Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalKyl, Lieberman: The Danger Of Repeating The Cycle Of American Isolationism
By Joseph I. Lieberman and Jon Kyl, Published: April 25
Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent Democrat, is a former senator from Connecticut. Jon Kyl, a Republican, is a former senator from Arizona. They co-chair the American Enterprise Institute’s American Internationalism Project.
The case for American retrenchment has gained new traction in Washington. Much as in the past, economic problems and public war-weariness have spurred calls from Democrats and Republicans alike for neo-isolationist policies — demands for retreat from the world clothed in the language of fiscal prudence and disinterested realism. Although there may be short-term political benefits in calling for a diminished U.S. role in the world, history shows that retreat comes with substantial long-term costs for our country.
After World War I, disillusionment with war and then the Great Depression brought a widely popular U.S. retreat from internationalism, economic as well as political. But the attack on Pearl Harbor demonstrated that the United States could not avoid the responsibility of engagement with the world in the cause of freedom and democracy.
--CLIP
When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, some argued that the United States had fulfilled its obligation to lead the world and had defeated all plausible opponents; defense funding was slashed. Ten years later, the attacks of Sept. 11 reminded us of the risks of assuming that peace will always prevail.
Today, we are in danger of again repeating this cycle. Progress in the fight against al-Qaeda and the perceived costs of global leadership have led some to question whether the United States should retain — or is even capable of retaining — a robust international economic and political presence. Yet missing from the debate are analyses of both the benefits of this role, rather than just the costs, and whether the strategic ends to which the country aspires have somehow changed.
History has shown that, once the United States chooses to lead, we and the world benefit. After World War II, U.S. aid helped rebuild shattered European and Asian economies. Those nations are now not simply at peace — they are among our most important trading partners. The U.S. naval presence on the high seas has guaranteed the free flow of goods. Without it, increased piracy, lower trade flows and higher prices would result — not just for our country but for the world. The hundreds of millions who rose out of poverty in the latter half of the 20th century are markets for U.S. goods and forces for stability that might never have existed without the global compact secured by U.S. leadership.
MORE...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-danger-of-repeating-the-cycle-of-american-isolationism/2013/04/25/16da45f8-a90c-11e2-a8e2-5b98cb59187f_story.html
I can see why this wasn't post here on DU but we need to understand what 'they' are thinking as domestic USA suffers while we play 'world police'.
As US Drone Strikes Rise In Yemen, So Does Anger
SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- The cleric preached in his tiny Yemeni village about the evils of al-Qaida, warning residents to stay away from the group's fighters and their hard-line ideology. The talk worried residents, who feared it would bring retaliation from the militants, and even the cleric's father wanted him to stop.
But in the end it wasn't al-Qaida that killed Sheik Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber.
Al-Qaida fighters, who hide in mountain strongholds near the remote eastern village of Khashamir, did call him out, demanding he meet them one night - apparently to intimidate him into stopping his sermons against them.
--clip
Civilian deaths are breeding resentments on a local level, sometimes undermining U.S. efforts to turn the public against militants. The backlash is still not as large as in Pakistan, where there is heavy pressure on the government to force limits on strikes - but public calls for a halt to strikes are starting to emerge.
Several dozen activists protested on Monday near the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, denouncing the strikes. "The drone program is terrorizing our people," the activists wrote in an open letter to President Barack Obama. "One never knows where the next drone will strike nor how many innocent victims will die."
MORE...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN_DRONE_DEATHS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-02-14-18-28
Navy Unveils Its First Squadron With Both Manned And Unmanned Aircraft
Source: Associated Press
CORONADO, Calif. — The Navy on Thursday inaugurated its first squadron with both manned and unmanned aircraft amid debate over the military’s burgeoning use of drones in warfare.
Military officials launched the effort by reactivating the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 35, known as the “Magicians,” which served for 19 years before being deactivated in 1992.
The new squadron “points to the future of naval aviation,” Vice Admiral David H. Buss, commander of naval air forces, told the crowd attending the ceremony at Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado, near San Diego.
