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Monday, February 29, 2016
We’re Never Winning These Wars: America Has Zero to Show For Its Decades of Bloodshed in the Middle East
We’re Never Winning These Wars: America Has Zero to Show For Its Decades of Bloodshed in the Middle East
http://www.alternet.org/world/were-never-winning-these-wars-america-has-zero-show-its-decades-bloodshed-middle-east
Bishop Barron on Nature and Grace
Bishop Barron on Nature and Grace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7a7MFs0cQc&feature=em-subs_digest
Bishop Robert Barron's Lent Day Reflecton Lent Day 20 Calling Us Out of the Tomb
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Calling Us Out of the Tomb
Let's reflect a bit more on Jesus' encounter with
Lazarus. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus “groaned in spirit.” Jesus’ trouble here
is the result of his identification with sinful humanity. He goes all the way
to the bottom of it, letting its truth affect him. Jesus does not just love us
abstractly or from a distance; no, he comes close to us. More to the point,
this groaning of Jesus signals the pain that God feels at our imprisonment. If
his glory is our being fully alive, his agony is our sin. How salvific it can
be to listen to this groaning of the Lord at our own lack of life.
In the same vein, Jesus weeps for his friend. There is something heartbreaking about this for it is the only time in the Scripture that Jesus is described as weeping. Whatever form death takes in us—physical, psychological, spiritual—it is something deeply troubling to God. One detail is particularly moving: Jesus asks, “Where have you laid him?” Sin alienates us from our God, making us strangers to him. Just as God in the book of Genesis looked for Adam and Eve who were hiding from him, so here God incarnate doesn’t know where his friend Lazarus is. Then the Lord comes to the tomb. We hear that it was a cave with a stone laid across it. When things are dead, we bury them away, we hide them. When we feel spiritually dead, we lock ourselves up in the darkness of our own anxiety and egotism and fear. But there is a power, a divine power, sent into this world whose very purpose is to break through all such stones. “Lazarus, come out!” Are there any words more beautiful and stirring in the whole New Testament? From whatever grave we are lying in, Jesus calls us out. |
The North Goes South Or The South Comes North
The North Goes South Or The South Comes North
The North Goes South Or The South Comes NorthGraham E. Fuller (grahamefuller.com)
29 February 2016
It does not take much imagination to see where refugees are taking the world over the longer run.
This issue currently lies at the heart of some very ugly American politics. It is also tearing apart one of the noblest political experiments in human history, the EU. It is radicalizing broad regions of the world and fueling global violence, from Myanmar to Tunisia and South Africa.
The basic conclusion is simple: either the North goes to the South, or the South comes to the North.
The meaning of South coming North is already clear: conditions in the South are driving refugees to flee to the North. Most refugees bring along serious political, social, economic and cultural problems of their homelands which complicate their ready integration into the North. This is especially true in smaller, and hence more culturally fragile countries in Europe—“nation-states” that possess unique cultural and social balance that any major influx of foreigners will disrupt. There is only one unique Netherlands or Denmark, or Estonia, or Norway. They are not classical “immigrant nations” as are the vast spaces of the US, Canada, Australia, even Russia and Latin America.
This larger long-term movement of populations is certain. Existing conditions in large numbers of countries in the “South” are becoming untenable—poverty, disease, misgovernance, conflict, environmental degradation, unemployment. Many of these blights are locally generated. But the West cannot deny its role in this as well. Western imperialism, remember, took over most of the known world for a good century or more; its sole purpose was to benefit the imperial metropole through resource extraction; the world order was designed to facilitate those gains. Its blessings to the colonized were mixed, to say the least.
But the blame game is not important here—the current reality is that we face a global problem of massive proportions however we ascribe the causes. And affixing blame does not solve the problem either. What is certain is that the problem today has now arrived on the doorstep of the affluent North. http://grahamefuller.com/the-north-goes-south-or-the-south-comes-north/
Ahead of Super Tuesday: Students Assess Candidate Positions on Foreign Policy
Ahead of Super Tuesday: Students Assess Candidate Positions on Foreign Policy
http://watson.brown.edu/news/explore/2016/StudentCampaignSummary
Saudi Arabia Rethinks Its Commitments to Lebanon
http://www.
