The pratfall Dave Petraeus took face-first into his microphone during his farcical testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee last Tuesday channeled the Twix candy bar commercial that asks: “Need a moment?” As the New York Times put it, the Teflon General was...
King David Rules
While I was taking a week off to celebrate Memorial Day the story broke about “King David” Petraeus secretly giving himself authority in back in September 2009 to start a war anywhere from the Horn of Africa to the Bananastans*. His secret directive allows him to bury...
The Five-Sided House of Usher
The tea leaves tell me we're about to experience a seismic event that will produce the next collapse of our five-sided House of Usher, the Pentagon. The last time we saw a temblor of that magnitude was in November 2006. Just before the mid-term election, young Mr....
Obama’s Flailing Wars
On stage, it would be farce. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, it's bound to play out as tragedy. Less than two months ago, Barack Obama flew into Afghanistan for six hours – essentially to read the riot act to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whom his ambassador had only...
Heart of McDarkness
The latest bunker mentality bunk to emanate from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, is that he has too many civilian contractors hoofing around on his turf. Back in June 2009, a "civilian surge" was a key component of...
No-sama bin Laden
Hillary’s Dope Deal?
Adnkronos International (AKI), the Italian news agency, reports that the U.S., in the person of Hillary Clinton, pressured Hamid Karzai rival Abdullah Abdullah to drop out of the presidential race. The way AKI describes it, this was the biggest foreign policy coup of...