Posts Tagged ‘Al Qaeda’
FROM Stratfor founder and Chief Intelligence Officer George Friedman – September 23, 2008
The above link goes to the first installment of a four-part report from Stratfor founder and Chief Intelligence Officer, George Friedman, on the United States Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy.
“On Friday night, every government intelligence agency in the world will be glued to television sets watching the US Presidential Debate on foreign policy. Government intelligence agencies won’t be rooting for one candidate or the other, nor are they trying to call the “winner” of the debate – or even ultimately the election.
“A government intelligence agency’s goal is to provide national policy makers an unbiased analysis of contingencies. In this instance, they’re attempting to answer two questions, “What will US foreign policy look like under an Obama or McCain administration? And how will that impact our country?”
“Stratfor is a private-sector, independent intelligence service and approaches the debates from a similar perspective. We have zero preference for one candidate or the other, but we are passionately interested in analyzing and forecasting the geopolitical impact of the election.
“The essence of our business is non-partisan, dispassionate analysis and forecasting. For individuals in today’s global world – oil traders and missionaries, soldiers and equity analysts, educators and travelers – Stratfor provides the intelligence analysis that has long been exclusively available to governments.
“This introductory piece frames the questions that the next president will face. Regardless of a given candidate’s policy preferences, there are logistical and geographical constraints that shape US and foreign options. The purpose of this analysis is to describe the geopolitical landscape for the next administration. The analysis concludes with a list of questions for the debate that define the parameters facing both candidates.”
Stratfor offers the following list of questions facing both candidates :
- If the United States removes its forces from Iraq slowly as both of you advocate, where will the troops come from to deal with Afghanistan and protect allies in the former Soviet Union?
- The Russians sent 120,000 troops to Afghanistan and failed to pacify the country. How many troops do you think are necessary?
- Do you believe al Qaeda prime is still active and worth pursuing?
- Do you believe the Iranians are capable of producing a deliverable nuclear weapon during your term in office?
- How do you plan to persuade the Pakistani government to go after the Taliban, and what support can you provide them if they do?
- Do you believe the United States should station troops in the Baltic states, in Ukraine and Georgia as well as in other friendly countries to protect them from Russia?
- Do you feel that NATO remains a viable alliance, and are the Europeans carrying enough of the burden?
- Do you believe that Mexico represents a national security issue for the United States?
- Do you believe that China represents a strategic challenge to the United States?
- Do you feel that there has been tension between the United States and Israel over the Georgia issue?
PLEASE READ Part 1 of this important US Foreign Policy report from Stratfor
Taking America Backwards. . .
Posted on: September 8, 2008
SEE PALIN AND McCAIN’S SHOTGUN MARRIAGE CARTOON:
Following are excerpts from Frank Rich’s “Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage“:
“We’ve already seen where such visceral decision-making by McCain can lead. In October 2001, he speculated that Saddam Hussein might have been behind the anthrax attacks in America. That same month he out-Cheneyed Cheney in his repeated public insistence that Iraq had a role in 9/11 even after both American and foreign intelligence services found that unlikely. He was similarly rash in his reading of the supposed evidence of Saddam’s W.M.D. and in his estimate of the number of troops needed to occupy Iraq. (McCain told MSNBC in late 2001 that we could do with fewer than 100,000.) It wasn’t until months after “Mission Accomplished” that he called for more American forces to be tossed into the bloodbath. The whole fiasco might have been prevented had he listened to those like Gen. Eric Shinseki who faulted the Rumsfeld war plan from the start.”
“In other words, McCain’s hasty vetting of Palin was all too reminiscent of his grave dereliction of due diligence on the war. He has been no less hasty in implying that we might somehow ride to the military rescue of Georgia (“Today, we are all Georgians”) or in reaffirming as late as December 2007 that the crumbling anti-democratic regime of Pervez Musharraf deserved “the benefit of the doubt” even as it was enabling the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. McCain’s blanket endorsement of Bush administration policy in Pakistan could have consequences for years to come.”
McCain Sucks, Palin Sucks = No Bush left behind 