Month: June 2010

An interesting result from the latest WSJ poll:

Q36 As you may know, Israeli troops recently intercepted some ships carrying supplies to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and nine people on board one of the supply ships were killed by Israeli soldiers. Which of the following statements comes closer to your point of view on this situation? If you don’t know enough about the situation to have an opinion, just say so. (ROTATE STATEMENTS)

Statement A: Israel was defending its interests in Gaza and their military actions were justified.

Statement B: Israel went too far and their military actions were NOT justified. 6/10**

Statement A: Defending interests/military actions were justified ………….. 34

Statement B: Too far/military actions were NOT justified ……………………. 29

Don’t know enough ………………………………………………………………………. 32

A little of both (VOL) ……………………………………………………………………. 1

Not sure ……………………………………………………………………………………. 4

So the American public is basically divided three ways. How many ways do you think the US Congress is divided? Like you need to ask. And it's worth noting that the American public can come to this kind of judgment while, in the same poll, overwhelmingly supporting Israel rather than its Arab neighbors by 6 – 1.

Know hope – Gandalf is on our side:

Reihan suggests that “everyone with an interest in national security policy should keep a close eye on what happens if and when Defense Secretary Gates retires.” Reihan feels that if “Clinton gains influence, it likely means that even with McChrystal himself gone, McChrystalism will be here to stay”:

The fact that Clinton was given such a prominent role in the Obama cabinet suggested that the president was interested in vigorous debate within his cabinet. So far, despite dissatisfaction from hawkish conservatives, one gets the strong impression that the hawkish faction within the administration has been winning argument after argument. During the debate over the surge in Afghanistan, Clinton and Gates saw eye to eye, effectively marginalizing Biden and others who argued for a more limited approach. There are even rumors, in the Michael Hastings Rolling Stone article that set off this extraordinary tumult and elsewhere, that Clinton is interested in serving as Gates’s successor at the Pentagon, a role that would represent a dramatic boost in power and influence.

How fat guys can improve their looks; and how hot chicks really like furry faces – and sing about them.

Ambers examines the attitudes of elite soldiers, including McChrystal, toward openly homosexual comrades.

Joe Klein divulges the worst kept secret in Washington:

It seems obvious that Obama is going to have to be less coy with the public about what is really going to happen in July 2011, even if that risks alienating his party's vestigial antiwar base. He is going to have to make it clear that "significant" troop withdrawals — a word bandied about in recent weeks — are not in the cards unless the situation on the ground changes dramatically, for good or ill. And Petraeus is going to have to reconsider whether the crown jewel in his tiara — the counterinsurgency doctrine — is really feasible in Afghanistan and what strategic modifications will have to be made in order to leave the place in the most stable, humane fashion. 

Coy? He wasn't coy. He pledged that withdrawals would start then and used the phrase exit ramps. Joe seems bullish on the new leadership but it merely convinces me that Petraeus' grip on military policy is now complete. The trouble is that his signature contribution – counter-insurgency – is not working in Afghanistan, because it lacks basic components – like a foreign Jihadist interloper, concentrated populations capable of being adequately policed, a credible central government, and an open-ended amount of time.

So my view is that this has made things far worse, that we are trapped there for ever, that Obama simply has not had the balls to get the hell out, and that the military brass – far from being brought to heel by Obama – now has the president by the balls for the war they want. That the brass is the thoughtful, Democratic-style, Petraeus version of neo-imperialism makes it actually more lethal for any chance of returning to limits in US foreign policy.

This is the entrenchment of late Bush, not the change we were promised. The Af-Pak occupation is Washington's latest war-machine, like the war on poverty, the war on drugs and the war on terror. It's a government program that cannot be stopped, cut or removed. It is now a permanent feature of the American state.

Warming Glow reads the latest ratings for NBC:

In plain English, that means that no matter how you measure it, Jay Leno is performing worse as the host of “The Tonight Show” than Conan O’Brien did. And Leno doesn’t even have the disadvantage of having Leno as a lead-in. Although I wouldn’t put that idea past NBC.

Meanwhile, Conan the Comedian is enjoying life on the road.

(Image via Laughing Squid)

Surprise!

Fred Kaplan's article on the McChrystal dust-up is worth reading. He encourages Obama to also can both the U.S. ambassador, Gen. Karl Eikenberry, and Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. A taste:

Petraeus…gains enormous leverage, should he decide to use it. A year ago, Obama, at the urging of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, relieved Gen. David McKiernan of command in Afghanistan in order to hire Gen. McChrystal, who seemed more suitable for the new strategy. Obama would find it extremely difficult to fire Petraeus, who is much more of a household name, a year hence, even if he had good reason to do so.

That's Ricks' view too.

A reader writes:

My brother does a fair amount of work in the game industry.  For a military style game, they hired a former Delta Force soldier, for technical advice, who sat down with my brother at a bar and showed him private snapshots taken during operations in the field.  The idea of looking at the photos was to create the most realistic, current look of our most elite soldiers.  My brother noticed the weapons of course, but then looking closer at the photos he saw a good many of them were wearing t-shirts.  He asked, “Do those t-shirts say “Team America?” 

The Delta Force soldier said nothing.  He did, however, wear a shit-eating grin.