Sunday, May 23, 2004

An entrepreneurial market-state viewpoint  I am a customer of defense/security services, so are you, but you may not see it that way yet.  As a customer of these services, are you pleased with what you are getting (particularly in Iraq)?  Create a list of those services you thought you paid for.  Create a list of those services you actually received.  How do these lists compare?  8:41:22 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

Can the US government keep up with today's fast news cycle and keep its credibility?  For example: AP. Reuters.  "This report is false, and...Sanchez stands by his testimony before Congressional committees," it said. This "official" response denies the validity of claims made in the Washington Post this morning.   I can appreciate the need for speed given how quickly this story is spreading.  However, the problem is that the facts aren't known at this point.  To make a categorical response of this nature is imprudent to say the least.  The correct response is to hedge your bets and say that we stand behind our general's testimony.  Hinge it on the testimony and don't make statements of fact that may later prove to be false.  Am I wrong on this?? 8:25:53 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

An important indicator of how we are moving from a nation-state to a market-state:  our defense department is now run like a corporation.  The all volunteer army was the first step.  Outsourcing of tasks to private corporations was the second.  Estimates are that upwards of 30% of all sanctioned defense activities in Iraq are outsourced -- compare this to 1% in the first gulf war.  12:09:20 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

Virginia Postrel on the "corrections officer in me."  10:16:07 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

I read most of Philip Bobbitt's excellent "The Shield of Achilles" yesterday.  This is an extraordinary book.  In my view, it is light years better than Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" and Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order" in its ability to explain our current situation.  I will write a full review soon.  BTW, he concurs with my analysis that infrastructure attacks and not bodycount attacks are the future of terrorism. 9:00:42 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

WP.  Drip, drip, drip.  A military lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse case stated that a captain at the prison said the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq was present during some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," according to a recording of a military hearing obtained by The Washington Post. 8:19:54 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

NYT.  Al Sadr's retreat from Karbala signals that his commanders are learning how to fight a guerrilla war.  Withdraw when faced with overwhelming conventional force.   Instead, attack areas of weakness (the Iraqi police, US supply lines, reconstruction contractors, infrastructure, etc.).  Conventional forces should only be engaged when isolated.  BTW.  This is a sign of intelligence from a clash in a Kufa mosque:  The US military insisted its troops did not enter the mosque itself, but that an Iraqi counter-terrorism unit had raided the building, confiscating a cache of weapons. 7:47:30 AM    Comment_ Trackback []