tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68998012024-12-14T06:32:00.719-05:00"I'm playing for October-November" - President Bush (questions and feedback to ericred55@hotmail.com)Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comBlogger1503125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-23520134644104336502009-03-26T14:21:00.000-04:002009-03-26T14:19:18.261-04:00

Programming Note (this post will be kept at the top of the page going forward):For those looking to keep track of my blog-related output, I also write at Obsidian Wings, American Footprints and am Senior Editor at The Progressive Realist - not to mention more sporadic posting at Newshoggers. Some, but not all, of the pieces posted at Obsidian Wings and American Footprints are cross-posted here so

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-83901326184271784482009-03-26T14:10:00.001-04:002009-03-26T14:12:40.155-04:00

Shocked, shocked I tell you: The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials. The support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-74767031944694431342009-03-19T18:16:00.000-04:002009-03-19T18:18:27.554-04:00

In a recent post, I took issue with Andrew Exum's claim that counterinsurgency (COIN) practitioners are reluctant to endorse undertaking COIN-based missions - a skepticism that stems from their first hand knowledge of the enormous costs and decades-long timetables involved, and of the uncertainty of achieving successful outcomes despite the considerable investments. As Fester recently wrote at

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-66267186570219086462009-03-16T13:53:00.001-04:002009-03-16T13:55:33.558-04:00

Stephen Walt looks at recent developments with respect to our Pakistan/Afghanistan policies and has some prescient warnings. For one, as discussed on this site recently, what we are attempting to accomplish in terms of eradicating al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan might be a task beyond our ability to complete - and one that we cannot realistically compel the Pakistani government to do for us (

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-89690371719422095532009-03-13T18:26:00.002-04:002009-03-13T18:29:34.134-04:00

As discussed in Part I of this two part series, Defense Secretary Gates enunciated a new, more circumspect and evidence-based standard for judging the advisability of deploying military force in the future. The approach outlined by Gates represents a welcomed shift away from the Bush Doctrine's grounding in preventive war theory. However, that approach to new military deployments does not address

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-74184164650501937162009-03-12T15:42:00.000-04:002009-03-12T15:48:16.320-04:00

Defense Secretary Gates continues to act and speak in ways that justify Obama's decision to keep him on. His worth has been proven, thus far, by his willingness to champion some worthy goals for which Obama could use an ally like Gates who can provide bi-partisan cover and insider credentials. Those objectives would include: making needed cuts to the defense budget, withdrawing forces from Iraq

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-45058259593013771982009-03-04T15:21:00.002-05:002009-03-04T15:22:02.666-05:00

When then-President Bush was pushing through his multi-trillion dollar tax cut proposals early in his first term, concerns about the impact such cuts would have on the fiscal bottom line were waved away using primarily the following three arguments: First, there were sunset provisions built-in to the tax cut measures, so their effects on future budget deficits would be limited in duration.

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-25319178413733630322009-03-03T11:10:00.002-05:002009-03-03T11:12:31.185-05:00

The attorney featured in this article - who claims that she will refuse to see some of her clients in order to keep her earnings down to avoid being hit by Obama's increase of the marginal tax rate on earnings above the $250,000 threshold - is most likely doing those clients a favor. At least if her ability to grasp the concept of marginal tax rates is any indication of her reasoning skills

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-27498061429469092872009-03-02T17:45:00.001-05:002009-03-02T17:46:42.437-05:00

Fareed Zakaria uses the recent accommodation between the Pakistani government and militants in the Swat Valley in Pakistan as a launching point to discuss the proper posture for the United States to adopt vis-a-vis Islamist movements of various stripes. The short version: it is vital that we differentiate between al-Qaeda type groups and other Islamist groups that do not subscribe to theories of

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-61260749808181316622009-02-24T16:51:00.005-05:002009-02-24T17:26:38.915-05:00

Commenting on a blog post by Tom Ricks, Andrew Sullivan makes some statements that I agree with, and others that I want to quibble with:It seems to me that by vowing to get out of Iraq in 16 months, President Obama is not departing from the mistakes of George Bush, but repeating them. That is, Bush was persistently overoptimistic about Iraq. His original war plan assumed that the United States

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-77925825206089693412009-02-20T12:06:00.003-05:002009-02-20T12:48:59.387-05:00

One of the most curious features of the neoconservative political/philosophical movement is the near reflexive, compulsive tendency on the part of its adherents to conceal the full breadth of their positions, beliefs and ideological moorings. It's like they fear truth as a matter of course. The first most extreme example of this pattern probably came when David Brooks tried to claim that there

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-33059702434557259002009-02-18T16:59:00.000-05:002009-02-18T17:00:55.257-05:00

Regardless of whether Tim Geithner and his team reached an epiphany regarding the dubious merits of their now-abandoned plan for the next phase of bank bailouts, or whether Geithner simply realized that there was no way to sell the hoped-for plan to an increasingly hostile public wary of massive corporate giveaways, the good news is that Geithner is re-thinking his loopy approach. In a stroke of

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-34387336719420768112009-02-10T17:43:00.000-05:002009-02-10T17:44:49.908-05:00

Stephen Walt makes a compelling casethat, despite the popularity of the "two-state solution" amongst many Western (and Israeli) leaders, few of its putative proponents have done much to actually facilitate such an outcome:Today, invoking the "two-state" mantra allows moderates to sound reasonable and true to the ideals of democracy and self-determination; but it doesn't force them to actually do

