My absence:
I spent the last two days at a meeting which was essentially a conclave of social scientists, (IR & Poly Sci people) huddled together with some fairly senior technocrats to ponder the world's ills. More than that I cannot say about the proceedings. But... One or two things I can say, I think...
The academics were not very creative in their thinking. The "thinking" consisted mainly of projecting current situations straight forward into the future in a rather pathetic belief that what is will continue to be. This "wisdom" was delivered with the pomposity and haughtiness so typical of senior academics.
1- There were very few of those deep academic thinkers who had any military knowledge at all but they felt free to prognosticate about the relative capabilities of the worlds armed forces.
2 - They were pretty much all wedded to the idea that if the US government through its media co-optees says that country X is a friend and ally of the US or if the US government and its media flunkies say that country Y is an enemy, then it must be so and those "truthy" notions must be clung to. Therefore, it was believed and said constantly that Saudi Arabia is a great and powerful country and a faithful friend of the US. Haarumph! Much the same thing was said of Turkey! Haarumph!
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Actual news:
- Russia has decided that IS should be made an organization of former jihadis (dead jihadis) This final decision seems to have been made in the aftermath of the conclusion by the Russians that, yes, it was a bomb on the Metrojet and, yes, it was an IS bomb.
- That being the case the Russians have stepped up their air sortie rate to over 200/day and are using strategic long range heavy bombers flying from Russian air fields as part of the mix. Prominent among the targets are places in and around Raqqa, Syria. The US sortie rate is now typically less than 20/day as compared to 1100/day during Desert Storm.
- The French are seeking an effective cooperation against IS between them, Russia and the US. The "long pole in the tent" blocking such an arrangement is the continuing insistence of Obama and the Harpies that the Russians must agree to Assad's departure as a pre-condition for cooperation. At Antalya and Vienna (?) both Putin and Lavrov have told Obama that he and the girls are not going to get that.
- Given the level of Obama's pathological narcissism this denial of his godhood is probably responsible for his recent public peevishness. pl