Our Usual Provider has resigned from doing the IPB, due to a work opportunity he has which essentially forbids him to appear on the 'net on anything that dares have a political opinion. Well and good, free speech is free speech, and it can come with costs. Our Usual Provider (He Who Should Not Be Named) needs the job and the true opportunties it offers. There is another, who also prefers to Not Be Named, who has stepped up to read the "other side of the 'net" (sometimes just defined as contrary opinions, not politics) so that we periodically stick a straw through our bubble and peer at The Others. On to linkage...
Two from Juan Cole. First is a tear down of Obama's policy vis WoT. Second is a less than flowery appraisal of 'The Surge.
Two book reviews. The first is a kind of first book for grad level work on warfare. The second is about the dark side of collateral damage.
Heh. She Who Will Not Be Named (la Schlussel) has a bit on the 'spots' on the policy of bringing Iraqis back to the US. Every now and again I like to remind myself of what an "around-the-bender" Ms. Schlussel is. Yes, for every policy enacted there's something that can go wrong, but that doesn't mean we let perfect be the enemy of good enough - and tweak it as we go along. If you wait for perfect, you'll never get past step one. Let's see if she drops in, either with a snarky comment, or to threaten us with a lawsuit, which was her usual mode of visitation, especially over at SWWBO's place. We are working a story about another Iraqi immigrant - one who has not been treated as well as the ones Ms. Schlussel is up in arms about. As for her assertions of it's "not better" in Iraq because of this visa program, well, I guess the Federal Witness Protection Program is another example of failure, too. Discuss
This is something I liked having seen the new Batman which ran with a theme from the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel of 'Would You all please stand up?' Having the small amount of courage to tell a jackalope he's a jackalope and shouldn't cut in line is surprisingly lacking.
The necessary Tom Dispatch. Apparently, counting and releasing enemy KIA means we're evil. Or, we figured out letting the MSM talk about our dead without refering to the number of theirs was a losing informational strategy? naw. Evil.
A back handed compliment to John Bolton vis-a-vis Iran and why there's no airstrikes yet or likely. [The Armorer supports this view, too - that of the unlikelihood of our attacking Iran]
Bill's a better source than these guys on Afghanistan/Pakistan issues, but this is what I've got access to. There may be a problem. Gov't agencies aren't standing up. A militia system has been enacted to keep certain provinces from goig wholly over to the Talibs.
Martin van Creveld. What if we shoot our bolt at Iran.....and miss? What do we do then? I wonder how one could use Yoda's "do or do not there is no try" here. Plus, we need to make up our minds quick.
An interview of Pervez Musharaff where he kinda disses suicide bombers.
A dig at the enviro-scolds. Could it be that their laws will make us more of a police state than any anti-terror one ever will? People want to know! [Armorer's note - there's a reason communists went green (called watermelons) they realized that path led to astounding control over economic activity and social control.]
*Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace. In real life IPB means: “An analytical methodology employed to reduce uncertainties concerning the enemy, environment, and terrain for all types of operations. Intelligence preparation of the battlespace builds an extensive database for each potential area in which a unit may be required to operate. The database is then analyzed in detail to determine the impact of the enemy, environment, and terrain on operations and presents it in graphic form. Intelligence preparation of the battlespace is a continuing process. Also called IPB.”
See Propaganda and Peace Deals: The Taliban’s Information War in Pakistan
Between the ISI, the ethnic Pashtun Taliban sympathizers at all levels of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and the Taliban’s highly successful Psychological Operations, the Paks aren’t much of an ally. But somehow the jingle trucks from Karachi and tankers from Rawalpindi keep getting through. When they stop getting through, there won’t be much reason left to worry about pissing off the Paks.
The nuclear Westphalian nation-state of Pakistan is incapable of exercising sovereignty over the tribal areas. Can they do much about cross-border raids?
Pashtun-speaking ANA Commando Kanaks are capable of cross-border incursions now. An integrated Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force ostensibly under Afghan command could do much to annoy the various Bad Guys in their sanctuaries.Bring back the ASF.
More important is the question of whether provincial elections will be held in the disputed Kirkuk Province, which the Kurds want to annex. That dispute has caused (Kurdish) President Jalal Talabani to veto the enabling legislation [link not linked] for the provincial elections, which may set them back months or indefinitely.
There is also no oil law, essential to allow foreign investment in developing new fields. – Juan Cole
First of all, Kirkuk’s a city – the Province is At-Ta’mim, and Kirkuk was Kurdish before the Ba’ath forcibly relocated most of its inhabitants after the first superfields were found. The Kurds don’t want to annex Kirkuk, the dispute is over representation in Parliament -- the present population is one-third Kurd, one-third Turkman and another third Sunni Iraqi and the Kurds claim they’ve been undercounted in the census. They also fear that they’ll be outvoted in the Kirkuk municipal council by an ad-hoc alliance between the Turkmans and the Iraqis.
Iraq has had a new oil law since March – which replaced the *old* oil law -- and the Kurds are upset with that, too, because it nullifies the existing contracts the Kurds negotiated with foreign investors under the previous law.
Come on, you know ELF laws will be just like Sharia. There's no question of that.