Posted on

CENTCOM Week in Review Ending 1 October 2009

Uncategorized
0Shares

Hot Topics

AA: Fighting for a common cause 09/28/09

AA:  Israel to Free 20 For Video of Soldier 10/01/09

AF: Afghanistan's people have advice for U.S. 10/01/09

IQ:  U.S. Drone Strikes Office of Sunni Party in Iraq's North 09/26/09

IR:  US officials: Digging, clues revealed Iranian site 09/28/09

KG: Kyrgyz Activists Alarmed By Call For Death Penalty, Public Executions 09/25/09

KG: Kyrgyzstan: Bakyt Beshimov does not recognize the legitimacy of … 09/29/09

LB: Hezbollah Prepared to Hold the US Hostage 09/25/09

PK:  In Pakistan's Swat valley, volunteers form anti-Taliban militias 09/30/09

PK:  Video Showing Mehsud's Dead Body Surfaces 09/30/09

SA: Extremists in Saudi Arabia Set Fire to Culture Club to Prevent … 09/30/09

SA:  Qaeda roping in women 10/01/09

YE:  Former Gitmo detainee killed in shootout 09/30/09

Below the Fold: Instability, Special Operations, Security Forces, Foreign Affairs, Crime

Continue reading “CENTCOM Week in Review Ending 1 October 2009”

Posted on

Journal: The Demise of Strategy in the US Government

Strategy
0Shares
Capstone Summary
Capstone Summary

Quite fortuitously, the Strategic Studies Institute has placed in the public domain a superb monograph by Justic Kelly and Mike Brennan on ALIEN: How Operational Art Devoured Strategy (september 2009).

It is a very good read, along with our summary of the failed 2008 Whole of Government conference that SSI sponsored, which followed the failed 1998 Strategy Revision conference–failed for not being heard.

We were all right then, we are still right now, but unless General James Jones, USMC gets himself a deputy that is grounded in strategy & integrity, this Administration is toast, in part because there is NO DIFFERENCE among the apparatchiks that trade places within the two-party system.  They ae ALL out of touch with strategy, and hence reality.

Continue reading “Journal: The Demise of Strategy in the US Government”

Posted on

Journal: State of the Administration

Government
0Shares

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

Some Signs of the Times

by Victor Davis Hanson

Pajamas Media,October 1, 2009

How to distill the news? After watching it far too much the past nine months, I offer five random conclusions from what I think is going on in the age of Obama.

1. Disconnect
2. Abroad
3. Top and bottom
4. Getting Along
5. The Mother Polis

This is a “must read” that also includes an “Ironies Corner” worthy of reflection.

Posted on

Journal: Marijuana, Common Sense, and Prisons

07 Health, 09 Justice
0Shares

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection

By Marc Kaufman,Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 26, 2006

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.

. . . . . . .

While no association between marijuana smoking and cancer was found, the study findings, presented to the American Thoracic Society International Conference this week, did find a 20-fold increase in lung cancer among people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.

Continue reading “Journal: Marijuana, Common Sense, and Prisons”

Posted on

Journal: Systems Design & “Reverse Innovation”

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Key Players, Policies, Threats
0Shares
Zuckerman vs Bloomberg
Zuckerman vs Bloomberg

We are fascinated to see Mort Zuckerman bidding against Bloomberg the company for Business Week.  He spoke to OSS '96 to great effect, and with Paul Strassmann has been one of our most dynamic speakers “jacked in” to the real world with real world bottom-line seriousness.

We admire all parties concerned, along with TIME Magazine and Forbes, and we dare to hope that whoever wins, they might try Systems Design & “Reverse Innovation,” two elements of this week's Business Week as issued in Europe.

Continue reading “Journal: Systems Design & “Reverse Innovation””

Posted on

Journal: China 8, USA 0

02 China, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Media Reports, Policies, Threats, Topics (All Other), Worth A Look
0Shares
Full Op-Ed Online
Full Op-Ed Online
Phi Beta Iota: First, tip of the hat to the  New York Times for open persistent URLs.   Bravo! We strongly recommend a reading of the entire piece at the NYT website. Shame on the USA for not living up to the Founding Father's aspirations for a wise government and an engaged public.  No one now working for the White House can recite the ten high-level threats, the twelve core policies that must be harmonized, or the eight demographic challengers–including China–who we should be helping devise the World Brain with embedded EarthGame.  US voters are slow to anger, but that anger will rise in 2010 and crest in 2012.
Op-Ed Contributor:  Eight Idas Behind China's Success

By ZHANG WEI-WEI, Published: September 30, 2009

EXTRACT:  Critics of China like to claim that despite its economic success, the country has no “big ideas” to offer. But to this author, it is precisely big ideas that have shaped China’s dramatic rise. Here are eight such ideas:

1. Seeking truth from facts.

Continue reading “Journal: China 8, USA 0”