Hiatus

I'm sorry to say it, but keeping up with this blog has become a bit too taxing on my patience of late and I think I'm going to give it a rest. Maybe I'll give it another go at some point in the future. In any case, it's been fun and instructional for me, and I hope that regular readers got some use out of it. I appreciate your time and attention.

A funny Taliban joke

Seriously, this is hilarious: "Not your father's Taliban."


"Another thing you said you didn’t like: how we blow shit up when there’s people inside it.
You spoke, we listened.
Schools? Fuhgeddaboudit. Marketplaces swarming with innocent civilians? No fucking way. We’re still going to blow up ginormous statues of Buddha, though. That shit is epic, in a Michael Bay kind of way."

The insurgents' war

Check out this episode of Frontline, which documents an Afghan journalist's time embedded with an insurgent group in the north of Afghanistan:

I am so impressed with their coverage of the Afghan war, what an incredibly gutsy report. Hard to to take this at face value, but it does seem notable how the all the actors involved came off as equally incompetent.

The eXile newspaper- a Moscow legend

Check out this entertaining story about Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames' old paper in Russia, The eXile, which is legendary for its debauchery and uniquely serious journalism: "Lost Exile." A great read- I don't think there is a more outrageous, corrupt and interesting story than that of Russia in the 1990's and this captures a bit of that. I had glancing interactions with this paper while I was briefly living in Russia and even in its decline it lived up to the hype of the story.

The Tory lineup

Election season is nigh in the UK, and to brush up on some of the more interesting figures in the conservative Tory's lineup, check out this great graphic from the FT with short bios for all the heavy hitters: "A Conservative Who's Who." I suppose Labour has been in office so long, nobody needs to be introduced?

Unemployment's poisonous legacy- "we should brace ourselves"

Take a look at this must read article from The Atlantic about how an era of prolonged high joblessness (which we are most certainly entering) could leave deep psychological and social scars, particularly among the young and unemployed: "How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America." I found this article deeply disturbing. I also think its very interesting to read what older generations have to say about mine, and there's plenty of that in there.

Update: Thanks to Charlie for passing along this great graph from the NY Times, which will adjust the unemployment stats to fit very specific demographics based on age, gender, race and education: "The Jobless Rate for People Like You."

The case for focusing on Mexico

I am very glad that Gideon Rachman wrote this comment piece: "Why Mexico is the missing Bric." The title speaks for itself. Mexico is a huge country with a vibrant economy, but most importantly from the American perspective it is our neighbor. There is simply no comparison between Mexico's importance to the US and Afghanistan's. Shockingly, the article points out that there is a comparable problem with violence: "Last year, the death toll in Mexico’s drugs war was more than 6,500. By comparison, over the same period the conflict in Afghanistan claimed the lives of some 2,400 civilians. Drug-related violence killed 238 Mexicans in the first 10 days of this year alone." One of the greatest and least mentioned strengths of the US is the blessing of close and peaceful ties with huge neighbors to its north and south, and yet our aid to Mexico is laughably small in comparison to the money we lavish on our corrupt "partners" in Central Asia.

Good news in Afghan war for a change

Finally some good news in our Afghan war! Perhaps the most senior Taliban commander has been captured. I do not have anything to offer on how this will affect the war effort, but immediately the fact that this was a joint Pakistani intelligence/CIA effort jumps out as a dramatic improvement in our working relationship with our Pakistani "allies." Story from Dexter Filkins here: "Taliban's Military Chief, Mullah Barader, Is Captured." If this signals a lasting change of heart on the part of Pakistan's leadership, it may dramatically improve our ability to control the situation we've gotten ourselves into in A-stan.

Foreign Direct Investment after the crisis

Another good chart from The Economist, this time outlining the largets recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI, which is a measure of the amount of money invested in a country from outside that country) in 2009. That the US remains comfortably in first is a great indicator of how attractive our economy remains, but notice the 57 percent drop from last year's totals.

Here's The Economist's caption: "THE flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 39% in 2009 to just over $1 trillion, from a shade under $1.7 trillion in 2008, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development. All kinds of investment—equity capital, reinvested earnings and intra-company loans—were affected by the downturn. Rich countries saw FDI inflows plunge by 41%, and foreign investment into developing countries fell by more than a third. Not every country was badly hit. FDI into China, where economic growth remained robust, declined by only 2.6%. Foreigners actually invested more in Germany and Italy last year than in 2008. Despite FDI plunging by 57% last year, America remained the world’s top investment destination."

