Saturday, May 5, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 5 May

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Barbarians have Crashed the Gate
Here is today's digression:

  • Sarah Baxter, writing in the Times Online proves she is as much deluded as the "Disillusioned supporters of President George W Bush [who] are defecting to Barack Obama." Conjuring up memories of the `06 Congressional elections, Baxter points out that Democrats are once again trying to win against Republicans by casting themselves as more Republican than Republicans. One can't help but notice the constant race-baiting rhetoric, however:

    For his optimism about the future, Obama has been dubbed the “black Ronald Reagan.” He frequently challenges the black community to support two-parent families and encourage school students, instead of criticising them for “acting white.”
    Newsweek reports that George W. Bush has the lowest presidential approval rating in a generation but the online news rag fails to point out the new Democrat controlled Congress is flirting with the same all time low job-approval ratings.

    For what it's worth, as long as Democrat candidates are running against Bush they aren't running against the Republican candidates.

  • Writing in The Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman and Lyndsey Layton report that Democrats have simply failed to live up the the promise to "Drain the GOP 'Swamp'" in their first 100 hours in office.

    In the heady opening weeks of the 110th Congress, the Democrats' domestic agenda appeared to be flying through the Capitol.

    <...>

    But now that initial progress has foundered as Washington policymakers have been consumed with the debate over the Iraq war. Not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the "do nothing" tag they slapped on Republicans last year could come back to haunt them.

    <...>

    "This leadership, these Democrats have shown that they can fight," he said. "Now they have to show they can govern."
    We will know when Democrats can govern: they will stop acting like they are still the minority party.

  • On the other hand, Democrats are going to have a hard time of it going into the `08 presidential election if the U.S. is still in Iraq. No matter how bad they want Bush to fall under the weight of the war, seasoned Democrats know if they can't saddle Bush with defeat in Iraq, they will still have to deal with the problem if they win the presidency.

    The New York Times points out Congressional Democrats are under increasing pressure from the anti-war left and predicts the pressure to grow as Democrats continue to fail at their attempts to govern. The whole thing brings to mind the image of trying to herd a bunch of cats.

  • Not to be out-gloomed and doomed by former Vice President, Al Gore, The Associated Press reports former President Bill Clinton said Friday that disasters such as worldwide famine and an obesity epidemic could destroy the U.S. health care system unless politicians begin to look ahead and cooperate. It's all a matter of consensus!

    "Each of these are threats that we know are going to happen. This is not like saying, 'What do we do if the president of China is kidnapped tomorrow,'" Stone said. "It's not even that there is really technical disagreement about these things. It's just a matter of figuring how we can get governments to act."

  • A soccer game between Muslim imams and Christian priests at the end of a conference to promote interfaith dialogue was canceled Saturday reports AP because the teams could not agree on whether women priests should take part.

  • AP reports a music teacher who twice ordered a seven-year-old pupil to hit himself in the head with drum mallets will not return to the Parkway, Missouri School District next year.

    State officials say the 36-year-old teacher intended the head-banging as a lesson to Justin Barricklow about hitting the drums too hard.

  • And finally, The Independent reports there was an almost audible sigh of relief in parts of America's capital this weekend after ABC News said it would not reveal the identities of scores of clients of the alleged "DC madam" because they were not well enough known to be "newsworthy."
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Combat Camera: Eye on the Fleet, 5 May 2007

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGENORFOLK, Va. (May 2, 2007) - Lightning blazes in the distance as USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) is in her homeport. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Matthew D. Williams (RELEASED)

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEPACIFIC OCEAN (May 1, 2007) - Guided missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) steams in formation during a photo exercise near Guam. Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group consists of Amphibious Squadron 7, amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), amphibious transport dock USS Denver (LPD 9), dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47), USS Milius, guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), guided missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65), and 2,200 combat ready Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Mark Patterson II (RELEASED)

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEPACIFIC OCEAN (May 1, 2007) – Amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) leads a formation of ships during a photo exercise near Guam. Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group consists of Amphibious Squadron 7, USS Bonhomme Richard, amphibious transport dock USS Denver (LPD 9), dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47), guided missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69), guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), guided missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65), and 2,200 combat ready Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Mark Patterson II (RELEASED)

