Abu Muqawama: Post
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Quote of the Day
Think tanks are simply welfare agencies for intellectuals who can’t survive in the marketplace as well as holding pens for political creatures briefly out of office. The Sierra Club should be picketing them over all the innocent trees they’ve killed.
Of course, heh, Business Week reports that Ralph Peters's employer, the New York Post, loses between $15 million to $30 million annually and has to be heavily subsidized by the rest of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in order to buy the paper and ink for the 500,000 copies of the Post that get printed on a daily basis. Think tanks, by contrast (especially think tanks like CNAS, which do not own their own property and watch their assets take the Metro home every night), have to make payroll each month. So I'm not sure who, exactly, isn't hacking it in the marketplace. Or maybe I'm wrong and Ralph Peters has been successful in his campaign to lock up our commanders in Afghanistan for murdering U.S. troops. (h/t @paulmcleary)
Who (if anyone) exactly does
Who (if anyone) exactly does CNAS sell it's product to?
Would the buyer(s) be using taxpayer funds?
Do you think that if the purchasers of CNAS product had to pay for it with their own money (as per a newspaper) that CNAS would exist?
Do you guys take the Metro
Do you guys take the Metro home to Anacostia?
Look remember when u pwd
Look remember when u pwd Lockheed and upstate NY too bad yer losing your jobs?
And I admittedly lashed out and overreacted?
Dr Exum everyone is getting a look now. Bad $ fiat paper $ and a clearly corrupt bargain between DC and Wall Street that is bankrupting the entire country and the world will get attention.
You need to look at Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke , Dodd and Frank et al not Ralph & Rupert.
Welcome to the real world . Next on the Frondes shit list is academia BTW
costs too much for too little. Still costs to much.
Remember the Constitution gives us all the rights of Aristrocracy. That's why this is a broad based rebellion.
Listen to the people O Democrat.
Okay, I don't think those
Okay, I don't think those first two comments expected a serious response, but they'll get one: (1) Visitor 12:06, I used to live in the SE, but near RFK, not Anacostia. I now live up near Mt. Pleasant in the NW. I moved to be closer to my church, believe it or not. (2) Visitor 11:53, we get out funding from a mix of individuals, corporations, foundations and governments. Starting next year, all think tanks like ours will be required to disclose our donor information in our taxes. This is a good thing, and we at CNAS are not as nervous about this as other think tanks in the DC area. Of course, our business model is completely fukt. We basically give away our product. For free. If we were in this for the money, we would ditch our 501(c)3 status and open a for-profit consultancy.Hahaha! Could be YOUR break
Hahaha! Could be YOUR break into the USG! RT @dianawueger: Well, that's one way to get a security clearance... http://bit.ly/9b6xlX
Irony or irony, they are all Chinese (FOB) in Sodexo!
Hahaha! Could be YOUR break
Hahaha! Could be YOUR break into the USG! RT @dianawueger: Well, that's one way to get a security clearance...
Irony--they are all Chinese (Fresh off the boat) in Sodexo!
Now, this verges on
Now, this verges on Pollyannaism:
"At its best, a think tank contributes to a better world,” says Richard Danzig, a former Secretary of the Navy who has served on the boards of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the Rand Corporation, and Public Agenda and is now chairman of the Center for a New American Security. “It does this by sponsoring thought, research, and dialogue. Optimally, it provides support, time, and space to the privileged few who populate it so that they think more deeply, more broadly, and more soundly than the prevailing wisdom.”
Great, great - but let's go beyond the Winnie-the-Pooh cheerfulness and look at think tanks at their worst instead - starting with recent events, and going back in time.
First, the selling of the claims about Iraqi WMDs was a think tank operation, much of it centered around a specific book: the Brookings-sponsored, Random House-sponsored "Threatening Storm" by Ken Pollack. The book itself then became the focal point of numerous think tank meetings, which generated a storm of policy suggestions, white papers, etc., which then were filtered out to the major media outlets, in the care of public relations firms like the Rendon Group.
The mentality of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Perle-Wolfowitz Cabal, the inheritors of the Team B mantle, was that they first had to convince the Washington elite using every strong-arm tactic they could think of, then they could coordinate a media push with no real opposition. These claims were cooked up in collaboration with the Iranian-influenced INC's Chalabi, an operation in which James Woolsey (Clinton's first CIA director) played a central role. He's now at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy - or is he a VP and private intel contractor Boozer Allen Harriman, or whatever they call it? The British connection to the Henry Jackson Society is also of interest, as is the connection to the British intel dossier on Iraqi WMDs.
