Temptress

"The American girl knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs and she shows all this and does not hide it."

Direct Hit! Fire For Effect!

Imperial M'Hammedist Qutb - the spiritual poppa of Caliphaters au courant - and his diss of Great Satan's

"...libertine culture would not matter much were it not wedded to a kind of theological Leninism that emphasized the necessity of violently overthrowing any political arrangement not based on Shariah law.

"No less violent was Qutb's attitude toward Jews: "The war the Jews began to wage against Islam and Muslims in those early days [of Islamic history]," he wrote in the 1950s, "has raged to the present. The form and appearance may have changed, but the nature and the means remain the same."

"Needless to say, that passage was written long before Israel had "occupied" a single inch of Arab territory, unless one takes the view—held to this day by Hezbollah, Hamas, al Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah and every other jihadist group that owes an intellectual debt to Qutb, including significant elements of the "moderate" Palestinian Fatah—that Tel Aviv itself is occupied territory.

"Bear in mind, too, that the America Qutb found so offensive had yet to discover Elvis, Playboy, the pill, women's lib, acid tabs, gay rights, Studio 54, Jersey Shore and, of course, Lady Gaga.

"In other words, even in some dystopic hypothetical world in which hyper-conservatives were to seize power in the U.S. and turn the cultural clock back to 1948, America would still remain a swamp of degeneracy in the eyes of Qutb's latter-day disciples.

"This, then, is the core complaint that the Islamists from Waziristan to Tehran to Gaza have lodged against the West.

"It explains why jihadists remain aggrieved even after the U.S. addressed their previous casus belli by removing troops from Saudi Arabia, and why they will continue to remain aggrieved long after we've decamped from Iraq, Afghanistan and even the Persian Gulf.

"As for Israel, its offenses are literally inextricable: as a democracy, as a Jewish homeland, as a country in which liberalism in all its forms, including cultural, prevails.

"Which brings me back to the settlements. There may well be good reasons for Israel to dismantle many of them, assuming that such an act is met with reciprocal and credible Palestinian commitments to suppress terrorism and religious incitement, and accept Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state.

"But to imagine that the settlements account for even a fraction of the rage that has inhabited the radical Muslim mind since the days of Qutb is fantasy: The settlements are merely the latest politically convenient cover behind which lies a universe of hatred.

"If the administration's aim is to appease our enemies, it will get more mileage out of banning Lady Gaga than by applying the screws on Israel.

"It should go without saying that it ought to do neither.

Pic "Maybe this time, I'll be yours and you'll be mine"

Black Widows

Enemy tactics and strategies that the Russians feared, faced, fought to salvage an almost total defeat in Chechnya (despite leveling the capitol Grozny - twice) into a managable draw returns with the attack of the Black Widows.

"Chechen Jihad " documents that girl survivors often carried out recon missions and suicide attacks and that Chechnya became a laboratory for years, featuring a weird hook up of native Chechen separatists and Imperial M'Hammedists

From all over Central Asia and the ME, rejectionists with an evil penchant for victims, sharia law and explosives have joined forces to replenish al Qaeda and the world wide mohammedist movement to continue the attack on anything not remotely resembling a romanticsed reactionary 8th century fantasy.

"Chechens are professional fighters—disciplined and responsible, with a combination of skills, expertise, and character that has made them the most sought-after 'force multipliers' in the jihadist movement."

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Kurdistan, Caucasas, Algeria, the Balkans, Sudan, Kashmir and Azerbijian. To name a few.

Chechens appear wherever Jihadi mini theocracies are in danger of collapsing.

Chechens also appear wherever Jihadi theocracies are exporting murder, mayhem and torment to their neighbors.

Secular mercenary Chechens also appear whenever Vlad needs some military influence in old school Soviet Republics that have splintered into an astounding number of provinces, peoples and independence movements.

Pic "‘Her debts became so great she was told she had to pay with her life’"

Containment Myth

One of the brightest stars in Great Satan's diplopolititary skies unleashes a raison l'terribles

"Quietly, the policy consensus in official Washington appears to be shifting toward the idea that the emergence of a nuclear Iran would be a manageable - even benign - event.

"In recent weeks, a rash of articles and expert commentaries in such publications as The Washington Post, the New York Times and Foreign Affairs have floated the idea that, just like the Soviet Union in its day, a nuclear Iran can, in fact, be successfully contained and deterred.

"But can it? A closer examination of Iranian ideology and of the dynamics of deterrence offers ample reason for skepticism that, when it comes to nuclear possession, Tehran will, in fact, behave just like Moscow.

"For one thing, deterrence and containment aren't automatic, and nuclear possession is not necessarily stabilizing. Policymakers today tend to forget that the "balance of terror" that dominated relations between Washington and Moscow in the latter decades of the Cold War was preceded by about 15 years of bilateral crises that brought the world perilously close to nuclear annihilation.

"This instability had a great deal to do with the immaturity of both the United States and the Soviet Union, which back then were novice nuclear possessors uncertain of how to wield - and manage - their newfound atomic clout.

"Only later did Moscow and Washington (and subsequently, Beijing) manage to strike some sort ofmodus vivendi. Until they did, the world was a very dangerous place.

The Middle East is likely to go the same way.

"The geopolitical jockeying among these nearly nuclear states, and between them and a newly nuclear-armed Iran, is likely to make the Middle East a dramatically more dangerous place in the years ahead.

"None of which should blind policymakers in Washington to the fact that the rise of a radical, nuclear-armed regional hegemon in the Middle East would constitute a major setback for international security and for long-term American interests.

"Adopting a policy of containment would only serve to make such an outcome more likely.

Pic "Nothing cool about a nuked up Preacher Command"

Crisis Simulation

Ah yes - the Iran Wargames.

Caveat!

"Simulations compress time and often oversimplify events.

"Often they underestimate the risk of error — for example, that by using faulty intelligence leaders can misinterpret a random act as part of a pattern of aggression.