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEPACIFIC OCEAN (May 1, 2007) – Amphibious transport dock USS Denver (LPD 9) steams in formation during a photo exercise near Guam. Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group consists of Amphibious Squadron 7, amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), USS Denver, dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47), guided missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69), guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), guided missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65), and 2,200 combat ready Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Mark Patterson II (RELEASED)

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEPACIFIC OCEAN (May 1, 2007) – Amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) steams in formation during a photo exercise near Guam. Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group consists of Amphibious Squadron 7, USS Bonhomme Richard, amphibious transport dock USS Denver (LPD 9), dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47), guided missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69), guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), guided missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65), and 2,200 combat ready Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Mark Patterson II (RELEASED)

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEPACIFIC OCEAN (May 1, 2007) – Guided missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65) steams in formation during a photo exercise near Guam. Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group consists of Amphibious Squadron 7, amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), amphibious transport dock USS Denver (LPD 9), dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47), guided missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69), guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), USS Chosin, and 2,200 combat ready Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Mark Patterson II (RELEASED)

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEPACIFIC OCEAN (May 1, 2007) - Seaman Darrell Parker, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, stands the forward lookout watch station aboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) during a photo exercise with Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group (BHR ESG) near Guam. BHR ESG is underway on a regularly scheduled deployment and is currently under operational control of Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 7/Task Force 76, the Navy's only forward deployed amphibious force. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Woody Paschall (RELEASED)

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Zawahiri Mocks Dem's Troop Withdrawal Bill

Ayman al-Zawahiri
Al Qaeda no. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri wished for hundreds of thousands of U.S. dead in a new video.

It's been a hard week for liberal Democrats.

The week began badly enough when President bush vetoed the pork-laden Iraq troop withdrawal bill, proving no matter how much Democrats paid in tack-on funding to buy Congressional anti-war votes, the will of American people still resides with the president and not with a slim Senate and House majority. Some pundits noticed that Congressional Democrats seemed uncomfortable wearing the self-perceived mantle of power and were whining and moaning as if they were still in the minority.

Soon after Bush acted on the legislation, the veto held firm when Congressional Democrats failed to raise enough votes to override the President.

Later in the week, when liberally biased MSNBC cable news hosted the first Republican Presidential debate, Fox News had more viewers in the same time slot who would rather watch Fox pundits talking about the event than sit through MSNBC's Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews candidate baitng.

Finally, when it could not get any worse, Al Qaeda no. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a video posted today on the Internet, mocked Democrats about the failure of the bill and flatly contradicted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's statement that "the war is lost."

From the ABC News story:

"This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap," Zawahiri says in answer to a question posed to him an interviewer.

Continuing in the same tone, Zawahiri says, "We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing 200,000 to 300,000 killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson."
ABC News also reports, based on the references to the bill, the tape, produced by al Qaeda's propaganda arm, as-Sahab, appears to have been made after Congress passed the legislation last week but before President Bush vetoed in on Thursday.

AP reports Democrat leaders are in closed-door negotiations with White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and other senior aides to the Republican president to see if they can reach agreement on a second bill.

More coverage from The Associated Press.

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Friday, May 4, 2007

Eisenhower Carrier Group Departs 5th Fleet

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGERED SEA (May 2, 2007) - Lt. Alejandro Hernandez signals for an F/A-18C Hornet from the “Wildcats” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 131 to launch from Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). Eisenhower and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7 are on a scheduled deployment in support of Maritime Security Operations (MSO). U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman David Danals (RELEASED)

Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group Departs 5th Fleet
From Eisenhower Strike Group Public Affairs
May 4, 2007

USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, At sea – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS Anzio (CG 68) departed the 5th Fleet area of operations today after transiting the Suez Canal, marking the completion of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group’s (IKE CSG) support for Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF), Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Maritime Security Operations (MSO) in the region.

Other IKE CSG ships, USS Mason (DDG 87) and USS Ramage (DDG 61) transited the Suez Canal May 1.
Read it.

