Review: We Meant Well – How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People

Peter Van Buren  5.0 out of 5 stars Six Stars & Beyond–Open Heart Surgury on a Corrupt Ignorant Government,September 29, 2011 FINAL REVIEW The author himself begins the book with a reference to Dispatches (Everyman’s Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) followed by Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition, to which I would add A Rumor of War. …

G.I. Wilson: Killer Drones, Moral Disengagement, + War Crimes RECAP

The Psychology of Killer Drones – action against our foes; reaction affecting us G. I. Wilson Fabius Maximus, 28 September 2011 Summary:  We now have enough experience with drone warfare to study its effects.  Just as in physics, our actions affect ourselves as well as our targets. Social science research shows that drones are a gateway to moral disengagement dehumanization, …

Review: Lines of Fire – A Renegade Writes on Strategy, Intelligence, and Security

Ralph Peters 5.0 out of 5 stars Six Star Epilogue, the Capstone Work, September 26, 2011 I have been a fan of Ralph Peters for over fifteen years now, going back to the early 1990’s when the US Marine Corps was trying to get the Secretary of Defense (then Dick Cheney) to focus on most …

John Robb: China’s Growing Spy Threat + China RECAP

China’s Growing Spy Threat Alex Newman The Diplomat, 19 September 2011 The Chinese government’s ‘vacuum cleaner’ approach to espionage is worrying foreign governments, companies and overseas dissidents. They’re right to be concerned. Read 5 screen article. Phi Beta Iota:  China graduates more honors students from high school than the USA graduates from high school across …

Cynthia McKinney: The Truth on Libya–Another War of Lies

LIBYA AND THE BIG LIE: USING HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS TO LAUNCH WARS Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya The war against Libya is built on fraud. The United Nations Security Council passed two resolutions against Libya on the basis of unproven claims, specifically that Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was killing his own people in Benghazi. The claim in its …

Review: Top Secret America – The Rise of the New American Security State

Dana Priest and William M. Arkin 5.0 out of 5 stars 6 Stars–A Nation-Changing Public Mind Opener of a Book,September 2, 2011 I generally take a very jaundiced view of books that emerge from Washington Post columns I have already read, but this book surprised, engages, and out-performs the columns by such a leap that …