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Romney’s Living in a Fantasy Land by Christopher Dickey, thedailybeast.com | October 10, 2012
When Mitt Romney gave his defining speech on foreign policy Monday, he showed he had a magnificent sense of history’s drama and almost no clue about its realities. But maybe that’s what passes for vision these days: using a simulacrum of the past to cobble together a fantasy about the present and the future. The most striking and heartfelt theme, threaded all the way through the address in various guises, was a passionate longing for what are remembered as the glory days of the Cold War. Ah, for the days when the world was divided into good guys and bad guys, and we were not only good, we were great! And the bad guys lost and … well, never mind what happened after that. read more »Overwrought Empire: The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power by Tom Engelhardt, tomdispatch.com | October 10, 2012
Americans lived in a “victory culture” for much of the twentieth century. You could say that we experienced an almost 75-year stretch of triumphalism -- think of it as the real “American Century” -- from World War I to the end of the Cold War, with time off for a destructive stalemate in Korea and a defeat in Vietnam too shocking to absorb or shake off. When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, it all seemed so obvious. Fate had clearly dealt Washington a royal flush. It was victory with a capital V. The United States was, after all, the last standing superpower, after centuries of unceasing great power rivalries on the planet. Within a decade, pundits in Washington were hailing us as “the dominant power in the world, more dominant than any since Rome.” And here’s the odd thing: in a sense, little has changed since then and yet everything seems different. read more »Romney’s Incoherent Foreign Policy by William Boardman, consortiumnews.com | October 10, 2012
The big takeaway from Mitt Romney’s big foreign policy speech on Oct. 8 is that there’s no big takeaway. The Republican presidential candidate’s foreign policy speech does not lay out any coherent foreign policy. Amidst the platitudes and vague generalities, the implied bellicosity and patriotic sentimentalities, there’s no sense of proportion, no sense of scale, little indication of priorities, and no bright, quotable line that crystallizes the candidate’s Romney Doctrine beyond a “vision for a freer, more prosperous, and more peaceful world.” read more »Mitt Romney’s Most Dishonest Speech by Fred Kaplan, slate.com | October 9, 2012
Mitt Romney has delivered a lot of dishonest speeches in recent months, but Monday’s address on foreign policy may be the most mendacious yet. It was expected that he would distort President Obama into a caricature of Jimmy Carter. But it was astonishing to watch Romney spin a daydream of himself as some latter-day George Marshall, bringing peace, prosperity, and hope to a chaotic world—this from a man who couldn’t drop in on the London Olympics without alienating our closest ally and turning himself into a transcontinental laughingstock. To the extent that Romney recited valid criticisms of Obama’s policies, he offered no alternatives. To the extent he spelled out specific steps he would take to deal with one problem or another, he merely recited actions that Obama has already taken. read more »The Truth About Attacks on Our Diplomats by Adam Serwer, Mother Jones | October 3, 2012
To hear Republicans explain it, the protests at US embassies around the world and the attack on a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead are a result of the Obama administration "projecting weakness." As the details behind the Benghazi attack come to light, it's becoming increasingly clear that the White House's initial assessment of the attack as spontaneous rather than preplanned was inaccurate. But behind the comparisons to Jimmy Carter and the references to "peace through strength" is a dubious policy critique: not just that Obama is Carter and Romney is Reagan, but that somehow sufficient man-musk from an American president can dissuade any potential terrorist from laying his finger on an American diplomat. read more »The Foreign Policy Divide by Roger Cohen, The New York Times | October 2, 2012
An election that was supposed to be about domestic policy but has produced little clarity in that regard (perhaps the debates will help) has demonstrated a stark divide on foreign policy. In the vision of President Barack Obama, America is now in the status-management business: being realistic about its power the better to exercise and preserve it. As for Mitt Romney, he belongs to Putin’s school of foreign policy. The status quo he believes in is that of three decades ago. In this regard he is a closet Russian even as he denounces Moscow. And so, for Romney, Russia is “without question our number one geopolitical foe,” just like during the Cold War. He is “guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion: this century must be an American century,” like the century that saw the Cold War. Romney’s vision is pure nostalgia. It imagines a world that is gone. read more »Former US Army Colonel Ann Wright leads US Anti-Drone delegation by Common Dreams staff , commondreams.org | October 2, 2012
Anti-drone protesters from across Pakistan and around the world are gathering in Islamabad this week in preparation for a weekend march into the tribal areas of South Waziristan. Ignoring a travel warning issued by the U.S. State Department for Pakistan, a delegation of 30 US activists and parents of U.S. Army soldiers has arrived in Islamabad, where they plan to join the October 6 and 7th march and rally. read more »Foreign Policy Is Hard by Paul Waldman, prospect.org | October 2, 2012
In today's Wall Street Journal, Mitt Romney takes to the op-ed page to offer his vision for a new American policy in the Middle East. Apparently, the tragic recent events in Benghazi have convinced Romney and his advisors that something is going on over there, and though they aren't sure exactly what, it's definitely something, and therefore Romney ought to come and say something about it, to show everyone how wrong Barack Obama is. If you thought Romney was being vague about his domestic policy, that's nothing compared to what he has to say about foreign policy. read more »The Burden of Pentagon Spending by Melvin A. Goodman, consortiumnews.com | October 1, 2012