The Obama campaign or the Obama presidency?

I usually try to eschew posting political articles here, first of all because they're usually inane. However, I think this article has generated a lot of discussion and Edward Luce is a good reporter for the FT so I recommend checking it out: "America: A fearsome foursome." The idea is that the way Obama has structured the management of his white house, essentially keeping the tight night campaign machine in place (pictured above), has drastically limited his ability to hear the policy advice provided by government apart from the political advice provided by his inner circle. If true, its a problem, and it seems plausible.

Your US defense budget

Check out this great set of graphics from FT.com outlining basically all you need to know about US defense spending for FY 2011: "US military: Arms and the man for change." I think its pretty clear from the data that Robert Gates is the transformative defense secretary that Don Rumsfeld wished he was.

More on Eric Holder

Jane Mayer, a pretty remarkable reporter who has been been doggedly investigating detainee issues for years, has a new profile on Eric Holder and the K.S.M. trial in the New Yorker this week: "Eric Holder and the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial." I would also recommend her book, The Dark Side, though I'll admit it was very tough reading about detainees in the Bush years.

AG Holder SMACKDOWN

Check out this letter from AG Eric Holder to Sen. Mitch McConnell explaining the Dept. of Justice's arrest and handling of the "underwear bomber": Dear Senator McConnell... Funny what reality based arguments do to hysterical pandering.

Maybe we ought to know more about our war in Pakistan?

That's the basic question asked by Noah Shachtman in this post: "3 G.I.s Killed in Pakistan. Now Can We Start Treating This Like A Real War?" I have a lot of trouble understanding the general drift of our "global counterinsurgency" at the moment, but surely Pakistan is a big part of that picture.

Also, sorry my posting has been unusually national defense heavy... those are just the articles I've been coming across recently. I'll try to mix it up more.

Should defense spending always rise?

Check out this nice short blog post by The Economist on the unchecked growth of the US defense budget: "Time to attack defense spending." Asking if the trend exhibited on the chart to the left is making Americans any safer seems to be the only honest way to discuss this issue.

A new approach in A-stan?

Check out this very interesting pair of articles, which might signal a shift in the way the US is prosecuting its war in Afghanistan. First, a piece by Dexter Filkins in the NY Times about an entire tribe in A-stan that has declared war on the Taliban with US support: "Afghan Tribe, Vowing to Fight Taliban, to Get U.S. Aid in Return." Then check out this short piece in the FT about efforts at the Afghan donors' conference to encourage political reconcilliation: "Taliban soldiers to be offered trust fund." Personally, I'm for trying anything at this point, and these are both low cost options with potentially high rewards. However, it is clear that both are frought with difficulties and present an opportunity to game the U.S. and NATO allies. Furthermore, these new initiatives may amount to little more than a dog and pony show for the benefit of domestic politics in the US and Europe. I'll post anything more I see in this vein.

Assasinating US citizens

After reading this mortifying piece by Glenn Greenwald, I can't help but think (assuming it's true) that we're really going off the rails: "Presidential assasinations of U.S. citizens." I'm sensitive to arguments that clandestine action is required to deal with non-state (ie terrorist) threats, but I cannot imagine that logic overcoming our most basic values.

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." -Einstein

China's past

Thanks to Charlie, who brought this article to my attention: "Beijing Journal: Stiching the Narrative of a Revolution." Having been absolutely appaled at how corrosive an inability to confront Soviet history has been for the political culture in Russia, I sincerely hope that China continues to look back at their recent past, however gingerly.

More dorky rap videos please!

Surprisingly informative and hilarious for its existence, check out this rap battle between Hayek and Keynes:

Texting as spelling reform

Check out this clever article about the possible effects of texting on spelling reform in the English language: "The Keypad Solution." I, for one, enjoy the idiosyncrasies of our language.

The rise of the Tea Party?

Check out this great article about the "Tea Party" movement from the New Yorker: "The rise of the Tea Party movement." Frankly, I'm a little surprised to find that there is substance beyond the pageantry, but I suppose this is something to keep an eye on.

