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By Weldon Berger, on August 25th, 2011
Barack Obama has two huge disadvantages going into the 2012 election: The economy and the economy. He also has two huge advantages: The Republicans and the Republicans. Despite the administration’s addiction to neoliberal crack, economic conditions could, possibly, in a perfect world, by accident, improve before the election; the Republicans can’t, and they’re what’s driving the Obama fundraising machine so far.
Make that three advantages: Few of his potential supporters seem to care much about his militarism—imagine the infuriated cries of liberals had George Bush been the president who decided to exclude the (no doubt furiously protested) bombing of Libya, and hence future air campaigns against whichever states are pissing him off, from Congressional oversight the way Obama did—or his national security excesses, or his refusal to prosecute even publicly confessed war criminals, or that he claims the right to execute Americans without due process. Turns out Democrats aren’t much different than Republicans when it comes to forgiving the hypocrisies and sins of their own. So all is well on that front.
Continue reading Time, God and a billion in the bank: Why Obama’s prospects aren’t so bad
By Weldon Berger, on July 19th, 2011
“Afghanistan and other troubled lands today cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in jodhpurs and pith helmets.”
– Max Boot
Max Boot is my favorite neoconservative. He is completely unfamiliar with the concept of shame and like the rest of his clan he won’t ever flinch when it comes time to put somebody else’s life on the line. Anyone whose conscience survives initiation into that club soon gets voted out.
Where Max really shines is as a polemicist. He’s a good writer. He can turn a juicy phrase like few others. That one above, his juiciest ever—and I know writers, I know he looked at it and thought to himself, “damn, I am good …”—went into a piece he wrote for the Weekly Standard not long after September 11.
Continue reading What Max Boot learned about Libya from Afghanistan and Iraq
By Weldon Berger, on March 27th, 2011
For the third straight war in a row, the United States has avoided killing a single civilian during massive US bombing raids and missile strikes.
Oh, wait: US authorities appear to be hedging a bit. “The truth of the matter is we have trouble coming up with proof of any civilian casualties that . . . → Read More: Immaculate destruction: Barack Obama’s miracle bombs
By Weldon Berger, on September 12th, 2010
Al Qaeda hasn’t killed all that many Americans during the past 10 years or so—leaving that work mostly to those who resist the US in the countries we invaded and occupied and are otherwise bedeviling—and most of them have been military or intelligence targets. Americans haven’t killed all that many al Qaeda people during . . . → Read More: The dead civilian contest continues: US outscores Al Qaeda 100:1
By Weldon Berger, on July 27th, 2010
A joint Pentagon/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency satellite system is so far behind schedule that the government’s capacity to track and research weather and climate may be diminished rather than improved.
In the 8 years since a contract was awarded, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)—a tri-agency program managed by the . . . → Read More: Things I learned from the government today
By zinya, on August 18th, 2007
A recent article in slate by Columbia economics professor Ray Fisman, drawing on a forthcoming paper in American Economic Review ["Diamonds Are Forever, Wars Are Not. Is Conflict Bad for Private Firms?"] by fellow economists Massimo Guidolin and Eliana La Ferrara, takes the answer to their question [i.e., no, not necessarily, and sometimes it is quite good for them] as a given and — in describing the relationship between the end of Angola’s civil war (1975-2002) and the fate of its diamond industry [no. 2 export after petroleum] — pushes the question one step further: “Why was war good for Angola’s big miners?” * The article’s concluding graphs are:
In the oil rush that has seized much of the African continent in recent years, we may be witnessing another instance of disconnect between economic prosperity and certain business profits. Western oil companies, whether inhibited by ethics or constrained by law, have shied away from working with unsavory and corrupt African dictators. But such qualms haven’t stopped the China National Petroleum Company from drilling in countries like Chad, as the New York Times reported earlier this week. As long as Chad’s government remains a global pariah, the Chinese will face little competition.
The situation means that CNPC, like Angola’s wartime diamond miners, has no incentive to work for peace. Quite the opposite. There is a tragic mismatch between the social imperative to end war and the business imperatives of incumbent firms to maintain their entry barriers. La Ferrara and Guidolin don’t have data about whether Angolan miners helped to prolong the conflict. But it appears it would have been in their shareholders’ interests to do so. The fear is that companies with a taste for operating in war zones, or collaborating with corrupt governments, may be willing to do what it takes to keep things as they are. Because that’s what’s good for profits.
This unproven but provocative and, alas, ‘logical’ hypothesis drawn by Fisman reverberates:
Continue reading An Angolan parallel in Iraq?
By Weldon Berger, on September 25th, 2006
Iraq, with an impotent central government propped up by US troops and sectarian militias, is in practical terms a failed state. Afghanistan is in deep trouble. Pakistan’s dictator president is publishing a memoir aimed at burnishing his anti-US credentials. Hezbullah is sitting pretty in Lebanon. Gaza is in ruins. Iran is daily gaining clout in the Middle East. The CIA says US foreign policy, in particular the elements of it creating large numbers of dead people, is manufacturing terrorists faster than we can capture or kill them. So what to do?
One of the answers appears to be “On to Africa.” An August 31 Reuters story referenced a “Combating and Preventing Terrorism in Africa” conference in connection with which Pentagon officials said they were considering establishing a unified Africa command. More recent stories confirm that the idea is close to becoming a done, if evolving, deal.
From a military standpoint, a unified Africa command makes sense. It’s a big continent with a lot of oil and several potential, if not actual, safe havens for terrorist organizations, and no US administration will want to be caught flat-footed on either issue in the region: if the Bush administration doesn’t establish an Africa command, the next administration, Republican or Democrat, will.
Continue reading Things not working out in the Middle East? On to Africa …
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Word of the Decade Ignoranus: An ignorant asshole.
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An Angolan parallel in Iraq?
A recent article in slate by Columbia economics professor Ray Fisman, drawing on a forthcoming paper in American Economic Review ["Diamonds Are Forever, Wars Are Not. Is Conflict Bad for Private Firms?"] by fellow economists Massimo Guidolin and Eliana La Ferrara, takes the answer to their question [i.e., no, not necessarily, and sometimes it is quite good for them] as a given and — in describing the relationship between the end of Angola’s civil war (1975-2002) and the fate of its diamond industry [no. 2 export after petroleum] — pushes the question one step further: “Why was war good for Angola’s big miners?” * The article’s concluding graphs are:
This unproven but provocative and, alas, ‘logical’ hypothesis drawn by Fisman reverberates:
Continue reading An Angolan parallel in Iraq?