Finally, they succeeded in invading Iraq, and the Taliban responded by re-taking Afghanistan, while Iran is kinda looking like the biggest beneficiary of the whole debacle - but BP has Rumaila! - for now, anyway.
That's one example - but it's the same deal as the Team B effort in the 1980s to undercut Reagan-Gorbachev nuclear weapons reductions. These are the people who insisted on keeping Star Wars alive, who told Reagan all manner of lies about its effectiveness (Edward Teller was part of that crowd, too) - all to undermine a very rational nuclear weapons reduction program. During the Reagan years, the Hoover Institute was the top think tank in terms of influence, and even before Reagan entered office, they relentlessly promoted a theme of U.S. military inferiority in the face of the Soviet hegemonic threat - the submarine caterpillar drive, etc. etc. The funny thing - and the proof of their incompetence - is that they entirely missed the real Soviet WMD program, Biopreparat - the massive biological weapons program that boomed to prominence within the Soviet system in the 1970s and 1980s - and why? Bioweapons are cheaper than nukes, and Gorbachev was able to justify his military cuts to the Soviet generals by pointing to the effective biological weapons program.
If you go further back, you can see the Kennedy used think tank and media "analysis" of a missile gap between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to great effect in his election campaign - something Eisenhower repeatedly denied from 1957-1961. In spite of this, the myth of Kennedy the anti-war LSD-sipping peacenik persists to this day. The missile gap and the domino theory were what Kennedy used to justify U.S. foreign policy - and chemical and biological weapons spending increased threefold during his administration, too. The myth vs. the reality - here's a clipping from 1959 on the missile gap theory:
Joseph Aloto, Jan 10, 1959, Daytona Beach Morning Journal
All the ablest and best informed leaders of Congress, reading from Sen. Stile Bridges on the right to Sen. Hubert Humphrey on the left, have returned to Washington in a mood of active, vocal, almost angry disquiet about national defense problems. There is hardly a trace, any longer, of the old willingness to "leave defense to Ike."
Eisenhower had (like Gates) proposed a reduction in the national defense budget, from $41.1 billion (1959) to $40.9 billion (1960) - outrageous, right? A major opponent there was that ol' think tank neocon, Albert Wohlstetter, who chaired the dissertations of Wolfowitz and Unocal's Afghan pipeline consultant, Khalizad - but here he is in 1959:
...but as Chief of the War Projects Division of the "semi-official" Rand Corp., Wohlstetter belongs, in effect, to an annex of the Air Force Planning Staff. Not even a Pentagon press office can question Wohlstetter's knowledge of the defense facts.
This is what led to Eisenhower's famous final "fuck the military-industrial complex, they're a fascist threat, along with their academic arse-lickers" speech - something people seem to forget these days.
P.S. A more appropriate Pooh quote...
"I thought," said Piglet earnestly, "that if Eeyore stood at the bottom of the tree, and if Pooh stood on Eeyore's back, and if I stood on Pooh's shoulders -"
"And if Eeyore's back snapped suddenly, then we could all laugh. Ha Ha! Amusing in a quiet way," said Eeyore, "but not really helpful."
"Well," said Piglet meekly, "I thought -"
"Would it break your back, Eeyore?" asked Pooh, very much surprised.
"That's what would be so interesting, Pooh. Not being quite sure till afterwards."
I would guess that Ralph
I would guess that Ralph makes more money from book sales than he does his regular column, but I don't know. His latest fiction book was surprisingly readable, though I figure it didn't sell like "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."
Also, I was under the impression that almost all newspapers are hemmoraging money these days. Maybe the NY Post is losing more than most?
I don't like having to defend Mr. Peters, though at one point he had some good things to say, but I'm pretty confident that he could "suceed in the marketplace" without the NY Post. That isn't to say I endorse any of the crazy things he's been saying in the past few years.
And what is the relevence of the metro thing? I live near the Navy Yard stop, does that offer me some sort of extra DC street cred?
Watching the comments
Watching the comments section here has led me to a conclusion: my social studies teachers run the world. I can't find many other scenarios which justify the bizarre fascination serial commenters here betray with the use of sources. Well, I have great news: you've all passed the APUSH exam. Now, maybe stop with the attempts to make small and banal essays every time our dear Abu posts? Put away the childish things.
1. LTCOL Peters tends to
1. LTCOL Peters tends to belabor the obvious in most of his columns.
2. In the last 20 or so, did not find much to disagree with.
3. Since he has little competition, don't find fault with that -even if I'm not greatly enlightened.
4. As far as I can see, most of the accusations of extremism come from extrapolating relatively innocuous one liners into full-on craziness. Peters is not an inhabitant of the lunatic fringe.
