Ask any question about geopolitics, broadly defined. We — and others reading the FM website — will attempt to answer it in the comments. All answers welcomed!
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Questions received so far
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- Do you think the Mexico civil war described in Fred’s article will spread north of the border?
- Comment
- Comment
- Discussion about Jefferson’s letter (one of his most interesting and badly quoted)
- What’s your take on Dmitry Orlov’s take on European and United States collapse post peak oil?
- More about Orlov.
- What if Mexico or Columbia legalized drugs? Would this reduce the drug wars?
- Interesting comment and question about the “Occupy” movement.
- Comment about OWS.
- Did the Iraq war have anything to do with the “Arab Spring”?
- A candidate for the “Dumbest Article of the Week”
To start the discussion: articles of interest this week
- “The Myth of the Middle“, Mark Schmitt, Democracy (a journal of ideas), Winter 2012 — “Why we should be skeptical about the current mania for a third party that appeals to independents and libertarians.” Review of The Declaration of Independents By Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
- “Deference To The Generals Be Damned”, National Journal, 17 December 2011 — “Republican presidential candidates searching for a way to criticize President Obama’s handling of national security have settled on a simple formulation: The commander in chief, they charge, doesn’t listen to his generals. … Republicans in Congress are pushing the Pentagon to do things it would rather not do.”
- “The Exodus Begins {from Mexico}“, Fred Reed, 15 December 2011 — “Mexico is being wrecked in what amounts to an out-sourced American civil war. … Ignorance has consequences.”
- Looking back at conservatives predictions in 2009 that we’d have high inflation in 2010 or 2011: “Inflation Predictions“, Paul Krugman, New York Times, 15 December 2011 — Often wrong, but always confident in their faux economics!
- “The assholocracy“, Geoffrey K. Pullum (Prof of general linguistics, U of Edinburgh.), Language Log, 13 December 2011 — About our ruling elites.
- “Junkyard Gives Up Secret Accounts of Massacre in Iraq“, New York Times, 14 December 2011 — “One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America’s time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. “
- “What I Learned in 40 Years of Doing Intelligence Analysis for US Foreign Policymakers“, Martin Petersen (retired senior CIA Directorate of Intelligence officer), Studies in Intelligence, March 2011
Quote of the week
Excerpt from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to William S. Smith, from Paris, November 13 1787 (source), about the American Revolution. People cite the last sentence, but it has a different sense read in context.
… And can history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably conducted?
I say nothing of it’s motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness.
God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13 states independent 11 years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.