Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken.
Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British public's preference for a quiet life. But it means that debates on defence remain monopolised by the committed - those who have always championed the armed services uncritically on the one hand, and those who have always viewed them with reflexive distaste on the other. As a result, such debates rarely give any sort of sensible lead - and we are stuck with the worst-of-both-worlds policy that has been on display in Basra this week.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
In combined population and GDP, the Euros on record exceed that of the United States. Time to end military welfare for the prosperous.
#2
This article is from the Grauniad. Read the comments, especially the ones from some pinhead calling himself Walter JC. I finished them and realized that a) the Euros are lost, and b) they hate us because we aren't. Screw Europe. Let's get out and let them defend themselves from now on. It might teach them a lesson but whether it does or not, we won't be wasting American lives and treasure for people who won't do it for themselves.
#3
I'm for letting them grow up on their own. NATO is a social club now. Make an alliance between democratic nations with the understanding that they will have to share a military load. Standardize equipment and training. If some EU countries want to come in and dump the EU, fine. Other wise, have a nice time in stagmentation and decline land.
#4
The other problem is they can't agree on a doctrine. If you look at Desert Storm, the French were hung out on the flank because their units were incompatible with the US and British.
This issue is independent of political will (or lack thereof). The US and the Anglosphere has similar doctrine as do the Dutch, Danes and Norwegians. The German Army knows what to do if their politicians would allow them. The other countries follow at least 4 doctrines (that I know of).
Good luck coordinating their forces! The US Army not only does the heavy lifting, it is the glue that holds any international force together.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/30/2008 14:18 Comments ||
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#5
Yes, doctrine's a serious issue. There has been a lot of progress on standards to allow e.g. command and control systems to interoperate. But if the doctrine behind them is different, the results are less than stellar.
#6
NATO died with Iraq. We are so in debt we can no longer afford to defend Europe. Our politicians will do nothing to repair and replace our worn out military equipment, they can't afford to. Europe is on it's own now. This is what it gets for not supporting us in Iraq and all it's constant anti US propaganda in the European press.
So, the Democrat party's answer to the split between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama might be to nominate Al Gore, who hasn't run in any primary or caucus. If that happens then none of the votes cast by any of the Democrat voters counted. They will all have disenfranchised. And how does a Gore nomination address all the talk by the Obama supporters that the convention must deliver the nomination to Obama as he has received (or will have received) the most popular votes and secured the most delegates? Finally, what about all the excitement over the possibility of the first woman or first black president? That goes down the tubes with the nomination of Gore. It seems to me that a Gore nomination creates serious problems for the Democrat Party. So, I would encourage the Democrats to do it.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/30/2008 08:43 ||
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#1
They will all have disenfranchised.
Sort of like Gerald Ford becoming becoming President without a single vote out of Congress. Also a 'compromise' candidate. However, the Gorebot will have to run in an atmosphere he help create - "Selected, Not Elected". More Eris, more.
#2
...Up until a few days ago I was convinced that a Gore nomination was out of the question, but I'm beginning to think that if the Hilary! defections increase - like SEN Leahy a few days ago - without Obama getting more delegates, Gore might just get it into his head that he is the only person who can save the Party, just like he's the only person who can save us from global warming.
And if that happens, ask John McCain what he'd like for dinner at the inaugural ball.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/30/2008 10:18 Comments ||
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#3
For this pre-convention news cycle Rantburg needs a photo of a snapping turtle that keeps biting even after it's head has been chopped off.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/30/2008 10:36 Comments ||
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#4
I'll double my popcorn order....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 11:11 Comments ||
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#5
This is almost as much fun as watching an old Laurel and Hardy short. The only thing that keeps this from being a joke is that the MSM are going spin this thing sixteen ways from Sunday for who ever the Dems trot out as their candidate.
The superdelegate scheme was put together to guarantee Hillary the nomination. If that happens and she is the candidate, I predict that it will top Nixon vs. McGovern as a landslide.
Let's see now, in November, Hillary would get four votes, Bill, herself, Chelsea and Terry MacAullife....I don't even think the Lizard Man will vote for her.
#8
I think it would be the best thing to happen to this country in a long time. It would fracture the Democratic party into 3 toothless parts and make them seen for the fascist mooncalves that they are.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 16:27 Comments ||
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#11
The superdelegate scheme was put together to guarantee Hillary the nomination.
The "superdelegate scheme" was actually put together after the 1968 convention fiasco. The concept was to provide 'adult supervision' in the event it ever happened again.