5. Come to AM for enlightenment and intellectual rigor. Despite a good amount of dross (to include myself), almost always find a gem or two in the comments.
6. For which I thank you.
V/R JWest
gd, do i remember you from
gd, do i remember you from Intel-Dump?
If so, good you sir. Sanity is rare.
Actually, the NY Post today
Actually, the NY Post today is serving the same role that the RAND Corporation served in 1959 - pumping up wasteful defense spending the moment cuts are proposed by the Secretary of Defense. In this case, they're out to preserve ballistic missile defense from cuts www.nypost.com
They still see missile defense as a liability rather than a major strategic asset and a triumph of American science and engineering.
That's from one Arthur Herman. However, the "strategic asset" and "effective" claims are as bogus as ever - Mr. Herman doesn't make any mention of the following story from 2004, for example - tech.mit.edu
This is getting to be par for the course for the academic professor-private contractor-military agency partnerships - stamp the bullshit three times and call it gold. It's all been approved...in triplicate, no less! The role of some academic professors has been as reprehensible as that of the worst think tanks, here - and some government agencies are just tools for political operatives. Mix these all together with cartel financing, and you've got a fascist outfit, which if unchecked will lead to a fascist state.
The fact that the NY Post is attacking think tanks while doing the exact same thing itself is a nice example of distorted hypocrisy by Murdoch's Orwellian Media Empire, tho. In reality, the entire budget for the Missile Defense Agency should be scrapped - it's a much bigger waste than that second engine for the F-35.
Think tanks are like The
Think tanks are like The Super Adventure Club.
http://www.strimoo.com/video/14954587/South-Park-The-Super-Adventure-Clu...
The consolation is that when
The consolation is that when Obama Administration concludes its four-year presidency , CNAS will shrink to one of the many other failing left lobbiies which persuade themseleves that Islam is like all other religions just a little more political.Have You converted to Islam yet, Andrew?
I get the feeling that you are getting more and more forgiving against Muslim terrorism.
Visitor on August 18, 2010 -
Visitor on August 18, 2010 - 5:43pm
I think the question is, did you serve, if so did you do your time in the sandbox, if so was it behind the wire? Nuf said, I know all the answers to the above is no, no, and no. Sadly.
"Our soldiers must have the
"Our soldiers must have the fighting spirit. If you call that hating our enemies, then we must hate with every fiber of our being. We must lust for battle; our object in life must be to kill. . . . Since killing is the object of our efforts, the sooner we get in the killing mood, the better and more skillful we shall be when the real test comes. The struggle is for survival—kill or be killed." signed, --- Lt. Gen. Lesley James Mcnair, Chief of the Army Ground Forces "We are not going to be Killed!" (5:21)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886113-2,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5J_UfNjfW4
Winnie the Pooh commenter ftw
Winnie the Pooh commenter ftw
I hold no special brief for
I hold no special brief for Ralph Peters, but I sometimes wonder what good, net, is done by the think tank as an institution.
Harvard University seemed to provide Henry Kissinger ample time to "think broadly, deeply, soundly" before he entered the Nixon administration. Dean Acheson's law firm was good enough for him after he served as Secretary of State. Today, they would head to think tanks, most of them in Washington. Or would they?
The reality of the think tank world, viewed from a safe distance, is that it encourages well-connected young people to engage in spirited discussions with other well-connected young people who have views on public affairs very similar to their own. It offers a place to argue, and opportunities for notoriety without responsibility. The think tank world offers former administration officials and defeated politicians a place to land, freeing them from the responsibility to find jobs. It's a much more comfortable world than that of the university (no teaching) or of Congressional staff (no constituents, and of course no responsibility to do anything that isn't really interesting). It's way better than the business world.
The world of the think tank offers any number of people an opportunity to stay in the policy game without needing to be on the playing field. Can the think tank produce something more worthwhile than this? I suppose so. Does it do so very often? Really?
Come on, do you really need
Come on, do you really need to push Tea Party talking points?
CNAS will shrink to one of the many other failing left lobbiies which persuade themseleves that Islam is like all other religions. . . .
President Bush, Dec 5 2002:
"Islam brings hope and comfort to millions of people in my country, and to more than a billion people worldwide. Ramadan is also an occasion to remember that Islam gave birth to a rich civilization of learning that has benefited mankind."