"In this case, the actions of the American and Israeli teams seemed fairly plausible; the players knew the bureaucracy and politics of both countries well.

"Predicting Iran’s moves was another matter, since little is known about its decision-making process.

Exactly correct

"Iran, while wounded, sees long-term opportunities to unify its people - and to roll over its opposition parties - on nationalistic grounds. Its strategy is to mount low-level attacks on Israel while portraying the United States as a paper tiger - unable to control its ally and unwilling to respond to Iran.

"Convinced that the Saudis had colluded with the Israelis, and emboldened by the measured initial American position, Iran fires missiles at the Saudi oil export processing center at Abqaiq, and tries to incite Shiite Muslims in eastern Saudi Arabia to attack the Saudi regime.

"Iran also conducts terror attacks against European targets, in hopes that governments there will turn on Israel and the United States.

"After a meeting of its divided leadership, Iran decides against directly attacking any American targets - to avoid an all-out American response

Nuance is a very fine thing - subtle perhaps - and Iran has conducted T type operations against hapless Euro powers before (kidnapping British sailors in broad daylight comes to mind) but plotting and projecting terrorist activities even with those wonderfully credibility denying proxies could also function as a death sentence for the Regime.

And this is the schwerpunkt of any sexed up war games.

Instead of focusing on wmd Witchcraft, enrichment interruptus etc - focus on killing the regime itself, it's precious assets, super stars regional and at home like Revo Guard HQ, al Qods HQ, and Beeseeji Command

Hiz'B'Allah would almost certainly be deployed in a wide variety of activities from local to world wide scale, so HBA should be on the rec'ving end of a nasty, unannounced 1st strike surprise on day one.

Great Satan should prep for a regime killing regime change and that means a heavy dose of v. Clausewitz, outside the box thinking, legal chicanery, hybrid 4th Generational warfare and becoming cold blooded about xforming asymmetrical warfare into an art form.

Pic - "By Day 5, Iran is completely paralyzed - unable to respond or retaliate - the Regimes highest levels missing in action" with Avril

Turning On The Charm

At a recent event, a favored hottie literally blew it (after imbibing way more draft than her tiny tiny body weight could safely contain), flopped out and spectacle'd herself in front of her friends, frenemies, potential suitors and the general public.

Truly an event memorable for the appearance it created.

Yet less than a week later - she had recovered her desirability status, won new friends, influenced people and put paid to funk obsessed fans complaining, dissing and dissertating her faux pas giganteus.

How did she manage that?

Easy!

She turned on the charm.

Can such shiz be applied to the crunk and disorderly world of the diplopolititary?

Like the recent doofusness betwixt 44 and Little Satan?

Oui Oui M'sieur!

Little Satan currently enjoys off the hook love from Great Satan - despite 44's inexplicable lurch to 'getting mean with homies' and sucking up to autocrats, control freaks and generally nasty regimes in general.

This happy fact could be used about as subtle as a Merkava Panzer crushing a home grown Izzy deen al K'Ssam rocket squad in broad daylight on live al J'Zeera:

Recently called the "Most Dangerous Cat In DC," Little Satan's Ambassador to Great Satan - the one and only Dr Michael Oren (Oh! He got game! ) should be launching a PR Media blitz all over cable, new and lame stream media.

This is a significant advantage that Little Satan should be deploying to her designs and delights:

Unlike former leaders - ancient overtly robust cats with a super thick unfamiliar Russian accent - Little Satan 's new school cats often speak English way more better than many English teachers in Great Satan.

Shaping the narrative may be as fun as shaping the battlefield - instead of trying to explain how a rowdy assetted Zoning Commission works - PM BiBi and his 'Merican fluent posse could laughingly paint a far diff pic - demolishing the unfair, uncool and UN non binding narratives that Little Satan haters are using.

Essential counters that could and should used are:

"Essentially, the strategic and diplomatic case for the settlements is that only the threat of further land losses will bring the Palestinians to the bargaining table.

"In 1947 the Palestinians rejected a partition plan that included much more territory than they retained after the 1948 war.

"The 1967 boundaries that Palestinians now criticize Israelis for violating were considered illegitimate until the Six Day War made them obsolete.

"Without the threat of more settlements, it’s not clear what the incentives are for the Palestinians to accept a territorial compromise based on the 1967 frontiers.

"Why not continue the sixty-year policy of resistance and rejection, alternating between violent and non-violent methods, while hoping for changes in the regional or global balance of power?

"The only way to make the 1967 boundaries look attractive to the Palestinians is to threaten them with something significantly worse.

Feel free to hit them up here with this advantage that, for whatever reason, Little Satan is NOT taking advantage of:

info@washington.mfa.gov.il

Pic - "I'm a good girl and would never ever do that"

Future Pic

One of Great Satan's Army intell cats shares an interesting future pic of where future situation room occupants may have came from...

"The year is 2030 and four leaders—two military, two civilian—sit around a table at the White House or the Pentagon, perhaps, or at a military headquarters or embassy halfway around the world. One is an Army general, an infantryman by trade, who has spent his entire thirty-year-plus career rotating to and from the war zones of what was once called the Global War on Terror and then changed during the Obama administration to the more anodyne Overseas Contingency Operations.

"The second is an Air Force general, a former fighter pilot who has spent his recent years focusing on more conventional threats, among them how to deal with rogue states via airpower.

"The third is a Foreign Service officer who has spent much of his career engrossed in the political and economic side of irregular warfare, sometimes embedded with the military, other times manning a remote diplomatic outpost in some hostile precinct.

"The fourth is a more traditional political appointee: well educated and well connected, he has spent most of his career outside government, but very much inside the Washington world of policy debates.

"The participants in this hypothetical meeting exemplify four very different types of leaders, who, if current trends continue, will all be coming to prominence and power by 2030. All come to the table with institutional biases; all boast strong, Type A personalities. None of them come from the same background; none of them speak the same language.