#14
remember this phrase: "selected, not elected"...heh heh. I suspect we will be doing a lot of taunting late August
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 16:35 Comments ||
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#15
Barbara, do you captur all the hot air from the politicians to use in you super Dooper Hot Air Popcorn Popper? If not, might I suggest you do so and save on fuel?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/30/2008 17:03 Comments ||
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AS the transfer of power to the incoming coalition government nears completion, there is troubling evidence that the countrys new civilian leaders are not gearing up to face the threat that Islamic militancy poses to the state.
While the incoming coalition does consider militancy a problem it appears to view the threat as a law and order issue rather than a creeping challenge to the state. Away from the politics of Islamabad, however, there is a consensus amongst security analysts that the wave of suicide bombings across the country is part of a growing challenge to the writ of the state originating from the tribal areas.
The difference between the views of the politicians and analysts appears to boil down to the role of the intelligence agencies. The evolution of Afghan jihadists of the 1980s to todays suicide bombers via the Kashmir insurgency and the Taliban regime is an open secret and few question the role of the intelligence apparatus in nurturing that progression.
Today, the problem is that neither the civilian elite nor the general public is convinced that suicide bombers are no longer under the control of intelligence handlers who have guided the activities of militants for over two decades now.
This scepticism of the intelligence agencies is perhaps a paradoxical result of the states success in the recent past in reining in militants operating in Kashmir. It is, however, a false comparison. Crossing the Line of Control and operating in Indian-occupied Kashmir required coordination with the Pakistani military apparatus. Operating inside Pakistan does not require the states complicity.
The militants are already here and able to blend in easily with the local population, especially the Punjabi Taliban. Containing rogue elements within this militant structure from operating inside Pakistan is more difficult and there is mounting evidence that elements within these groups are no longer under the control of their handlers.
Consider the case of perhaps the most well-known Punjabi Taliban, Qari Saifullah Akhtar. The former Amir of the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HJI) is indelibly linked in the public mind to Benazir Bhutto. In the mid-1990s he was a suspect in a plot to topple and kill the prime minister, while more recently he has been posthumously accused by Ms Bhutto of orchestrating the Oct 18 attack on her caravan in Karachi.
Behind this public image, however, Qari and HJI are firmly linked to the intelligence apparatus. Qaris organisation, which stretches from Kandahar to Azad Kashmir and from Chechnya to Myanmar and is linked to seminaries in Sinkiang (China), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Karachi, has been nurtured by the intelligence apparatus since its formation in 1980. Writing in 2002, Khaled Ahmed, an expert on militant groups, stated: [HJI] has branch offices in 40 districts and tehsils in Pakistan, including Sargodha, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Khanpur, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Mianwali, Bannu, Kohat, Waziristan, Dera Ismail Khan, Swabi and Peshawar.
In the wake of the ouster of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, HJI was dislodged from its base there and its militants were scattered across the globe. Some settled in Waziristan, while others sought space in the NWFP to continue training for raids in Indian-held Kashmir.
The problem was that even as HJI was put into cold storage by its intelligence handlers, Al Qaeda and the Taliban had an eye on the militants of HJI and similar groups. HJI in particular had old links to Al Qaeda. In 1992, Osama bin Laden is believed to have aided the setting up of the Bangladeshi chapter of HJI under the leadership of Shaukat Osman. In 1998, HJI joined bin Ladens International Islamic Front upon its formation. Similarly, Qari was close to Mullah Omar of the Taliban and his forces fought alongside and trained the Taliban in camps in Kotli, Kandahar, Kabul and Khost.
In seeking now to take its battle against the state beyond the tribal areas, Al Qaeda has capitalised on its HJI connections and recruited the organisations militants, the Punjabi Taliban, to launch suicide attacks in Pakistans urban centres.
The intelligence apparatus, at least, is aware of this development and is quietly working to capture these militants. The Asia Times has reported that a Special Investigation Authority (SIA) has been set up jointly by Pakistani and US intelligence to track down Al Qaedas latest recruits. The suicide attack on a house in Model Town, Lahore, is believed to be a botched attempt by the militants to strike at one of the SIAs safe houses.
Publicly, however, there is no discussion of these developments. The problem that the intelligence apparatus faces in exposing Al Qaedas new henchmen is straightforward: they are the same elements nurtured to fight in Kashmir and alongside the Taliban. Exposing the new threat is, to put it mildly, awkward.
There is, however, one significant person who is alert to the militant threat: Gen Kayani. According to a report in The New York Times, Gen Kayanis immediate priority as army chief is to reorient the army towards counter-terrorism. The general is, however, facing stiff resistance from senior officers who believe that the primary role of the Pakistan Army is to counter the Indian threat.
