http://threatswatch.org/commentary/ Our Views en Copyright © 2005 - 2009, Center for Threat Awareness Sat, 23 Oct 2010 13:55:00 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use. National Security and Defense are no longer apolitical issues. In reluctantly acknowledging this fact, more thinking and writing on political issues has gradually made its way into the ThreatsWatch space. To put it succinctly, it's not just about Defense. It's about what we defend. There are two disparities at play... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/dnkL7MOsytk/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/10/the-liberty-of-defense/ Sat, 23 Oct 2010 13:55:00 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/10/the-liberty-of-defense/ Every American administration seeks to publicly position itself as the harbinger of Middle East peace and the new collection of minds capable of resolving a conflict beyond the reach of all others. It was true of the Bush administration and those before it and it is true of the Obama... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/fC59BGXqymw/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/08/two-out-of-three/ Israel Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:30:43 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/08/two-out-of-three/ Wikileaks has spoken. Again. And surely the news cycles I will miss while basking in sand and saltwater will be nearly breathless in their coverage. Personally, I find this latest episode amusing at best and reckless at minimum. There's nearly nothing (that I've seen thus far) new here. If you've... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/Q6i7Ye47B5c/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/07/wikileaks-hath-spoken/ Afghanistan Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:25:49 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/07/wikileaks-hath-spoken/ There are many influences in the making of a man. Discipline instilled by parents, openness inspired by wives and the immediate maturity demanded at the birth of a child. There is also for some the peace of faith, the selflessness commanded by uniformed service and the pain of loss and... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/Tejf8lYX13k/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/06/cornerstones/ United States Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:00:24 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/06/cornerstones/ Thirty five years after the fall of Saigon, the Vietnam War remains a profoundly misunderstood chapter in American history. More troubling still, the courageous warriors dispatched to wage that divisive conflict--America's Vietnam veterans--remain equally misunderstood. For years, the cultural portrait of America's Vietnam veteran revolved around two crude caricatures: the... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/ASZOvoUyd_k/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/05/fallen-vietnam-vets-honor-by-u/ United States Fri, 28 May 2010 13:30:35 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/05/fallen-vietnam-vets-honor-by-u/ Israel is on its own. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has known this since January 2009. The Obama administration has known this since November 2008. And now the American public is coming to know it, for President Obama's thin veneer of plausible deniability has been wearing thin. The New York Times... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/bhrxMXD7ijs/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/04/fading-vernier-dispatching-an/ Israel Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:50:37 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/04/fading-vernier-dispatching-an/ Let's be clear: Wars prevented are wars not fought. And when faced with hostile adversaries, the best prevention is peace through strength. There is little room for banking on tulips and tea. In a real world proven model of peace through strength, there is certainly no room for taking the... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/EiqONlf0ZM4/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/04/the-obama-nuclear-manifesto/ United States Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:51:15 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/04/the-obama-nuclear-manifesto/ Lose sight of what you are defending and defense isn't all that important, is it? This simple reminder compels us to shift focus for the moment from our combative enemies and onto that which we defend. We do not engage in such rigorous defense - in its many forms -... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/rkPImnkzbJA/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/03/this-we-will-defend/ United States Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:20:18 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2010/03/this-we-will-defend/ In war, and particularly in an Afghanistan counterinsurgency effort, there are always three sides to the coin: the good, the bad and the ugly. This is especially true in President Obama's new Afghanistan strategy, finally announced to the American public Tuesday from a West Point backdrop. The prescribed influx of... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/j-MKnGiduAU/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/12/counterinsurgency-incoherence/ Afghanistan Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:15:29 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/12/counterinsurgency-incoherence/ As the Earth spins, the effect dictates that its inhabitants are driven into the predictable cycle of night and day, day and night. And so too it can be said of the effect of periods between election cycles and American media coverage of war. Bill Dupray at the Patriot Room... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/hv1xRyZzH98/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/11/on-casualties-media-and-ownersh/ Afghanistan Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:40:56 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/11/on-casualties-media-and-ownersh/ "Never again" we told ourselves, as we tacked pictures of victims leaping from the World Trade Center buildings to the streets below to the walls of our cubes. Eternal vigilance is what we pledged, openly or silently, so that another 9/11 would never happen if we had anything to say... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/g_mv0jXwrak/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/11/time-complacency-catastrophe/ Intelligence Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:43:33 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/11/time-complacency-catastrophe/ Are we winning the diplomatic battle with Iran? Are we, for that matter, winning the diplomatic battle with Russia, which, with China, serves as Iran's principal protectorate? To put it necessarily bluntly, there is no indication that we are and every indication that we are indeed losing. Not simply losing,... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/5lsr08J178Y/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/10/the-language-of-limbo/ Iran Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:25:02 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/10/the-language-of-limbo/ The revelation should be startling. In a 60 Minutes interview on CBS, America's top commander in Afghanistan was asked about and revealed that he has had only one briefing with President Barrack Obama since he took command on July 15th of this year. This is disturbing on many levels. First,... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/yc-XxRMZAPg/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/09/general-silence/ Afghanistan Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:00:00 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/09/general-silence/ On the night of September 17th 2009, former Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf was the guest lecturer at the Trinity University Distinguished Lecture Series in San Antonio, Texas. In many ways it was an historic night. There he was, a man of smallish stature who became President of Pakistan by... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/mSjN-Wvk-Es/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/09/night-with-pervez/ Pakistan Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:51:05 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/09/night-with-pervez/ If September is to be governed by presidential instincts and an over-valued view of the role of the United Nations, it may mark a significantly bad turn for American power, particularly economically. And that would inevitably translate into an eventual high surcharge on American security on many levels and in... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/threatswatch/commentary/~3/mR-qGlErTbk/ http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/09/basic-instincts-black-septembe/ China Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:10:03 -0500 http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/09/basic-instincts-black-septembe/