"It is conceivable, then, that a situation may arise in which an Army officer of 2030 might have more shared experience with a Foreign Service officer than with his Air Force or Navy counterpart. As a result, the traditional competition of “civilian versus warrior” will be replaced by a series of new relationships and alliances.

Innocents Abroad

Oh Snap!

"Rasmussen Reports finds that just 35% of voters think America is safer now than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

Thank you Captain Obvious!

After all, front loading the Justice Department with terrorist fan boys - far more worried about combatants captured on the battlefield than protecting Americans - does have an impact.

While appearing humble on the world stage may be cool in a climate controlled classroom surrounded by smart people - it is dangerous beyond repair on the world stage.

The crucial diff betwixt 'cunning' and 'intellect' is simply the cunning will devour the intellectuals.

"Engaging Syria and describing Assad as a reasonable man would make sense if something epic had just happened that might convince him to run his calculations again, such as the overthrow or collapse of Ali Khamenei’s government in Iran. Otherwise, the administration is setting itself up for another failure in the Middle East that will damage its — no, our — credibility."

"One good thing will probably come of it, though. The naifs will learn. They’ll learn it the hard way, which seems to be the only way most of us learn anything over there. But they’ll learn.

Pic - "75% of Americans think preemptive war can be justified"

Continuing Prominence

Sweet! And cuter than Barbie fighting her way through a barrel of My Little Ponies. It's the risible, overtly histrionic and occasionally historically correct hit piece on former VP Cheney, his darling dot Liz and the continuing prominence of those wild, wack daemoneocons.

Despite the best efforts by realists and sissylationists to discredit, disarm and dismiss neoconservatism - their attempts have been about as effective as the Hammurabi Panzer Grenadier Division's attempt to stop "Rock of The Marne's" blitz into the approaches to Baghdad.

Steven Clemons @ New America Foundation gets the money shot, pointing out "a continuing deficit on the part of their opponents to compete with them."

Yes! That is exactly correct. As the essential "End To Evil" points out - most Americans embrace a decidedly neoconistic worldview - even if they don't know it:

For whatever reason, Americans believe they know the truth - and will NOT admit alternate truths. Instead of granting equal stats or playing moral equivalence (like comparing Mahdi Army Torture Squads to a non profit political org) - Americans instead play "Which one of these things is NOT like the other"

That alone makes realists and realism (especially the Weenie Hut Jr's variant) off guard and on the defensive - unable to truly explain for instance, why the most status quo upset in Middle East history like a new clear Iran is an awesome, cool thing.

Sissylationism, as codified by Frenchy La Femme, blames Great Satan for the state of world affairs and pines away for a New Fortress America.

The attacks on Great Satan fans - who know in their heart that America ain't whats wrong with the world - have had little effect.

Great Satan built the modern world. And she knows her way around.

"Every threat to internat’l order after the Cold War involved a government that fell short of Western and economic standards. Every security problem that the American government felt called upon to address would be alleviated, if not solved altogether, if the regimes responsible for them could be remade to American specs."

Tolerant, egalitarian societies with a penchant for periodic, transparent elections, a free, uncensored press, a nat’l treasury under public scrutiny, a military under civie control, and an independent judiciary under elected Gov oversight.

Pic - "You know we got it. Be Otches"

Ship Of State

Way back in the last millennium, Great Powers often compared Statecraft to a nautical nom d'voyage' - the Ship of State.

Teutonic Imperator Otto v. once preferred NOT to hook up "...Prussia's neat, seaworthy frigate" with semi kindred Imperial Austro Hungaria's "...ancient, corrupt Galleon..."

Sir Winnie once id'd the nation with Royal Navy, pointing out that while Kriegsmarine was a dangerous hobby for Imperial Deutschland, Great Britain's national surivival depended on Royal Navy.

44's gig at the helm of the old Ship of State as seen through the CIC of foreign ships of state are a

"Process of observation, assessment, and adjustment obviously takes time, and only after foreigners make their new judgments will they substantially alter their policies in response.

"So, in the great game of international affairs, it is almost always ponderous for the battleship-size behemoth of U.S. national-security policy to change direction, followed by course corrections by the other national dreadnoughts.

"It is only as these complementary maneuvers unfold and policies shift that we can give more-accurate answers whether the United States is more or less secure.

"Seen in this light, the recent incidents with Israel and Russia are extremely disquieting. Whether Israel acted intentionally or accidentally, it put itself in a vulnerable position, and Obama exploited that difficulty.

"NATO and other U.S. treaty allies will take due note, as will Palestinian radicals and Islamic extremists, to America’s detriment. Russia, by contrast, thumbed its nose at Washington and got away with it. North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and others will likewise take due note, also to our detriment. Two more strikes, among many, for Team Obama

Pic "Ship Of State"

Containment

Oh, it's true!

If and when (most likely the same), Iran's Preacher Command develops and deploys new clear missiles, don't fret - just lay back and enjoy it!

Containment actually.

"Containment assumes that if China and Russia changed over decades, so might Iran. And nuclear weapons can handcuff a nation as easily as they can empower it. Last week, at the University of Oklahoma, Mr. Brzezinski argued that either an Iranian bomb or an attack on Iran would be “a calamity, a disaster.”

"Containment could work because Iran “may be dangerous, assertive and duplicitous, but there is nothing in their history to suggest they are suicidal.”

Hold up Dr B! Iran is dealing a double dose of that dangerous duplicit assertiving right now.

Iran hangs out with field grade al Qaeda cats - providing hook ups with recruits, cash, transit and intell. Indeed, perhaps recent explosive events during Iraq's electile dysfunction were in fact operations gleaned from Preacher Command's Iraqi dossiers

Hanging with aQ should be the very def of suicidal.

Even with WMD witchcraft 18 months down the road, Mullahopolis is feeding, funding and weaponizing Taliban cadre at a 90 Day Wonder Combat Command Academy in Persia.