The incoming government must act decisively to support Gen Kayanis counter-terrorism efforts. Indeed, alert minds in the coalition government will see a unique dovetailing of civilian and army interests. Support the army chief in his bid to take on the militants and two benefits will be apparent. One, politicians will earn the gratitude of the army chief, a significant bonus in this time of transition. Second, if the security situation deteriorates alarmingly Gen Kayani may be reluctant to consider a takeover when the civilian government is solidly behind him.
The PPP must also act cautiously in pursuing the link between Qari Saifullah and the attacks on Ms Bhutto. Given the association between the intelligence apparatus and HJI, a media trial will make many in that apparatus squeamish. While it is imperative that sympathisers of militants in intelligence circles be weeded out, this must not be at the cost of institutional demoralisation. By fighting yesterdays battles, the incoming government could lose todays war. It may be galling but it is a legacy of state interference.
The incoming government must instead focus on altering the public perception that there is no real threat to Pakistan from Al Qaeda and its affiliates. Countering this perception is difficult but more openness would be a start. The ban on reporters in the tribal areas and other trouble spots must be lifted. The government fears that images of death and destruction caused by US and Pakistani military action will inflame public sentiment. This is true to an extent; however, blocking access to the area has simply allowed the enemy to shape public opinion.
The government can take a page out of the US playbook and embed journalists with troops operating in the region. The regular attacks troops come under and the views of pacifist indigenous tribes will portray a more complex situation than that of a foreign military killing the local population.
Whatever course of action the incoming government takes will be fraught with difficulties. The key though is to act decisively. If the incoming government dithers, the coming crisis will almost make people yearn for the simpler days of a tussle between the presidency and the judiciary.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 08:38 ||
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What makes life truly worthwhile and beneficial are the experiences that we encounter, the events that make or break our conceptual development and lead us to a path that would ultimately bestow us with the maturity of thought and action and an insight that would help us distinguish the good from the bad. Whatever else there is, is, mostly, thin air; the people around us, those we grow up with, those who take care of us, and finally, those we can relate to are like pedestrians on a bridge who come and go with the passage of time, but, at times, leave indelible marks on our lives. Thats my little, somewhat parochial, take on this enigma we call life!
A few days back a close friend raised an obnoxiously intriguing question: Why is it that a good number of folks from my generation who grew up during General Zia-ul-Haqs rule are so severely antagonistic and aggressive when it comes to a conversation that is inclined towards Islam being a religion of peace?
I normally dont go around asking questions to people and not many ask me questions, but I wasnt shocked by this rather blatant inquiry! It did make me scratch my head and wonder if the guy had a point!
I was in my very early years of life when Zia took over the reigns of power in Pakistan back in the 1970s. However, I do remember vividly the days when and how the change was brought about. Yet another elected government was toppled by the military, thanks to the mullahs conniving with Zia, who himself was son of a Muslim cleric.
Right from the word go, Zia talked in terms of Islamization, starting from interest-free banking to severe punishments for those who committed crimes. Intense propaganda was waged on the state-run television and radio networks, calling for strict adherence to principles and precepts of Islam.
Slowly and gradually a network of sorts was created that included, amongst others, construction of mosques at every nook and corner, huge incentives for those who took Islamic courses in the universities and applied for government jobs on the basis of their religious qualifications; shutting down of all businesses at the time of Friday prayers and enforcement of Wahibized trends that were nothing but truly unnatural to the texture and tenor of the Pakistani social psyche.
Right around the time when Zia started his circus, the Soviets decided to march into Afghanistan. Millions of refugees from across the border began to trickle into Pakistan. That proved to be an important point in Pakistans history. With the never-ending flow of the refugees and with the Jihad discussed left, right and center, Islam became the hub of all activities that had to do with governance and administering the country.
Things changed. From changing of the dress code of government employees to the permission to take prayer breaks during work hours to the pampering of those who were helping in the propagation of the dictators brand of Islam, all that mattered in life was hopelessly changed.
The bottom-line was that all possible measures were taken to effectively promote Islam and its richness. The objective, obviously, was to meet certain vicious political targets that would help Zia and his backers to carry out a sustained effort to change the very ethos of the Pakistani nation and, of course, prolong their rule.
This process of penetration increased manifold. School curriculums were infested with Islamic studies. One witnessed a mushroom growth of Islamic schools all over the country. The religious political parties became stronger and meaner; huge government grants were provided to maintain and safeguard institutions that were helping out in the process of Islamization. Constitutional changes were introduced and the outdated Shariah became an integral part of the basic law for the first time in the countrys history. In no time, the nation was plunged into the dark ages!
