Recommended Reading

Given this depressing state of affairs, a decisive outcome for either side would be unacceptable for the United States. An Iranian-backed restoration of the Assad regime would increase Iran’s power and status across the entire Middle East, while a victory by the extremist-dominated rebels would inaugurate another wave of Al Qaeda terrorism.

There is only one outcome that the United States can possibly favor: an indefinite draw.

William Lind -THE VIEW FROM OLYMPUS 8: WHITE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE, DECEMBER 7, 2016

President Barack Obama today welcomed to the White House Mr. Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda, for the formal signing of a pact of alliance between al Qaeda and the United States of America. The new alliance treaty envisions broad-scale cooperation between al Qaeda and the United States in the cause of destroying states. Following the signing of the treaty, President Obama will direct US government agencies, including the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA to work with their al Qaeda counterparts on projects of joint benefit, including generating phony intelligence to justify American military interventions, carrying out pseudo-ops to create humanitarian tragedies that can be blamed on state leaders, and generally spreading anarchy throughout the world.

The Glittering Eye –Is It To Be Isolationists vs. Militarists?

Bill Keller presents a false and vicious dichotomy. Although he’s a bit sheepish about it, he’s ultimately arguing that, if we are to be engaged with the world, it must be at the point of a gun ….

….I see barely a smidgeon of isolationism in contemporary America. There are millions of Americans living and working overseas, we import a huge proportion of our consumer goods and a lot of our food from abroad, and we have a higher proportion of immigrants presently living in the United States than at at all but a very few times in our history.

Who is he, Hideki Tojo? Is the only form of engagement with the world military engagement? That’s militarism.

Outside the Beltway (Matconis) –Are The Russians About To Outsmart Obama And Kerry On Syria? 

Chicago Boyz –Georgene Rice Interviews Lex about America 3.0Review of America 3.0 by Arnold KlingDaniel Hannan: Channeling America 3.0!, A Plea for America 3.0: “Can we just fast-forward to 2040? Please?”

Not the Singularity (Hynd) –Does The NSA’s General Alexander Have Too Much Power?

Campaign Reboot –What value to a poll? Syria edition

Brad DeLong – “Modern Greats”….

hbd chick –national individualism-collectivism scores 

Friend of Zenpundit Fred Leland had his LESC blog ranked # 3 out of all criminal justice related blogs. Congratulations Fred!!!!

That’s it!

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  1. Chris:

    Thanks for the mention!

  2. michael robinson:

    “For a time I would feel I belonged still to a world of straightforward facts; but the feeling would not last long. Something would turn up to scare it away. Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long eight-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech–and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives–he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere.”
    Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness 

  3. omar:

    I love Conrad and he has a point, but lets not forget that the same French owned half of the continent they were shelling. Pointless shelling may have played little or no role in it, but it was part of a much bigger operation. The really interesting part is when its the only thing left…even Conrad would have trouble describing that.