February 25, 2016
Riyadh's moves also coincided with the passage of the "Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015," a new U.S. law that many in Lebanon are concerned will undermine the state's robust financial services industry. Taken together, the Saudi and U.S. measures threaten a perfect storm that could shake the foundations of Lebanon's already tenuous economy. http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/saudi-arabia-rethinks-its-commitments-to-lebanon
Saudi Arabia Rethinks Its Commitments to Lebanon
David SchenkerFebruary 25, 2016
Riyadh's latest financial and diplomatic measures may just
be a shot across Beirut's bow, but several signs point to a potentially
wider Gulf withdrawal that could leave Lebanon even more at Iran and
Hezbollah's mercy.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia announced it was withdrawing its
deposits from the Central Bank of Lebanon. The withdrawal was the latest
in a series of recent Saudi actions against Lebanon, including an
official advisory against travel there and the cancellation of a $3
billion grant to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and $1 billion to the
Internal Security Forces. Ostensibly, these measures were precipitated
by Lebanon's abstention last month from a nearly unanimous Arab League
resolution condemning Iran for not preventing the January 3 sacking of
the Saudi embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad. The non-vote was
cast by Lebanese foreign minister Gibran Basil of the Free Patriotic
Movement, a coalition partner of the Iranian-backed Shiite militia
Hezbollah.Riyadh's moves also coincided with the passage of the "Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015," a new U.S. law that many in Lebanon are concerned will undermine the state's robust financial services industry. Taken together, the Saudi and U.S. measures threaten a perfect storm that could shake the foundations of Lebanon's already tenuous economy. http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/saudi-arabia-rethinks-its-commitments-to-lebanon
Don’t Fall for Obama’s $3 Billion Arms Buildup at Russia’s Door
http://www.defenseone.com/
Don’t Fall for Obama’s $3 Billion Arms Buildup at Russia’s Door
By Lawrence J. Korb and Eric Goepe
February 26, 2016
In
one of the key justifications for the new $600 billion defense spending
request, the Department of Defense has fallen back on a tried-and-true
Cold War boogeyman: the threat of Russian aggression against allies in
Europe. While there is no ignoring the Russian annexation of Crimea in
2014 and the Russo-Georgian war in 2008, to interpret these events as
some kind of Russian “resurgence” is to grossly inflate the danger
Russia poses to NATO and the United States.
Ukraine
and Georgia were targeted precisely because they fell outside of U.S.
security guarantees, lacked significant strategic importance to the
west, and, most importantly from the Russian viewpoint, were making
overt moves toward NATO membership. Russia has long opposed the
expansion of NATO into its traditional sphere of influence. The reasons
are rooted in a history of aggression from Western Europe, as memories
of the devastation meted out by Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Hitler
still linger. http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/02/dont-fall-obamas-unnecessary-3-billion-arms-buildup-russias-door/126255/
Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria
Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria
They don’t hate ‘our freedoms.’ They hate that we’ve betrayed our ideals in their own countries—for oil.By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
February 22, 2016
In part because my father was murdered by an Arab, I've made an effort to understand the impact of U.S. policy in the Mideast and particularly the factors that sometimes motivate bloodthirsty responses from the Islamic world against our country. As we focus on the rise of the Islamic State and search for the source of the savagery that took so many innocent lives in Paris and San Bernardino, we might want to look beyond the convenient explanations of religion and ideology. Instead we should examine the more complex rationales of history and oil—and how they often point the finger of blame back at our own shores.
America’s unsavory record of violent interventions in Syria—little-known to the American people yet well-known to Syrians—sowed fertile ground for the violent Islamic jihadism that now complicates any effective response by our government to address the challenge of ISIL. So long as the American public and policymakers are unaware of this past, further interventions are likely only to compound the crisis. Secretary of State John Kerry this week announced a “provisional” ceasefire in Syria. But since U.S. leverage and prestige within Syria is minimal—and the ceasefire doesn’t include key combatants such as Islamic State and al Nusra--it’s bound to be a shaky truce at best. Similarly President Obama’s stepped-up military intervention in Libya—U.S. airstrikes targeted an Islamic State training camp last week—is likely to strengthen rather than weaken the radicals. As the New York Times reported in a December 8, 2015, front-page story, Islamic State political leaders and strategic planners are working to provoke an American military intervention. They know from experience this will flood their ranks with volunteer fighters, drown the voices of moderation and unify the Islamic world against America. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Bishop Robert Barron's Lent Reflections: Lent Day 18 God of Nations
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Lent Day 18
God of the Nations
While we take comfort from much of the Bible’s
message, the Bible is not always comforting news. It often carries a message of
warning and danger. It’s good for us, during this Lenten season, to attend to
the darker side of the Biblical message.