Over the past decade, the United States has engaged in the most significant increase in defense spending since the Korean War. Trillions of dollars have been allocated for the Pentagon, with little congressional monitoring or internal oversight. The defense budget for 2012 exceeds $600 billion, nearly equaling the combined defense spending of the rest of world. Every U.S. taxpayer spends twice as much for the cost of national defense as each British citizen; five times as much as each German; and six times as much as each Japanese. Recent U.S. military expenditures include more than $2.5 trillion to wage unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have failed to enhance American security. The current economic crisis and tepid economic recovery during President Barack Obama’s first term have created the imperative to reduce defense spending and the size of the U.S. military. read more »GOP’s October Surprise? by Craig Unger, salon.com | October 1, 2012
According to a highly reliable source, as Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama prepare for the first presidential debate Wednesday night, top Republican operatives are primed to unleash a new two-pronged offensive that will attack Obama as weak on national security, and will be based, in part, on new intelligence information regarding the attacks in Libya that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens on September 11. The source, who has first-hand knowledge of private, high-level conversations in the Romney camp that took place in Washington, DC last week, said that at various times the GOP strategists referred to their new operation as the Jimmy Carter Strategy or the October Surprise. He added that they planned to release what they hoped would be “a bombshell” that would make Libya and Obama’s foreign policy a major issue in the campaign. read more »
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U.S. To Set Cyber Security Plan, BBC News | May 29, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama is to set out plans for securing American computer networks against cyber attacks. In a speech that follows a 60-day review, Mr Obama is expected to announce the creation of a cyber security office in the White House. Both US government and military bodies have reported repeated interference from hackers in recent years. more »
FBI Planning Bigger Role In Terrorism Fight, Los Angeles Times | May 28, 2009
The FBI and Justice Department plan to significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA-dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one built around transparent investigations and prosecutions. FBI agents will have a central role in overseas counter-terrorism cases. more »
White House Merging National and Homeland Security , Associated Press | May 27, 2009
President Barack Obama announced he is combining White House staffs dealing with international and homeland security, predicting the change will make Americans safer. Obama also is creating a new office intended to communicate more effectively with other countries about U.S. security policy. The Homeland Security Council, created after the Sept. more »
Rampage Hints at Stress of Repeated Deployments, Christian Science Monitor | May 13, 2009
Military police charged Sgt. John Russell, a soldier on a 15-month tour to Iraq – his third deployment to the country – with murder in the shooting deaths of five soldiers at an American base. In an interview Russell's father said his son was facing financial difficulty and feared he was about to be discharged from the Army. more »
Gates Ousts U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, Christian Science Monitor | May 12, 2009
Defense Secretary Robert Gates abruptly removed the top US commander from Afghanistan Monday, replacing him with a general whose background in special operations may signal a desire to further refine the military strategy there. Gates's nominee, Lt. Gen. more »
U.S. Faces Iraq-Like Spending Problems in Afghanistan, Christian Science Monitor | May 4, 2009
The U.S. government is pouring vast amounts of new resources into Afghanistan for security and reconstruction projects. But it's running the risk of repeating some of the same mistakes it made in Iraq where government auditors have said it wasted billions of dollars. The U.S. more »
Anatomy: Robbing Taxpayers, The Wall Street Journal | April 23, 2009
This is how its done, loading up the taxpayer with losses and creating a revenue stream for the banks for ever into the future, your government, the Fed.
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Homeland Security Chief Defends Report , USA Today | April 17, 2009
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano dismissed criticism of her agency's intelligence assessments and defended a recent report that says some military veterans could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or lone acts of violence. more »
Obama Administration quietly expands Bush's legal defense of wiretapping, rawstory.com | April 14, 2009
In a stunning defense of President George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, President Barack Obama has broadened the government's legal argument for immunizing his Administration and government agencies from lawsuits surrounding the National Security Agency's eavesdropping efforts.
Who is Obama?
U.S. Creates Local Militias To Fight Taliban, Christian Science Monitor | April 13, 2009
Officials Afghanistan turned to an ambitious new American-backed program to train, uniform, and arm locals against the Taliban following the success of a similar plan in Iraq. Under the plan, members of each district shura (council) in Wardak nominate locals for the force who are then trained for three weeks by Afghans (with the involvement of American advisers). more »
