What vintage bomb survival suits have to do with Dr. Stragelove and Richard Nixon.
The recent tragedy in Japan has triggered a tsunami of terror, founded and unfounded, about the potential risks of nuclear reactors.
While there are people better equipped than us to explain the precise implications of the situation, we thought we’d put things in perspective by examining the flipside of these dystopian fears: The exuberant optimism about nuclear power in mid-century America.
EXTRACT: The executive order makes the customary reference to the new appointee's worthy credentials as “an experienced diplomat and Orientalist”. And then, out of the blue, it adds that Kabulov “repeatedly held talks on the release of Russian pilots with the leadership of the Taliban in Kandahar, including [Taliban leader] Mohammed Omar”. There was no real need to have said that. It almost seems jarring to single out one mission in a distinguished diplomat's checkered career. But it said all that needed to be said.
By the language of the sport of cricket, one would shout from the crease in the heat of the moment: “Howzaat!” Is there an umpire nearby who could annotate the trajectory of Russian thinking? Not much ingenuity is needed to comprehend that Moscow is opening a line to the Taliban leadership and sending into the Hindu Kush someone who can meaningfully converse with the Quetta shura (council). Pakistanis know Kabulov, Iranians know him and Mullah Omar knows him. Afghan President Hamid Karzai knows him, too.
EXTRACT: Kabulov's mind is an open book – as far as a diplomat's mind can be. While serving in Kabul, he was an easily accessible ambassador and even American military commanders used to drop by to pick his brains. Kabulov's main complaint, though, was that the Americans were good listeners, but not good learners.
He kept harping on that the United States was repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made in Afghanistan during its occupation in the 1980s, and to complicate matters, American policies have been innovating on Soviet mistakes by inventing original mistakes of their own for which as he once told John Burns of the New York Times, “We [Russia] do not own the copyright.”
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Israel (rogue spoiler), Libya, Cote d'Ivoire (the tsumani spreads).
Phi Beta Iota: “Secular youth” is the opposite of Islamic fundamentalist. Similarly, academics, professionals, and small business managers as well as labor generally our “secular” instead of fundamentalist. The West appears to be having difficulty with this obvious foundation point, and has wasted months if not years of opportunity. It also appears unwilling to recognize that 175 failed states and five billion poor cannot be denied for much longer, and hence has zero capacity for dealing with a completely out of control world that wants only the basics including food security. Forget your old agendas. Empower youth. Connect the poor. Get out of the way. [Train? What train?]
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the most serious unrest of his 11-year tenure Thursday as anti-government protests in a southwestern city threatened to escalate after a deadly crackdown.
. . . . . . .
On Wednesday, security forces launched a pre-dawn raid in the city in which dozens of people were killed, according to witnesses and activists. Precise estimates of the death toll range from 15 to 51.
On Thursday, witnesses said, thousands of people gathered in the city to bury the dead, chanting, “Syria! Freedom!”
Click on Image to Enlarge
Phi Beta Iota: “Freedom” is neither a partisan term, nor one that can be bought by Lockheed Martin or discounted by Goldman Sachs. Young, freedom, and the autonomous Internet. Not at all what the “elite” had planned. Most interestingly, the dominos falling to non-violent public will are in sharp contrast to the published plan of the neo-conservatives to take down the Middle East by force–nuclear if necessary.
Media: At War (NY Times)
Byline: RAY RIVERA
Date: 24 March 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai surprised some people this week when he announced that his forces would take over security responsibilities from international forces in the city of Lashkar Gah, capital of the volatile southern province of Helmand, this summer.
But if the news spread quickly, it did not travel by cellphone. That’s because mobile phone networks throughout the province have been silenced for nearly a week now under orders of the Taliban, according to company officials.
Although it is Fox News and arch-critic Lindsey Graham pointing fingers, the fact is they are right! US Government seems trapped in a time warp and completely unprepared to contemplate a world in which our military is relatively useless (as well as unaffordable) and we actually need to have a deep capacity for nation-building. P
The Obama administration, after helping to orchestrate a U.N.-backed military intervention in Libya, is facing pressure to do more to prepare for the potential collapse of the government in another Mideast country, Yemen — but U.S. officials admit they are doing little more than watching at this point.
. . . . . . .
Yemen is a central ally of the U.S. government against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The group, along with its operational planner, the American Anwar al-Awlaki, the first American on the CIA's kill or capture list, are now considered a greater threat than Usama bin Laden's network in Pakistan. And one U.S. lawmaker suggests that chaos in Yemen could result in a worse terrorist breeding ground than Afghanistan.
But Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ admission in Cairo that the administration had not focused on a future without Yemen's president was startling.
Bahrain-Arab League, Arab League, Yemen, Yemen-Saudi Arabia, Libya, US, France, Coalition Update, Rumania, The Netherlands, Germany (withdraws).
Phi Beta Iota: Don't miss the observation on pan-Arab desire for the nuclear bomb and Arab dictator harmony against the Persian/Iranian/Shi'ites. The observation on untrainable mobs also merits note–dictators (and faux democratic tyrannies) favor stupid uneducated publics–transitioning from dysfunctional top-down leadership to resilient bottom-up democracy requires education and takes time.
