Something to get you thinking:
- Steven Simon, "The Price of the Surge--How U.S. Strategy Is Hastening Iraq's Demise," Foreign Affairs, May/June 2008, p. 57.
- Mr. Simon gives a detailed picture of happenings in Iraq. He advocates a top-down, not bottom-up solution: impose a state-solution, rather than encourage tribalism, which he says US strategy is doing. See cartoon pix at p. 62-65 for summary of who has been shooting at whom. His solution: "responsible retreat--a public commitment to a phased withdrawal." (p. 71) Is Simon's suggestion predetermined by his background (6 years in Clinton Administration National Security Council)?
- Scot Paltrow "The Pentagon's $1 Trillion Problem," Conde Nast Portfolio, May 2008, p. 122.
- Jaw dropping statistics. "In 2000 [before 9/11] , US Defense Dept's inspector general told Congress that his auditors stopped counting after finding $2.3 Trillion in unsupported entries."
- Despite a Congressional mandate 18 years ago that all US governmental agencies be audited, the US Defense Department's books are so screwed up that no one can do a real audit. [p. 124]
- This isn't a new problem, Congress has been trying to get it fixed since the 1950s. The main Defense department payment centers run old IBM mainframes using "Cobol," software, the "ancient Sumerian of Computer languages." [p. 125.]
- In the meantime, "For the first three quarters of 2007, $1.1 Trillion in Army accounting entries hadn't been properly reviewed or substantiated.
- Bucky McMahon, "Down the Monkey Hole," Men's Journal, May 2008, p. 228.
- Middle aged American freelance journalist goes to Peruvian jungles, joining other head-trip tourists who try the native hallucinogenic brew called "ayahuasca."
- One drink of the brew, and then you spend two+ hours on your knees in the "vomitorium," puking your guts out and hoping you don't soil yourself.
- The sad thing is that several of the group were looking for help: a cure for migraines, strength to overcome shyness, recovery from divorce. Try something better, like www.mormon.org.
- Bonus read: what happens when a private coup d'etat goes bad? Turn to p. 236, to read Robert Young Pelton's account of how he tried to help spring his mercenary friend from a dungeon in Equitorial Guinea in deepest darkest Africa. Brings to mind the line from Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues, "When I was just a young boy, my momma said to me, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns."
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