Pondering the Way Ahead in the Middle East

For John, BLUF:  I would chip in that I am much less impressed with a bureaucracy in Foggy Bottom, and the Pentagon, that didn't figure out where the President was going and get ahead of him to give him decent options—or maybe they did, which is why there is, apparently, Sunni Arab backfill in Syria.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ours to reason why

From PJ Media, by Mr Richard Fernandez (Wretchard), 21 December 2018.

The discussion is about withdrawal from Syria, but it is also about the larger regional and global strategic issues.  Then it ends with this thought:

With any luck the Syria controversy will jolt the public awake and restart a debate on these issues.  We must learn to re-recognize our world.  One of the biggest dangers for a purposeless hegemon is getting tied down in outposts purely for legacy reasons.  The MENA region probably still remembers how Lawrence of Arabia beat the Ottoman Empire.  Lawrence's amazing counsel to to Faisal to avoid capturing Medina is instructive even today:

We must not take Medina.  The Turk was harmless there.  In prison in Egypt he would cost us food and guards.  We wanted him to stay at Medina, and every other distant place, in the largest numbers.  Our ideal was to keep his railway just working, but only just, with the maximum of loss and discomfort....  [His] pride in his imperial heritage would keep him in his present absurd position -- all flanks and no front.

The great danger is that someone -- there is an enemy right? -- is playing the same game on Washington's bureaucrats.  The conflicts accumulated over the War on Terror years may have become America's Medinas.  Trump may be wrong about withdrawing from Syria, or he may be right.  The important thing to understand is why.

MENA is "Middle East and North Africa".

Ponder away.

Hat tip to Ms Sarah Hoyt, at the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Did Developer Trump Read The Times?

For John, BLUF:  One of my Sons thinks I am unreasonable to hold the eight decade old Walter Duranty Fake News series on the Holodomor against The Old Gray Lady.  Thus, I welcome fresh ammunition.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Former NY Times editor rips Trump coverage as biased

Here is the sub-headline:

Former New York Times editor slams publication as being unmistakably anti-Trump, younger employees throw out standards

From Fox News, by Reporter Howard Kurtz, 2 January 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

A former executive editor of the New York Times says the paper’s news pages, the home of its straight-news coverage, have become “unmistakably anti-Trump.”

Jill Abramson, the veteran journalist who led the newspaper from 2011 to 2014, says the Times has a financial incentive to bash the president and that the imbalance is helping to erode its credibility.

In a soon-to-be published book, “Merchants of Truth,” that casts a skeptical eye on the news business, Abramson defends the Times in some ways but offers some harsh words for her successor, Dean Baquet. And Abramson, who was the paper’s only female executive editor until her firing, invoked Steve Bannon’s slam that in the Trump era the mainstream media have become the “opposition party.”

Yes, this is about you buying the book, Merchants of Truth:  The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, which isn't available until 5 February.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Economics Is A Driver In Life

For John, BLUF:  Free market principles to the rescue.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Worst Enemy of Black People

From Town Hall, by Dr Walter E. Williams, 2 January 2019.

Wherein Professor Williams argues that the solution to Black problems is to be found within the Black community.  Not by separation, but by rejection of the socialist like principles of modern liberals.

It makes sense to me, but what do I know?

Hat tip to an EMail Correspondent.

Regards  —  Cliff

Shrinking Venezuela

For John, BLUF:  At the InstPundit This was introduced with the phrase "LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM".  Indeed.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Venezuela: The country that has lost three million people

From The Beeb, by BBC South America correspondent Katy Watson, 30 December 2018.

Here is the lede plus four:

In Venezuela, the discussion about how long to stay, or where to flee and how to begin a new life, is never far from many people's minds. Every time I visit the country, there are fewer friends and contacts to catch up with.

An estimated 5,000 people pack up their lives and leave every day, eager to flee the economic collapse and humanitarian crisis which has beset the oil-rich nation.

More than 3m people have fled Venezuela in recent years. According to the UN, that number is expected to rise to more than 5m by the end of 2019.