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-43399908407874123472009-02-10T11:05:00.001-05:002009-02-10T11:06:22.058-05:00

I find certain arguments against the size of the proposed stimulus package to be somewhat compelling (adding that much debt on to our already teetering tower could risk tipping the whole damn edifice). I also consider arguments against the specific composition of the stimulus package to be even more persuasive (there should be fewer tax cuts - or smarter tax cuts - more long term infrastructure

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-1749281589063616602009-02-09T17:45:00.000-05:002009-02-09T17:46:58.016-05:00

Trita Parsi passes along some interesting developments in connection with Iran's upcoming elections: Iran's former President, the soft-spoken Mohammad Khatami, ended months of speculations and revealed his bid to challenge the current Iranian President - the not-so-soft-spoken Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - in the upcoming Presidential elections in June. "I declare that I will stand for the next elections

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-49834438692675387892009-02-06T11:38:00.001-05:002009-02-06T11:38:56.317-05:00

This article in the New York Post is a good example of the ways in which the Iraqi election is being spun by certain parties - from the title ("Iraq Vote a Triumph for US Ally") to the claims that the elections "rebuffed extremist parties." As with Max Boot's piece claiming that the elections were a repudiation of Iran, this article gets at least some things right. For example:The results

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-35104196147770768012009-02-02T11:31:00.001-05:002009-02-02T11:32:49.468-05:00

Joseph Stiglitz makes a compelling case for nationalizing troubled banks, rather than continuing the pattern of misdiagnosis and ill-suited (if unbelievably expensive) band aids that fail to address the underlying hemorrhaging - and, perhaps more importantly, the conflicting incentives at the top. America's recession is moving into its second year, with the situation only worsening. The hope that

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-5549347883844519422009-01-27T11:32:00.004-05:002009-01-27T13:01:10.607-05:00

I'm pleased to announce the launch of a new foreign policy site that I'm editing called The Progressive Realist. It is the brainchild of author and pundit Robert Wright - the founder of bloggingheads.tv. Here is a brief synopsis of the site's mission: The blog is meant to occupy a niche that seems thinly populated. There aren’t many full-service blogs about American foreign policy—blogs where you

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-8776592701635074072009-01-26T12:53:00.003-05:002009-01-26T13:11:01.415-05:00

For the first installment of the America's Defense Meltdown series, I thought it would be useful to review some of the history applicable to the evolution of America's military institutions as presented in the anthology itself. That history provides a useful context within which to assess the range of options going forward, and perhaps appreciate some of the anachronistic aspects of our defense

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-66787919553185143072009-01-21T15:17:00.000-05:002009-01-21T15:18:32.704-05:00

I've recently completed an anthology edited by Winslow Wheeler entitled, America's Defense Meltdown, and the selections are, at least to this reader, illuminating. Each chapter is written by a different author (though some authors pen multiple chapters) and each such sub-unit takes on a separate facet of the overall mission. In its entirety, America's Defense Meltdown is an attempt to reexamine

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-29757544643747305352009-01-20T10:13:00.000-05:002009-01-20T10:14:35.276-05:00

Though I couldn't make it to DC, my firm is at least getting into the festive spirit - there'll be free pizza in the conference room, where the flat screen will be showing coverage all day. Not exactly hobnobbing with Jay Z and Bono at the various balls, but it'll do. Also, if anyone's interested, I penned a short essay on the significance of the inauguration for a project called Change in

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-29776878605419802192009-01-14T11:52:00.001-05:002009-01-14T11:52:51.538-05:00

President Bush actually put this knuckle dragger in charge of the civil rights and voting rights divisions of the Department of Justice: To Bradley Schlozman, they were "mold spores," "commies" and "crazy libs."He was referring to the career lawyers in the Justice Department's civil rights and voting rights divisions. From 2003 to 2006, Schlozman was a Bush appointee who supervised them. Along

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-38584905752095182582009-01-07T15:37:00.000-05:002009-01-07T15:38:52.914-05:00

Marc Lynch, writing at his fancy new digs, passes along this disturbing account of a lecture he attended given by Israel's Ambassador to the United States Sallai Meridor: It was a profoundly dismaying experience. Because if Ambassador Meridor is taken at his word, then Israel has no strategy in Gaza. Asked three times by audience members, Meridor simply could not offer any plausible explanation

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-15107774702365771222009-01-05T17:47:00.000-05:002009-01-05T17:48:07.920-05:00

As has been noted in a few other locales (though none with the post-title eloquence of John Cole), John Bolton and John Yoo have recently taken to the pages of the New York Times to preemptively warn about, of all things, executive overreach by the incoming Obama administation. Specifically, the two Johns are worried that President Obama will be tempted to circumvent Constitutionally-mandated

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6899801.post-88779516245543172862008-12-29T15:59:00.000-05:002008-12-29T16:01:07.797-05:00

I make a habit of turning to Daniel Levy for his balanced and well-informed take on all matters related to Israel-Palestine. He is, quite simply, one of the brightest minds in the foreign policy intelligentsia and he brings a refreshingly thoughtful analysis to a fraught topic that is hardly conducive to such discourse. So I lean heavily on Levy and the points he makes regarding Israel's recent

Eric Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05033270111638112087noreply@blogger.com