Barackface: Al Qaeda

Showing posts with label Al Qaeda. Show all posts

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Paris: Alternate View

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

ISIS Territory Is The New Rwanda

Map of Rwanda from CIA World Factbook, with province boundaries and names added. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the worst case scenario, the ISIS territory, even if it does not expand -- I mean, it is not like anyone seriously thinks they will take over everything they want to take over -- is a Rwanda in the making. It is selfish to think the ISIS is a problem only if it blows up a cafe in some rich country. The killings inside ISIS territory have to be of concern. Once ISIS has reached its territorial limits and it becomes super hard for it to expand, it is going to turn inwards, and it is going to keep looking for enemies within. Already unacceptable levels of killings are going to go up several notches. What will the world do then? Sit and watch? What is the threshold? Is it half a million dead? At what point does the world intervene?

ISIS is not a religion, it is not a state, it is a cult. It is not even a terrorist organization like the Al Qaeda, it is a cult.

Monday, September 01, 2014

A Comprehensive War

In the book, Blair writes that he hoped that George W. Bush would win a second term as President of the United States in 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Russia is unfinished business. Just like George W Bush prematurely declared Mission Accomplished after a few days of airstrikes in Iraq, it can be argued Bush Sr. did the same thing when the Soviet Union collapsed. It was a tectonic milestone, no doubt, but unless Russia becomes a democracy, it will keep causing trouble.

Suddenly there are two broad fronts. There is Russia. And there is ISIS, which is in a stronger shape than the Al Qaeda ever was, with the same ill intentions to match. It would not flinch to unleash a biological attack somewhere, it would detonate a dirty bomb if it could. The dangers are grave. Obama might have similarly prematurely declared the death of Al Qaeda with the death of Bin Laden.

I happen to think the top idea here is what Google has. Beam internet from the skies and flood the earth with cheap Android phones. Google already has the prototype. I think the US government should massively scale it. If Google is thinking one billion, the US government should pump in 100 billion into the same effort. That would go a long way to the spread of democracy.

Friday, September 06, 2013

Syria: The Most Important Move Is Still Political

Barack Obama can strike if he wants to, and he does want to strike. He could rain 100 million dollars worth of missiles, or he could rain two billion dollars worth of missiles. He has leeway to decide. There will be no American troops on the ground. None are needed.

But the biggest challenge is not all that. That part is done. The biggest challenge is political and it has to do with the Syrian opposition.

The Obama administration has to make a clear case to the Syrian opposition in exile. They have to get their act together. That means cobbling together a united opposition. That means agreeing to an interim president in waiting. Who is that candidate? That means agreeing to elections to a constituent assembly within a year of Assad getting toppled. That means only inviting those groups into the coalition that will agree to lay down their arms once Assad is out.

The transition will have to be smooth. The post-Assad regime ironically will have to secure all the chemical weapons as the first order of business, that and any other weapons of mass destruction.

Unless the Syrian opposition is willing to all this political homework, the Obama administration should attempt only a limited strike, enough to punish Assad but not enough to hand over Syria to the Al Qaeda. The Obama administration has to do all it can - and there is much it can do - to push the Syrian opposition to do all the necessary political homework. Why strike if you are not going to get rid of Assad? We are not attempting a fireworks display.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Osama Also Asked For "Proof"

English: Muammar al-Gaddafi at the 12th AU summit, February 2, 2009, in Addis Abeba. Français : Mouammar Kadhafi au 12e sommet de l'UA, le 2 février 2009 à Addis-Abeba Русский: Муамар Каддафи на 12-м саммите Африканского Союза в Аддис-Абебе. 2 февраля 2009 года. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden also asked for "proof." Assad is asking for "proof." When the facts glare in our faces for the entire world to see, Assad wants "proof."

Syria is not a case of sectarian violence. This is a case of a brutal regime slaughtering its own innocent citizens. Some Islamist radicals with Al Qaeda ties might have picked up the gun, but the Syrian rebel forces by and large are native lovers of regime change and ultimate democracy.

This is a liberation struggle being violently suppressed, with over 100,000 innocents killed and counting, the last thousand or so with chemical weapons. It does not getting any more black and white than this.

America should do now what it should have done a year ago. The red line is when a dictator starts slaughtering innocents. I can understand why sending in American troops can get messy and costly and open ended. But no ground troops are necessary. They were not necessary in Libya. A few billion dollars worth of air strikes is all it took to get rid of Gaddafi. Assad has to go. This would be the first serious step America takes against the brutal regime in Iran. That is another regime that mercilessly slaughtered its own people at massive scales in 2009.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Republicans Being Ridiculous On Benghazi Attack

Cover of George W. Bush

George W. Bush on being told a plane had just hit the World Trade Center kept on reading stories to little children. He thought it was an accident, a bad accident, but an accident still. 9/11 was a thousand times more "offensive" - if that is the word - than the attack in Benghazi. And W got it wrong at the outset. The 9/11 attack was so unexpected, so out of the box. And I don't blame George W - never did - for not getting it right right away. To engage in such a blame game would be disrespectful of the tragedy.

In hindsight we know what the Benghazi attack was. It happened on 9/11. The Al Qaeda feels poetic about that date. America killed Bin Laden, so the Al Qaeda killed an American ambassador. I read up on the guy after the death. He was a dream ambassador. He was steeped in the local culture with passion long before he was picked for the job. Libya was lucky to have him. And he got killed. Of course people did not get it right right away. You start with disbelief. You even engage in a little bit of denial. But then you get it right, and you draw a plan of action. The president said the perpetrators will be brought to justice. And I think he means it, he meant it on Bin Laden.

Hillary Clinton has been an excellent Secretary of State. In an era when soft power means for more than military power Hillary has managed to draw on all sorts of levers of soft power to do an effective job as America's face to the world. Now for the Republicans to conclude her time in office with a humiliating hearing on Benghazi I find obnoxious. It is "offensive" - Barack Obama's word to Romney during the second debate. The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for playing political football with an apparent tragedy. It is a disservice in that it takes away from the fight against the Al Qaeda. This meets my definition of a witch hunt. And if they are not ashamed they should own up to the fact that 9/11 happened on their watch.

Is Hillary Running?

A month after falling ill, Clinton returns to work

on Capitol Hill, where Clinton is expected to face bruising questioning from Republicans about security lapses at a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. The deaths of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in a militant attack there in September represent the largest blot on Clinton’s record as secretary, and Republicans have insisted that she testify in person about what went wrong ..... Top deputies gave Clinton the helmet and a jersey with the number 112, representing the number of countries she has visited during her tenure. .... “She loved it. She thought it was cool,” Nuland said, referring to the gift. “But then, being Hillary Clinton, she wanted to get right to business.”