For example, when we read in the Old Testament about the pollution of the Lord’s Temple, it’s a familiar prophetic theme: the people have wandered from the ways of God, rendering impure what God intends to be just and upright. God sends prophet after prophet in order to bring his people back, but they are ignored, mocked, and rejected. Then God’s judgment falls on the unfaithful nation. What is the instrument of God’s justice? One of the heathen nations, the Chaldeans, who come and destroy the city of Jerusalem, burn the Temple, carry off its most sacred objects, and lead the people into exile. What is this? Dumb bad luck? Just the give and take of geo-political forces? No! The Bible insists that this should be read as God’s action—more specifically as God’s judgment and punishment. How at odds this is with the typically modern/Enlightenment view, according to which religion is a private matter, confined to the heart and the mind of the individual. For the Biblical authors, God is the Lord of history and time, and hence the Lord of nations and the Lord of nature. His works and actions must be discerned in all events. Let me give you an example of such a boldly theological reading of political events. Karl Barth is considered one of the greatest Protestant theologians of the twentieth century. At the start of the First World War, he was a country pastor in Switzerland who had been trained in the confident liberal theology that was all the rage around the turn of the last century. This theology shared the common view that with the rise of the natural sciences, with the development of technology, and with political and cultural liberation, human beings could build the Kingdom of God here on earth. From the quiet of his parsonage in Switzerland, Barth followed the horrors of the First World War, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands, the devastation of nations, the collapse of the European social order. Then something dawned on him: the conviction that it was precisely the inflated self-regard and hubris of nineteenth century liberalism that led to this disaster! He saw the European powers as descendants of the builders of the Tower of Babel, attempting to reach up to God on their own terms and in their own way. Behind the sunny confidence of the liberal period, he discerned arrogance, imperialism, and colonialism. The advances of science were made possible through the rape of the environment and economic comfort for some was made possible through the enslavement of others. In all of this, he read current events in light of God's great plan. As difficult as that sometimes is to do, it's how we're to read our lives as well. |
Friday, February 26, 2016
The Decline and Fall of Hillary Clinton
The Decline and Fall of Hillary Clinton
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-decline-and-fall-of-hillary-clinton.html
Major American Jewish Leader Changes His Mind About Israel
Major American Jewish Leader Changes His Mind About Israel
http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/major-american-jewish-leader-changes-his-mind-about-israel
Arms Sales Boom Amid Iran, Saudi Arabia Proxy Wars
Arms Sales Boom Amid Iran, Saudi Arabia Proxy Wars
Weapons imports have skyrocketed in a Middle East torn by war.
Saudi army artillery fire shells towards Yemen from a post close to the Saudi-Yemeni border on April 13, 2015, in southwestern Saudi Arabia. http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/02/22/arms-sales-boom-amid-iran-saudi-arabia-proxy-warsA report published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows Saudi Arabia is now the world’s second-largest weapons importer, based on data that showed the kingdom increasing its purchases from 2011 through last year by 275 percent compared with sales between 2006 and 2010.
[READ: Here’s What Would Happen if Saudi Arabia Deployed Troops to Syria]
Neocon Kagan Endorses Hillary Clinton
Neocon Kagan Endorses Hillary Clinton
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/02/25/neocon-kagan-endorses-hillary-clinton/
Letter from Cairo
http://carnegieeurope.eu/
Strategic Europe continues its Capitals Series
exploring how EU foreign policy is viewed by ten countries in Europe’s
Southern neighborhood. We have asked our contributors from each capital
to give a candid assessment of the EU’s approach toward their country,
with a ranking on a scale from “irrelevant” to “helpful.” This week, the
spotlight is on Egypt.
http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=62891&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonvKXNZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIGRcR0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=62891&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonvKXNZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIGRcR0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
Defenders of Democracy Turn To An Awkward Ally: Saudi Arabia
http://lobelog.com/defenders-
So desperate to punish Iran are the hawks of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies that they’re willing to partner with one of the least democratic countries on earth to get it done. In an op-ed in the neoconservative opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, FDD’s executive director Mark Dubowitz and senior fellow David Weinberg are positively giddy about what Saudi Arabia has to offer in the way of defending democracies. It’s, at first blush, a strange alliance, but not when one considers either FDD’s monomania and the geopolitics surrounding Iran.