The Economist also ran a leader this week referencing the Tea Party's increasing political salience: "The man who fell to earth." Honestly, any topic that gets The Economist to run an explanation like this is worth reading about: "Hence the spectacular rise of the “tea-party” movement, an alliance of ordinary people who are spooked by the huge amount of debt that is being racked up on Mr Obama’s watch. For Democrats to deride such people as “tea-baggers”, a term referring to a sexual practice involving testicles, is political stupidity of a high order."

Update: Here's a link to the Richard Hofstadter article "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," which is referenced to such great effect in the New Yorker piece. (Sorry for the weird typos in the Hofstadter article, it's the best copy I could find online.)

Human interest in A-stan & McChrystal's thoughts

Check out this story in the NY Times about a group of marines' luck in A-stan: "Foot on Bomb, Marine Defies Taliban Trap."

For other war news, check out this interesting article about Gen. McChrystal's views on how to bring the Afghan war to an end (or at least America's role in it): "McChrystal sees Taliban role."

Martin Wolf on BRICs

Check out this interesting and short piece about the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India & China) economies by Martin Wolf: "Sexy term that helps to focus attention." His bottom line: even though the BRIC concept was a Goldman marketing trick, it usefully points to the defining reality of the future- "catch up grown" by the developing world.

Pres. Obama's environmental reversal

Check out this short blog post by Carl Pope, president of the Sierra Club, about Pres. Obama's largely unheralded reversal of the Bush/Cheney "environmental counterrevolution": "The Obama Reversal That Might Save Your Life."

Was on vacation

Sorry for the break in posting... was on vacation until Thursday night. Regular posting from here on out for the conceivable future.

US reponse to Haiti disaster ginning up

As with the tsunami that laid waste to the islands of the Indian Ocean in 2004, the US Navy will most likely play a critical (maybe even central) role in the disaster relief efforts in Haiti. The picture above is of the US Coast Guard cutters alread on scene (courtesy of Danger Room). I was peeved today to read that China was the first nation to deploy disaster relief (reported here by the FT), but the bulk of the help on the way is coming from Norfolk, VA where a US aircraft carrier is underway for the Carribean. Check out Noah Shachtman's update on how the US military's relief efforts are ginning up: "Earthquake hit Haiti Still Offline; Military Relief Agencies Rush to Rebuild Comms."

Alastair Campbell on "In The Loop"

If you've seen "In The Loop" or the BBC series that spawned it "The Thick Of It," then you're certainly familiar with Malcolm Tucker, the fowl mouthed press secretary for the PM. He's an absolutely hilarious character based on Alastair Campbell, who was Tony Blair's press secretary for the majority of his time as PM. Campbell remains a controversial figure in British politics, and I found this short video of him watching "In The Loop" and discussing it with a culture critic to be really interesting:



If you've haven't seen the movie and find politics at all interesting, check it out.

Google and Chinese censorship

Google has finally had enough of the business environment imposed on it by Chinese authorities: "Google seeks to draw a line in the sand." This step feels like a significant milestone for American business in China. James Fallows, a longtime China correspondent who now writes for The Atlantic, has an interesting post discussing the significance of this development: "The google news: China enters its Bush-Cheney era." Fallows' decidedly dark conclusions are particularly notable because he is usually a very moderate and optimistic American voice about China.

Rory Stewart on A-stan

Rory Stewart, British adventurer, strategist, human rights advocate and now Tory candidate for parliament, recently published a new essay about Afghanistan that I highly recommend: "Afghanistan: What Could Work." I think Stewart is one of our most eloquent and insightful strategic thinkers and writers about Afghanistan in particular and our post-9/11 aggressive intervionsionism in general, and it is always worth reading his stuff. His essay "The Irresistable Illusion" is, in my opinion, a modern classic.