The squadron is expected to have eight manned helicopters and 10 of the Fire Scout MQ-8B, an unmanned helicopter that tracks targets and eventually will be armed, said Cmdr. Christopher S. Hewlett, who is the squadron’s commanding officer.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/navy-unveils-its-first-squadron-of-unmanned-aircraft-formally-adopting-drone-technology/2013/05/02/4ff32f88-b304-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html
Syria's Air Defences, Among Mideast's Strongest, Pose Challenge To Outside Intervention
--CLIP
Syria, experts say, possesses one of the most robust air defence networks in the region, with multiple surface-to-air missiles providing overlapping coverage of key areas in combination with thousands of anti-aircraft guns capable of engaging attacking aircraft at lower levels.
Six years ago, the system was showing signs of neglect.
In 2007, Syria's aging Soviet-supplied air defence system received a shock when Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria. The attack proved deeply embarrassing and provided a jolt to the Assad regime, which responded by making a concerted push to upgrade its air defences, and turned to the country's traditional arms provider, Russia, for help.
Moscow, which has been the source of most of Syria's military hardware since Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez, courted the Kremlin decades ago, was more than happy to oblige.
It provided Syria with new systems, such as 36 Pantsyr mobile surface-to-air missile systems and at least eight Buk-M2E mobile SAMs. The Pantsyrs, considered particularly effective against attacking aircraft, feature a combination of 30mm cannons paired with a radar and anti-aircraft missiles all on the same vehicle.
At the same time, old SA-3s were upgraded to Pechora-2Ms — essentially a new and much more capable system.
MORE...
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/world/Syrias+defences+among+Mideasts+strongest+pose+challenge+outside/8328421/story.html
WATCH: Israeli Soldiers Stand By, Escort Settlers As They Attack Palestinian Villages
Following the murder of a settler from Yitzhar on Tuesday, dozens of Israeli settlers from the region attacked several Palestinian villages. They threw stones at Palestinians, at cars and buses, smashed windows and burned houses.
These videos, taken by B’Tselem photographers from the villages Asira al-Qibliya and Urif, show how IDF forces allow the riots against the Palestinian farmers to take place. In several cases the soldiers talk to the rioters or try to shove them away. In others, they simply provide escorts for them as they throw stones or storm the villages.
(VIDEO)
More... (click on source link to view videos)
http://972mag.com/watch-israeli-soldiers-stand-by-escort-settlers-as-they-attack-palestinian-villages/70350/
WATCH: IDF Detains Palestinian Children And Foreign Citizen In Hebron
On Sunday, three Palestinian boys were detained by the IDF in Hebron, along with a Swedish activist who seems to have tried to calmly prevent their arrests. (Footage of the arrest is below, and highly disturbing to watch). According to the International Solidarity Movement, who put out a report on Sunday and has since been updating, the children were released a few hours later, but the Swede is still being held and attempts are being made to deport him.
According to sources from Youth Against Settlements and B’Tselem that I spoke with, the children were detained because settlers from the extremist Beit Hadassah settlement inside Hebron complained to the IDF that they had thrown stones. One of the children is only 10, the others 11 and 12 (the age of criminal responsibility is 12).
Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist with Youth Against Settlements who has been arrested countless times for organizing and engaging in peaceful protests in Hebron’s Tul Rumeida area where he lives, told me that the arrest of children by the IDF has become a regular “phenomenon” in Hebron. He says the IDF is “pro-settler,” often arresting Palestinian residents, whether children or adults, simply because settlers tell them to – regardless of whether there is any evidence against them. He also points out that settlers are almost never detained after they throw stones, even when the soldiers are standing right there. Issa added: “These arrests do not stop violence, on the contrary, they feed violence more and more in the long term.”
According to Ynet, the Swedish activist was arrested because he tried to steal a soldier’s weapon and resisted arrest – however the first video below makes both those accusations appear false, although he clearly made an effort to stop the soldiers from taking the children. (It is also well known that the IDF tries to deport foreign citizens living and documenting life in the West Bank). I contacted the IDF Spokesperson several times in recent days to hear its side of the story, but have yet to receive a response.