Dubowitz and Weinberg, under the headline “Where Obama Fails on Iran Sanctions, the Gulf States Can Step In,” posit that “Saudi Arabia and its allies have potent financial weapons they can deploy against Iran.” They note that the “sectarian war between the Sunni and Shiite states”—read: Saudi and Iran and their allies—”is intensifying militarily” and that Saudi Arabia already cut off commercial and travel ties to Iran. So why not escalate things a little, huh?
There are lots of ideas here: http://lobelog.com/defenders-of-democracy-turn-to-an-awkward-ally-saudi-arabia/#more-33229
Defenders of Democracy Turn To An Awkward Ally: Saudi Arabia
by Ali GharibSo desperate to punish Iran are the hawks of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies that they’re willing to partner with one of the least democratic countries on earth to get it done. In an op-ed in the neoconservative opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, FDD’s executive director Mark Dubowitz and senior fellow David Weinberg are positively giddy about what Saudi Arabia has to offer in the way of defending democracies. It’s, at first blush, a strange alliance, but not when one considers either FDD’s monomania and the geopolitics surrounding Iran.
Dubowitz and Weinberg, under the headline “Where Obama Fails on Iran Sanctions, the Gulf States Can Step In,” posit that “Saudi Arabia and its allies have potent financial weapons they can deploy against Iran.” They note that the “sectarian war between the Sunni and Shiite states”—read: Saudi and Iran and their allies—”is intensifying militarily” and that Saudi Arabia already cut off commercial and travel ties to Iran. So why not escalate things a little, huh?
There are lots of ideas here: http://lobelog.com/defenders-of-democracy-turn-to-an-awkward-ally-saudi-arabia/#more-33229
Thursday, February 25, 2016
How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable
How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable
He's no ordinary con man. He's way above average — and the American political system is his easiest mark ever
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-america-made-donald-trump-unstoppable-20160224?page=13
A Clinton Presidency Has Been/Would Be a Disaster for Black and Brown Communities. Here’s Why.
A Clinton Presidency Has Been/Would Be a Disaster for Black and Brown Communities. Here’s Why.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/02/a-clinton-presidency-has-beenwould-be-a-disaster-for-black-and-brown-communities-heres-why.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29Bishop Robert Barron's Lent Reflections: Lent Day 16 Like a Flash of Lightning
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Lent Day 16
Like a Flash of Lightning
One of the key visuals in the story of the Transfiguration is the divine light that radiates from Jesus. Matthew says, “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” Luke reports, “His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.” And Mark says, “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” This light seems to signal the beauty and radiance of a world beyond this one, a world rarely seen, and only occasionally glimpsed, amidst the griminess and ordinariness of this world. Is this beautiful and radiant world ever seen today? Let me share a few stories with you. When I was traveling recently, I met a man who, as a young man, encountered St. Padre Pio, the famous stigmatist. He was privileged to serve his Mass. During the elevation of the host, after the consecration, this man noticed something remarkable: there was a glow around the holy man’s hands. Years later when he heard reports of “auras” he said to himself, “That’s what I saw that day.”
Malcolm Muggeridge, the English journalist and convert
to Catholicism, was filming Mother Teresa for a documentary. One day, the
electricity was out, and he bemoaned the fact that he had to film her without
lights, convinced that the day would be lost. But when the film was developed,
he noticed that the scenes were beautifully lit, and it appeared as though the
light was coming from her.
And I know this might be a bit of a stretch, but there is scientific speculation that the marks on the shroud of Turin, the holy icon thought by many to be the burial shroud of Christ, were caused by a burst of radiant energy—light energy. From the time of the earliest disciples, the holy followers of Jesus were pictured with halos above their heads. What is a halo if it is not the divine light breaking into our world today? |
War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing. And No Kidding, That’s the Literal Truth When It Comes to War, American-Style
War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing.
And No Kidding, That’s the Literal Truth When It Comes to War, American-Style
By Tom Engelhardt
It may be hard to believe now, but in 1970 the protest song “War,” sung by Edwin Starr, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was at the height of the Vietnam antiwar movement and the song, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, became something of a sensation. Even so many years later, who could forget its famed chorus? “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.” Not me. And yet heartfelt as the song was then -- “War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker. War, it's got one friend, that's the undertaker...” -- it has little resonance in America today.