Really reckon a nuked up, gay free, girl tormenting military dictatorship that acts out against any 'democrazy' in weapons range would be contained, cool and sweetly pursue regional stability?

Sanction scenarios suck.

Containment is all about getting overtly specific.

Great Satan's defensive "Umbrella" (a hot! beat meaner than Chris Brown!) for newly repented Ottomans, Wahabbi Arabia and others to hang under will define red lines for Iran.

Yay.

Containment will be like Cold War:

Great Satan will be even more actively involved in the ME, countering Revo Guard's illegit influ, military, espionage, and proxy operations.

Containment's Achilles' Heel:

"Friends and foes would openly question the U.S. government's power and resolve to shape events in the Middle East. Friends would respond by distancing themselves from Washington; foes would challenge U.S. policies more aggressively."

Pic - 'Contained?"

Speaking In Tongues

Not so long ago, Great Satan's Surgin' General - P4 - trekked through CENTCOM's south 40 and expertly spoke the lingo of the risible Arabic he man medieval shame and honor cult (which inexplicably, shame and honor is often found betwixt the legs of girls).

As Arab leaders cried out that Persian influ in Arabic Iraq was off the hook - P4 did his best Yoda Jedi Master impersonation:

“I would remind my Arab brothers if there is concern about certain influences in Iraq then it would be wise to increase the Arab influence.”

In the wild wack ME - where no means maybe and maybe means no - speaking in tongues may be essential.

If, it is indeed true that Great Satan's lack of control over her out of control ho Little Satan is queering the mix on the 'Forever Quest' for Mid East Peace, disheartening fence sitting corrupt royalty in Ray Bans and driving billions of formerly normal cats into raging caliphaters, terrorists or future control freaks that might maybe sort of result in the destruction of CENTCOM and all her precious assets, then perhaps the current calculus is all wrong.

Instead of freaking out, trying to distance Great Satan from a sister 'democrazy' or becoming the two Palestines patron attorneys or getting all goofy to appear all 'even handed' in regards to forcing a still born 23rd and 24th member of Arab League as the world's 58th and 59th M'hammedist Nation States, perhaps Great Satan's diplopolititary machine could take a language lesson from P4

Something like

"Why cry because you have no boots if you have no feet?"

Meaning

"If our Arab brothers are concerned about the struggle for Palestine, perhaps they could officially recognize Little Satan and engage in honest, active brokering - instead of sulking, weeping and playing possum

Or

"Alas! It's true - Little Satan has total control over Great Satan, thus to avoid a Greater Little Satan stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates (bankrolled and blessed with the hottest weaponry in the world provided at wholesale prices) perhaps concerned nations should strive to develop profitable, peaceful relations with Little Satan, tone down the rhetoric and pressure corrupt Palestinian leaders to cease acting out as a charitable black hole and get with it"

Pic - "Ashlee!"

Best Defense

Chopping through tough competitors like Atlantic, The Economist, Mother Jones and The New Yorker to score the 2010 Digital National Magazine award for best blog has got to be as sweet as knocking out 4 enemy carriers in one afternoon!

Congrats Best Defense!

Tom Ricks, Best Defense premier creator with Pulitzer Prizing power and journalistic bona fides on Great Satan's military au courant, hangs with Great Satan's Combat Rock Stars like panzer/Surge expert Colonel Nagl, elite killers of killers like Andrew Exum and Roger Carstens @ Center for a New American Security (CNAS). He's also an editor @ Foreign Policy Magazine and gigs at WaPo.

Best Defense is approachable, fully crunk with hot! intell, insight - and as provocative as wearing a thong to church.

Congratulations Best Defense - The Best of 2010!

Pic - "Every combat group would be a complete package"

Counter COIN

India's Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses features an interesting bit by Colonel Dixit - nom d' guerr'd Challenges of Asymmetrical Warfare:

"Future threats embrace the full spectrum of disproportionate intimidation with which the countries might be faced, from international civil disobedience to criminality and right up to low intensity conflicts."

"Such threats range from cyber warfare through terrorism or rogue state nuclear blackmail to even use of weapons of mass destruction as much as national destabilization arising from mass migration."

Ah yes, 4th and a half Generation Hybrid Warfare

"Tactical success in future wars depends on at least one of two assumptions. Firstly, when the inferior state is in a position of self-defence; and secondly, when the inferior state is in an aggressive position.

"In the former, under attack or occupation from a superior power, it may be possible to use unconventional tactics such as hit-and-run and selective battles as an effective means of harassment without violating the laws of war.

"This was for instance practiced in the Vietnam War and American Revolutionary War. In the latter case, the inferior power is in an aggressive position but turns to tactics prohibited by the laws of war, as was the case in Chechnya.

"The fundamentalist, the revolutionary, the terrorist and the rogue state all can advance their cause in the face of the apparently overwhelming odds of developed and developing countries who continue to deploy organised military forces in the mistaken belief that they are superior and will not be militarily challenged."

Oh Snap! 'fundamentalist ... terrorist" Imperial M'Hammedists, casting fearful, covetous eyes on a new, hot! Iraq have concieved new schiz to counter Great Satan's Surge.

And the Field Manual for Caliphating Iraq (and getting it to stick this time) is "A Strategic Plan to Improve the Political Position of the Islamic State of Iraq"

Yay.

Short, but fun to read, Counter COIN (COCOIN?) Caliphating is a

"55 page document, published under a pseudonym, is a remarkably frank "lessons learned" analysis which does not shy away from identifying where the ISI's strategy went wrong. It's not an "official" document, whatever that means, but it's fascinating nonetheless and demonstrates some deep thinking about the fortunes of the Islamic State in Iraq.

"It explains its setbacks, which it argues came at the height of its power and influence, on what it calls two smart and effective U.S. moves in 2006-07: an effective U.S. media and psychological campaign, which convinced many that the "mujahideen" had committed atrocities against Iraqis and killed thousands of Muslims; and the Awakenings, achieved through its manipulation of the tribes and the "nationalist resistance."