The vast majority of Venezuelans travel to other parts of South America.  More than a million Venezuelans have chosen neighbouring Colombia as their new home, with half a million more travelling through it on their way further south to Ecuador, Peru and the countries beyond.

The lucky ones, those with connections, family members already established and an education, have found work in other parts.  But I've also met plenty of former professionals selling water or food on the streets of Peru and Colombia to make ends meet.

Tell me again why we have proud [Democratic] Socialists in the US Democratic Party?  Would they prefer living in Venezuela?  There are apparently three million people out there who think such people would be wrong, and so voted with their feet.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Ukraine's East Under Threat

For John, BLUF:  The Russia irritation with Ukraine is not going away, at least under President Putin.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why Russia is swallowing the Black Sea and won’t stop until it has ‘choked out Ukraine’

From Defense News, by Reporter Kyle Rempfer, 1 January 2019.

Here is the lede plus four:

After Russia fired on two Ukrainian naval ships in late November, seizing the vessels and crew, tensions between Russia and the West waxed and waned in a succession that has become all too common.

Russia’s annexation of Crimea roughly five years ago, and sponsorship of separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region, brought similar condemnation from the U.S. and its NATO allies, as did the Russian annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia in 2008.

And yet those breakaway regions remain under Russian control, as the Kremlin proves that geographic boundaries can be redrawn without much more than stern words from the West.  But absent harsher measures and greater push-back, the former commander of U.S. Army Europe warns that the Russian Federation won’t let up.

“I think they won’t stop until they completely own the Sea of Azov and have choked out Ukraine’s very important seaport of Mariupol," said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who helmed U.S. European Command’s Army component from late 2014 through 2017.

During his tenure, Hodges helped oversee the largest buildup of U.S. troops and base infrastructure since the Cold War, as Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a quest for client states to buffer against what he sees as NATO’s own expansionism.

To be fair, the two Ukraine naval vessels were barges with field artillery pieces mounted, but the point is a good one.  The Russians are acting like imperialist bullies.  This is not a good thing for a member of the UN Security Council with veto power.  This is made worse by the Budapest Agreement, signed by the US and Russia.  Without the agreement and assurances this would be a confrontation between nuclear armed nations.

All those people, all those pundits and Democrats, weeping crocodile tears over us pulling out of Syria, should ponder this situation and its potential for trouble in 2019.

Hat tip to the Defense News.

Regards  —  Cliff

New York State's New AG to Crack Down on Citizen Trump

For John, BLUF:  The bsession of some with President Trump could derail our system of government.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"Letitia James, a Democrat, has made no secret that she intends to use her powers as New York’s attorney general to pursue possible legal action against President Trump."

This is Blogger Ann Althouse's take on The New York Times article "N.Y.’s New Attorney General Is Targeting Trump. Will Judges See a ‘Political Vendetta?’", by Reporter Jeffery C. Mays, 31 December 2018.

Here is the key paragraph:

"She calls him an 'illegitimate president.'  She says her decision to run for attorney general was largely 'about that man in the White House who can’t go a day without threatening our fundamental rights.'...  Her strident attacks on the president could potentially threaten the legal standing of cases that her office brings against Mr. Trump, his family members or their business interests, legal experts said....  In an interview, Ms. James defended her remarks about the president, adding that she believed that her race and gender were shaping what she characterized as assumptions and misconceptions about how she would perform as attorney general.  Ms. James is the first woman in New York to be elected as attorney general, the first African-American woman to be elected to statewide office, and the first African-American to serve as attorney general.  Before winning election, she was the New York City public advocate.  'This is similar to when I was about to take office as public advocate, and individuals expressed concerns,' Ms. James said.  'What I have done repeatedly throughout my life is I have been underestimated and have continued to perform.'"

I wonder if this approach will end up with the Federal Government turning on individual State Attorneys General, to the detriment of the Constitutional separation of powers and our political process?

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

Happy New Year

For John, BLUF:  I just wanted a vehicle to check on the date rolling.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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HAPPY  NEW  YEAR

Regards  —  Cliff