But here’s the strange thing: in a way its authors and singer could hardly have imagined, in a way we still can’t quite absorb, that chorus has proven eerily prophetic -- in fact, accurate beyond measure in the most literal possible sense. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. You could think of American war in the twenty-first century as an ongoing experiment in proving just that point.
Looking back on almost 15 years in which the United States has been engaged in something like permanent war in the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa, one thing couldn’t be clearer: the planet’s sole superpower with a military funded and armed like none other and a “defense” budget larger than the next seven countries combined (three times as large as number two spender, China) has managed to accomplish -- again, quite literally -- absolutely nothing, or perhaps (if a slight rewrite of that classic song were allowed) less than nothing.
Unless, of course, you consider an expanding series of failed states, spreading terror movements, wrecked cities, countries hemorrhaging refugees, and the like as accomplishments. In these years, no goal of Washington -- not a single one -- has been accomplished by war. This has proven true even when, in the first flush of death and destruction, victory or at least success was hailed, as in Afghanistan in 2001 ("You helped Afghanistan liberate itself -- for a second time," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to U.S. special operations forces), Iraq in 2003 ("Mission accomplished"), or Libya in 2011 ("We came, we saw, he died," Hillary Clinton on the death of autocrat Muammar Gaddafi).
Of all forms of American military might in this period, none may have been more destructive or less effective than air power. U.S. drones, for instance, have killed incessantly in these years, racking up thousands of dead Pakistanis, Afghans, Iraqis, Yemenis, Syrians, and others, including top terror leaders and their lieutenants as well as significant numbers of civilians and even children, and yet the movements they were sent to destroy from the top down have only proliferated. In a region in which those on the ground are quite literally helpless against air power, the U.S. Air Force has been repeatedly loosed, from Afghanistan in 2001 to Syria and Iraq today, without challenge and with utter freedom of the skies. Yet, other than dead civilians and militants and a great deal of rubble, the long-term results have been remarkably pitiful.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176108/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_disappointments_of_war_in_a_world_of_unintended_consequences/#more
And No Kidding, That’s the Literal Truth When It Comes to War, American-Style
By Tom Engelhardt
It may be hard to believe now, but in 1970 the protest song “War,” sung by Edwin Starr, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was at the height of the Vietnam antiwar movement and the song, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, became something of a sensation. Even so many years later, who could forget its famed chorus? “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.” Not me. And yet heartfelt as the song was then -- “War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker. War, it's got one friend, that's the undertaker...” -- it has little resonance in America today.
But here’s the strange thing: in a way its authors and singer could hardly have imagined, in a way we still can’t quite absorb, that chorus has proven eerily prophetic -- in fact, accurate beyond measure in the most literal possible sense. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. You could think of American war in the twenty-first century as an ongoing experiment in proving just that point.
Looking back on almost 15 years in which the United States has been engaged in something like permanent war in the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa, one thing couldn’t be clearer: the planet’s sole superpower with a military funded and armed like none other and a “defense” budget larger than the next seven countries combined (three times as large as number two spender, China) has managed to accomplish -- again, quite literally -- absolutely nothing, or perhaps (if a slight rewrite of that classic song were allowed) less than nothing.
Unless, of course, you consider an expanding series of failed states, spreading terror movements, wrecked cities, countries hemorrhaging refugees, and the like as accomplishments. In these years, no goal of Washington -- not a single one -- has been accomplished by war. This has proven true even when, in the first flush of death and destruction, victory or at least success was hailed, as in Afghanistan in 2001 ("You helped Afghanistan liberate itself -- for a second time," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to U.S. special operations forces), Iraq in 2003 ("Mission accomplished"), or Libya in 2011 ("We came, we saw, he died," Hillary Clinton on the death of autocrat Muammar Gaddafi).
Of all forms of American military might in this period, none may have been more destructive or less effective than air power. U.S. drones, for instance, have killed incessantly in these years, racking up thousands of dead Pakistanis, Afghans, Iraqis, Yemenis, Syrians, and others, including top terror leaders and their lieutenants as well as significant numbers of civilians and even children, and yet the movements they were sent to destroy from the top down have only proliferated. In a region in which those on the ground are quite literally helpless against air power, the U.S. Air Force has been repeatedly loosed, from Afghanistan in 2001 to Syria and Iraq today, without challenge and with utter freedom of the skies. Yet, other than dead civilians and militants and a great deal of rubble, the long-term results have been remarkably pitiful.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176108/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_disappointments_of_war_in_a_world_of_unintended_consequences/#more
Daesh bombs are made with products bought in 20 countries including in the EU – report
http://neurope.eu/article/
Companies from 20 countries are involved in the supply chain of components that end up in the explosives used by the Islamic State. The terror group relies on commercially available components for most of its bombs, with some parts coming from as far away as the United States and Japan, according to a report released by a London-based arms research group.
