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by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]
Since the end of World War II, our country has had three great presidents: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.
Their politics varied, but these giants stand in sharp contrast to our last three presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and now Barack Obama. The first two presided over gravely flawed presidencies; the third is on his way to outright failure. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]
Threats, bombs and at least 36 dead didn’t stop Iraqis from voting on Sunday. But the harder part — forming a new, more inclusive national government — lies ahead.
Formal results won’t come for a few days. We’ll learn how many votes, authentic and fraudulent, went to each of the big five parties and fringe elements. But the news looks good, so far.
The biggest question for us in this election has been how much influence Iran might have in the aftermath. Tehran pulled out all the stops — funneling in money and agents, sponsoring terror and engaging in no end of political chicanery. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Marc T. Newman [critic]
James Cameron will have to console himself with the over $2.5 billion in worldwide box office receipts that his film, Avatar, has raked in over the past few months (and more coming in daily). When it came time to hand out the Oscars at the end of the seemingly-eternal Academy Awards ceremony, Cameron’s neo-pagan/environmental vision was trounced in all the categories that focus on storytelling – though kudos are due to his technical crew who raised the bar on visual 3-D effects – though it didn’t take Tim Burton long to catch on as his opening weekend haul for Alice in Wonderland – another 3-D extravaganza – eclipsed that of Avatar. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]
A good first step in waging war is to figure out why your enemy is fighting. For over eight years, we’ve refused to do that in Afghanistan. In the recent Marine offensive against the Taliban in Marjah, this resulted in a clear geographical objective, but a vague pacification mission targeting a stick-figure enemy. Tactical success is built on strategic quicksand.
We’re mired in Afghanistan because successive administrations in Washington have conflated the hayseed Taliban with al Qaeda’s cosmopolitans. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Roger Aronoff – [producer, media analyst]
President Obama went into the East Room at the White House on March 3rd and talked about bringing the health care “journey to a close.” He is giving the Republicans one more chance to sign on to the Democrat’s health care legislation, or else he is prepared to move forward without their cooperation. And this time, apparently, he really means it, in spite of the fact that an overwhelming number of polls show, several by as much as 15 or more points, that the public is opposed to such legislation. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]
I was wrong. For years, I’ve argued that our government should pay more attention to South America. Now Hillary Clinton has — and, boy, is it ugly.
With tragic back-to-back earthquakes dominating the headlines from south of the border, a desperate ploy by the hard-left Argentine government — backed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez — threatens to shake the continent’s political landscape. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency now not only admits that Iran’s at work on nuclear warheads, but acknowledges that Tehran never stopped working on them — despite no end of pleas, pledges and promises.
Burned by its miscall on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, the US intelligence community has played it too safe on this one, long insisting that Iran halted warhead research in 2003.
There were plenty of dissenting voices. But President George Bush didn’t want another fight, and President Obama’s already punch drunk. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]
The capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — the Taliban’s equivalent of Gen. Stan McChrystal — by Pakistani agents and CIA operatives is a big win.
Subordinate only to Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s CEO, Baradar ran the Taliban’s military operations in Afghanistan. Responsible for the upgrade in insurgent tactics — fighting smart, rather than just fighting — he also created the Taliban’s hearts-and-minds campaign.
For two weeks, he’s been under interrogation Read the rest of this entry »
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by Roger Aronoff – [producer, media analyst]
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has offered another of his mindless rants that he calls “Special Commentaries.” This time, he tried to rile up his audience by throwing around vague charges of racism against white people, including himself!
People-especially anti-Obama Tea Partiers-are surrounded and motivated by racism, Olbermann said, huffing and puffing in righteous indignation. This helps explain why Obama is losing popularity and his policies are failing, he implied. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]
Attacking behind a vanguard of special operators and backed by an Army Stryker battalion, the 6th Marine Regiment has been conducting a textbook takeover of the Afghan city of Marjah.
Meticulously planned and methodical in its execution, the operation is well on its way to fulfilling its goals of driving the Taliban out of this opium-poppy center of 80,000 souls, while minimizing casualties and destruction. Read the rest of this entry »
