Ollie's Blog

Today’s (24 Feb) Stratfor update, Internal Divisions and the Chinese Stimulus Plan, provides a brief economic history of Chinese economic development as backdrop to an analysis of the political debate surrounding their US$600B stimulus program. The debate is apparently surprisingly public and seems to represent a genuine split in the political system. The fissure extends [...]

Mr. William Lind writes in his Defense and the National Interest blog today a piece titled, Two Elections in which he comments on the recent Iraqi and Israeli elections.
He notes that for elections «to substitute for war, not only the winners but also the losers must accept their outcome.« Not surprisingly, he holds little hope [...]

Stratfor’s newsletter of yesterday, Obama Enters the Great Game, examined two foreign policy issues that will confront our new president early on in his administration.
Obama has acknowledged that Afganistan is a priority issue and that he will move troops from Iraq to there in order to try to execute the Gen. David Petraeus strategy. At [...]

We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s  birthday this coming Monday and Barak Obama’s inauguration the next day.
In honor of the first, PBS re-ran the American Experience documentary, Eye on the Prize, which covers the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1985, momentous years in the US. They trace the civil rights movement to several factors:

Black [...]

Defense & The National Interest posted a eulogy for Marine Corps general, Victor Krulak, entitled, Goodbye to the Brute.
It is fortunate for us as citizens that we have these hard, tough men to protect us.

War has evolved markedly in the last 60 years. World War II featured huge land battles with million-man armies, naval engagements of hundreds of ships in all the oceans, 1000-plane bombing missions and the first (and hopefully last) use of nuclear weapons. Korea followed similar lines, with large infantry battles, clear lines and an obvious distinction [...]

We are a week into an ever-bleaker conflict in the Middle East. Pictures of smoke pillars rising over Gaza City and bombed out buildings surrounded by wailing women and children are on every front page. Where will this end?

Roger Ebert wrote a deeply pessimistic piece about the situation facing the new administration in his blog yesterday(12/28). Challenges include the economy, energy, nuclear proliferation, global warming, the Middle East, India / Pakistan, he says. He closes by exhorting Congress to put aside partisan wrangling to work on real solutions.
Maybe this wasn’t pessimistic, after all, [...]

Barack Obama faces many challenges when he takes office not the least of which is setting an appropriate military policy. Our defense budget is rivaled only by social security and medicare in size andit buys a level of effectiveness that is questionable.