Ollie's Blog

President Obama held a news conference on Saturday in Strasbourg following the NATO conference at which he was asked about whether he held to a view of American exceptionalism. The following segment is quoted from the transcript released by the White House and may be found on CQ Politics:
Ed Luce, from the Financial Times. Where’s [...]

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 [...]

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.