Monday, 29 March 2010
Combat Dancing in Baghdad, Iraq
"Operation: Rock the Casbah" from an MP unit patrolling Baghdad in 2006-07, which means they were straddling the Surge when they made this video. Heart-warming and awe-inspiring. The poster has sober videos of his Iraq tour, too.
Eric
Saturday, 27 March 2010
The Quadrennial Defense Review and Columbia ROTC
Note the many potential connection points between the QDR and Columbia: The 2010 QDR, released Feb. 1, is a comprehensive review of Defense Department strategy and priorities, closely tied to the defense budget. Purpose: to promote an exciting sales vision of ROTC at Columbia, tie together the February 2010 QDR (website), Columbia's mission and assets, New York City assets, ROTC in NYC case, Alexander Hamilton based CU military heritage of exemplary leadership in and out of uniform (think CU version of exceptionalist West Point heritage), and the Columbia Military Community.
Add: Marines' AAR brief about COIN on the ground in Afghanistan (from Marc Danziger of Winds of Change). To help visualize the link between the QDR and ROTC at Columbia at the granular level, review the slides and ask yourself, how can Columbia officers contribute to these efforts?
Add: At the April 18 World Leaders Forum with Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, President Bollinger said in his introduction, "The chairman leads an organization, most crucially, that provides our nation’s necessary point of engagement in a dangerous and complicated world, though he would be the first to say that it must be only one part of a whole web of strong, diplomatic, civic and economic relationships across the globe. Our servicemen and women are called on to fight battles, but also to be the diplomats with village elders and emergency responders in nations devastated by natural disaster." Also, Mullen and Bollinger answer a direct question about ROTC at Columbia during the Q&A. See the transcript and video.
Add: To learn more about the underlying philosophy for the QDR-based appeal, see from SWJ: Design and the Prospects of a US Military Renaissance by Colonel Christopher R. Paparone
Eric
Add: Marines' AAR brief about COIN on the ground in Afghanistan (from Marc Danziger of Winds of Change). To help visualize the link between the QDR and ROTC at Columbia at the granular level, review the slides and ask yourself, how can Columbia officers contribute to these efforts?
Add: At the April 18 World Leaders Forum with Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, President Bollinger said in his introduction, "The chairman leads an organization, most crucially, that provides our nation’s necessary point of engagement in a dangerous and complicated world, though he would be the first to say that it must be only one part of a whole web of strong, diplomatic, civic and economic relationships across the globe. Our servicemen and women are called on to fight battles, but also to be the diplomats with village elders and emergency responders in nations devastated by natural disaster." Also, Mullen and Bollinger answer a direct question about ROTC at Columbia during the Q&A. See the transcript and video.
Add: To learn more about the underlying philosophy for the QDR-based appeal, see from SWJ: Design and the Prospects of a US Military Renaissance by Colonel Christopher R. Paparone
Eric
Thursday, 25 March 2010
The Asian of Reason and SAPL
Two interesting websites or, 'Hey, I should check these out; I'm Asian!':
The Asian of Reason
Stuff Asian People Like
Eric
The Asian of Reason
Stuff Asian People Like
Eric
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
NCAA tournament Sweet 16 thoughts
On the men's side, Northern Iowa (Ali Farokhmanesh, beat #1 Kansas) - 3/26 9:37 pm, St Mary's (Omar Samhan) - 3/26 7:27 pm, Cornell (2 blow-out wins) - 3/25 9:57 pm, Kentucky (John Wall, fellow lottery picks) - playing Cornell, and maybe Ohio State (Evan Turner) - 3/26 7:07 pm - are worth a watch.
On the women's side, #1 UConn - 3/28 12:04 pm - and Baylor (Brittney Griner) - 3/27 12:03 pm - are worth a watch.
Bonus: Ohio State freshman C Aleksandra Dobranic. Cute. Several photos of her from the team photo shoot.
27MAR10 update: on the men's side, Kentucky won to advance to the Elite 8; everyone else lost.
Eric
On the women's side, #1 UConn - 3/28 12:04 pm - and Baylor (Brittney Griner) - 3/27 12:03 pm - are worth a watch.
Bonus: Ohio State freshman C Aleksandra Dobranic. Cute. Several photos of her from the team photo shoot.
27MAR10 update: on the men's side, Kentucky won to advance to the Elite 8; everyone else lost.
Eric
Army's COIN website and blog
Cool person of the day: John Cohn
John Cohn became famous as the unperturbed "Computer Engineer" on Discovery channel's The Colony whose (re)inventions seemed superior to their commercial counterparts. Cohn impressed as a very valuable person to society. He has a blog and is the subject of a new IBM commercial:
Another IBM commercial where Cohn and the other IBM engineers speak about data.
Eric
Another IBM commercial where Cohn and the other IBM engineers speak about data.
Eric
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Green Zone - upsetting movie
Stylistically, the Green Zone is a lot like the Bourne movies. Okay as far as that goes. But I agree with Kyle Smith's NY Post review and Russ Douthat's NY Times commentary. I was angered by the movie's conspiratorial fill-in-the-blank fictions and contrarian views about OIF. I'm frustrated that no matter how inaccurate or debateable, those fictions and views are viewed as settled truth by OIF opponents. In 2004, I could still argue the case for Operation Iraqi Freedom with people willing to listen and consider, but by now due to prolonged and heavy repetition, people refuse to even reconsider what for them has become axiomatic.
