zenpundit.com

EMPIREWATCH: ANATOL LIEVEN

The Nation online has a lengthy essay by leftist scholar Anatol Lieven ( whose ideological sympathies may be read in his warm endorsement for the discredited ideas of Immanuel Wallerstein, who bet his academic career on the decline of America and lost) on ” empire “. As usual, Lieven gets most things wrong but aside from this article being one of his less shrill efforts he does manage to hone in on a critical truth:

” This is indeed likely to be seen by future historians as the central tragic irony of the Bush Administration’s world policy: that the United States, which of all states today should feel like a satisfied power, is instead behaving like a revolutionary one, kicking to pieces the hill of which it is king. “

The Bush foreign policy is indeed a revolutionary one – to rewrite the rules of the international world order to better comport with the advancement of liberal democracy, capitalism, and individualism and contain the threats posed by powerful technologies in unsafe hands and outlaw regimes. Most of those lining up against the Bush doctrine want a world organized around Social Democratic statism managed by transnational bodies that will contain, direct and ” legitimize ” American power for elite purposes.

IS AL QAIDA REALLY FINISHED ?

A paper from RAND assesses al Qaida’s parameters and potential.

Another question is – where is al Qaida ? The organization flourishes where it is indulged and feared by weak authorities or where there is no authority whatsoever. There are obvious locations where al Qaida is known to be active – Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Gaza, the frontier Pathan provinces of Pakistan and Southern Afghanistan, most likely now Iraq and in Daghestan with the Chechen rebels. However, American intelligence is probably checking less obvious locations – the outlying rim of islands in Indonesia and the Philippines, FARC countrolled regions of Colombia, northern Nigeria and the No-Man’s land borders of Central Africa.

IRAN, BURMA, ZIMBABWE RATED ” NOT FREE ”

See what other barbarian regimes earned Freedom House’s lowest rating on their 2003 Map of Freedom

AIR FORCE PILOTS WITH LASERS, NAZI BOATS WITH CHEMICAL WEAPONS AND THE LINK BETWEEN IRAQ AND EVERQUEST

Why I enjoy reading Defensetech.org.

LIEBERMAN ON HOMELAND SECURITY

From the Progressive Policy Institute.

Joe Lieberman is at present, with the possible exception of Richard Gephardt, the only Democratic primary contender with some degree of realism about the state of the threat the Islamist terror movement represents to the United States; his views could even be described as moderately hawkish. Unfortunately, reading this paper was a disapointment because Lieberman eschewed any bold proposals, even obvious ones like drastically expanding the National Guard to meet the increased national security missions that Lieberman envisions.