning was strong. I think he ended up getting 170,000. would the additional 130,000 have made a difference?

another aspect is that the neo-cons had planed the Iraq adventure even before 9/11. they were spinning grand fantasies of "liberating from a dictator", and how the American people would be showed Iraqis waving American flags at the "liberators". one has to wonder just how delusional Cheney & Co were?!

even the whole "intelligence failure" surrounding the WMD's is very murky. Tenet, Powell, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, and a host of others went on national TV and global meetings openly claiming that there were WMD's. you can call them liars but you cannot call them fools. if they knew for sure that it wasn't true, I have a hard time believing that they would go to such absurd lengths to make sure that history and posterity would remember their "lies". when you get to that level, you care about your "legacy". it is hard to imagine that they so cavalierly went around touting the WMD's if they didn't have a plan to trump up some "WMD's" and show that to the world. Bush himself would later say that they "screwed up. there were no WMD's in Iraq".

my honest assessment is that the American establishment was very seriously led to believe the case of WMD's. which "forces" cooperated in this illusion remains an important question. I don't believe for one second that they purposefully lied on national TV without having a "backup plan" to put some "evidence" once the war started. the fact that they did no such thing, and openly agreed that they "screwed up" shows to me, at least, that there are other forces at play here.

another thing is, Saddam's removal might have been the harbinger for the current removal of dictators. within 10 years of disposing the ruling regime in Iraq, we have entire North Africa and Middle East going through similar situation. Iraq is considered the "borderland" between the Persians on the East and the Anatolians on the West. systemic changes in the region perhaps have a way of reflecting on the surrounding areas...

[svinayak]

my honest assessment is that the American establishment was very seriously led to believe the case of WMD's. which "forces" cooperated in this illusion remains an important question. I don't believe for one second that they purposefully lied on national TV without having a "backup plan" to put some "evidence" once the war started. the fact that they did no such thing, and openly agreed that they "screwed up" shows to me, at least, that there are other forces at play here.

The US establishment was led into a path by another power since US does not understand the culture of the region. There is a culture deficiency and this weakness was used by some other country. The only reason may be to bring the downfall of US