Winds of War: 2003-08-04

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday.

TOP TOPICS

• Dr. Michael Vlahos has a deep and thought-provoking article about choosing one's enemies, how they define us, and the War on Terror thus far: "Who is the enemy? Victory depends on our answer...."

• Fierce Highway has a great analysis of the missing 9/11 report pages, the Saudis, and U.S. policy. See also the sequel: "More Reason, Not Less".

Other Topics Today Include: Duelling WMD reports; View from the streets; German post-war history 1945-49; Shredders revisited; Rebuilding the oil industry; Iran & the bomb; NK and the bomb; Terrorists strike in the USA; Regime decapitation; Afghanistan; Syria; Good fences in Israel & India; Chechnya; and 50 things every guy should know.

IRAQ BRIEFING

• Former CIA agent Marc Reuel Gerecht offers his assessment from the streets of Iraq: the positives, the mistakes, and what needs to happen next.

• Germany, Japan and the De-Ba'athification of Iraq. It might also be worthwhile to remember the difficulties Allied forces had trying to find Hitler, or figure out what had happened to him.

• Stryker has the goods on the duelling WMD reports in the Washington Post lately.

• Local magazine Baghdad Bulletin has a feature by British Labour MP Ann Clwyd that you should read: "Human Shredding in Abu Ghaib Prison". Yeah, sure is too bad we went to war and stopped that.

• Fouad Al-Kadhimi, Baghdad: "The oil and gas industry will be a financial cornerstone of this reconstruction challenge. But what guidelines should the reconstruction and development of the oil and gas sector follow?"

• The Palestinians aren't exactly popular in Iraq these days (Hat Tip: WSJ Best of the Web). Gee, ya think their public enthusiasm for Saddam Hussein might have something to do with that?

• Which "cards" have we captured so far? The CENTCOM list. And the visual version of "Ba'ath Poker."

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops. American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated April 1, 2003]

IRAN REPORTS

• LA Times: "After more than a decade of working behind layers of front companies and in hidden laboratories, Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb." They've done a special investigative report.

• As WATCH/ notes, the NY Times has a similar investigative report.

• Plainclothes security agents have detained hundreds of student activists as well as journalists and reformist commentators. Even so, The Guardian reports that the news media and dissident voices are growing increasingly defiant as they test the limits of the system.

• One of those voices has the last name of Khomeni.

U.S.A. HOMELAND SECURITY BRIEFING

• After getting a look at an affidavit detailing the disturbing items found in several homes searched during the investigation, Journalist Mary Jo Melone has decided it is time to rethink her defense of "terror prof" Sami Al-Arian.

• Bruce Berkowitz, a former CIA official himself, writes today in the New York Times that there are the CIA and Department of Homeland Security use information differently -- and that these differences will continue to complicate the use of intelligence for domestic security operations.

• Pejman reminds us that not all terrorism originates in the Middle East.

THE WIDER WAR

• We've learned a lot about "regime change" in the past few years. But a companion concept, "regime decapitation," has received less attention. Yet it might receive more attention in the future, and have implications for the USA as well as its enemies.

• The U.S. military is stretching to get the job done in Afghanistan.

• Some changes are underway in Syria. The Ba'ath Party there is nervous, and slowly relinquishing some of its stranglehold on the nation's politics. This will last exactly as long as they remain frightened, and not one second longer.

• U.S. News bas a very good assessment of the situation in Israel: Good Fences, Safe Neighbours.

• India is also building a fence, near the border in Kashmir.

• A suicide truck bomber has destroyed part of a military hospital complex in southern Russia near Chechnya, killing at least 20 people and injuring 30 others

• Parapundit's theory that getting information into North Korea is job #1 there just got a boost from the NK Government, who will halt propaganda broadcasts into the South if the South will reciprocate.

• Parapundit also has an excellent piece on China, North Korea, The U.S. and Arms Control Verification. Lots of juicy links, as usual. Goes very nicely with his earlier piece about NK uranium reprocessing activities.

• WSJ has an article explaining how a military option could unfold in North Korea. It's plausible, but there are 2 problems: [1] The U.S. Army doesn't have the bench strength to meet this commitment - maybe it would if Iraq had happened 12 months sooner, but it doesn't now; [2] South Korea will not agree to be part of any solution.

• We try to close on a lighter note if possible. Vodkapundit has a list of 50 Things Every Guy Should Know. My only quibble: if you're sniffling instead of laughing during The Princess Bride, something's wrong.

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