The whole country if not the world is debating the course of action Obama should take in the war in Afghanistan - whether to increase troop levels (and by how many) or simply get out.
I suggest a 3rd way: Surge the armed forces, pound the Taliban back into the Afghan dirt, then get the hell out quickly. The war on terror is not about Afghanistan. The war on al Qaeda should be fought with special ops, covert ops, and hard-handed influence on foreign governments. To paraphrase Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "Somebody in the Pakistan government knows where al Qaeda leadership is hiding". In addition to Pakistan, al Qaeda is known to be in Yemen, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and even Denver Colorado.
It is immoral to send American's best to die and be maimed in a country controlled by drug-corrupted tribal groups. There are morally corrupt regions on every continent but Antarctica. America does not have the resources or the obligation to fix all of them.
The Afghan run-off election will not change anything, and waiting for it to announce a decision is politically dumb. Obama should act now to satisfy the GOP, satisfy the military leadership and show some strength in a region that pounces on weakness. But just like Iraq, we have been 'over there' too long.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Surge, Purge and Leave
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tax Cellphones, Carbon, Cigarettes, Calories
California has 10M cars on the road. On an given day about a third of them use a cellphone despite laws prohibiting the use of non hands-free cellphones while driving. Why? Duh, it's only a $20 fine. Littering is a $1000 fine in California and many other states. The next time you are on the road, count the number of people driving illegally with a phone glued to their face vs. the number throwing trash out the window. The penalty for littering is 50 times the penalty for a behavior that kills and injures people every day. A $1000 fine would initially bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to state coffers. That money could replace state funding taken away from schools, fire departments and police. But pulling people over is dangerous and time-consuming. Maria Shriver's cellphone vehicle violations are well known because the paparazzi have her on tape. One cop with a camera could generate $1M in fines in a single weekend.
Thomas Friedman, columnist for the NY Times, suggested that gas should be $4.00/gallon forevermore. The price spike in the late 1970s forced Europe and Japan to adapt with efficient mass transit. We didn't, and we were even more unprepared for $140/barrel oil in 2008. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has called for $10/gallon gas, based on behavioral change at the global level. "No one explicitly pays for the destruction of our atmosphere and the warming of the world's oceans". American burns ~375M gallons of gas every day. Changing that will take time and technology. A carbon tax could fund the technology. Obama's Cap and Trade proposal has become a watered down political mess. California should take the lead will real reform by directly taxing carbon. (And gain relief from Cap and Trade because we get most of our electricity from non-polluting sources.)
California democrats proposed higher cigarette taxes as one way to fix the budget deficit. Cigarette consumption is a behavior that implicitly costs everyone though the burden of health care. Cigarettes kill more American every week than the war in Iraq has - to date. Insurance companies pass the cost of $100,000/year cancer treatment on to their other clients. We subsidize cigarette smoking through our insurance premiums. Heart disease and related complications (diabetes) kills more Americans every day than the war in Iraq. The costs are enormous, and we all pay, one way or another. It is time to tax nutritionally devoid calories - high-sugar drinks and high-fat "value meals".
updated Nov 1, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Draft Dodger Disses War Hero
On Sunday's Face the Nation, Vietnam war draft-dodger Dick disses Colin Powell, a highly decorated war hero, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and architect of the only successful invasion of Iraq. And picks a rich, recovering drug addict, talking-head as the voice of the Republican party. This might be a good time for George W. to preserve a bit of his own legacy and admit that everything that went wrong was Uncle Cheney's idea.
Read more on how Cheney is putting the nails in the GOP coffin in today's Washington Post.
Did eliminating EIT make America weaker? Ineffective reactive approaches do nothing for the root cause - soaring unemployment in Middle East young adults - 25% overall and 50% in Gaza - provides an ideal opportunity for radicals offering change. And besides, Jack Bauer will continue to do whatever he deems justified to keep us safe.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Nationalize California
A going concern becomes insolvent when financial obligations exceed assets. Chapter 11, Title 11 is the preferred alternative to simply folding the tent. When the "concern" is the 8th largest economy in the world, folding the tent is not an option. The California budget resolution recently passed in Sacramento and now up for public approval will not solve California's endemic, systemic problems. We are destined to revisit this crisis again and again.
Nancy Pelosi, chief "pirate" on the high seas of Congress has brought $30B of (stimulus) treasure to her state. This will certainly help, but it won't solve our problems. The Federal government is invoking a virtual Chapter 11 on banks, Big 3 auto makers, and AIG - with bailout money. He who brings the money, makes the new rules. So why not do the same with the State of California. Force us to do what we cannot do: restructure the constitution and eliminate the referendum propositions that confound "government by representation". Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to clean up the "special interest" groups that defy progress but he has failed. Meg Whitman, running for Governor in 2010, has taken up the torch to make California business friendly. But that will never happen as special interests are "ordained and empowered" by numerous Amendments, Propositions, and a perpetual gridlocked assembly.
Monday, May 19, 2008
My Mama is for Obama
My mother voted Republican for 52 years. Dewey, Ike, Ike, Nixon, Goldwater, Nixon, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, G.H.W. Bush, and Dole. In 2000, she abstained from Bush Jr's election. My mother is a multi-generation Texan, while the Bush's are blue-bloods from Connecticut. G.H.W Bush was a successful Texas oilman, and that counts for a lot in the Permian Basin of West Texas. But junior (or as the late Molly Ivins nicknamed him, Shrub) "failed or was bailed" out of every oil deal he touched. In fact, Shrub's first buy low - sell high business success was a part ownership in the Texas Rangers baseball team. His second such success was winning the Governorship of Texas, after which he immediately began his long march to Washington - against the wishes of his father. Turns out that older brother Jeb was supposed to inherit that mantle. But Jeb was down in Florida working so hard to turn around the state budget and economy that he let his little bro' stake out the party high ground.
After watching Bush steal the election from Gore (ironically with help from Jeb) my mother turned Democrat in 2004 to vote for Kerry. Now she looks forward to a country led by a man who actually understands and respects the U.S. Constitution. A man who won't start and never-end a war for a short-term blip in his polls. A man who actually knows what "The Google" does to make money. That man is Barack OBama.