"Building upon a lengthy post-mortem on the Awakenings and the media campaigns, the Strategic Plan sets out a detailed agenda for the coming years during and after the U.S. withdrawal. It calls the coming war "a political and media war to the first degree", with the winner "the side that best prepares for the period following the withdrawal."

"It recognizes that the Islamic State can not control all of Iraq through military force alone, and that only a wise political strategy can succeed:

"It then offers a detailed five point plan, including a process to unify the ranks of the jihad, in part by reaching out to the old nationalist resistance and convincing them to return to the fold; detailed military preparations, including recommendations to conserve men and resources until the right time; and an enhanced media operation designed to rebut the most damaging charges against the Islamic State and carefully tied to a coherent political strategy.

"Perhaps its most striking concept is a detailed plan for creating "Jihadist Awakenings", mimicking the U.S. engagement of the tribes to create broader popular support.

Pic "Military institutions and the manner in which they employ violence depended on the economic, social and political conditions of their respective states."

Frenemies

Frenemies - in the diplopolititary sense - meaning nation states that are NOT allies, not neutrals and currently are not openly fighting.

Since 44 hit the hood the Foreign Policy scene has had several cool things: Reading the Riot Act to Land of the Pure, laughing off the risible cries of sovereignity while incinerating creepy creeps with heck fire missile strikes, literally out of the blue. Captured and dead al Qaeda and Taliban are seemingly increasing at an exponential rate. Surging AfPAk.

Sweet!

Alas, the jank (suckish, bad - catching on?) stuff seems to be increasing at an exponential rate too -

"If there were a way to measure administration exertion in foreign policy, the meter would show the greatest concentration of energy, beyond the war in Afghanistan, has been devoted to four endeavors:

"The failed first-year attempt to improve relations with Iran;

"The ongoing attempt to improve relations with Russia;

"The stalled effort to improve cooperation with China;

"The effort -- fruitless so far -- to prove to the Arab states that the United States is willing to pressure Israel to further the peace process.

"Add to these the efforts to improve relations with Syria, engage Burma and and not much has been left for the concerns of our allies.

No allies - but plenty of enemies -

"All that raises the question: What exactly are the advantages these days of being a friend of the U.S., when neutrals and enemies garner as much of our sympathies?

"An idealistic America may now decide that it does not want or need special allies
"But that diffidence will eventually mean we have more enemies than ever — as the watching world makes the necessary adjustments and joins those who unabashedly promise them support and protection.

Pic "You came around and hunted me down"

Crisis

Oh Snap! The funintended consequences of the mere mention of 1600 unarmed apartments (that will never be able to go out of their way to maim or kill anybody)are totally off the hook.

The most dangerous man in D.C. proclaims a 'crisis' in the especial relationship Great and Little Satan enjoy, and it seems like 44 is driving the split:

Getting "mean with homies and weak with enemies" is no where to be found in "The Prince," or "How to win friends and influence people" or Dr. K's Diplomacy books (and it doesn't make a particularly good T shirt or a good re election meme either).

Yet it does serve to keep Palestine away from the Indirect Talks which came about after HAMAS started a war with Little Satan in early '09 - Fatah's West Bank Abu Mazen/M'Moud Abbas guy bailed on the Annapolis Awakening in solidarity with the Strip's rocket rich rejects getting their assets handed to them by "Cast Lead."

Indeed - in the Palestinian from the river to the sea mindset, perhaps 44 will get meaner with Little Satan, emboldening rowdier elements in the Strip and West Bank to act out in coordinated semi military operations complete with those innocent civilian shields - natch!

The very recent off the chart polls showing Great Satan continues to look at Little Satan as an audacious, yet sweet little democrazy sister that periodically functions as a drama and missile magnet, has an impact:

The totally fake yet scary hit piece FoPo did about P4 and JCS Mullen equating Great Satan's support of Little Satan = dead GI's (look for Weenie Hut Junior's to hop all over that) points out that Arab League (specifically the Gulf States) cries that Little Satan is an out of control ho - the raison d'etre' that Great Satan is a feckless and unreliable Hyper Puissant:

"American helplessness - a United States without the will to do anything but approve anything the Israeli government chooses to do.

And

"Inspires potential terrorist recruits across the ME, most of whom will never get near Israel but can find Americans to attack much more easily."

LOLZ! Sorry - tuned out there for a sec - look, if "...potential terrorist recruits..." failed to get all hot and bothered when Little Satan rained Willie P, dropped flyers and cell phone calls all over the Strip in the heat of combat - attriting the humble, dumb yet fiesty beginings of a forward Revolutionary Guard Division on Little Satan's southwest 40 - then maybe zoning plans for 1600 Apartments would?

The real crisis is getting mean with homies and easy on their enemies

"Indirect negotiations, proximity talks, the Road Map, the Quartet, shelf agreements, the freelancing of Senator Mitchell and Tony Blair, and the drills of General Dayton have exhausted the lexicon of diplomacy and the ingenuity of lawyers.

"The reason for this should be crystal clear. The Palestinians are happy with the way things are; they see no reason for change; the present situation is playing profitably into their hands.

"All these well-wishers are pumping money to them, and a state would force them to spend it on administration rather than themselves. They also have the pleasure of observing everyone — and specially Washington — putting pressure on Israel and making it unpopular.

"Sixteen-hundred more settlements gives them grounds for 1,600 more complaints, and then sitting down and rubbing their hands in expectation of commiseration and rewards. A state would oblige them to pull their own chestnuts out of the fire.

"As long as the deadlocked status quo serves the interest of top Palestinians there is not the slightest chance of a peace process. It's inconceivable, of course, but the announcement that the United States was backing and even financing settlements would do more to make the Palestinians appreciate that their true interest is to reach a speedy compromise

Pic - "the delicate fabric of friendship"

Is China On Dope?

