Islamic State 2.0
Many of Iraq ' s Sunnis are frustrated with the slow pace of reconstruction and a Baghdad government they consider too friendly to Iran. The U.S. needs to shift from supporting military operations in cities such as Mosul to helping the Iraqi government better address political grievances. Failure risks sowing the seeds of ISIS ' s resurgence. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - August 10, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Seth G. Jones Source Type: blogs
Will the Pentagon Get a Big Budget Increase?
CSBA ’s Katherine Blakeley has published a brief but highly informativeanalysis of the prospects for a major military spending boost.Bottom line up front: The combination of “procedural and political hurdles” in Congress make an increase along the lines of what the Trump administration requested (approx. $54 billion) unlikely. The substantially larger increases passed out of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees (roughly $30–33 billion more than the presi dent’s request) seem even more fanciful.Blakeley concludes:The wide gulfs between the political parties, and between the defense hawks and the fiscal h...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 9, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Christopher A. Preble Source Type: blogs
Fatal Fallacies in the War on Terror
As I argue in my recently publishedpolicy analysis here at Cato, the American-led war on terror has clearly failed. Unfortunately, rather than accept the obvious fact that the campaign was badly misguided and focusing homeland security efforts in more fruitful areas, the Trump administration appears ready to embrace, and perhaps even to escalate, the American commitment in the Middle East. Though President Trump himself has frequently voiced concerns about nation building in Iraq and the mission in Afghanistan, few of his senior advisers appear to share his worries. And sadly, few voices from the foreign policy establishme...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 20, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: A. Trevor Thrall Source Type: blogs
Is Trump Putting Us Back on the Road to War with Iran?
On Monday, the Trump administration once again officially certified that Iran is in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement that rolled back Iran ’s nuclear program and subjected it to unprecedented levels of inspections and monitoring in exchange for sanctions relief. But, according tomultiplereports, Trump was very close to refusing to do so.Apparently, there is a split in the administration. Some of Trump ’s national security advisors, along with some hawks on Capitol Hill, are intent on torpedoing the Iran nuclear deal. And Trump was set to officially claim, contrary to the fac...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 19, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: John Glaser Source Type: blogs
Moving Beyond Mosul
The Islamic State group has been defeated in Mosul. But the military routing of the group from Mosul is not enough to ensure lasting stability, either in Mosul itself or in Iraq more broadly. What comes next will need careful planning, diplomacy, implementation and coordination. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - July 18, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Linda Robinson; Shelly Culbertson Source Type: blogs
Jellybean 067 with Dr Hanna Kaade from Aleppo
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
Under Siege. Under fire. Undergraduate. The remarkable journey of Dr Hanna Kaade; from Aleppo to Berlin and from the Red Crescent to #dasSMACC.
This is an ordinary tale. An accidental tale of everyday heroism. There are many tales like this. Every one worth telling, worth hearing, worth learning from.
Hanna Kaade is a Syrian born and trained doctor. He completed his medical training in a town under siege, in a hospital under fire, in the centre of a civil war at the cent...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 14, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Doug Lynch Tags: JellyBean Aleppo dasSMACC Hanna Kaade Source Type: blogs
Heritage Report Shows Refugees Are Not a Major Threat
ConclusionTheHeritage Backgrounder makes a valuable and interesting contribution to the debate over the future of the American refugee program. As a side effect, it shows just how small and manageable the refugee terrorist threat is. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 13, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: David Bier, Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
Hegemonic Blackmail: Allied Pressure and U.S. Intervention
Discussions of military intervention often focus on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This is entirely understandable: the war in Iraq was a catastrophic foreign policy choice that is still reshaping the political landscape of the Middle East today.Yet the Iraq war is unusual in many ways. There was no existing civil war or humanitarian crisis, a factor which has driven many of America ’s other post-Cold War interventions in Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo and Libya. The United States also undertook the invasion of Iraq largely alone and against the wishes of other countries; unable to gain support from the majority of its NATO allies,...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 12, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Emma Ashford Source Type: blogs
On North Korea, Diplomacy Is the Sensible Option
The Trump administration ’s approach to North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development has been almost exclusively an emphasis on military confrontation. The latest eruption of escalatory actions and rhetoric is in keeping with the norm.Following Pyongyang ’s successful testing of an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) this week, Trumpreferenced“some pretty severe things that we are thinking about” in response. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of U.S. forces in South Korean,warned ominously that “it would be a grave mistake for anyone” to doubt our willingness to use military force in...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 7, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: John Glaser Source Type: blogs
Unreformed: Taming the Charge Monster
By, SAURABH JHA
Any backpacker travelling on a shoestring budget in Thailand knows not to blow their entire budget on premium whiskey in a premium hotel on the first night in Bangkok. Rather, you need to skip the occasional meal, stay in a cheap dorm with random strangers, and drink cheap beer on Khao San Road if you wish to see the country and return home without having to wash dishes in a restaurant in Bangkok to repay the loans. Both Democrats and Republicans seem impervious to a simple wisdom that I learnt when backpacking – you save money if you go for cheap stuff. The operative word here is “cheap.”