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Wednesday, May 2, 2007

WIRED: Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death

Here's a note for the few Pentagon folks who drop by to check on my blog:

When I was a boy, I inherited from my grandfather a seven volume set of books titled, "Pictorial History of the Second World War." The books instilled in me at an early age a fascination with combat reporting that eventually led to, in addition to the curse of dreaming in black-and-white, a journalism degree and gainful employment as an editor for some part of my adult life. What you see here is leisure time spent attending to that same interest, albeit many years removed. I post the military stuff simply because I am interested in it.

For the record, I am not currently in the military. I restrict the sources of military content posted on this blog to news and imagery made publicly available through DoD Web sites. I vet my sources, which are fully attributed and cited.

In the past the blog has enjoyed heavy inbound traffic from military locations. However, this traffic has all but ceased and I have since concluded this blog has been blocked from access by folks in .mil domains.

WIRED.com's editorial approach to this kind of story is probably at best over-reactive and at worst ideologically slanted. I include the article here because it is newsworthy. Read at your own risk.

Steve M

Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death
By Noah Shachtman

(WIRED) -- The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.

The new rules (.pdf) obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.
Read the full story here.

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Combat Camera: Operation Spring Break

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Battery, 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment search a home during a raid on a suspected weapons cache site near the city of Sharqat, Iraq, April 3, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Brogand

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army Capt. Ivan Sugai from Alpha Battery, 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, speaks with an interpreter during a raid on a suspected weapons cache site near the city of Sharqat, Iraq, April 3, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Brogand

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Battery, 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, tie a poncho to the hatch of their vehicle while a storm approaches in the background. The soldiers were waiting for night fall in order to conduct raids in the city of Sharqat, Iraq, April 3.U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Brogand

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Battery, 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, search a room for weapons during a raid in the city of Sharqat, Iraq, April 3, 2007. The soldiers were conducting raids to locate anti-Iraqi forces and insurgents.U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Brogand

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army Capt. Michael Coombes and an interpreter speak with a local Mukhtar about the raids conducted that evening in the city of Sharqat, Iraq, April 3, 2007.U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Brogand

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Combat Camera: Joint Civilian Orientation Conference Aboard the USS Eisenhower Pt 2

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEJoint Civilian Orientation Conference participants watch Sailors at work in USS Eisenhower's Combat Direction Center, April 25, 2007. The participants of this event-packed conference, sponsored by the Department of Defense, are business and educational leaders brought into direct contact with servicemembers. U.S. Navy photo by L. A. Shively. Click here for full story.

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEA member of Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 73 speaks with a sailor on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. While on board the nuclear aircraft carrier the group met with sailors and found out a bit about what it is like to serve in the military. U.S Air Force Photo/Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEMembers of Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 73 prepare to fly to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower for a tour of the ship's mission and capabilities, April 25, 2007. U.S Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEMembers of Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 73 have lunch with sailors on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 25, 2007. U.S Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEMembers of Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 73 watch flight operations from the control room on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 25, 2007. U.S Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEMembers of Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 73 watch flight operations on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower while standing on the flight deck, April 25, 2007. U.S Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEMembers of Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 73 watch flight operations on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower while standing on the flight deck, April 25, 2007. U.S Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen

ALSO SEE
Joint Civilian Orientation Conference Aboard the USS Eisenhower Pt 1

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Combat Camera: Hunting Down Terrorists

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGETwo Iraqi soldiers stand guard outside a house in Hadid, Iraq, during a cordon and knock mission, April 21, 2007. The 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army led the mission to find information about al-Qaida in the area with the support from soldiers of the 3rd "Grey Wolf" Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, making up the 1-2-5 Military Transition Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ryan Stroud

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEA 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army soldier begins to climb the steps of a home in the town of Hadid, Iraq, to support a fellow brother-in-arms during their cordon and knock search, April 21, 2007. The mission was a chance for the Iraqi Army to take the lead in finding information on al-Qaida in the local area by talking to citizens of Hadid. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ryan Stroud

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEA 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army soldier shares information he has gathers with a member of the 1-2-5 Military Transition Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ryan Stroud

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEWhile searching for a weapons cache, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army and members of the 3rd "Grey Wolf" Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, travel through palm groves in the city of Hadid, Iraq, April 21, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ryan Stroud

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army Capt. Brian Slotnick, a native of Tom's River, NJ, and a member of the 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, travels with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army during a cordon and knock mission in Hadid, Iraq, April 21, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ryan Stroud

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Tuesday, May 1, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 1 May

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Illegal Aliens Have Crashed the Gate
A Mayday for this May Day:

  • AP reports immigration rallies held across the country Tuesday produced only a fraction of the million-plus protesters who turned out last year, as frustration that the marches haven't pushed Congress to pass reform kept many at home.

