National Journal - 11 June 2010

http://security.nationaljournal.com/2010/06/gaza-flotilla-strategic-blunde.php#1592169

Comments

[Jackie]

Col.,
You are always reasonable, but Scheuer was sane in this one. I like him in this mode. The rest not so much.

[Mark Logan]

National Journal:

[i] "...given that the purpose of the flotilla was clearly to break a blockade aimed at keeping rockets from falling into the hands of Hamas terrorists..." [i]

For some reason, I was not properly pre-convinced their intent was to reign death on Israel. I need some help with this folks. Can anybody direct me to sources of information that might help prevent me from missing important given truths like this one? Debka maybe?

[Charles I]

Yeah Scheuer had it going there, hard to disagree, tho I'd prefer an interventionist US.

Kori Schake: Turkey's denial of access to its territory for the invasion of Iraq illustrated where democratic Turkey was headed" !!!!

Hmmmm, democratically refuse to collaborate in a patently illegal bullshit attack pregnant with Kurdish implications, and the plot thickens, or becomes clear in retrospect, or does whatever it it does in the thought process of this . . . egad "Hoover Fellow and Distinguished Chair in International Security Studies, West Point"

Carafano blames the victims, terrorists all, cries foul over a Turkish state sponsored set up.

As though Gaza isn't a setup.

[Douglass Schumacher]

"Like the 'stand up guy' that he is..." Priceless.

This is off-topic, but would you comment on this? Do you think it credible Saudi Arabia would give Israel passage?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37653040/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

[J]

Charles I,

Well look at who is Carafano's employer -- The Heritage Foundation. That speaks volumes. The Heritage Foundation has a checkered past if you look at where its money originated from, the Mont Pelerin Society.

[greg0]

How is Israel ever going to grow up if we keep coddling it with whatever it wants? Bad behavior and cavities are guaranteed results.

[N M Salamon]

The USA's coddling of Israel was destructive for Israel, and now the Idiot, N, is doing his best to to return the fravour by causing problems for Uncle Sam, as if she did not have too many already.

Professor Sheuber had the clearest grasp of the issue, and proffered the only sane solution for the benefit of the USA citizens.

[R Whitman]

More LSD-25 ???

[Walrus]

Schuere says that the U.S. should take a non interventionist line....

....but presumably keep paying Three billion a year in military aid???

I think the U.S.A. is entitled to intervene in Israeli affairs. I also think Scheure knows that this is going to happen and is trying to head it off.

[Sidney O. Smith III]

How in the world does someone like Kori Schake become an instructor at West Point?

Uh, no thanks.

Lots of aspects of the US Military I do not understand: Kori Schake at West Point. Naming a “fort” after Braxton Bragg.

I say let Kori Schake have the Braxton Bragg chair. Her title can then read something like “Braxton Bragg Fellow and Distinguished Chair in Destroying the Formation of True Military leaders”.

[Charles I]

The counter point to Kori Schake is a nice article at Asiatimes on Erdogan's rehabilitation as an Arab statesman.

Turkey's Erdogan: Never a "yes" man

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF10Ak03.html

Reviews his recent diplomacy highlighting very significant popular and political achievements. He is quoted making the most reasonable succinct comments on Israel that in today's bizzarro world are so inflammatory it surprises one to even see in print - worth the read. The strategic elephant of a 2014 EU accessed Turkey bringing Europe and Nato to Iran's borders was noted, which hasn't crossed my mind before.

J I know who works where. I just like to confirm absolute adherence to party line espousal which boggles my mind, we discussed do these people believe the gibberish they spout, or is this a baser IO, I think both.

Walrus, Scheuer be for spending that money digging a moat on the border, I recall from an earlier National Journal panel, completely serious.

[clifford kiracofe]

Heritage went Neocon in the early 1980s with the purges intiated by Burt Pines and so on. I watched that from my office up the street in the Senate of the United States.

Hoover also went Neocon back then. I gathered this from a visit out there and meetings which included George Shultz, Ed Meese, and so on. Hospitality was excellent and I cannot forget that fine dinner at the Carnelian Room...what a view it had! I will say the historical collections and archives there are a paradise for the likes of me...and they are great at UCLA, too...love that West Coast!