There was this feeling of a syndrome that engulfed the entire nation that Islam was perhaps the best available tool that can salvage us - the evil and the dreadful of the earth - from the burning fire that we were destined to face in our after lives!
I remember there was this Saudi crony, a Wahabi mullah, Israr Ahmad, who would appear on the state-run television right around the prime time and would scare the hell out of folks for about half an hour or so every night about how miserable they will be in their respective after lives if they did not follow the precepts of Islam and how dreadfully the angel of death will treat us if we faltered or deviated from the right path!
This religious stunt lasted for eleven long years. Religion became so institutionalized that it was hard to comprehend if anything else existed beyond the realm of the Holy Book, the sayings of the prophet of Islam or, as for that matter, the virtues of the amir-ul-momineen - a title that Zia had bestowed upon himself!
As a young man, this was all astoundingly sickening to my mind; the agitation against the happenings around was immense inside me. I tried to read what other nations were thinking about Pakistan; I approached and talked to the liberals, those who were critical of the horrible changes that Zia was bringing about; I questioned the logic of his Machiavellian ways. I wondered why were issues like Kashmir and the nuclear bomb were associated with Islam. I could sense very well that a devastating turnaround was being brought about and that Pakistan, as a nation, would be disabled for all times to come to be creative and imaginative enough to charter its own course and break the shackles of the confined boundaries of the fallacious, politicized Islam.
Zia died in 1988. It will be safe to say he indeed was the father of Talibanization of Pakistan. Twenty years after his death Pakistan is a dead state, a failed polity that has been gripped by the same issues that Zia had sowed the seeds of. It has become the center of terrorism. It faces the worst problems with respect to fundamentalism. There seems to be no end whatsoever in sight, no chance and no let up from the fanatics to give up destroying the very fabric of the Pakistani nation.
As for me, I grew up and distanced myself from the wretched miseries of religion that I saw evolve around me. The image of modern day, functional Islam is that of Zia, fundamentalism, Arab extremism, Palestinian insanity, Mahmud Ahmadinejads lunacy and hundreds and thousands of folks, innocent individuals that have fallen a prey to the brutally agonizing, non-virtuous ways of those who claim to be Muslims but have nothing to do with peace and tranquility.
Islam, to me, is a stressed faith, unwilling and too rigid to be flexible, unable to learn from other great traditions. Pakistan represents its worst possible form. Whats happening there is unique in a way that that people there are not oblivious of the imperfectness of the scenario and dilemmas that encounter this nation of almost 160 million individuals.
What is perhaps missing is knowledge, the knowledge to connect, the understanding of the sentiments of public opinion by the leadership. The people have, for long, been alienated and left alone by those who rule over their destinies.
The scourge of fanaticism is not going away anytime soon. While we sit and observe the turmoil and human suffering, there is not much that been done it is hard to revive a failed system, especially when there are too many vultures and leeches within the system itself that are part and parcel of the fundamentalist networks.
Pakistan needs a major facelift and serious soul searching. All the goodness, if it ever existed, has turned into worseness. I hear a lot of respect, hope, and expectancy from the new leadership that has emerged after last months general elections. I think its totally absurd optimism, bordering on the superlatives that hardly convey any sense.
The ground realities havent changed and will not change unless the powers-that-be are serious enough and ready to grapple with the issue of fundamentalism. The edifice of negativity laid by the evil days of Zia remains strong, versatile and deceptively widespread. Pakistan will have to dig deeper and toil harder to reach some concrete conclusion to attack the epidemic.
And, yes, although it is hard for me to forget the unforgettable period of massively tantalizing Islamization undertaken by Zia, I feel for Pakistan. My problem is that I do not see much light at the end of the tunnel!
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 08:37 ||
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#1
This gentleman hit it out of the park.
The good old State Department asleep at the switch (again) during the Carter years.
Between Pakistan and Iran, you could actually say that Jimmy Carter is the god father of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Levy County is too far north of Tampa Bay and too far west of Ocala to be of much use to anybody. And that makes it just perfect for Progress Energy.
Here, out in the woods off U.S. Highway 19, the utility is planning to build what would be the state's next nuclear power plant. The estimated completion date is 2016. Locally, the only major controversy comes from neighboring Citrus County, which houses the utility's Crystal River nuclear plant and is miffed it isn't getting this one.
The state of Florida is gung-ho, which means no major obstacles from the Public Service Commission or Department of Environmental Protection.
