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POPSThe War Not Lost A very interesting interview with Thomas Ricks on the Iraq War, discussing its failures, its successes and why. The interview gives new insight into a war that may not be winnable, but now seems to be on the verge of not being lost.
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POPSIraq Cost = 2.68 Googles The Bush administration should have been forced to pay for this war in a way that was consistent with their ideology. On the financial markets. It long ago would have been rendered just another failed Bush business. But we are forced to continue to pay for his psychological issues with his dad.
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POPSCyber war in Eastern Europe? If it is true that the Russian government is involved then I'd say it was a stupid move. The CIA and the West are learning a lot from this.
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POPSLosing the War “Fighting Al Qaeda involves a security side and an ideological side. The security side is successful, but the other side of combating Al Qaeda is ideological and it is not successful.” al Qaeda's goal here is fairly clear. The present world power structure is largely built on the backs of a U.S./Saudi agreement of sorts wrt oil and investments. The weakest link is in Saudi Arabia (closer to the radicalized population) and that weakness is now being exploited. They believe if they take the present Saudi government down then they bring the U.S. down with it. Energy independence never looked so good (and the war in Iraq never looked so stupid).
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POPS2002 Barack Obama Interview: Against Iraq War Obama in an 2002 interview comes out against the Iraq war. Though I would say his thinking is not exceptional (no insult, just that any educated person can think on the fly and sound cogent) he stands in such contrast to the current resident of the White House as to sound like a savior.
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POPSConsequences of Regional-Scale Nuclear Conflicts The impact of region scale nuclear war is addressed. From the conclusions: The analysis summarized here shows that the world has reached a crossroads. Having survived the threat of global nuclear war between the superpowers so far, the world is increasingly threatened by the prospects of regional nuclear war. The consequences of regional-scale nuclear conflicts are unexpectedly large, with the potential to become global catastrophes. The combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability, and urban demographics may constitute one of the greatest dangers to the stability of society since the dawn of humans.
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POPSSaudis: Will Back Sunnis This public posturing is no surprise. There is now jockeying to see who will take control of the situation in Iraq. Iran, Saudi Arabia, or al Qaeda. There is a lot of talk about how the Saudis are worried about Iran but this is not the case as much as they are worried about an al Qaeda friendly Iraq (on their border). The Saudi royals know that an al Qaeda's goal is to take them down and they need to show some "street cred" in Iraq to head off this challenge.
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POPSVietnam War: PTSD "Skeptics have argued that these results are inflated by recall bias and other flaws." ... "We found little evidence of falsification, an even stronger dose-response relationship, and psychological costs that were lower than previously estimated but still substantial."
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