More... (click on source link to view video)
http://972mag.com/watch-idf-detains-palestinian-children-and-foreign-citizen-in-hebron/70340/
Near-Record NYSE Margin Debt Leads to Caution: Chart of the Day
Borrowing to buy U.S. stocks is close enough to a record to cause concern that prices may not rise much longer, according to Cullen Roche, founder of Orcam Financial Group LLC.
The CHART OF THE DAY compares the total amount of margin debt at New York Stock Exchange member firms, according to data compiled by the exchange, with the performance of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Margin debt amounted to $379.5 billion in March, the latest month available. The total was the second-highest in the history of the NYSE’s figures, going back to 1959. The highest was the $381.4 billion recorded in July 2007.
“It’s rather alarming to see NYSE margin debt just shy of its all-time high,” Roche wrote yesterday in a posting on his Pragmatic Capitalism blog. The borrowing points to “a fragile foundation” for the current advance in stocks, he wrote.
The 2007 record was set three months before the end of a five-year bull market, which sent the S&P 500 to an all-time high. The index surpassed its peak five weeks ago, after more than doubling from its March 2009 low, and later closed as much as 2.1 percent higher.
MORE... (See source for Chart. Not able to post)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-02/near-record-nyse-margin-debt-leads-to-caution-chart-of-the-day.html
Hagel: Administration Is Rethinking Opposition To Arming Syrian Rebels
Source: Associated Press
By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 5/2/13 2:53 PM EDT
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming rebels opposed to the Syrian government, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Thursday.
At a Pentagon news conference, Hagel said the administration is considering a range of options. He said he personally has not decided whether it would be wise to provide weapons to the rebels. "Arming the rebels — that's an option," he said. "We must continue to look at options." He said the U.S. is considering a range of options in consultation with allies.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/hagel-syria-rebels-arms-90870.html#ixzz2SAHfHwo2
Harry Reid Defends Comparing Tea Party To Anarchists: They 'Throw Monkey Wrenches' Into Government
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) spoke with conservative radio host Rusty Humphries on Wednesday, The Hill reports, standing by an earlier contention that the tea party and anarchist movements were similar in their general disdain for government.
“I believe that, my experience with the Tea Party is they are against government in any form. They do throw monkey wrenches into the government,” Reid told Humphries, who had earlier said that he considered himself to be a tea party guy. “It’s evident. We can’t get things done. They don’t want anything to happen in government. We pass laws. They fight funding the laws we pass. They don’t want government to work. I want it to work."
Reid made the initial claim last month during a Senate floor speech in which he argued that "government is inherently good." While he admitted that the tea party wasn't violent like anarchists in their anti-government expression, Reid claimed the movement's distrust had made legislating much more difficult over the past years.
"We have a situation where this country has been driven by the tea party for the last number of years," he said. "When I was in school, I studied government and I learned about the anarchists. Now, they were different than the Tea Party because they were violent. But they were anarchists because they did not believe in government in any level and they acknowledged it."
Reid continued: "The Tea Party kind of hides that. They don't say they're against government, but that is what it all amounts to. They're not doing physically destructive things to buildings and people, directly, but they are doing everything they can to throw a monkey wrench into every form of government, whether it's local, state or federal. That's what it's all about."
more...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/02/harry-reid-tea-party_n_3200340.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Yeah, like 'filibuster reform' Harry? Indeed.
Former President Jimmy Carter Seeking Trip To N. Korea: Sources
WASHINGTON, May 1 (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter may soon travel to North Korea as part of his efforts, not always fruitful, to broker the resumption of dialogue and win the release of a Korean-American man detained there, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.
But the South Korean and U.S. governments apparently take a dim view of Carter's possible trip to North Korea out of concern that the communist nation may try to exploit it for propaganda purposes.
Carter recently sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, calling for talks with North Korea and expressing his intent to visit Pyongyang again, a source said, requesting anonymity.
"North Korea appears to have invited him to visit," the source said.
If Carter makes a trip to Pyongyang, he is expected to use it as a chance to request the release of Kenneth Bae, a tour operator held in the North for nearly half a year, according to another source.
More...
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/05/02/26/0301000000AEN20130502000200315F.HTML
Profile Information
Member since: 2003 before July 6thNumber of posts: 29,876