"China's premier Wen Jiabao is defiant.

"Some say China has got more arrogant and tough. Some put forward the theory of China's so-called 'triumphalism'. My conscience is untainted despite slanders from outside," he said

"Days earlier the State Council accused America of serial villainy. "In the US, civil and political rights of citizens are severely restricted and violated by the government. Workers' rights are seriously violated," it said.

"The US, with its strong military power, has pursued hegemony in the world, trampling upon the sovereignty of other countries and trespassing their human rights," it said.

"At a time when the world is suffering a serious human rights disaster caused by the US subprime crisis-induced global financial crisis, the US government revels in accusing other countries." And so forth.

"Is the Politiburo smoking weed?

China has yet to recover from geopolitical dissess - a century old gripe inflicted by the West, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.

"China has succumbed to hubris. It has mistaken the soft diplomacy of Barack Obama for weakness, mistaken the US credit crisis for decline, and mistaken its own mercantilist bubble for ascendancy. There are echoes of Anglo-German spats before the First World War, when Wilhelmine Berlin so badly misjudged the strategic balance of power and over-played its hand.

"China's transformation has been remarkable since Deng Xiaoping unleashed capitalism, but as a former diplomat George Walden writes in "China: a Wolf in the World?" you cannot feel at ease with a regime that still covers up Mao's murderous nihilism.

"China has never forgiven the humiliations inflicted by the West when the two civilisations collided in the 19th century and intends to exact revenge.

"Handle with care

Pic "Righteous Fists of Harmony" from China Mash Up

Gitmo Bar

"Gitmo's Indefensible Lawyers"

That's the title of of a mind-blowing op-ed by Debra Burlingame and Tom Joscelyn in Monday's Wall Street Journal. Debra and Tom make mince-meat of the hallucination that casts the Gitmo Bar as modern John Adamses. The essay recounts, among other things:

The Gitmo Bar — in gross violation of the conditions of access to the enemy combatants — provided al Qaeda detainees with a propaganda brochure that instructed them on how falsely to claim that they had been tortured and abused. As the Gitmo commander put it, "The very nature of this document gives tremendous moral support to those who would strike out against our country.... It is not a factual report. Instead it is filled with second and third hand accounts, photos of protests that were staged, inflammatory photos from Iraq and provocative story captions."

The Gitmo Bar fomented a detainee hunger strike that disrupted security at the camp and set the stage for fabricated reports that the detainees were being tortured and force-fed.

The Gitmo Bar provided the detainees with virulently anti-American rhetoric that compared military physicians to Nazi Josef Mengele, labeled DOJ lawyers "desk torturers," and informed the detainees about the Abu Ghraib abuses and the potential for framing President Bush as a war criminal.

The Gitmo Bar provided the enemy combatant terrorists with a hand-drawn map of the detention camp's lay-out, including guard towers.

The Gitno Bar incited the detainees against the military guards.

The Gtimo Bar posted photos of Guantanamo security badges on the Internet in a transparent effort to identify U.S. security personnel.

The Gitmo Bar facilitated enemy combatants in communicating messages and interviews to their confederates and the outside world.

The Gitmo Bar provided a detainee with a list identifying all the other detainees in custody.

The Gitmo Bar provided the detainees with news accounts about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, including reports that U.S. forces were sustaining devastating casualities from IED attacks. (Again, it was a court-ordered condition of the lawyers' access to these war prisoners that they not be given information relating to military operations, intelligence, arrests, political news and current events, and the names of U.S. government personnel.)

The Gitmo Bar provided KSM and the 9/11 plotters — i.e., the murderers of 3000 Americans — with photographs of covert CIA officers in an effort to identify them as interrogators. (Leftist lawyers are attempting to have these interrogators indicted for torture and war crimes.)

The Gitmo Bar brags about its role in the release of enemy combatants who have returned to the jihad against American troops and the American people.

In a word, sickening.

From A. McCarthy @ NRO

Pic "Spring Break 2010 Boot Camp"

Iraq's 1st Dot?

Democrazy fans worldwide wait out for the final results of Iraq's crunk and disorderly elections (in a good way!) that act out as a harbinger of a fun, free Middle East instead of the same o same o corrupt, unelected and illegit 'leaders' that lose every war, provide nearly zero services for their people and possess literacy rates from the embarrassing to the the pitiful.

Sexy Beast scored a killer Iview with Sara Allawi, daughter of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi—the popular, secular, leader who is running to reclaim his old job.

And Iraq's possible next 1st Daughter shares some hot! gossip, visions and insights:

Like her papa's desire for a functional democracy based on egalitarianism instead of Medieval sectarian shiz:

"Our vision, his vision, would be to have the next government based on national unity and a coalition that included all groups, so no group feels ostracized. Really, I’m not sure if he will become prime minister. But I think Iraq has no other choice but to have a government based on national unity and to move away from sectarianism.

"So far, only our party has shown this approach. We’ll have to take that direction. If we don’t, Iraq will spiral into disaster. The tensions will be exacerbated. They could engulf Iraq and spread over to the other regions. It’s the approach that has to be taken to save Iraq.

The wild rumors that her dad executed 'foreign wahabbi' terrorists has been reported like this:

"The prisoners were against the wall and we were standing in the courtyard when the Interior Minister said that he would like to kill them all on the spot. Allawi said that they deserved worse than death - but then he pulled the pistol from his belt and started shooting them.

"He was very close. Each was shot in the head."

Sara reveals:

"I asked my dad about it, and he started laughing. I don’t think it’s true. I don’t think my dad would bring himself to do something like that. But I’ve read articles—I’m not saying he has done it—but I’ve read articles that have said perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing, if he did."

Growing up in London when S'Ddam exiled her folks, Sara admits she has always been hot for coups, regime changes and top secret stuff:

"When I was about 8 years old, I would go to my father’s office in London while he was in the opposition. I would plan how we would topple Saddam’s regime! He used to have maps of his palaces, and Baghdad, and I would say we should get this many soldiers and go there.