The need to reset our conceptual and rhetorical framework for Terrorism

Glenn Greenwald (who I am steadily coming to appreciate more and more for his clear analysis and reasonable politics) has a great post today, "Helen Thomas deviates from the terrorism script," talking about the implications of the following video and what it means when our government refuses to engage in any serious or intelligent discussion of terrorism:



Then over at the National Journal's National Security Experts' forum Michael Brenner has an interesting short comment about the meaning of the words we choose to discuss terrorism and our efforts to combat it. The money quote:

"Much of the verbal confusion stems from the use of words as proper nouns that are in fact pronouns – functionally speaking. Al-Qaidi, the outstanding example, has multiple antecedent proper nouns. Is the reference to Osama bin-Laden and his cohort holed up somewhere in North Waziristan or Quetta or Karachi? Is it to everyone who calls himself al-Qaidi from Mali to Bali? What exactly are we trying to do – get bin-Laden, destroy al-Qaidi in AfPak, liquidate all self-declared members, prevent it arising Phoenix like from the ashes of our explosives? Do relatives of those we kill, related or not to people we have estimated to be al-Qaidi, and who might become adherents to the al-Qaidi creed, count in the equation? Is our target al-Qaidi in the past, present and/or future?"

A nice reality check

Check out this short article by Thomas Barnett (who's book The Pentagon's New Map gained some notoriety a few years back) about the 2000's and why, despite American anxiety, there were really pretty good for the world: "The Naughties Were Plenty Nice." In my opinion his take has a refreshingly global perspective. I would classify Barnett as a liberal imperialist of one stripe or another, but he is a creative and bold thinker nonetheless.

Another sunny report from A-stan!

The slide at left was published by Noah Shachtman in the post summarizing the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan's current assesment of the war: "'Afghan Insurgency Can Sustain Itself Indefinitely': Top US Intel Officer."

The most frustrating part of the report to my mind? Here:

"The presentation also cast doubt on some of the war’s stated central aims. The Obama administration has repeatedly said that additional troops are necessary to prevent a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan — which would then allow Al Qaeda the re-establigh its safe haven there. According to interviews with detainees, however, the insurgents “view Al Qaeda as a handicap – a view that is increasingly prevalent.” The Taliban feel they have to “manage [the] relationship with AQ to avoid alienating Afghan population, but encourage support from [the] global jihad network.”" Could we have gotten this thing before we doubled down on the war in order to beat Al Qaeda?!

Election time in Ukraine

The first presidential election since the Orange Revolution of late 2004 is just around the corner in Ukraine, and six years later very few of the issues arising from that historic occasion have been addressed, much less resolved. Bottom line, no one is sure what to expect (except that Yushchenko, the hero of 2004 and current president, will most likely not win). Check out this FT analysis of the upcoming election: "Ukraine: Decision in disillusion." I believe that Ukraine is the most important piece of the European puzzle yet settle since 1991, and its politics have a tremendous significance for the future of the continent.

Below, a reminder of what the last election looked like (forgive the bad techno... I just wanted a sweet montage...)

Improving the "readability" of web articles

If you read articles online (as I assume you do since you're reading this blog), you might find this tool very useful: Readability. It is able to take any text online and simply convert it (in your browser) into just regular text and pictures of any size and margin you want- so it cuts out ads and other marginalia and can make small print much easier to read. Check it out!

2009 China news in photos

Check out this great set of photos covering the top news stories in the PRC in 2009: "Unseen 2009 China News in Photos." I am always so happy when I can find media generated in China to get a feel for what's getting attention there- almost shocking how little the Chinese media shapes the global news agenda despite its demographic, political and economic importance. In any case, some great stories in here- the picture at left is of a baby getting an "Obama cut"!

Still haven't figured out how to reconcile the law and terrorism

Check out this scathing critique of the Obama admin.'s policy towards prosecuting and detaining terrorist suspects by Glenn Greenwald: "Civilian trials and the so-called 'rule of law'." It disturbs me deeply that we have so far been unable to come up with a new legal scheme and political consensus to deal with terrorism in way that is consistent with our values.

Happy New Year! Watch Yemen

Sorry for the lull in posting- I was enjoying myself too much on vacation to read the news. Right off the blocks in this new year, I suspect we're heading towards a new chapter in the "War on Terror"- this time in Yemen. Seems like a significant US action is ginning up: "Third western embassy closes in Yemen." I desperately hope that the current administration has engaged in some creative thinking about how to address terrorism in a "failed state" in some other way than the Afghan solution...

Update: Spencer Ackerman passes on a report that al Qaeda may be planning "Something Big" in Yemen. That explains the embassy closures...

Update 2: The Onion reports: "Blues Muscian to U.N.: 'Yemen Done Me Wrong'."