  • A cameraman for the NBC affiliate in Houston was captured on home video sporting a Mexican flag on his camera while covering a rally in the Texas city that supported illegal aliens, drawing angry shouts from counter-protesters, according to World Net Daily.

  • Why all the illegal alien hoopla? Reuters reports almost one in two Mexicans has a family member working in the United States, and a third of those were sent money in the past year, according to a survey published in Mexican daily El Universal Monday.

  • It seems the little green men are really not so green after all. Illegal aliens again? I won't digress further. The Times Online reports Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.

    Scientists from NASA say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.

    Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
  • From the man who buys his dubious so-called 'carbon offsets' from a holding company he has interests in, AP reports Al Gore condemned Canada's new plan to reduce greenhouse gases, saying it was "a complete and total fraud" because it lacks specifics and gives industry a way to actually increase emissions.

  • Speaking of inconvenient Al, Bloomberg reports a California hotel is placing Gore's global warming book in night stands instead of Gideon Bibles. Of course, that would be a politically correct move when the politics of global warming becomes religion. You can't really expect any more from folks who confuse the facts of scientific truth with popularity contest of consensus.

  • In other popularity contest news, continuing to force the Democrat Congressional majority to act like they are still the minority party, AP reports President Bush Tuesday vetoed bloated legislation containing billions in pork and a time-line to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq.

    We can only hope that the Democrat majority will, sooner or later, actually try to fill the big shoes Americans bestowed upon them in the last election.

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Monday, April 30, 2007

The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century by Robert J. Lieber

BOOKS IN THE NEWS

CLICK HEREThe American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century by Robert J. Lieber
(From the Publisher) -- The American Era makes a provocative argument about America's world role. It establishes the rationale for a grand strategy that recognizes American preponderance as necessary and desirable for coping with the perils of the post-9/11 world. First, militant Islamic terrorism plus weapons of mass destruction pose a threat of an entirely new magnitude and require us to alter the way we think about the preemptive and even preventive use of force. Second, the UN and other international bodies are habitually incapable of acting on the most urgent and deadly problems. Third, in an international system with no true central authority, other countries will inevitably look for leadership to the U.S. If America, as the world's foremost power, does not take the lead in confronting the most dangerous threats, no one else is likely to have the ability or the will to do so. Thus, at a time when threats from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are a reality, and when such values as human rights, liberty and stability cannot be reliably assured by institutions such as the UN and the European Union, active intervention on those issues that matter most becomes a necessity, not an option. Robert J. Lieber is currently Professor of Government and International Affairs at Georgetown University. He is an expert on American foreign policy and U.S. relations with the Middle East and Europe. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. at Harvard and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Lieber has taught at Harvard, Oxford and the University of California, Davis, and has been Visiting Fellow at St. Antony's College Oxford, the Harvard Center for International Affairs, the Atlantic Institute in Paris, the Brooking Institution in Washington, and Fudan University in Shanghai.

About the Author
Robert J. Lieber is a professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University. He is an expert on American foreign policy and US relations with the Middle East and Europe and the author or editor of thirteen books on international relations and US foreign policy. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His most recently published book is an edited volume, Eagle Rules? Foreign Policy and American Primacy in the 21st Century (Prentice-Hall and the Wilson Center, 2002). His numerous authored works include No Common Power: Understanding International Relations (4th edition, Prentice-Hall, 2001) and The Oil Decade (1986). His articles have appeared in scholarly and policy journals including International Security, American Political Science Review, Foreign Policy, Washington Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Commentary, Orbis, The International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, British Journal of Political Science, International Affairs (London), Politique Etrangere (Paris), and Internationale Politik (Berlin), among others.