Nuclear power is the only option available to meet Gov. Charlie Crist's ambitious goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A new state law will allow Progress Energy to begin collecting money for the $17 billion facility in advance. So the utility's customers could see a $9 bump in an average electric bill beginning in January.
To speed up the federal review process, Progress Energy plans to use a next-generation Westinghouse AP1000 reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission already has signed off on the basic design.
The only way this plant does not get built is if Progress Energy makes a business decision not to build it. That I can make such a statement without being laughed out of the newsroom shows how far we have come in our view of nuclear power.
Like other utilities, Progress Energy no longer will reinvent the nuclear power plant with each new facility. The industry now plans to replicate the same basic designs over and over. This cuts costs, increases familiarity and allows lessons learned at one plant to be incorporated at other plants.
With the Westinghouse unit, Progress Energy will learn from the experiences of the Chinese, who will have the first ones running in 2014. What differentiates the Westinghouse from older plants isn't the reactor. It is the water-cooling systems designed to prevent it from overheating and melting down. Simply put, we've got the same engine but a much improved radiator.
The old safeguards rely on an elaborate network of generators, pumps and pipes, all of them potential points of failure. Intense monitoring is required, introducing the possibility of operator error.
The new plants will use passive designs that rely on forces like gravity to deliver cooling water. This vastly reduces the number of pipes and pumps, thereby eliminating many failure points and improving reliability. This also reduces costs and the odds of operator error.
I would much rather live down the street from a Westinghouse AP1000 than a coal-fired plant.
But the most compelling reason for this new facility can be found at the Crystal River nuclear plant. There, at the bottom of a pool about the size of an Olympic swimming pool, you can see all the radioactive fuel rods created by 31 years of operating the plant. And there is room for more.
Producing an equal amount of energy from coal would create millions of tons of pollution, ranging from toxic mercury to greenhouse gases, spewed up the smokestack and dispersed around the globe and into the atmosphere. Nuclear power forces you to confront your mess. And even the small amount there is of it could be cut by more than half if this country decides one day to reprocess and reuse old fuel rods.
Hopefully, like this proposed Progress Energy plant, that day will be coming soon enough.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 09:08 ||
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#1
The largest sustained nuclear reaction generator in our neighborhood operates about 93 million miles from earth and is responsible for the death of tens of thousands every year from skin cancers. I still await the environmentalists court case to get that shut down.
#2
Nuclear Power's day will come again. But first there has to be a solution to the waste issue. Part will have to be reprocessing, another part will have to be long term storage like Yucca Mt. But another part will have to be a reactor that allows the "burning" of waste products to not only generate power but to reduce their radioactivity. All of these solutions require technology that anti-nuclear activists hate with a passion. But they are things we will have to adopt because even if we shuttered every nuclear reactor world wide this second we would still have the waste problem. Sometimes I think that the reason we don't have a real solution to the waste issue that anti-nuclear types can accept is then nuclear becomes a viable option.
#4
We already have the answer to waste: breeder reactors. Pebble beds can be dseign to do this (uranium/thorium), in addition the traditional pultonium/uraniaum breeders.
Take the "waste, process it and put it back in the reactor. IT gets irradiated and turns into fuel, which is then burned to inert material.
#5
Well, this radioactive stuff comes out of the ground, doesn't it? Let's put it back in the ground after we're done.
And launching it into the sun is no solution. The most reliable rockets explode too often, not to mention the cost of putting a pound of anything outside the earth's gravity.
"The health risks from granite radiation are small yet not as small as other health risks. For instance, the granite in the Thomas Jefferson building in Washington D.C., will give you an incremental cancer risk 50 times greater than the Super Fund clean up trigger levels."
Now extrapolate that for all the buildings in DC and you begin to understand the strange behavior of beltway inhabitants.
One would think that BBC is in support of current curfew in Baghdad, which stops terrorists from carrying attacks :
The curfew means no vehicles at all can move - except for those of the police and military.
That, of course, makes it much harder for militiamen to move around.
They cannot transport supplies or ammunition. They cannot carry the 107mm rockets that are plaguing this city to launching sites.
If they try, they risk being spotted by American overhead surveillance - perhaps by unmanned drones or helicopters.
But, as usually, they dont want you see any positive sides of it. They made sure to list and describe all the possible horror outcomes for people in Baghad. Such as flour will finish in 4-5 days or:
Those who would normally work complain they are stuck at home, listening to long discussions between neighbors of the rights and wrongs of Prime Minister Nouri Malikis confrontation with the militias.
Of course they fail to mention that it does work, no suicide bombings, no sectarian violence and there is always and end to the curfews.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