"I even labeled it my own “secret file,” as if that wouldn’t tempt anyone to look into it.

Pic "I Lost My Love in Baghdad" with The"Soft Power" Girl

Murderous Intellectuals

One of the hottest bits in book form about the crazy evil 'actualizers' of NSDAP time Deutschland is an incredible work by Dr Chas W Sydnor, JR, nom d'guerr'd "Soldiers Of Destruction."

Focusing on only one combat division of Waffen SS - the dreaded SS Totenkoph (Skeleton Head or Death's Head in Teutonic) - Dr S makes the case that fanatic, reckless, ruthless and murderous creeps came from every plane of existence among das deutsch volk. That while they disagreed over style - they never had it out over the substance. And their goals and their effort to achieve - or - 'actualize' horrific horrors on any 'enemy' armed or unarmed were worth any cost to defeat, discredit and utterly destroy them.

For eons, "Soldiers of Destruction" was the only tome of it's kind. The research, prose and quality of the work Dr S did makes it essential in any serious cat's library.

Now comes "Murderous Intellectuals: German Elites and the Nazi SS" by Jonathan Maxwell.

Eye opening detail explores why so many well-educated professionals ­-- doctors, lawyers, professors, scientists, and such -- willingly joined the SS, and spearheaded the Holocaust.

It actually makes your blood run cold.

"Chillingly, Jonathan Maxwell had an all too easy time choosing individuals to highlight in this excellent book about the people who willingly committed the greatest atrocities in modern history.

"The doctors who tortured, the scientists who perverted reason, the educators who refused to learn, the lawyers who ignored the rights of the innocent, and the soldiers who committed atrocities.

"After the war, trials were held. Only a very few were ever punished. It was thought it would never happen again. The end result was that there have been parallels in Yugoslavia, Cambodia, and Rwanda.

"This book is highly recommended and should be required reading for anyone who believes himself to be capable of independent thought. The people described here believed themselves to be the epitome of independent, intellectual thought.

"See what they did and what they wrought.

Pic "The actualizer"

2010 Foreign Policy Briefing

Hot to trot into the future, hot on the heels of the recent significant shift in the loser lobby's perception about Operation Iraqi Freedom - Foreign Policy Initiatives unleashed the first of updatable online briefing books:

"Foreign Policy 2010 Briefing Book"

And it is off the hook ya'll!

Fully crunk with the hottest daemoneoconic designs - many presented by the avatars themselves - this cool collection includes:

Dr Muravchik's knock out (all the way out) the bizarro belief certain realists and isolationists share about ditching democracy promotion.

Original Surge Gangsta Dr Frederick Kagan's amazingly accurate forecast about what victory in Iraq will look like - also includes his blistering gauntlet throw down ho down challenge for defeatists who were in heat with defeat, retreat and repeat - from back in the day.

Divy'd up into topics like grand strategerized ideas, hot spots like AfPAK, Iraq, Iran, Yemen - FPI's briefing also features killer takes on Nat'l Security of the Homeland type.

Pic - "The world's indispensable nation -- indispensable to international peace, security, and stability, and indispensable to safe-guarding and advancing the ideals and principles we hold dear."

Getting It Right

Whoa! What the heck is going on here?!

As best understood, the wild wack Neocons had pretty much ruined the entire planet. Hooking up with Chalabi and chasing 'democrazy' - a buzz that never was - while gleefully smashing up realpolitik's wonderful corrupt cult of stability, threatening despots far and wide, with a crazy penchant for annihilating creepy regimes and even creepier non state actor outers.

Au contraire mon frer!

FoPo commissioned CFR's Ottoman Expert to share something all the cool kids knew eons ago:

The daemoneocons were totally correct!

"It has become fashionable to say that the Bush administration made "egregious" errors promoting democracy in the Arab world.

"Still, Bush's forceful, public support for freedom and democracy in the Middle East had a profound effect on politics in the region. It did nothing less than change the terms of the debate in a way that Arab leaders could no longer control and allowed democracy activists to pursue their agendas in new ways.

"Of course, democracy and reform in the Middle East did not begin when the Bush administration discovered the issue on or about September 12, 2001, or when the neoconservatives began pressing the issue.

"With Washington watching, Arab authoritarians had to position themselves as reformers, making it more difficult for them to crack down on the real reformers.

While strangely giving the recent elections in Iraq a 40 meter detour, neocons are given strong marks for enemy identification and recognition.

Like slave trading, Palestinian abusing Syria and Dr General Pres for Life Bashar:

"Neoconservatives had a healthy understanding of what Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime's is all about: violence, repression, and duplicity. The neocons can read recent history pretty well, and they understood that endless shuttle diplomacy of various U.S. secretaries of state (with the exception of James Baker) brought the region no closer to peace and did nothing to alter Damascus's strategic posture.

Dissing Iran with a 'talk to the hand, be otch' swagger was totally correct too:

"Look at the ontology -- yes, ontology, the metaphysical nature -- of the Iranian regime. The Islamic Republic was founded in many ways on opposition to the West, and in particular, the United States.

"A good portion of Iran's revolutionary narrative identifies the United States' perfidy in undermining the aspirations and identity of the Iranian people. The litany of Tehran's complaints against Washington is long. This is precisely why the Iranian leadership cannot make a deal with the United States.

"To do so would undermine the reason for the revolution and the Iranian leadership's own reason for being. The neoconservatives seem to have innately understood -- perhaps for different reasons -- that the Iranians were quite unlikely to respond to U.S. overtures.

There is plenty for neocons to add to this piece - specifically in regards to a wonderful neoconic view of American Exceptionalism (that America will go anywhere and do anything she wants, for starters) - this article is significant.

