Trump ’s Needlessly Dangerous Saudi Arabia Deployment
Ted Galen CarpenterThe Trump administration has approved the deployment to Saudi Arabia of Air Force F-15s, new air defense systems, and other military hardware, along with U.S. troops to operate and maintain those weapons systems.These new measures the Pentagon announced on October 11 will bring the total U.S. troop deployment to the kingdom to 3,000 since a mid-September attack on Saudi oil facilities.Speaking to reporters after the announcement,Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that it is now “clear that Iranians are responsible” for the attacks and warned that Washington has additional units “on alert” that ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 14, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Ted Galen Carpenter Source Type: blogs
History Lesson
As I mentioned in my last post, I have been closely following events in Iraq since shortly after the U.S. invasion, as I first contributed to, then took ownership of the blog Today in Iraq. We have a reader who thought that changing the subject from the Residents recent abandonment of the Syrian Kurds to the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011 would place the blame for the rise of Islamic State on Barack Obama.In fact the so-calledStatus of Force Agreement that required U.S. forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011 was signed by President George W. Bush in 2008. The Obama administration attempted to negotiate a new...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 11, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Podcast: Hiding Depression- Using Perfectionism to Hide Our Struggles
Are you always in control and always perfectly put together? Are you professionally successful, a great friend, and always showing a happy face to the world? But what about on the inside? Is there something in the background or in the past that you don’t talk about? Do you feel disconnected, like no one knows the “real” you? Deep down do you just know something is wrong? Well, you might have “perfectly hidden depression.”
Today Gabe speaks with Dr. Margaret Rutherford who has done extensive work on the relationship between perfectionism and depression. Dr. Rutherford tells us how childhood trauma c...
Source: World of Psychology - October 10, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: The Psych Central Podcast Tags: Brain and Behavior Depression General Happiness Interview LifeHelper Mental Health and Wellness Perfectionism Personality Podcast Psychiatry Psychology Research Self-Esteem Self-Help The Psych Central Show Trauma Source Type: blogs
Syria: Another Forever War Beckons
Ted Galen CarpenterAn explosion of criticism had erupted in Congress and the news media in response to President Trump ’s decision to withdraw a small contingent of U.S. troops stationed in northern Syria. Those forces served as a (mostly symbolic) barrier to Turkey’s ambitions to conduct a military offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces there. Ankara has nowinitiated that offensive.Republican hawks and Trump ’sautomatic adversaries among congressional Democrats are united in excoriating his decision. Much of the criticism has focused on the allegedbetrayal of Washington ’s Kurdish allies. Opponents of the move ar...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 9, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Ted Galen Carpenter Source Type: blogs
Kurds Away
As my 2 1/2 long time readers know, for many years I maintained a blog called Today in Iraq and Afghanistan (originally Today in Iraq). During the height of U.S. involvement in Iraq we had thousands of visitors every day, and we were listed in the blogroll at Eschaton and other prominent sites. But Americans lost interest in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and even the fight against the Islamic State didn ' t garner much attention. I finally stopped blogging there a few months ago when the situation in both countries had turned into stagnation and the daily routine of generally low-level violence just didn ' t seem worth ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 8, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The Terrorist Threat Posed by Neglect and Indifference
Western countries have seemingly washed their hands when it comes to the aftermath of ISIS. By ignoring the threat and leaving it to the Iraqis and Syrian Kurds to deal with European citizens in detention camps, Western nations are helping the terrorists ' ideology persist. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - September 22, 2019 Category: Health Management Authors: Colin P. Clarke Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Us and Them
As I have said many times, the chapter divisions were added by medieval scribes and often don ' t seem to make a lot of sense. Exodus 23 is obviously three different segments which may well come from entirely different original sources. It starts out ascribing moral principles which, in contrast to much of what we have seen so far, are largely consistent with what we think of as virtuous today. Then it prescribes some religious practices which include some of God ' s odd obsessions but whatever. Then it turns really, really ugly. (I ' ve gone back to the New International Version for this one, it seems clearer in some plac...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 22, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Interventionists Evade Responsibility for Their Policy Disasters
Ted Galen CarpenterAs I point out in a newNational Interest Onlinearticle, a multi-sided struggle for power in Libya continues to fester more than eight years after the United States led an air war to help rebels oust longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi.Libya joins Iraq and Syria as a classic example of the failed U.S. regime-change strategy.Fighting between Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ’s so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) and the even more misnamed Government of National Accord (GNA) has intensified in and around the capital, Tripoli. The LNA boasted on September 11 that its forces had routed troops of the Sarraj milit...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 20, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Ted Galen Carpenter Source Type: blogs
Southeast Asia Loves ISIS, but Is the Feeling Mutual?
As the ISIS core in Iraq and Syria attempts to rebuild, Baghdadi and his lieutenants will have to make difficult decisions about where to allocate resources. Now that the caliphate is gone and ISIS must transform into an insurgency, the largely untested lands of Southeast Asia may yield rich rewards. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - September 15, 2019 Category: Health Management Authors: Zachary Abuza; Colin P. Clarke Source Type: blogs
Repeal Old AUMFs and Salt the Earth
For months now, the Trump administration has pursued a “maximum pressure” campaign that—by accident orby design—has brought the United States to the brink of war with Iran. The branch of government with the constitutional power to declare war ought to havethe final word here. Lately, however, Trump officials have hinted that Congress hasalready had its say —nearly 18 years ago, when it authorized war with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The 2001Authorization for the Use of Military Force, passed three days after the September 11 attacks, targets the perpetrators of 9/11 and those who “harbored” or “aided” ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 13, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Gene Healy Source Type: blogs
The Case against Afghanistan Withdrawal Is Weak
Even in these divisive times, political leaders in Washington are beginning to converge on at least one issue: it ’s time to end the longest war in American history and withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan. President Trump said in the Oval Office last month that “it ’s ridiculous” that we’re still there after almost two decades of stalemate and he reportedlywants to pull out by the 2020 election. His challengers on the Democratic sideseemtoagree.Although in 2017 Trump authorized a small surge of troops and left the military strategy essentially unchanged, his special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 13, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: John Glaser Source Type: blogs
Despite Federal Return, Capital Punishment is Dying Out
The U.S. federal government recently ordered the death penalty to be reinstated for the first time in sixteen years and has scheduled the execution of five death row inmates. This policy change goes against the widespread trend toward fewer executions.Twenty-one U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, have totally abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Seven of those states abolished the practice in my lifetime. New Hampshire just officially abolished it in 2019.In many U.S. states where executions are still legal, none have been carried out for years and the law is mainly symbolic. Kansas, for example, has not ex...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 29, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Chelsea Follett Source Type: blogs
Trump ’s “Cakewalk” Fantasy about an Iran War
Although President Trump apparently called off a planned airstrike on Iran at the last minute in late June, he subsequently warned Iranian leaders that the military option was still very much on the table. He emphasized that if the United States used force against Iran, Washington would not put boots on the ground but would wage the conflict entirely with America ’s vast air power. Trump exhibited no doubt about the outcome, asserting that such a war “wouldn ’t last very long, ” and that it would mean the “obliteration” of Iran.His boast was eerily reminiscent of the statement that Kenneth Adelman, a former ass...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 3, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Ted Galen Carpenter Source Type: blogs