Conflict Armament Research (
The European Union-mandated study showed that 51 companies from countries including Turkey, Brazil, and the United States produced, sold or received the more than 700 components used by Islamic State to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
IEDs are now being produced on a “quasi-industrial scale” by the militant group, which uses both industrial components that are regulated and widely available equipment such as fertiliser chemicals and mobile phones, according to CAR which undertook the 20-month study.
The researchers traced the origins of over 700 components recovered from IS bomb factories and unexploded bombs. The parts they were able to fully document had all been legally acquired. http://neurope.eu/article/daesh-bombs-are-made-with-products-bought-in-20-countries-including-in-the-eu-report/
Daesh bombs are made with products bought in 20 countries including in the EU – report
By Dan Alexe
Contributing Editor, New Europe
Contributing Editor, New Europe
Companies from 20 countries are involved in the supply chain of components that end up in the explosives used by the Islamic State. The terror group relies on commercially available components for most of its bombs, with some parts coming from as far away as the United States and Japan, according to a report released by a London-based arms research group.
Conflict Armament Research (
The European Union-mandated study showed that 51 companies from countries including Turkey, Brazil, and the United States produced, sold or received the more than 700 components used by Islamic State to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
IEDs are now being produced on a “quasi-industrial scale” by the militant group, which uses both industrial components that are regulated and widely available equipment such as fertiliser chemicals and mobile phones, according to CAR which undertook the 20-month study.
The researchers traced the origins of over 700 components recovered from IS bomb factories and unexploded bombs. The parts they were able to fully document had all been legally acquired. http://neurope.eu/article/daesh-bombs-are-made-with-products-bought-in-20-countries-including-in-the-eu-report/
US Strategy and Strategic Culture from 2017
http://globalbrief.ca/blog/
US Strategy and Strategic Culture from 2017
JOHN E. MCLAUGHLIN
February 19, 2016
The US will remain indispensable to global problem-solving, provided an updated mindset, new institutions, and flexible alliances are in place
The
American government elected in 2016 will face a transforming world –
one that will require strategic approaches that are markedly different
from those of the last two US administrations. http://globalbrief.ca/blog/2016/02/19/american-strategy-and-strategic-culture-%E2%80%93-next-administration/
A 2016 Foreign Policy Report Card
A 2016 Foreign Policy Report Card
Which candidates are most likely to be guided by realism and restraint?
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-2016-foreign-policy-report-card/
Rudolf Hess in Guantanamo
http://lobelog.com/rudolf-
Spandau Prison in Berlin was a red brick structure, on the western side of the city, constructed in the 1870s with the capacity to hold several hundred inmates. The Nazis later used it to detain some of their political opponents; it became a site of torture administered by the Gestapo before the concentration camps were built. After World War II the victorious allies took it over to house Nazi war criminals. Only seven such criminals ever were placed there, all of them ranking figures in the Nazi regime who avoided execution but were given prison sentences in the trials at Nuremberg. By 1957 just three of them were left, and as of 1966 only one: the mentally unbalanced former deputy führer Rudolf Hess. Hess lived in the prison another 21 years before committing suicide in 1987 at the age of 93. http://lobelog.com/rudolf-hess-in-guantanamo/#more-33217
Rudolf Hess in Guantanamo
by Paul R. PillarSpandau Prison in Berlin was a red brick structure, on the western side of the city, constructed in the 1870s with the capacity to hold several hundred inmates. The Nazis later used it to detain some of their political opponents; it became a site of torture administered by the Gestapo before the concentration camps were built. After World War II the victorious allies took it over to house Nazi war criminals. Only seven such criminals ever were placed there, all of them ranking figures in the Nazi regime who avoided execution but were given prison sentences in the trials at Nuremberg. By 1957 just three of them were left, and as of 1966 only one: the mentally unbalanced former deputy führer Rudolf Hess. Hess lived in the prison another 21 years before committing suicide in 1987 at the age of 93. http://lobelog.com/rudolf-hess-in-guantanamo/#more-33217
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable
How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-america-made-donald-trump-unstoppable-20160224?page=13
Washington's Broken Civil Discourse Muddies Our Foreign Policy
http://www.realclearworld.com/
Washington's Broken Civil Discourse Muddies Our Foreign Policy
By Chas Freeman
Candidates
for president are loudly promising that if elected, they would restore
America's position as the unchallenged leader of the world. But the only
way we can do that is by rebuilding our country at home. We cannot be
stronger in the world if our own society continues to weaken.