I would comment, but I don't
I would comment, but I don't think it's possible for anyone to discuss this issue without having read Rene Wormser's Foundations: Their Power and Influence (1958). I assume no one else here has.
Wormser was chief counsel for the Reece Committee, which breathed its last five decades ago. They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. If so, I'd definitely avoid intimate contact with the Carnegie, Ford or Rockefeller foundations - especially if you have any open cuts or wounds.
Well brother Andrew you have
Well brother Andrew you have been Peterized. We know the feeling at West Point since a few years back it was Peters who referred to us military faculty here as pipe smoking dorks wearing cardigans. Right, so when he said that I asked myself as did other combat vets in the History Department how much hard time the man has spent in the rough valleys of Astan or the mean streets of Baghdad leading troopers? Answer, zilch. No combat experience for the cat, Zippo. After he dissd' us even though I didn’t own a cardigan button down black sweater I went out and bought one just to spite the dude (was channeling Seinfeld of course). I then carried out a personal campaign of my own to get as many folks in the History Department to buy their own. Shoot, I would have started smoking a pipe if my wife would have let me.
Faghetaboutem'.
What bothers me most about the man is when he thinks and writes as if he is the voice of the combat, foot soldier when in fact he is a political ideologue who sometimes has interesting and important things to say but other times just spews venom.
Ex, will you be in the big apple anytime soon? I will be in DC in early October. It would be good to drink a cup of Joe and chat.
gian
gd, are you seriously citing
gd, are you seriously citing George W. Bush as an authority? On anything at all?
Col. Gentile you should
Col. Gentile you should invite Peters for a cup of Joe, then invite him to the alley adjacent and just beat the f#ck out of this bozo and knock some sense into his little pathetic life.
"I used to live in the SE,
"I used to live in the SE, but near RFK, not Anacostia. I now live up near Mt. Pleasant in the NW"
Andrew,
I had no idea that you had moved up this way. Welcome to the neighborhood. Hopefully you are registered to vote in DC. If so, I hope you consider casting your vote for Jeff Smith in the Ward 1 primary on 9/14.
Jeff is a proud US Army veteran and, if elected, will be the only veteran on the 13 member DC Council.
We're having a rally for him tomorrow at 18th and Columbia NW at 5:30. There will also be a candidate's forum on 8/31 at Goodwill Baptist. Check out his website and I hope you consider lending him your support.
http://www.jeffsmithforward1.com/
Unfortunately, Ralph Peters
Unfortunately, Ralph Peters is not a particularly helpful voice. It is not that he does not occasionally have some good points to make (I remember being an Anti-Tank PL and agreeing a great deal about an asssessment he made on the TOW Missile Launcher) and I don't doubt that he cares about Soldiers, it is just that most of his opinions nowadays seem to me to be one dimensional opinion slinging from the cheap seats. As an MI Guy that has done 3 tours in the last 5 years in a IBCT, Mr Peters consistently oversimplifies the problems faced by Soldiers in a live environment and would have you believe that there is not a problem set that can't be solved by a brutal application of firepower regardless of consequences and are constantly held back by thoughtless and morally weak leaders who just don't care about anything but their reputations. Like all sweeping generalizations made about complex situations, it is 90 percent wrong, 10 percent true. I don't buy EVERYTHING in the Counter-Insurgency manual but I have personally seen the results of successful adherence to a population based strategy based off moderation and considered application of violence (Applied during the Iraqi Surge to good effect; targeted operations picked up, civilian interaction went up, large set-piece conventional ops were rare unless there was an absolute requirement). As far as Mr. Peters is concerned, please feel absolutely free to get off the sidelines and use your not inconsiderable intellect (I have met people that served with you when you were MI LTC and noone ever claimed you were dumb; vain and arrogant yes, dumb no) and join the fight as a contracted, 'think-tank' or USGOV analyst or at the very least come on over to Iraq/Afghanistan and embed for couple of months with an Infantry unit and actually try to understand the fight and why things are the way they are rather than expressing a bunch of blantantly partisan surface deep bromides.
Mt. Pleasant is also known
Mt. Pleasant is also known as west West Beirut.
Would second Mencious, but hasten to add that liberal WASPs are not the only group to drink to their own death from this poisoned chalice.