The key misunderstanding of OIF opponents is their core belief that we failed to prove the guilt of Saddam's Iraq. In fact, Saddam's Iraq's guilt was established. Our burden was not to discover and prove; instead, it was to enforce and verify the mandated performance by the guilty party. From 1991 to 2003, Saddam's Iraq was responsible for proving itself innocent using the standard set by its surrender in 1991 and the UN resolutions. Iraq should have met the standard in 1991, but Saddam's repeated noncompliance and added abuses meant the required proof became broader and more stringent. It's true the intel was uncertain by 2003, but that was not due to a conspiracy; rather the quality of the intel was a consequence of 12 years of the deteriorating disarmament-turned-containment mission in Iraq. Because Saddam's guilt was established, any intel was rightly and necessarily viewed in the light least favorable to Saddam's Iraq. In fact, by that point, new intel was not required. While Green Zone's core premise is that we went to war based on unverified intel, the movie fails to explain the verification to standard by the inspections was the verification process. Therefore, the intel didn't trigger the invasion. The trigger for the invasion in 2003 was the same thing that triggered the Operation Desert Fox bombing in Dec 1998: the failure of Saddam's Iraq to prove its innocence according to the required standard.
I was disappointed most by Green Zone's displayed preference for tyranny over liberalism. For example, the movie contends that we should have immediately turned Iraq over to the same actors responsible for the brutality of Saddam's regime and the murderous insurgency. I wonder how badly the critical discussion about liberalization on the Arab street has been corrupted by the Western narrative against OIF and rejection of liberal strategy represented by the Green Zone. When I visited Egypt earlier this year, local newspapers parroted the most caustic Western anti-war rhetoric. I believe anti-OIF Westerners have caused great harm to the progressive liberal cause around the world. Green Zone will only cause more damage at a time when the emerging democratic Iraq should be an inspiration and supported by the world's liberals, not mocked as a lie and conspiracy.
My comment at a movie review:
Eric
The key misunderstanding of OIF opponents is their core belief that we failed to prove the guilt of Saddam's Iraq. In fact, Saddam's Iraq's guilt was established. Our burden was not to discover and prove; instead, it was to enforce and verify the mandated performance by the guilty party. From 1991 to 2003, Saddam's Iraq was responsible for proving itself innocent using the standard set by its surrender in 1991 and the UN resolutions. Iraq should have met the standard in 1991, but Saddam's repeated noncompliance and added abuses meant the required proof became broader and more stringent. It's true the intel was uncertain by 2003, but that was not due to a conspiracy; rather the quality of the intel was a consequence of 12 years of the deteriorating disarmament-turned-containment mission in Iraq. Because Saddam's guilt was established, any intel was rightly and necessarily viewed in the light least favorable to Saddam's Iraq. In fact, by that point, new intel was not required. While Green Zone's core premise is that we went to war based on unverified intel, the movie fails to explain the verification to standard by the inspections was the verification process. Therefore, the intel didn't trigger the invasion. The trigger for the invasion in 2003 was the same thing that triggered the Operation Desert Fox bombing in Dec 1998: the failure of Saddam's Iraq to prove its innocence according to the required standard.
I was disappointed most by Green Zone's displayed preference for tyranny over liberalism. For example, the movie contends that we should have immediately turned Iraq over to the same actors responsible for the brutality of Saddam's regime and the murderous insurgency. I wonder how badly the critical discussion about liberalization on the Arab street has been corrupted by the Western narrative against OIF and rejection of liberal strategy represented by the Green Zone. When I visited Egypt earlier this year, local newspapers parroted the most caustic Western anti-war rhetoric. I believe anti-OIF Westerners have caused great harm to the progressive liberal cause around the world. Green Zone will only cause more damage at a time when the emerging democratic Iraq should be an inspiration and supported by the world's liberals, not mocked as a lie and conspiracy.
My comment at a movie review:
"... war as the first, best solution to the real but immensely complex problem of Iraq"More related comments in Foreign Policy.
Not first at all. We invaded Iraq only after 12 years, across 3 US presidencies, of intensively attempted but failed alternate solutions to the worsening problem of Iraq - hardly war as a first resort. Regime change for Iraq became US policy under Clinton, and became the next-up solution in 1998 after Clinton declared Saddam's Iraq had failed "its final chance" and bombed Iraq in Operation Desert Fox - without going to the UN for permission. Contrary to the movie's emphasis on the intel, intel wasn't even a requirement for Operation Iraqi Freedom because Saddam's Iraq's guilt was established and had only deepened with every act of noncompliance and abuse. So, the Green Zone got its premise fundamentally wrong: the intel - whatever its quality - did not trigger any invasion. Through much of 2002, President Bush even gave Saddam ample warning and he tried the UN process, ignoring Clinton's precedent of bypassing the UN. Despite the generous opportunity to finally comply and resolve the problem peacefully, Saddam instead opted to repeat his pattern of noncompliance. Therefore, the trigger for the invasion was not the intel, but the same trigger for Clinton's order to bomb Saddam's Iraq in Dec 98: Saddam's Iraq's failure to meet the standard of proof required to establish its innocence.
Eric
Monday, 15 March 2010
What if Patton . . .
What if GEN George S. Patton had not died on December 21, 1945 and instead survived to serve as a commander in the Korean War? Just wondering.
Eric
Eric
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Babe of the day: Rose Byrne
Last week, I watched Sunshine with Rose Byrne and was reminded: she is a fine beauty. She has the expressive eyes I like so much. On interviews (you can catch them on youtube), her Australian accent and manner are a bit disconcerting. It was harder than I expected to find a picture of her for this post - in most of her publicity pics, she either has too much make-up or looks too skinny. I settled for this movie still, from a Rose Byrne fansite, from Sunshine, in which she looks softer and more natural.
Eric
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