Showing all posts tagged: war

Any future defense secretary who advises the president to send a big American land army into Asia, or into the Middle East or Africa, should have his head examined.

Robert Gates

(Source: The New York Times)

Phil Ochs, I Ain’t Marching Anymore

It’s always the old
to lead us to the wars,
always the young to fall.
Now look at all we’ve won
with the sabre and the gun.
Tell me is it worth it all?

The WELL: John Robb on War, Peace, and Resilient Communities

Interesting discussion with John Robb, running the gamut, but heading deep into a discussion of new ‘open source’ business models.

Dogs really are perfect soldiers. They are brave and smart; they can smell through walls, see in the dark, and eat Army rations without complaint. It has been speculated that one of the most important jobs the SEAL dog might have done was to sniff the bin Laden compound for explosives and booby traps. For years, researchers have tried to engineer a device that is as sensitive as a dog’s nose but haven’t even come close. I actually love that such a device hasn’t been invented; I love that there is something about dogs that outdoes science and can’t be replicated by a machine.

Susan Orlean, Hero Dogs

Future South China Sea War?

Is the political aggression between the US and China going to become more overt? Over the South China Sea Islands?

Andrew Jacobs, China Warns U.S. to Stay Out of Islands Dispute

The Chinese government reacted angrily on Monday to an announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Washington might step into a long-simmering territorial dispute between China and its smaller neighbors in the South China Sea.

Speaking Friday during a forum of Southeast Asian countries in Vietnam, Mrs. Clinton apparently surprised Beijing by saying the United States had a “national interest” in seeking to mediate the dispute, which involves roughly 200 islands, islets and coral outcroppings that are claimed by China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi of China warned the United States against wading into the conflict, saying it would increase regional tensions.

“What will be the consequences if this issue is turned into an international or multilateral one?” he asked in remarks published on the Foreign Ministry’s Web site. “It will only make matters worse and the resolution more difficult.”

The state-run news media were far less diplomatic, describing Mrs. Clinton’s speech as “an attack” and a cynical effort to suppress China’s aspirations — and its expanding might.

“America hopes to contain a China with growing military capabilities,” ran an editorial Monday in the Communist Party-run People’s Daily newspaper.

Global Times, an English-language tabloid published by People’s Daily, said, “China will never waive its right to protect its core interest with military means.”

China is planning to build aircraft carriers as part of a ‘far sea’ defense strategy.

The area has large reserves of oil (estimated to be over 17.7 billion tons in just the Spratlys alone). Get ready for the South China Sea War.

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The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack.

Napoleon Bonaparte

No Jobs, But More Talk Of War

In principle, I am in favor of President Obama’s efforst to reform health care (although he has settled on the restructuring of health insurance, and has forsworn health care reform as impossible, given the intransigence and outright stupidity of Republicans and right-leaning citizens), but his adventuring in Central Asia is outright madness, especially when he should be focusing on getting people back to work, and building a more resilient American economy.

Where are the jobs, Mr. President? Where is the care and concern for the average person, instead of Wall Street? Where’s your focus?

Not only are we fighting activity in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, we are engaged in anti-islamist activities in the Philippines and who knows where else. And the saber rattling goes on with Iran.

Can we please get bck to basics, and stop squandering our future on overseas wars?

[via U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratioby Peter Goodman]

“Two recent surveys of newspaper help-wanted advertisements and of employers’ inclinations to add workers were at their lowest levels on record, noted Andrew Tilton, a Goldman Sachs economist.

Job placement companies say their customers are not yet wiling to hire large numbers of temporary workers, usually a precursor to hiring full-timers.

“It’s going to take quite some time before we see robust job growth,” said Tig Gilliam, chief executive of Adecco North America, a major job placement and staffing company.

During the last recession, in 2001, the number of jobless people reached little more than double the number of full-time job openings, according to the Labor Department data. By the beginning of this year, job seekers outnumbered jobs four-to-one, with the ratio growing ever more lopsided in recent months.

Though layoffs have been both severe and prominent, the greatest source of distress is a predilection against hiring by many American businesses. From the beginning of the recession in December 2007 through July of this year, job openings declined 45 percent in the West and the South, 36 percent in the Midwest and 23 percent in the Northeast.

Shrinking job opportunities have assailed virtually every industry this year. Since the end of 2008, job openings have diminished 47 percent in manufacturing, 37 percent in construction and 22 percent in retail. Even in education and health services — faster-growing areas in which many unemployed people have trained for new careers — job openings have dropped 21 percent this year. Despite the passage of a stimulus spending package aimed at shoring up state and local coffers, government job openings have diminished 17 percent this year.”