Today’s links to interesting news and analysis, collected from around the Internet. If you find this useful, pass it to a friend or colleague.
- Now that the battle is over, do we have any evidence that this analysis was wrong: “Down the AfPak Rabbit Hole“, Thomas H. Johnson (Prof of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey) and M. Chris Mason (retired Foreign Service officer, Sr Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies), Foreign Policy, 1 March 2010 — “The village of Marjah is a meaningless strategic backwater. So why are the Pentagon and the press telling us the battle there was a huge victory?”
- Brilliant analysis of an important issue: “Renminbi reform is just the start for China:, George Magnus, Financial Times, 22 March 2010
- Amazing: “Soft Furnished Despotism“, Mark Steyn, National Review, 23 March 2010 — Rest easy, because the State of California has a Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation.
- About the most liberal President since FDR: “I miss Dick Nixon“, Chet Richards (Colonel, USAF, retired), 23 March 2010 — Look at the list of Nixon’s leftist policies! Plus the Family Assistance Plan (a national minimum income).
- “A stark truth: Israeli arms, U.S. dollars“, Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 23 March 2010
- A powerful story of how our news is manufactured: “The Trouble With Embeds“, Scott Horton, blog of Harper’s, 24 March 2010 — And one journalist’s attempts to get the truth out (Jerome Starkey of The Times).
Today’s outrageous news
“Another Senseless Drug War Death“, Radley Balko, Reason, 23 March 2010 — “Stunning developments in the 2009 police shooting of Georgia pastor Jonathan Ayers” Conclusion:
The wasteful use of public resources to pursue a petty drug offender and the aggressive and short-sighted apprehension of Jonathan Ayers that led to his death are bad enough. That a police officer untrained in the use of lethal force and unqualified to be holding a badge and gun was put on a narcotics task force, and then placed in a position where he was able to shoot and kill a non-suspect is worse. But the kicker has to be that the subsequent police-led investigations of this high-profile case failed to turn up such a critical piece of information. It ought to cast more doubt on the already dubious notion that police shootings should only be investigated by other police officers.