The American Enterprise Institute had already recently become Neoconized. Bill Baroody out, Irving in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institute

These are influential paper mills on the Hill so what goes on in them is "of interest" to serious analysts of the netherworld inside the Beltway.

[Sidney O. Smith III]

If I were a cadet at West Point, I know what I would focus on for my undergraduate thesis (or the equivalent). I would attempt to identify various times in history when political apparatchiks infiltrated a nation’s army in such a way that it proved ruinous for the military and the people.

Then, in summary, I would conclude that Kori Schake is playing such a role, relying heavily upon my research into the Nazi Party. I would then point out -- in my compare and contrast section -- that Ms. Schake is actually an agent for a foreign government -- one that is promoting a type of ethnic nationalism that runs counter to the concept of E Pluribus Unum. And moreover, her teaching at West Point reflects a trend that exists throughout all the US military branches, including most particularly at the Pentagon.

Working title: Kori Schake and the Nazi Party: A Comparative History on how political apparatchiks destroy a Nation.

[Castellio]

Hey, how about Sidney O. Smith lll enrolling at West Point? Never too old!!

[Patrick Lang]

Castellio

Far too old. pl

[Patrick Lang]

All

This is all so sad. There used to be officers who would die for honor and their oath to the constitution. So sad. pl

[Castellio]

I liked your post on this Colonel. It says look at the greater truth, which is visible, real, and can be understood, and that there are people, whom you name, who are blocking that truth being shared.

Pretty clean.

[Sidney O. Smith III]

Castellio

Thank you so much but, ‘tis true, I am a little long in the tooth to entertain such, although I may tell some friends that I am considering submitting an application. In fact, I may tell a judge’s secretary this week.

But I don’t think my Myers Briggs profile would make me a good candidate. You know, it’s the road less traveled and so on.

Plus wouldn’t I have to get a recommendation from one of my Senators? Saxby Chambliss?

Good grief. I would bring up the USS Liberty and then tell Senator Chambliss that I don’t think any candidate should be allowed to attend any of the service academies unless such a candidate takes a stand -- one way or the other -- on the USS Liberty incident.

Then I would ask Chambliss what he thinks about the USS Liberty incident and why hasn’t he taken a stand. And wouldn’t he agree with me that the refusal to take a stand is it is an act of political cowardice -- one that has irreparably harmed our nation and, in fact, is a direct cause of our Middle East policy today.

And then I would tell him that as a cadet, my goal would be to see West Point honor the Liberty vets at halftime of the Army-Navy game because we know Senator Webb, won't do so. Surely such an example of psychological warfare would affect the second half of the game.

And, as a cadet, I would try to point out, in as respectful way as possible, that Kori Schake, instructor at West Point, cares nothing about the cadets or maintaining the integrity of the American warrior tradition. In fact, she cares nothing about the USA. She is a political apparatchik who has infiltrated the miltary and ultimately will harm our nation. History proves it. So her presence at West Point strongly suggests that, tragically, the faculty has been corrupted in some way.

Let me put it this way -- contrast Kori Schake (West Point) to Prof. Kiracofe (VMI, at least from what I can tell).

Who you gonna’ go with? West Point or VMI?

My guess is that Chambliss would remain polite (out of respect to my father, a truly great man) but then he would say that I probably should consider some vocational schools in North Georgia as a back up plan. Lanier Tech is a fine school.

[Fred]

Sidney,

I asked the same question about Kori a while back. I believe around the same time the Col. had some posts reccommending closing West Point, or turning it into a graduate school for officers.

BTW does anyone have any idea what "expeditionary economics" might be, other than the latest buzzword from the beltway bandits?
http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/gcprogram.taf?function=detail&eventid=GC10&EvID=2305

[Patrick Lang]

Fred

I don't recall having argued that WP should be closed. Tom Ricks wrote something like that a while back and I said that there was no chance of that happening even though we could send every kid who is admitted to the most expensive universities in the country and be WAY ahead financially. Thre amount of military material in the academic program is quite small. I was a prof there. pl

[Fred]

Col. My appologies, it was Tom Ricks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603483.html

[N M Salamon]

Interesting QUESTION list on the flotilla issue by liberal Jew:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1276348453

Enjoy!