The Political Conundrum!

Why is it that an outsider’s view of our country is more patriotic and more positive than those who live in this country and call them citizens? Take a look at what Aunty Brat wrote (it is long but very worth the read) about her outsider view of America, http://assolutatranquillita.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-believe.html or take a listen to what Michael Darwin, who I recently found out only lives about an hour from me (but across the border) sings about when he sings about America at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCt3kV6m78.

It is truly sad and sickening to me when MoveOn.org, the Hufington Post, many of the Hollywood (think they are) Elites, the MSM and the President himself have such negative things to say about our country when these “outsiders” have such a  more positive view. I think they are more “American” than many who happend to have been spat out of their mother’s hoo-hoo within the borders of the United States.

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Today, The Washington Institute release the second edited volume of lectures from its senior counterterrorism officials speaker series, entitled "Countering Transnational Threats: Terrorism, Narco-Trafficking, and WMD Proliferation."

This second volume features the next six participants in this unique speaker series: Homeland Security Advisor Ken Wainstein; Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Administrator Michael Braun; National Intelligence Officer Ted Gistaro; Commerce Undersecretary Mario Mancuso; Chairman of the National Intelligence Council Tom Fingar; and Department of Defense Assistant Secretary Michael Vickers.

As the Obama administration’s counterterrorism team assesses the terrorist threat today, they will find that while much has been accomplished over the past eight years there is still much to be done. Global Jihadist terrorists remain intent on carrying out acts of spectacular violence targeting the United States and its allies, including attacks using weapons of mass destruction. While terrorists do not appear to have the capability to carry out a WMD attack today, they remain committed to that ideal. In the meantime, al Qaeda senior leadership are plotting attacks from the safe haven of tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border while franchise groups and like-minded followers plot attacks of their own -- sometimes independently and sometimes in collaboration with al Qaeda planners. Helping to facilitate terrorist planning is a growing nexus between terrorism and crime through which terrorists not only gain access to significant sums of money but also develop cooperative relationships of convenience with violent criminal networks.

As the first volume of this lecture series stressed, the terrorists threat continues to evolve. Identifying and keeping pace with these changes is critically important for a successful counterterrorism campaign. To that end, the insights of the senior counterterrorism officials who participated in this series are timely indeed.

The full monograph, edited by myself and Michael Jacobson, is available here.

Stay sharp or get out of the fleet. That's the message from the Navy to its senior enlisted sailors as it implements an annual "continuation board" that will vet chiefs, seniors chiefs and master chiefs to ensure only the sharpest senior NCOs remain in the Navy.

Al Qaeda has reorganized its notorious paramilitary formations that were devastated during the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002. Al Qaeda has reestablished the predominantly Arab and Asian paramilitary formation formerly known as Brigade 055 into a larger, more effective fighting unit known as the Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army.

No more than an estimated 30,000 additional troops will be sent to Afghanistan as the U.S. ramps up forces there, the nation's top military officer told soldiers Monday. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen also called U.S. efforts in Iraq a success, even though "we're not done."

The Army said Monday it has suspended much of the research at its flagship biological weapons defense laboratory at Fort Detrick while it makes sure it has accounted for all of its dangerous germs and poisons.

Check out my latest posting over at VA Mortgage Center.com, http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2009/02/09/with-a-grain-of-salt/

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As the Indian Government has issued its various reports on the Mumbai attacks and as a number of Think Tanks worldwide are issuing their evaluation and projections, the long term debate about what the operation meant, was meant to become and could generate in the future is now wide open. Pakistan's Government evaluation is focusing on minimizing the possibility of an inside assistance to the perpetrators. The Indian Government and agencies are focusing on determining the responsibility of Islambad's Government. In the West and also in Russia, analysts are studying the ability of international or local (called Homegrown) Jihadists of producing similar attacks in the future. As a contribution to the ongoing discussion I have briefed a number of US Representatives and members of the European Parliament on some points of projection and published several short pieces over the past month. Many of these points were expanded by colleagues. Following is an article published by the World Defense Review. I have added an interview with ETWN aired just before the inauguration of the new Administration.

The Navy has relieved of duty the commanding officer of a $1 billion warship that ran aground off Honolulu last week.

It was a chance meeting in a bar with a loudmouthed Air Force fighter pilot that set Harry J. Hillaker on a path that led to the design of the F-16 fighter jet, arguably the best military airplane of the jet age. Hillaker, an aeronautical engineer at General Dynamics for 44 years and known to many as the "Father of the F-16," died Sunday at his home in Fort Worth. He was 89.