It's the start of the crack in the dam

History has yet to be written for the long view of the day after 911 era, when it is, the neocons may very well be accepted as doing the exact right things

"The neocons' perspective on the nature of the Syrian and Iranian regimes were largely accurate, and their forceful advocacy of democracy and freedom in the Middle East may have grated on many, but it did much to advance those causes in a region once described as "democracy's desert."

Pic "Freedom Agenda"

Contiguous

Contiguous - being in actual contact: touching along a boundary or at a point.

Great Satan's avuncular VP trips through Palestine and Little Satan attempting to get the eternal 'Forever Quest" for that magically elusive ME Peace Deal fully crunk via Indirect Talks that maybe sorta will lead to Direct Talks.

The Prize? A "viable" independent state with contiguous tuf. Certainly a worthy tease for the poor Palestinians regardless if they voted in the world's first freely elected suicide regime or stuck with corrupt old standby's like PLO's Fatah.

The entire deal was shot up faster than a Marjah Stop sign as the unintentional on purpose news that Little Satan planned to build 1600 apartments in East J'lem - prompting even the mighty mighty impotent Arab League to bail on providing political cover for the double nom d'guerr'd Abu Mazen/M'Moud Abbas.

Alas Palestine! Stymied by the mere mention of 1,600 apartments.

Pic "Location, location, location"

Threat Of War

"So let's leave it to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to sum up how things seem to Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hizbullah and many others.

The Americans, he said, "not only have failed to gain any power, but also are forced to leave the region. They are leaving their reputation, image and power behind in order to escape... The [American] government has no influence [to stop] the expansion of Iran-Syria ties, Syria-Turkey ties and Iran-Turkey ties - God willing, Iraq too will join the circle."

Ouch!

Little Satan's Dr Ben Ami walks rounds right on the target in the ME:

Across the Middle East, a fatalistic conventional wisdom is taking hold, namely that war is unavoidable. Some see war as a way of resolving an increasingly deadlocked situation, as shaking up a dysfunctional regional order whose main actors are not only at loggerheads, but are also incapable of resolving the legitimacy deficits of their respective regimes.

A volley of incendiary remarks exchanged recently between Israel on the one side and both Syria and Hizbullah on the other has fueled anxieties about the possibility of war on Israel’s northern border.

The level of sensitivity is such that the latest tension was initiated by the Syrians, who misinterpreted as a threat Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s call to start peace negotiations precisely in order to prevent “an all-out regional war.”

Hizbullah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, for the first time explicitly warned the Israelis that a new round of conflict would no longer be confined to an Israeli-Lebanese showdown, but would involve the entire regional “axis of confrontation” – Syria, Iran, Hizbullah, and Hamas.

This would also be the case if Israel unleashed its air force against Iran’s nuclear installations. Moreover, Nasrallah made it clear that Israel’s “Dahyia Doctrine” of total devastation of Lebanon in case of war would be answered in kind.

The prospect of a Middle East conflagration has prompted an airlift of senior American officials to Israel to warn of the devastating consequences that an Israeli attack on Iran might have. Indeed, the Obama administration’s main challenge these days is not peacemaking, but regional conflict management and preemption.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, have already gone through Israel, with Vice President Joe Biden and a high-level delegation of the State Department and the National Security Council due in Jerusalem this week.

But preventing war will not be easy, because US President Barack Obama’s mystique has worn off in the Arab world. The expectation that he would allow the Arabs, particularly the Syrians and the Palestinians, to recover their land without resorting to arms has proven to be unrealistic, by the president’s own admission. Nor has he been able to rein in Iran’s relentless drive for regional hegemony, or convince it to abandon its quest for nuclear arms.

Israel will most likely listen to US advice and consider a preemptive attack on Iran only after all diplomatic means have been exhausted, and after whatever sanctions are agreed upon fail to cut short Iran’s march toward possessing the bomb. No matter how unjustified Israel’s traditional military behavior seems in the eyes of its enemies and critics, it has always aspired to base its military actions on grounds that can be justified.

This would seem to be particularly true when it comes to an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel would not like to be seen as the spoiler of a diplomatic solution to a dispute that in any case cannot be resolved by military means alone.

Wars in the Middle East, it should be recalled, have started even when the parties did not really want them. The 1967 war is one example. Today’s anxieties, too, are fed by perceptions and fears, by real and imagined concerns.

The Iranian challenge to Israel’s strategic hegemony is presented as a Holocaust-style existential threat, and Israel’s other enemies – Hizbullah, which believes that it can bring about “the end of the Zionist entity,” and Syria, which publicly boasts of its ballistic missiles’ capacity to destroy Israel’s main urban centers – are similarly viewed as irrational actors.

A covert war between Israel and Iran has been going on for some time now. The assassinations – allegedly by Israel – of Imad Mughniyeh, Hizbullah’s military chief and Iran’s closest ally in the organization, two years ago, and more recently of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas liaison officer with the Al-Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, suggest that an unplanned chain of events could trigger a real war.

The Lebanese front may ignite if Hizbullah seeks to avenge Mughniyeh’s assassination, or simply as a result of a knee-jerk reaction to a provocation, as in July 2006. If Iran and Syria then decide to back Hizbullah, a direct Israeli-Iranian showdown could follow. What Israel planned as a preemptive attack on Iran might then be presented as an act of self-defense.

General James Jones, Barack Obama’s national security adviser, recently put forward a different, albeit equally ominous, prediction. Iran’s response to the mounting international pressure, he said, might be to launch an attack on Israel through its proxies, Hizbullah and Hamas. Such attacks might trigger a wider regional conflagration.

War threats in the Middle East should never be dismissed as hollow. Prophecies of war, moreover, have too frequently proven themselves to be self-fulfilling. But the United States’ extraordinary efforts to rein in Israel might not be enough to avert a regional calamity.

The days of Pax Americana in the region are over, which means that avoiding a regional explosion will require mobilizing the major international actors that favor diplomatic solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to Iran’s quest to become a legitimate partner in a new regional system.

Pic "The Devil We Know"