Today, Mount Pleasant is a
Today, Mount Pleasant is a diverse community of affluent people, middle class wage earners, working class people, and immigrants... don't forget crack addicts. LOL, kinda like Venice, CA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_13 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice,_Los_Angeles
AM, F' em.... I'm with COL
AM,
F' em.... I'm with COL Gentile, (I was once a very briefly a member of D/HISTORY USMA, so I do sort of feel like it's my duty to support the team after all)....I don't think Peters has never been up to his ( or more importantly, his dudes') neck in it , likely has never held a bloody hand mike to MEDEVAC anyone, to my limited knowledge hasn't ever walked a patrol in Zhari, Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Kunar, or Paktika or spoken enough to those who have, and doesn't separate right-wing political rants from on the ground realities well enough to pose as a "combat" expert in my recently-back- from -AFG-as-a- junior-leader opinion. For all the criticism of think tanks and the Washington intelligentsia I've seen on this board, as a recent vet I can say without hesitation that your board, and some CNAS/other worthwhile blog writing, hits enough salient points about the nature of the war to merit consideration in the informed discourse on AFG, and is an asset. In fact, I got more relevant information while in-country from the folks from D/History and the various think tanks ( this blog, Brian Fishman and USMA CTC come to mind) out there that lent more to my small fight than Peters has ever written in the pages of the NY Post. Most relevant blog on the internet for LT's (at least now that Kaboom is dead). RLTW, sir,
"I get the feeling that you
"I get the feeling that you are getting more and more forgiving against Muslim terrorism."
Hey Ex,
Why don't you ask the U.S. Marines why they won't return to Beirut?
Or ask yourself....why your beloved alumni / university doesn't hold a memorial service every year for the two U.S. Embassy bombings in Beirut? Or for the Marine Barrack's?
If you went to school in Beirut to understand your enemy, you did good. If you went native and you think there is a goodness in these people, that hasn't been seen by the rest of the universe, then I think you've lost your mind.
American's living in Beirut today, most can't walk about on the streets, not unless they have bodyguards or are carrying firearms to protect themselves. Why is that?
Sure you went to college in the Middle East and perhaps you obtained a deeper understanding for the Lebanese, their culture and language, but if you get a chance....in your dealings with the Pentagon, why don't you ask someone high-up in the Marine Corps why they don't station men and women from their branch of service in Lebanon anymore? Don't be surprised if you piss several people off.
S/F
Snake
hey, dumbass, there are
hey, dumbass, there are marines in beirut now and american and european students go clubbing every night without having to "carry guns". there's some great surfin' down south.
You're above this, AM. We
You're above this, AM. We support you.
snake you obviously haven't
snake
you obviously haven't been in Beirut in the last 20 years.
I was there during the 06 summer war and again a year ago
No one bothers me and i'm striaght up white looking
Lebanese are the most cosmopolitan and accepting of foreigners as you can get in the region
they speak 3 languages
give me a break
There are Marines in Beirut
There are Marines in Beirut now? Prove it.
Show me a photo of one U.S. Marine in uniform, dated after or even before their last evacuation. Of course Marines (FAST CO) assisted during the last evacuation, but no Marines serve there...and there is a reason why.
BTW- All Official American Government Employees living and working in Lebanon have bodyguards, all have a curfew imposed on them and all are restricted to going out on the town partying at clubs to only a couple nights a week.
You're delusional if you think it's safe there.
So if a group of
So if a group of individual's speak three languages, that means they don't harbor, promote or fund terrorist organizations? Is this what you're saying Michael?
You're probably the same guy who believes if a woman weighs the same as a duck, then she's a witch! ...ahahaha.
I'm in Lebanon. And my guys
I'm in Lebanon. And my guys and I party in Ashrafiyeh every night (or try to--work?).
Barns....wake up, you're in
Barns....wake up, you're in Kabul and those are Bacha Bazi Boys you're partying with, not Lebanese women.
On think tanks, and the rest
On think tanks, and the rest of Beltlandia (which is turning the USA into Ameristan): OK maybe most of CNAS is honest.
[if AM thinks that somebodies not in the loop and that his colleagues are going to work for peanuts forever, he is well and truly lost to reality].
Anyway let's say that CNAS is without sin. And George Soros is a philanthropist.
The entire govt is coming under a microscope now. Wielded not by the whorish Press, but the justly enraged and wrong American people. Which is the way it's supposed to work.
And yes the Gravy Train is coming off the tracks.
I 'd say academia is next, but that's coming into the sight picture as well (co$ts).
Perhaps you could apply for work in factories...uh..ooops...they closed them all.
There's always the Bureau of Prisons....
@ Exum Way to get your Saul
@ Exum
Way to get your Saul Alinsky on.
Ralph Peters is a political
Ralph Peters is a political whore who survives in the marketplace by proving that intellectual vulgarity draws voters like flies. The American people voted his ilk out of power over all the people they’ve killed.
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