FM newswire for June 25, interesting articles about geopolitics

Today’s links to interesting news and analysis. If you find this useful, please pass it to friends or colleagues.

Important reminder: “The Myth of Tiananmen and the price of a passive press“, Jay Mathews, Columbia Journalism Review, Sept/Oct 1998
The next Supreme Court justice explains that the world is our battlefield, on which we kill or capture enemies (including US citizens): Elena Kagan & the Worldwide ‘Battlefield’“, The New American, 11 April 2010
Recommended: “Who Broke America’s Jobs Machine?“, Barry C. Lynn and Phillip Longman, Washington Monthly, March/April 2010 — “Why creeping consolidation is crushing American livelihoods.”
Experts have concerns about the odds of further disasters at the Gulf well, which get exaggerated then disseminated by the news media. Here’s one of the sober articles: “Oil spill containment efforts could be putting strain on damaged well“, Rebecca Mowbray, The Times-Picayune, 16 June 2010
“General Petraeus and His Senate Vassals“, Winslow T. Wheeler (Director, Straus Military Reform Project, Center for Defense Information), Huffington Post, 23 June 2010
“The Perfect American Weapon“, Tom Englehardt, TomDispatch, 24 June 2010 — “Bush’s Pilotless Dream, Smoking Drones, and Other Strange Tales from the Crypt”
Are they allowed to pursue their own interests? “Pakistan Is Said to Pursue a Foothold in Afghanistan“, New York Times, 24 June 2010
Recommended: “What might history tell us about the Greek crisis?“, Michael Pettis (Prof Finacne, Peking U), China Financial Markets, 24 June 2010
“How many Americans are targeted for assassination?“, Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 25 June 2010
Recommend (well-written): “Nation building in Afghanistan? That’s Afghans’ job.“, Eugene Robinson, op-ed in the Washington Post, 25 June 2010
We’re made ignorant by intense propaganda. Brad DeLong fights back with a rebuttal to Francis Warnock at the CFR, who claims that U.S. government debt is very risky.

Today’s feature articles are below the fold.

(12) What events fueled Hitler’s rise to power?

The 1921-23 hyperinflation weakened the foundations of the Weimar Republic, but the onset of the Great Depression — and the Weimar’s Republic’s adoption (like Hoover in 1929-30) of liquidationist economics — rescued the Nazi Party from their near-extinction in 1928. Graph from Matthew Ygnesias blog at ThinkProgress.

(13) Yes, we’ve all noticed that (Quote of the Day)

Mr. Brennan toward the end of the interview acknowledged that, despite some differences, there is considerable continuity between the counterterrorism policies of President Bush and President Obama. “There has been a lot of continuity of effort here from the previous administration to this one,” he said. “There are some important distinctions, but sometimes there is too much made of those distinctions. We are building upon some of the good foundational work that has been done.”
— John O. Brennan (White House senior adviser on counterterrorism), interviewed by Eli Lake, Washington Times, 24 June 2010 (link)

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