Alan Bock

It gives me little pleasure to suggest that the block parties in Miami’s Little Havana were premature. I have had a visceral dislike for Fidel Castro and what he has done to what is by nature one of the most pleasant places on earth for a long time, and there will be a certain satisfaction … Continue reading “Cuba: Same as the Old Boss”

"Trust that Iraq will be the graveyard for terrorism and terrorists for the good of all humanity," said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an address to a joint session of Congress that went reasonably well despite some grumbling in advance. "Iraq is the front line in this struggle, and history will prove that the … Continue reading “Remember Iraq?”

There are always multiple causes for an event so complex as a war – and what’s going on now between Israel and Hezbollah fighters based in Lebanon has gone well beyond the skirmish phase. However, the current conflict is to a considerable degree an example of “blowback,” the old CIA term for unanticipated negative consequences … Continue reading “Reality Bites Back”

On September 11, 2001 the United States was attacked – assuming U.S. intelligence assessments and admissions/boastings by Osama bin Laden are correct – by an action arm of the kind of decentralized, stateless terror network that defines the most notable threat facing this country in the current era. It is a profound understatement to say … Continue reading “Reality-Based Recommendations”

An incredible quantity of ink and electronic data points have been lavished on the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, supposedly the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq – though that was almost certainly an alliance of convenience rather than a close working relationship. While his death will undoubtedly have some tactical implications for whatever is left … Continue reading “Another Dubious Turning Point”

Perhaps it’s appropriate in a world of wheels within wheels, secrets within lies, and deeper shadows in the shadows. But the sources I tapped in Washington and elsewhere about Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden’s appointment as CIA director didn’t offer a whole lot of clarity. For an ordinary citizen, even one with an ability to … Continue reading “Spooks and Libya”

Supporters of the Bush administration’s approach to what is sometimes grandly (or grandiosely) called the Global War on Terror (GWOT), if accounts of some intra-administration discussions are accurate, have sometimes been fond of asserting that the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001. Critics of aspects of the attack on Iraq are sometimes derided as having … Continue reading “Cold Assumptions”

The ongoing demonstrations in France suggest that a welfare state is very much like an addictive drug. Even though it no longer delivers the euphoric feeling that first lured users, even though almost all concerned, including the most dependent, know that continued use will eventually destroy or severely damage the body (politic and economic), the … Continue reading “France: Reinforcing Addiction”

It is perhaps ironic – but charming to one who finds the phenomenon that intentions good and ill so often go awry more amusing than infuriating – that it has been in Great Britain, with its vaunted Official Secrets Act, that leaks have occurred that have made the mainstream press take notice of the extreme … Continue reading “Acknowledging the Rush to War”

So have we learned anything after three years in Iraq and two years and 10 months after the White House created a "Mission Accomplished" sign for an aircraft carrier on which President Bush spoke? Well, we learned, or were reminded, early on in the Iraq war, that the U.S. military long ago sloughed off the … Continue reading “Iraq Three Years On”