Reviews
"This may be the best book on American foreign policy written since Sept. 11. Robert Lieber is a scholar with deep insight, broad knowledge, and, what is lacking in most discussions of world affairs today, common sense. Anyone thinking seriously global affairs today and in the coming years should begin with this smart and sober work."
--Robert Kagan, author, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order

"Robert Lieber has written a first-rate book...A work of scholarship, yet accessible to a wider readership, a work of judgment, yet anchored in the data and the objective world...a book of quality by a scholar of genuine depth and authority."
--Fouad Ajami, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

"A powerful book with truly global scope. Lieber is not only a specialist on U.S. foreign policy, he has deep knowledge of Europe, the Middle East, global energy, and security affairs...Lieber recognizes the costs and limits of military force, but he argues, without apologies, for the prudent use of American military power to safeguard the U.S. and, indeed, the world."
--Charles Lipson, University of Chicago

"With its powerful thesis and compelling arguments, Robert Lieber's The American Era is destined to become a key text in the global debate about American foreign policy."
Michael Mandelbaum, author of The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy and ---Free Markets in the Twenty-First Century

"[The American Era is ] a wonderful, elegant and compelling analysis in every respect... It will become compulsory reading on my Masters US Foreign Policy course next year and, I believe, should be read - and hopefully understood! - by anyone interested in American foreign policy. It really represents a magnificent achievement and is a work of exemplary scholarship. I hope and trust it receives the positive impact, reviews and sales that it thoroughly deserves."
--Robert Singh, Birbeck College, University of London

"Distracted by the red-hot partisan debate over Iraq, one can easily lose sight of the underlying strategic imperative that now guides American foreign policy. Robert Lieber's The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century serves as an invaluable primer on the nature of that imperative, outlining in a comprehensive but accessible fashion the continuing need for American global leadership."
--Gary Schmitt, The Weekly Standard

"Lieber has produced an elegantly written and readable book. It is a welcome and, in many respects, authoritative addition to the growing literature on recent American foreign policy."
--International Affairs

"Mr. Lieber's book gives a comprehensive and in-depth explanation of the foundations for the strategy and actions of the administration, of interest to its supporters. At the same time, the book will compel critics to consider the best arguments that can be made for the administration's international policies."
--The Washington Times

"Robert Lieber's The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century is a brief but compelling review of American foreign policy over the last five years, and pretty much demolishes the idea that we are roundly hated or that we are culpable for various alleged sins. A sober and very readable account by a Georgetown University scholar whose intellectual integrity and knowledge shine through on every page."
--Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book is A War Like No Other. How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.

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The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century by Robert J. Lieber

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Sunday, April 29, 2007

Combat Camera: Iraqi Security Takes the Lead

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army 1st Lt. Wayne Waldon coordinates the movement of his soldiers in the Muthana area of East Baghdad, Iraq, April 21, 2007, during a cordon and search operation with Iraqi army soldiers. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bronco Suzuki

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEIraqi army soldiers prepare to enter a house in the Muthana area of East Baghdad, Iraq, April 21, 2007, during a cordon and search operation with U.S. Army soldiers from Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, and attached to 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bronco Suzuki

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEAn Iraqi army soldier searches a house in the Muthana area of East Baghdad, Iraq, April 21, 2007, during a cordon and search operation with U.S. Army soldiers. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bronco Suzuki

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEIraqi army soldiers prepare to enter a house in the Muthana area of East Baghdad, Iraq, April 21, 2007, during a cordon and search operation with U.S. Army soldiers. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bronco Suzuki

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEAn Iraqi army soldier speaks to an Iraqi boy during a house search in the Muthana area of East Baghdad, Iraq, April 21, 2007, as part of a cordon and search operation with U.S. Army soldiers. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bronco Suzuki

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGEU.S. Army Sgt. Michael Gmitter searches a yard with his working dog Shadow in the Muthana area of East Baghdad, Iraq, April 21, 2007, during a cordon and search operation with Iraqi army soldiers. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bronco Suzuki

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Image Hosting Difficulties

Please accept my apologies for any problems you are experiencing loading images on the blog. It appears that ImageShack, the host for most of my blog's images, has some server issues today. I can only hope that things will be better soon.

Regards,
Steve

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