Category: 10 Security

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Journal: 2005 Seminal Work Ignored to This Day…

03 Economy, 05 Energy, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, 12 Water, Academia, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Research resources, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
Book Page

DefDog Recommends...

Authors:
By Members of the 2005 “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” Committee; Prepared for the Presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine
Authoring Organizations

Description:

In the face of so many daunting near-term challenges, U.S. government and industry are letting the crucial strategic issues of U.S. competitiveness slip below the surface. Five years ago, the National Academies prepared Rising Above the Gathering Storm, a book …
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Reviews:

“Five years ago, these authors provided foresight. Now, their vision answers a national imperative.”

– American Chemical Society President Joseph S. Francisco, Ph.D.

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Phi Beta Iota: This book was ignored by successive Administrations of both of the “top two” parties, just as Peak Oil, Peak Water, and Infectious Disease warnings were ignored by previous Administrations in the 1970's.  The title of the OSS conference, “National Security & National Competitiveness: Open Source Solutions,” sought to communicate both the objective and the method.    The US Government is uninformed and nearly comatose with respect to anything remotely associated with strategic objectives and intelligence-driven policy.

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Journal: Terminator to Feds–“Can You Spell Nullify?”

10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Government
State Rights Emergent

Marijuana in California: Prop. 19 won't stop federal drug enforcement

Even if voters pass Proposition 19 on Nov. 2, which would legalize use of marijuana in California, the Justice Department will continue to enforce federal drug laws there, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday.

Read full story….

Phi Beta Iota:  States have the right to secede from the Union–they also have the right to nullify federal regulations within the state.  Over in Virginia, suit has been filed against the mandatory purchase of health insurance.  What we are seeing is the coming end to both the Federal Reserve and the Federal Empire.  The federal government is supposed to be a service of common concern to the United STATES of America, but over time, the “top two” parties have conspired to exclude the other 63 parties and their members from both politics and governance, and to exclude the Governors and state from governance.   The world is changing.  The spectacle of an Attorney General who is obviously loosely-educated and has no clue that he is a servant of the people, not their master, more or less sums up the state of the federal government…..dead in the water and sinking fast.  IOHO.

ALERT READER observes:

Thanks, also a note to your posting on States rights….look what is happening in the foreclosure world, 49 States are now looking into the legal issues while the feds say there is nothing wrong….

See Also:

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Leadership for Epoch B

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Self-Determination & Secession

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Diversity of Voices & Values (USA)

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Disinformation, Other Information Pathologies, & Repression

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Empire as Cancer Including Betrayal & Deceit

Worth a Look: Impeachable Offenses, Modern & Historic

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Institutionalized Ineptitude

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Worth a Look: Between Threats and War

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Military & Pentagon Power, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Terrorism & Jihad, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), Worth A Look
Berto Jongman Recommends...

When confronted with a persistent foreign policy problem that threatens U.S. interests, and that cannot be adequately addressed through economic or political pressure, American policymakers and opinion formers have increasingly resorted to recommending the use of limited military force: that is, enough force to attempt to resolve the problem while minimizing U.S. military deaths, local civilian casualties, and collateral damage.

These recommendations have ranged from the bizarre—such as a Predator missile strike to kill Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, or the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez—to the unwise—the preemptive bombing of North Korean ballistic missile sites—to the demonstrably practical—air raids into Bosnia and Somalia, and drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.

Amazon Page

However, even though they have been a regular feature of America's uses of military force through four successive administrations, the efficacy of these “Discrete Military Operations” (DMOs) remains largely unanalyzed, leaving unanswered the important question of whether or not they have succeeded in achieving their intended military and political objectives.

In response, Micah Zenko examines the thirty-six DMOs undertaken by the US over the past 20 years, in order to discern why they were used, if they achieved their objectives, and what determined their success or failure. In the process, he both evaluates U.S. policy choices and recommends ways in which limited military force can be better used in the future. The insights and recommendations made by Zenko will be increasingly relevant to making decisions and predictions about the development of American grand strategy and future military policy.

Phi Beta Iota: An extraordinary flaw in the discussion around this book is the assumption that the US resorts to such actions because diplomatic and economic means will not suffice.  The reality is that the US “way of war” has nothing to do with strategic analytics, whole of government competency (non-existent), moral contexts, or public interest objectives.  We do these  things for the same reason Bill Clinton let an intern cost the US taxpayer $50 million–“because we can.”  We can also put a bullet in our head, that does not mean we should–but it is the virtual outcome of what Washington is doing now.

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Journal: China the Adult, US Barely Out of Diapers

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Peace Intelligence

China-US-Vietnam: Defense Minister Liang Guanglie held talks with US Defense Secretary Gates in Hanoi on Monday on the sidelines of the 1st ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) on bilateral military ties.

Defense Minister Liang invited Gates to visit China early next year, a Chinese official said. Gates accepted the invitation, according to the deputy head of external relations in the Chinese Defense Ministry.

The meeting in which the Chinese made the offer is the first meeting between the two senior defense officials in a year.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The Chinese characterization of US ties bears attention. Liang said Sino-U.S. relations have maintained momentum of stable development in recent years as China and the United States have agreed to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st century. China-U.S. relations are of increasing global influence, he added.

Liang said military relations constitute an important part of bilateral ties. Currently, the two countries are facing some obstacles in developing military relations, with the U.S. arm sales to Taiwan being the main reason.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: This part of Liang's remarks glosses over the brittleness of the “obstacles” involving Taiwan. The opening part of the comment minimizes the extent of US concern about China's lack of opacity and unwillingness to cooperate. The Chinese definition of a “positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship” does not match the US definition. In the US definition, a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship does not yet exist. To try to develop such a relationship is the reason for Gates' persistence in soliciting an invitation.

