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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Leon wrote: |
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=128034
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Dempsey Sponsors Essay Competition to Honor Saudi King
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2015 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has established a research and essay competition in honor of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz hosted by the National Defense University.
The king, who died Jan. 23 at age 90, oversaw the modernization of his country’s military during the time he spent as commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a position he held from 1963 until he became king in 2005.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said the essay competition is a fitting tribute to the life and leadership of the Saudi Arabian monarch. |
Words fail me. |
That isn't that bad. It's just a dumb essay contest. It doesn't mention what one wins. It's just some silly platitude to an "ally who died. Could be much worse... |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=128034
| Quote: |
Dempsey Sponsors Essay Competition to Honor Saudi King
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2015 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has established a research and essay competition in honor of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz hosted by the National Defense University.
The king, who died Jan. 23 at age 90, oversaw the modernization of his country’s military during the time he spent as commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a position he held from 1963 until he became king in 2005.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said the essay competition is a fitting tribute to the life and leadership of the Saudi Arabian monarch. |
Words fail me. |
That isn't that bad. It's just a dumb essay contest. It doesn't mention what one wins. It's just some silly platitude to an "ally who died. Could be much worse... |
Of course it could be worse, and my reaction is based partially on my distaste for the Saudi monarchy. It is also because this is hosted by ndu for ndu students, I.e. Lt. Colonels and the like with promotion potential, so basically military and natl. sec. Elites in the making. It feeds into to issues I have with professional military education. |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:15 am Post subject: |
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| Titus wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| There is an article coming out soon that I helped edit that I will post to this thread when it comes out that talks about how Saudi, Qatar, and the U.S. funds proxies in the region that you might find interesting. I think it will be out this week, but part of the author's thesis is that we are still living with the consequences of 1979/1980s. |
Please do. |
http://www.fletchersecurity.org/#!warde/c14jn
| Quote: |
| The United States and Saudi Arabia lavished money and weapons on unsavory characters during the anti-Soviet jihad of the 1980s, giving little thought to the possibility of a blowback or boomerang effect—that they would in effect be funding and arming their future enemies. It is indeed ironic that the principal bankrollers of the jihad later became the main targets of offshoots of that jihad. A non-negligible part of the money and weapons sent by the United States to Iraq, in particular as part of the “Sunni awakening”, is now in the hands of extremists.With the near-exclusive focus on military developments, the financial front of the war on terror is all but ignored. This article traces the evolution of checkbook diplomacy in conflicts involving the Islamic world. |
This is the article I was talking about. |
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Titus
Joined: 19 May 2012
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| Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 9:34 am Post subject: |
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I see it cites Chalmers Johnson and the concept of blowback. We keep ruining states/nations and suffering consequences and then we go back and ruin them again.
How come the states that America attacks almost immediately rejoin the 13th century? Libya, Iraq, Syria. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 2:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Leon wrote: |
| Titus wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| There is an article coming out soon that I helped edit that I will post to this thread when it comes out that talks about how Saudi, Qatar, and the U.S. funds proxies in the region that you might find interesting. I think it will be out this week, but part of the author's thesis is that we are still living with the consequences of 1979/1980s. |
Please do. |
http://www.fletchersecurity.org/#!warde/c14jn
| Quote: |
| The United States and Saudi Arabia lavished money and weapons on unsavory characters during the anti-Soviet jihad of the 1980s, giving little thought to the possibility of a blowback or boomerang effect—that they would in effect be funding and arming their future enemies. It is indeed ironic that the principal bankrollers of the jihad later became the main targets of offshoots of that jihad. A non-negligible part of the money and weapons sent by the United States to Iraq, in particular as part of the “Sunni awakening”, is now in the hands of extremists.With the near-exclusive focus on military developments, the financial front of the war on terror is all but ignored. This article traces the evolution of checkbook diplomacy in conflicts involving the Islamic world. |
This is the article I was talking about. |
It was ok. Not to be mean, but I can see why he's an adjunct. I feel like I just read an undergrad term paper. Well-written, but also writing what's been written many times before. A couple of his sources (Rashid and Coll's Ghost Wars) are great books that were written 10+ years ago. I wish he would have devoted more research and writing to the post-Arab Spring period. He also briefly mentioned how checkbook diplomacy contributed to ISiS' rise and the mess in Iraq, but didn't go any further. Oh well, I suppose that could be an entirely different article... |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| Titus wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| There is an article coming out soon that I helped edit that I will post to this thread when it comes out that talks about how Saudi, Qatar, and the U.S. funds proxies in the region that you might find interesting. I think it will be out this week, but part of the author's thesis is that we are still living with the consequences of 1979/1980s. |
Please do. |
http://www.fletchersecurity.org/#!warde/c14jn
| Quote: |
| The United States and Saudi Arabia lavished money and weapons on unsavory characters during the anti-Soviet jihad of the 1980s, giving little thought to the possibility of a blowback or boomerang effect—that they would in effect be funding and arming their future enemies. It is indeed ironic that the principal bankrollers of the jihad later became the main targets of offshoots of that jihad. A non-negligible part of the money and weapons sent by the United States to Iraq, in particular as part of the “Sunni awakening”, is now in the hands of extremists.With the near-exclusive focus on military developments, the financial front of the war on terror is all but ignored. This article traces the evolution of checkbook diplomacy in conflicts involving the Islamic world. |
This is the article I was talking about. |
It was ok. Not to be mean, but I can see why he's an adjunct. I feel like I just read an undergrad term paper. Well-written, but also writing what's been written many times before. A couple of his sources (Rashid and Coll's Ghost Wars) are great books that were written 10+ years ago. I wish he would have devoted more research and writing to the post-Arab Spring period. He also briefly mentioned how checkbook diplomacy contributed to ISiS' rise and the mess in Iraq, but didn't go any further. Oh well, I suppose that could be an entirely different article... |
Thanks for taking a look at it. I think that is a fair criticism, and would have liked to have had more about ISiS, but I think it is a bit harder to know the details of what is going on there right now. |
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