When the Soviet Union collapsed a quarter-century ago, Americans celebrated our unrivaled military power. We proclaimed ourselves the indispensable nation. But we failed to define a coherent vision of a new world order, and we failed to pronounce an inspiring role for the United States within it. Our incompetence in foreign affairs has become a serious international problem.
Today the United States is steadily less geopolitically dominant, less internationally competitive, less emblematic of equal opportunity, less faithful to the core values of our republic, and less looked to for leadership by foreigners. We have worse relations with each of our great power rivals than any of them has with any other. Even our allies, while not turning against us, are often no longer with us.
Our global standing has been diminished not just by the rise of others and the estrangement of allies, but by structural changes in our economy and disinvestment in education and research. We are becoming less competitive. Social mobility in America now compares unfavorably with that in other industrialized democracies.http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2016/02/23/washingtons_broken_civil_discourse_muddies_our_foreign_policy.html?utm_source=World+News&utm_campaign=582d122ebd-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d519acabbf-582d122ebd-84279353
When the Soviet Union collapsed a quarter-century ago, Americans celebrated our unrivaled military power. We proclaimed ourselves the indispensable nation. But we failed to define a coherent vision of a new world order, and we failed to pronounce an inspiring role for the United States within it. Our incompetence in foreign affairs has become a serious international problem.
Today the United States is steadily less geopolitically dominant, less internationally competitive, less emblematic of equal opportunity, less faithful to the core values of our republic, and less looked to for leadership by foreigners. We have worse relations with each of our great power rivals than any of them has with any other. Even our allies, while not turning against us, are often no longer with us.
Our global standing has been diminished not just by the rise of others and the estrangement of allies, but by structural changes in our economy and disinvestment in education and research. We are becoming less competitive. Social mobility in America now compares unfavorably with that in other industrialized democracies.http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2016/02/23/washingtons_broken_civil_discourse_muddies_our_foreign_policy.html?utm_source=World+News&utm_campaign=582d122ebd-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d519acabbf-582d122ebd-84279353
Why the Burning Bush is Such Good News
Why the Burning Bush is Such Good News
http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/homily/why-the-burning-bush-is-such-good-news/5087/Details
Our first reading for this Sunday presents us with one of the most famous and commented upon texts in the entire Bible, in which God appears in a burning bush, a bush on fire but not consumed. God is present to it in the most powerful way, but nothing of the bush has to give in order for God to work with it and through it. When the true God comes close, things are not destroyed; in fact, they become radiant and beautiful.Mass Readings
Reading 1 - Exodus 3:1-15Psalm - Psalm 103:1-11
Reading 2 - 1 Corinthians 10:1-12
Gospel - Luke 13:1-9
A Plague of Black Swans in the Middle East
http://lobelog.com/a-plague-
In the parlance of political risk assessment, a Black Swan is an event regarded as highly improbable or even impossible before it happens. A Black Swan is not only surprising but has the capacity to disrupt or severely alter the anticipated course of events. Once a Black Swan is sighted, however, the expert community quickly adjusts to the new reality and begins to explain why, under the circumstances, a Black Swan was likely to appear and, perhaps, was even inevitable.
As a card-carrying member of the chattering class, I am intimately familiar with all aspects of this phenomenon. And as someone who focuses on the Middle East, I can produce a number of historical examples. The Iranian revolution was a Black Swan. The Saudi-led oil boycott of 1973 was a Black Swan, even though the self-inflicted wounds of the embargo persuaded the Saudi leadership and its Arab allies to renounce the use of such tactics in the future. Some of the wars and coups in modern Middle East history might count as Black Swans. However, once the dust settled, things frequently returned to approximately their previous state, little changed except perhaps the cast of characters and the national balance sheet. The persistence of a seemingly unshakeable, if highly disagreeable, status quo made outcomes more predictable.
