The Age of Insufficiency

One thing i like about oil prices so close to $100 is the fact that it’s forcing a lot of people to stop and think about our dependence on petroleum. There is so much coming out these days that it’s difficult to keep track of. Micheal Klare has an interesting piece in the Nation that [...]

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“The War we Fought”

I’d previously missed Faisal’s 6 October post.

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Africa’s Cost of War

 
Oxfam just released a report, Africa’s Missing Billions, that in essence says that over the last 15 years, the cost of war has been around US$ 300 billion!
This sum is equivalent to international aid from major donors in the same period. If this money was not lost due to armed conflict, it could solve the [...]

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AFRICOM opens

Africom, the States’ new unified command for Africa became operational on Monday out of Germany. It’s ostensibly meant to raise Africa’s profile and help coordinate activities that were previously divided among three other -COMs. The command will consolidate not only all military branches and DoD and DoS, but apparently also depts such as trade and [...]

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“Taking the War on Terror to Africa”

Apparently the US government seeks to establish a strategic command for Africa (AFRICOM) that would be the aid, policy, military and counterterrorism nerve-center for Africa. The idea is that this will help raise the profile of Africa and improve efforts through coordination and increased attention. Ultimately, more US government drivel:
The Pentagon says AFRICOM will bring [...]

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NPR’s Iran and its Neighbors series

National Public Radio has a six-part series on Iran and its neighbors that’s up on their website. According to the series, while Iranian leaders have long perceived their nation as the deserving leading power in the Middle East, it has only ever stumbled along trying to get there. It is only recent external factors that [...]

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The Terrorism Index

FP just released the latest version of its Terrorism index. They surveyed 100 “experts” from various branches of govt, white house staff, intelligence, defense and scholars. Their results are pretty bleak from an American perspective. Not much that’s surprising really.

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Space China

One more area where China is pushing for influence despite US obstruction. Excerpt:
Beijing is trying to position itself as a space benefactor to the developing world – the same countries, in some cases, whose natural resources China covets here on Earth. The latest, and most prominent, example came last week when China launched a communications [...]

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Was the Death Star Attack an Inside Job?

this is really funny.

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US DoD blocks websites

Apparently the DoD just blocked access to MySpace and YouTube for “bandwidth” reasons. I’m not so sure it’d be crossing that fine line between skepticism and conspiracy theory to say: “My ass it’s for bandwidth!”

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EuroArmy

World Politics Watch has an article by Peter Glover that takes a look at prospects for a European Army in light of Merkel’s aspirations as Germany presides over the EU.

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