TSA: Tedious, Slow, and Absurd?
The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) recently announced that it was re-instituting random screening of passengers at gates. Of course, the reality is that TSA has been conducting additional screening at gates since July 2008 per the TSA's own Web site: "If...
Hey, Big Spender!
Much has been made of President Obama's proclivity for big spending. There's the $787 billion stimulus bill, the $410 billion spending bill to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year (filled with $7.7 billion in earmarks – meaning that it...
Conflicting Visions of Security
Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Manama (my first visit to the Middle East/Persian Gulf) to attend the Bahrain Security Forum and Exhibition (BSFE) co-sponsored by the Ministry of Interior and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Fifty-eight...
Portents From the First
Press Conference
On Monday, Feb. 8, President Barack Obama gave his first prime-time press conference. The purpose was to make the case for his nearly trillion-dollar economic stimulus plan, but the discussion touched on foreign policy during the Q&A. What the president said is...
Obama Wants a Surge
of His Own
On Super Bowl Sunday, President Barack Obama said most U.S. troops in Iraq would be home in time to watch Super Bowl XLIV. Yet a day later he was conferring with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about plans for adding another 15,000 troops in Afghanistan (Chairman of...
Terror, Torture, and Empire
on the Silver Screen
I was having brunch with my good friend Michael Vlahos (who, by the way, has a new book, Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change, that I recommend reading), and, inevitably, the conversation touched on movies. He and I both share a love of movies and feel that...
Why War?
One of my morning rituals is to have a latte at the Java Shack and spend some time solving all of the world's problems with a crew of regular friends. One of the crew is Roger Cirillo, a retired Army officer who manages the book program at the Association of the...
Why Lightning Hasn’t Struck Twice
At the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., President Bush triumphantly proclaimed, "There can be no debate about the results [of my decisions] in keeping America safe." According to the president, the fact that America has not been attacked again since...
Not Home for the Holidays, Again
Once again it's the holidays, and once again some 180,000 U.S. soldiers (about 149,000 in Iraq and 31,000 in Afghanistan) won't be home with their families and friends. This despite the fact that 70 percent of Americans want American troops withdrawn from Iraq. The...