The Middle East today is in a new stage altogether. It seems as though an entire flock of Black Swans has descended on the region, confounding both experts and local populations. Since the region shows no signs of returning to what we came to regard over a period of generations as “normal,” it is worth cataloguing some of these events and their implications. http://lobelog.com/a-plague-of-black-swans-in-the-middle-east/#more-33189
A Plague of Black Swans in the Middle East
by Gary SickIn the parlance of political risk assessment, a Black Swan is an event regarded as highly improbable or even impossible before it happens. A Black Swan is not only surprising but has the capacity to disrupt or severely alter the anticipated course of events. Once a Black Swan is sighted, however, the expert community quickly adjusts to the new reality and begins to explain why, under the circumstances, a Black Swan was likely to appear and, perhaps, was even inevitable.
As a card-carrying member of the chattering class, I am intimately familiar with all aspects of this phenomenon. And as someone who focuses on the Middle East, I can produce a number of historical examples. The Iranian revolution was a Black Swan. The Saudi-led oil boycott of 1973 was a Black Swan, even though the self-inflicted wounds of the embargo persuaded the Saudi leadership and its Arab allies to renounce the use of such tactics in the future. Some of the wars and coups in modern Middle East history might count as Black Swans. However, once the dust settled, things frequently returned to approximately their previous state, little changed except perhaps the cast of characters and the national balance sheet. The persistence of a seemingly unshakeable, if highly disagreeable, status quo made outcomes more predictable.
The Middle East today is in a new stage altogether. It seems as though an entire flock of Black Swans has descended on the region, confounding both experts and local populations. Since the region shows no signs of returning to what we came to regard over a period of generations as “normal,” it is worth cataloguing some of these events and their implications. http://lobelog.com/a-plague-of-black-swans-in-the-middle-east/#more-33189
ENE News Update Officials: “Historic crisis” along US West Coast
Officials: “Historic crisis” along US West Coast… “We’re facing a fishery disaster”… “Very never-seen-before things”… Should be exclamation alarm to public — Extinction threat for salmon runs; Loss of sardines, squid, sea urchins, kelp; Massive sea star deaths; Marine mammal strandings… more
Published: February 23rd, 2016 at 9:37 am ET
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Ocean Beach Rag, Feb 18, 2016: California’s Crab and Salmon Fisheries Threatened By Historic Crisis… [O]fficials testified about the dire situation that the salmon and crab fishery is in at a recent forum at the State Capitol… “The salmon and crab fisheries are threatened by a historic crisis. We’re facing a fishery disaster” [said Senator Mike McGuire]… “We’ve gone from abundance to scarcity… “During the last two years, we’ve lost over 95 percent of the Sacramento River winter-run chinook and over 95 percent of the fall-run Chinook.”… things are expected to be even worse this year… Something’s going on in the ocean — State officials and scientists spoke on the unprecedented changes in the ocean believed to be impacting crab, salmon and other fish populations… These include the massive deaths of sea stars, the decline of the squid fishery, the closure of the sardine fishery, the decline of kelp habitat and the loss of most of the red sea urchins north of San Francisco recently…
Mad River Union, Feb 18, 2016: Ocean behavior alarming, puzzling… The following is one of several stories about the crab and fisheries calamities… [Bonham] testified that menacing changes are altering both marine biology and ecology and the changes do not fit historical understandings of ocean behavior. Bonham declared grimly, “This should be an exclamation alarm to the general public to stay aware and engaged in the ecological change going on in the ocean.”… [M]ost of the red urchin population has perished, moving from abundance to scarcity in just a few years. “Mile-long stretches of the North Coast [are] urchin barrens,” Bonham stated… There have emerged “very never-seen-before things“… The salmon outlook remains unfavorable… The Sacramento winter run “really raises the existential threat of extinction,” he testified… [T]oxic contamination generated by algal blooms may spread well beyond crabs and urchins, raising sinister unknowns, Bonham predicted warily. “Why not more and more species one right after another?” he asked…
Daily Astorian, Feb 18, 2016: Marine mammal strandings concern experts; A humpback whale that washed ashore in Seaside was one of several strandings… In the past few weeks, a humpback whale washed ashore in Seaside, and a harbor porpoise and two striped dolphins were found on the North Coast…
See also: Sickened animals “unlike anything doctors have ever seen” on West Coast — “They’re eating themselves from the inside” — Cancers… liver, pancreas, intestines shut down — Unprecedented catastrophe to cause loss of 200,000 sea lions (VIDEO)
A Plea for Reason: An Open Letter to Netanyahu
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