Monthly Archives: January 2014

Another Kerry failure

"A week of UN-brokered peace talks between Syria's opposition and government has failed to achieve any tangible results, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Friday. "I regret to tell you that we have not reached tangible results during this week," he … Continue reading

Posted in Syria | 30 Comments

“On Conversation” By Richard Sale

Conversation is more and more a lost art.  And it is an art. It is the imparting of personal observations impelled by an impulse to share and learn, not dominate. A successful conversation requires two minds that are similar in … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

“American Hustle” a Review by Alan Farrell

Directed by: David Russell (who also did The Fighter, dispiriting flick about one of Nature’s lesser creatures who manages at length—great length—to stand on his hind legs and beard his tormentors; then Silver Linings Playbook, dispiriting flick about one of … Continue reading

Posted in Farrell, Film | 10 Comments

Is Obama sleep walking toward disaster?

"While the proposals announced tonight may turn out to be constitutional – certainly administration lawyers will be ready to cite statutes they purport authorize the action. The president is doubtless using such language to emphasize what he sees as the … Continue reading

Posted in Current Affairs, government, Politics | 136 Comments

“Lone Survivor” a review by Alan Farrell

 Directed by: Peter Berg, who also wrote the scenario, “based”evidently on the book of the same name (sorta) written by the SEAL who survived this action, Marcus Luttrell (he had a ghost… actually, twenty-some ghosts if you count his buddies … Continue reading

Posted in Farrell, Film | 14 Comments

Why are two US Army combat brigades still in Kuwait?

Don Bacon recently informed me that in addition to various headquarters, logistical facilities and rotating air units throughout the Gulf area, the US Army continues to maintain two ground combat brigades in Kuwait, presumebly at Camps Arfijan and Buehring.  I … Continue reading

Posted in Middle East | 10 Comments

Unworthy, shameful and rotten

"Since November 2012, when an adulterous affair felled David H. Petraeus, the CIA director and most renowned Army general of his generation, the armed forces have struggled to cope with tawdry disclosures about high-ranking commanders. The Navy has been humbled … Continue reading

Posted in Current Affairs | 24 Comments

“The Dictatorship of Partisanship” By Richard Sale

Robert Gates in his new memoir used very well chosen words to scorch the U.S. Congress for its defects, calling it, “uncivil, incompetent, parochial, and hypocritical.”  Of course, he could have gone to say it is also narrow, self-serving, ill … Continue reading

Posted in government, Intelligence | 6 Comments

Obama: the true father of his country. Ask him.

"… remarks the President made this week while announcing a task force aimed at protecting students on college campuses from sexual assault. "Sexual assault is an affront to our basic decency and humanity. And it's about all of us – … Continue reading

Posted in government | 85 Comments

Congress cuts funds for Afghanistan

 "With no perceptible opposition from the Obama administration, Congress has quietly downscaled Washington’s ambitions for the final year of the Afghan war, substantially curtailing development aid and military assistance plans ahead of the U.S. troop pullout. As congressional appropriators put … Continue reading

Posted in Afghanistan | 35 Comments