NIGHTWATCH Comment on perception management: The US media has made clear that the US is the supplicant seeking a Chinese invitation for the US Secretary, after several Chinese rejections, most sensationally in Singapore by a low ranking Chinese general. Ties were set back by a US decision to sell Taiwan $6.4 billion in defensive arms, to which the Chinese objected strongly and froze defense contacts.

The imagery in Asia is that the rulers of the Central Kingdom finally granted the request for an audience from a recalcitrant supplicant because of his persistence. This is a scenario out of Chinese folklore. The folklore imagery and analogy suggest the Secretary should expect little because he is a player in a modern version of an old folk tale whose primary purpose was to showcase the superiority of the Central KIngdom.

The US is prone to interpret an invitation as a small political breakthrough. That might be an exaggeration. The Chinese are more likely to interpret it as their politicial victory that requires kneeling, head knockings (the imperial kowtow ritual was 3 kneelings and nine knocking of the head) and gifts.

Regarding Southeast Asia, Defense Minister Liang played to the audience and was his most unctuous. His purpose was to reassure China's Southeast Asian neighbors about China' s peaceful intentions. A quick look at Chinese territorial sea claims in the South China Sea puts the lie to China's peaceful intentions, but the Southeast Asian memory of resisting Chinese hegemony is long and fresh.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota: China is a perfect and worthy counter-part for thinking about Whole of Government and 21st Century Leadership, both of which escape the US Government and its two-party political monopoly.  Strategic analytics is not something that CIA is capable of, nor is it something that the White House or Congress “compute” as essential to their still-imperial view of hegemony by right and ideological fantasy.  Beyond Chna lie Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and Wild Cards such as Turkey.  The incapacity of the US Government to get its act together is brutally obvious and viscerally troubling.

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Worth a Look: Hugely Inflamatory Slam on US Muslim Tax-Deductible Fund-Raising for Hamas and Hezbollah

08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Civil Society, Non-Governmental
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Ladies and Gentlemen:
1.  Invite your attention the video at the YouTube link in the message below.
2.  Just to be clear:
a.  I cannot tell you precisely who made the video.
b.  I cannot tell definitively whether or not it is true in whole or in part..
c.  To me, it looks like it ((COULD)) be a product of selective editing with individual items extracted from multiple source and reassembled, without context, to suggest conclusions supporting somebody's predetermined viewpoint.  But that does not necessarily mean that it is not wholly or partially true.
d.  Invite your special attention to the credits at the very end — about 13:06 and beyond.  If Steven Emerson and the Investigativer Project are involved with this video, that would increase its credibility in my eyes.
e.  All foregoing said, I am inclined to believe video and message are more true than not.
3.  For some of you addees, I think this is relatively local for if I understand east Florida geography.

Busted – Orlando Mosque Finances Hamas Fundraiser

Phi Beta Iota: The above YouTube is just under 14 minutes and well-worth watching.  We offer several observations:

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Hugely Inflamatory Slam on US Muslim Tax-Deductible Fund-Raising for Hamas and Hezbollah”

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Reference: Peace versus War–Competing Visions

10 Security, DoD, YouTube

Go In Peace: An Essay on the War on Terror

Full Post Online
Can you see peace? What does it look like? Can you see a time when we do not send our young people in harm’s way?

The challenge for us is to build a vision of peace. This will require courage to be introspective, to look deeply within ourselves and to ask difficult questions, to strip away the rhetoric and the hate.

Tip of the Hat to  John Marke LinkedIn.

U.S. GOV can kill ANYONE including YOU without trial COVERTLY !! YouTube featuring Ron Paul at the end, raises core issues.  Should be watched with 1961 speech Eisenhower Warns us of New World Order (also YouTube)

Tip of the Hat to  Mario Profaca at Facebook.

Phi Beta Iota: At the end of President Eisenhower's speech, he emphasizes the role of an informed engaged citizenry in assuring the balance of values and power in government.

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Journal: US Terrorism Outside, CEO High Crimes Inside

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Commerce, Corruption, Military
Chuck Spinney Recommends
Many Americans view their country and its soldiers as the “good guys” spreading “democracy” and “liberty” around the world. It just ain't so.

October 8, 2010

Peter Dale Scott, Robert Parry / Consortium News

Alter.Net Editor's Note: Many Americans view their country and its soldiers as the “good guys” spreading “democracy” and “liberty” around the world. When the United States inflicts unnecessary death and destruction, it's viewed as a mistake or an aberration.

In the following article Peter Dale Scott and Robert Parry examine the long history of these acts of brutality, a record that suggests they are neither a “mistake” nor an “aberration” but rather conscious counterinsurgency doctrine on the “dark side.”

The Great Transformation

America's Third World Economy

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Counterpunch

For a number of years I reported on the monthly nonfarm payroll jobs data. The data did not support the praises economists were singing to the “New Economy.” The “New Economy” consisted, allegedly, of financial services, innovation, and high-tech services.

This economy was taking the place of the old “dirty fingernail” economy of industry and manufacturing. Education would retrain the workforce, and we would move on to a higher level of prosperity.

Time after time I reported that there was no sign of the “New Economy” jobs, but that the old economy jobs were disappearing. The only net new jobs were in lowly paid domestic services such as waitresses and bartenders, retail clerks, health care and social assistance (mainly ambulatory health care services), and, before the bubble burst, construction.

The facts, issued monthly by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, had no impact on the ”New Economy” propaganda. Economists continued to wax eloquently about how globalism was a boon for our future.

. . . . . .

The wage and salary cost savings obtained by giving Americans’ jobs to Chinese and Indians have enriched corporate CEOs, shareholders, and Wall Street at the expense of the middle class and America’s consumer economy.

Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.  His latest book, HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press.

Full Story Online

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