Author: Tim J. Clark

Iranian People: Regard for U.S.

POST: I want to access the Iranian people.
Thomas P.M. Barnett on June 19, 2008

Comments on the following article on the need to distinguish between the desires of most of the Iranian people and their leaders.

Stars (and Stripes) in Their Eyes, Washingtopn Post, By Azadeh Moaveni, Sunday, June 1, 2008; B01

Most of the Middle East hates America, but Iranians see a more appealing image. It’s their own president they can’t stand.

Although their leaders still call America the “Great Satan,” ordinary Iranians’ affection for the United States seems to be thriving these days, at least in the bustling capital. This rekindled regard is evident in people’s conversations, their insatiable demand for U.S. products and culture, and their fascination with the U.S. presidential campaign. One can’t do reliable polling about Iranians’ views under their theocratic government, of course, but these shifts were still striking to me as a longtime visitor — not least because liking the United States is also a way for Iranians to register their frustration with their own firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

It might startle some Americans to realize that Iran has one of the most pro-American populations in the Middle East. Iranians have adored America for nearly three decades, a sentiment rooted in nostalgia for Iran’s golden days, before the worst of the shah’s repression and the 1979 Islamic revolution. But today’s affection is new, in a sense, or at least different.

Iraq: Future Options

The Right Iraq Footprint, (Washington Post)…David Ignatius, June 19, 2008, Pg. 19

“Don’t be afraid of Iraqi sovereignty,” Gen. John Abizaid used to say when he was Centcom commander. And that’s good advice now as Iraqis and Americans think about the new “status of forces” agreement that will shape the country next year when the Bush administration is gone.

The right formula, says Kilcullen, is: “Overt De-Escalation; Covert Disruption.” Indeed, our future Iraq presence may look more like covert action than traditional warfare. We’ve made a lot of friends among tribal leaders in the past several years, as the United States finally began to learn the tools of counterinsurgency. Those relationships will be important in the next phase.

Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, a retired Australian army officer and an expert in counterinsurgency. He was a key member of the team that drafted Gen. David Petraeus’s Iraq campaign plan.

DoD: Fuel and Food Bills

CNN, June 18, 2008, Rise In Fuel And Food Prices Affects Pentagon, Issue Number One (CNN), 12:00 PM

ALI VELSHI: Well, you’re going to love this story. You all probably have an idea of what you spend on gas and food every month. Hopefully it’s a simple family budget. But what if you had a food and fuel budget for your entire company? And what if that company was nearly three times the size of Wal-Mart, IBM and ExxonMobil combined? CNN’s Barbara Starr has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBARA STARR: If you think your gas and grocery bill is high, meet Tina Jonas. She spends $15 billion a year on fuel and $3 billion a year on food.

TINA JONAS, PENTAGON CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: It’s pretty hectic around here.

STARR: Jonas manages the Pentagon’s $600 billion budget.

JONAS: If we were a country on earth, we’d be about the 17th largest economy in the world.

STARR: She likes to point out that the Pentagon’s budget woes are just like everybody else’s, running out of money in a world of rising prices. The U.S. military is the single largest consumer of fuel in the country, perhaps the world — 122 million barrels a year.

JONAS: We need another $3.5 billion of fuel money just to get through the year. We’re going to need another $1 billion to finance our food bill.

STARR: And why is that?

JONAS: Well, transportation’s driving a lot of it. The cost of wheat and corn and other things have gone up.

STARR: From her desk, or what she calls her dash board, Jonas monitors everything.

JONAS: What I do for my fuel prices is, I have my — the figures that I have here tell me how short I’m going to be in the accounts that buy fuel for the departments.

STARR: So the budget around here really isn’t that different than your family budget really?

JONAS: Well, that’s right. We’re car pooling a lot at home now. Took the metro yesterday.

STARR: Seriously?

JONAS: Yes, I did. I’ve been taking it the last couple of days. My husband, he’s a former retired Marine, so he’s pretty tight with the bucks. (END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: And Jonas has another tip for saving money that might sound familiar, pay your bills on time. She’s making sure the Pentagon does that and so far she calculates she has saved about a quarter of a billion dollars in late fees.

VELSHI: All right. And that — I mean, when you’re at the Pentagon, that’s a lot of money to be able to save, but they’ve got big budget needs. Where do they get the new money for those?

STARR: You know, I asked that question, Ali. I said, so is there a secret printing press for money in the basement? There’s always been that rumor here in the Pentagon. But, of course, what they do is they go to Congress to get authorization to spend more money. So, of course, they’re really getting it from you and me, the taxpayers.

VELSHI: Yes. And those gas prices have really, really hit them very hard. It’s a great story. It’s a good lesson to learn. You know, when the biggest of the big save money by doing those things, it could work for us.

Boeing wins appeal: 35 Billion

Audit Says Tanker Deal Is Flawed
(New York Times)…Leslie Wayne

In a stunning turnabout for the Boeing Company, government auditors on Wednesday upheld the company’s appeal of the Air Force’s decision to award a $35 billion contract to build midair refueling tankers to a partnership of Northrop Grumman and the European parent of Airbus.

Iraq: Three realities

Iraq: Still Inscrutable, (New York Times)…Thomas L. Friedman, June 18, 2008

…Iraq has become one of those subjects that so many people now come to with so much emotional scar tissue that it is very hard to have a sober discussion about the actual situation there today. So much is colored by how you feel about George Bush or whether you were for or against the war. As a result, what we do next in Iraq — how and why — is barely getting discussed in the presidential campaign.

…  three conflicting political realities … The first is the mood of the American public …  the second is the reality on the ground in Iraq, which is no longer an unremitting horror story …. The third reality, though, is the fact that the reconciliation process inside Iraq … still has not reached a point where Iraq’s stability is self-sustaining.

“When it comes to Iraq, most Americans really want to leave, but they still don’t want to lose”

Academics and Soft Power

Pentagon To Consult Academics On Security
(New York Times)…Patricia Cohen, June 18, 2008

Eager to embrace eggheads and ideas, the Pentagon has started an ambitious and unusual program to recruit social scientists and direct the nation’s brainpower to combating security threats like the Chinese military, Iraq, terrorism and religious fundamentalism.

But if the uncustomary push to engage the nation’s evolutionary psychologists, demographers, sociologists, historians and anthropologists in security research — as well as the prospect of new financial support in lean times — has generated excitement among some scholars, it has also aroused opposition from others, who worry that the Defense Department and the academy are getting too cozy.

Mr. Gates has stressed the importance of devoting resources to what he calls “ ‘soft power’, the elements of national power beyond the guns and steel of the military.”