Both the Af...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 1, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: at RogueRad Tags: Economics Hospitals Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Partitioning Iraq: Make a Detailed Case, or Cease and Desist
The mostly non-Iraqi voices who want to divide the country into three ethno-sectarian cantonments—Shi'a, Sunni, and Kurd—owe the Iraqi people extensive, detailed clarification. If neither the Iraqi Arab polity nor Iraq's most powerful political factions seek three-way partition, then the case should be closed. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - May 15, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: RAND Corporation Source Type: blogs
“@zaha_hadid, the Iraqi-British architect whose structures...
"@zaha_hadid, the Iraqi-British architect whose structures left a mark on skylines around the world, died in Miami today at the age of 65. The first woman to win the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor, @zaha_hadid was renowned for her theoretical work. Although some Romans might have wondered whether one of her buildings would overwhelm a placid neighborhood full of apartment buildings, the design for @museomaxxi, the contemporary art museum pictured here, drew high praise. "Its sensual lines seem to draw the energy of the city right up into its belly, making everything around it look timid," wrote the former @ny...
Source: Kidney Notes - March 30, 2016 Category: Urology & Nephrology Authors: Joshua Schwimmer Source Type: blogs
How long until the next bomb? Why there ’ s no reason to think that nuclear deterrence works
Every day one sees politicians on TV assuring us that nuclear deterrence works because there no nuclear weapon has been exploded in anger since 1945. They clearly have no understanding of statistics.
With a few plausible assumptions, we can easily calculate that the time until the next bomb explodes could be as little as 20 years.
Be scared, very scared.
The first assumption is that bombs go off at random intervals. Since we have had only one so far (counting Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a single event), this can’t be verified. But given the large number of small influences that control when a bomb explodes (whether ...
Source: DC's goodscience - October 24, 2015 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Politicians politics bomb deterrant exponential distribution Markov nuclear statistics Trident Source Type: blogs
How Washington Wrecked Iraq and Created the Islamic State
Chaos is spreading from the Middle East outward as hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees pour into Europe. Over the last decade millions of Iraqis and Syrians have fled their homes. Western governments are proving far better at assigning blame than finding solutions.
The Republican Party meme is that every problem, including in the Middle East, is Barack Obama’s fault. According to the GOP, George W. Bush left America and the world secure. The feckless Obama administration allowed the collapse of Iraq and rise of the Islamic State.
These claims are self-serving, a political fantasy. The George W. Bush administration c...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 28, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
Think Tanks and the Iraq War
As I noted last week, the GOP’s 2016 contenders didn’t do themselves much credit as they ducked, covered, cringed, and pratfell through a series of interview questions about the Iraq War. Still, Jeb Bush had a point when he noted that, at the time, “almost everybody” in political Washington was for the war. True enough: as policy disasters go, the Iraq War was as bipartisan as the subprime loan crisis.
On the war’s tenth anniversary a couple of years back, the New Republic’s John Judis recalled “what it was like to oppose the Iraq War in 2003.” His memory jibes with mine: it was pretty damned lonely. We...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 8, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Gene Healy Source Type: blogs
