Home Front: Jihad

"Jihad in America" documentary by Steve Emerson.  Influence of Muslim Brotherhood in U.S.   Gov. since Clinton Admin or earlier has been taken in by militant Islamist groups posing as civil rights and benign religious groups.

Trading Strategy for Tactics

President pulled all the troops out of Iraq and now it is being torn down by al-Qaeda terrorists and Iran-backed Shiite terrorists.  The troops are being pulled out of Afghanistan as the Taliban and al-Qaeda licks their chops.  Are we supposed to not notice these historic strategic blunders because we are being treated sexy commando raids?  Over the weekend Army SF and Navy SEALs conducted raids, the former team captured a long-wanted al-Qaeda terrorists who was involved in the 1998 African embassy attacks.  The latter raided a sea-side terrorist safe house in Somalia targeting the man who planned the recent massacre a the Westgate mall in Kenya.  Counterterrorist raids like these should certainly be a part of the GWOT, but a series of tactical strikes, whether conducted by drones, or SF, is not a winning strategy.  However, it seems to be the strategy of least resistance and coincides with "Lead From Behind," President Obama's so called-doctrine.

Iran: Lately of the Axis of Evil

The question is: Does the Obama administration really believe a different Iranian president means Iran is now willing to reverse more than 15 years of stated policy ,shutter dozens of facilities and flush the billions of dollars it has invested in its nuclear weapons program?  It really believes this or it is cynically and fearfully pretending this is the case so it can allow Iran to run out the clock.  If the U.S. and Iran are "negotiating" some worthless piece of paper to achieve peace on our time, Israel would be under enormous pressure to not attack Iran's facilities and so implicitly accept a nuclear Iran.

Another question is: Will Israel go along with this charade?  If we believe Israel's rhetoric it can not afford to allow it and considers it an existential threat.  If it does not act at some point what are we to make of this?  Was the rhetoric overblown in the first place?  Can Israel, the Middle East and the West live with an Iranian bomb?  Unfortunately we are probably going to find out soon enough.

Media Wars: Politics of Movies

2001-2008

Lions to Lambs
Farenheit 9/11
Dark Times
Haditha...


2009-2014

Zero Dark Thirty
Captain Phillips
The Messenger
Lone Survivor from book

Proposed Chapters

Syria & Libya: Civil Wars as Proxy War
Bin Laden: Dead or Alive
World War: Unfighting the Global War on Terror, Man Caused Disasters and Overseas Contingency Operations
Afghanistan: Surging Troops to the Exit
Iraq: Precipitous Abandonment/Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Warrior-Centric: Is Sequestration the New Normal?
Iran: Ascendent Shiite Power
WMD: Syria/Iraq? Libya, North Korea, Iran
Victory: Spring Time for Arabs, Westernization vs Islamization
Homeland Security: "self" radicalized in Boston, Ft Hood, Michigan (Underwear bomber), NY (Times Square bomber) see American cleric
Cyber Space: chapter?

Sources and Methods/Media Wars

Credibility is really all a researcher/writer has in the end.  Elizabeth O'Bagy, formerly of the Institute for the Study of War has been fired from the think tank as well as the Wall Street Journal for apparently lying about having a Ph.D. from Georgetown University (she did reportedly earn a B.A. and did study Arabic in the Middle East)  a lot more troubling is her previously unacknowledged affiliation with a group called the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a pro-rebel group. She has appeared on Fox news as a Syria expert and her work with ISW was cited publicly by Secretary Kerry.  Her analysis that the rebel groups are distinct, geographically separated and not compromised by the jihadist elements might all be correct, but she has put her credibility in jeopardy by misrepresenting herself.

9/11: Conspiracy Theories 12 Years Later

There was a lot of strain on the American people in the months and years following the 9/11 attack.  You can almost understand how some traumatized people looking to make sense of the horrible event and its aftermath might seek answers in the form of conspiracy theories. The idea that dark and powerful forces operate behind the scenes has a seductive quality for some and so we got the 9/11 Truthers, people who read some stories on the internet or watched the video "Spare Change" and were convinced 9/11 was an inside job.  Just to clarify: this is an insanely paranoid idea with not credible evidence to support it

Conspiracy theories are pretty tame in the U.S. compared to the Middle East where the fever swamps are rife with a menagerie of conflicting, competing and contradictory theories where every crazy idea imaginable is given currency.  Have you heard the one about how the various terrorist groups stalking the world are actually creations of the U.S. used to stir up trouble and give it an excuse to meddle in the Muslim World? Sadly, there are plenty more where this one came from.