miraweb's comment history

miraweb said...

Gen.Wesley Clark has penned a very interesting analysis of Syria.

". . .inaction is not an option. The bloodletting — more than 90,000 are estimated to have died so far — has deepened the region’s longstanding Shiite-Sunni struggle.

It has become a proxy war, with Sunni Arab states backed by the West, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, challenging Iran’s reach to the Mediterranean via a proxy, Hezbollah, and Syria.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/opinion/to-get-a-truce-be-ready-to-escalate.html?hp&_r=0

June 18, 2013 at 1:46 p.m.
miraweb said...

Now, that's more like it!

Let's spice it up a bit, people! C'mon. Somebody say something totally outrageous! People are watching!

June 18, 2013 at 12:20 p.m.
miraweb said...

I just can't imagine what this forum is coming to.

Conservatives who want to be smart and reasonable about gun ownership?

Liberals who think that universal NSA surveillance is just as bad as the libertarians have been saying?

How is a poor candidate going to win an election if everyone starts agreeing and getting along all of the sudden.

Can't be having none of that, eh Jack?

June 18, 2013 at 11:22 a.m.
miraweb said...

The one thread among all the shootings has been weapons in the hands of unhappy young men.

The normal state of childhood is to be impulsive, emotional, and exercise bad judgment. No responsible gun owner could think that placing more weapons near hundreds of children is a smart move.

The solution is getting weapons out of the hands of unstable, unhappy young men - or we can choose to do nothing and continue to watch these shootings escalate.

June 18, 2013 at 9:44 a.m.
miraweb said...

Lots of conflicting information coming out about the NSA phone sweeps.

One source says they really only used "detailed" information 300 times.

I'd love to know what "detailed" vs "not detailed" means.

Cheney even resurfaced to claim that he could have prevented 9/11 (and polished the moon in gold!) if he'd only had this database.

Of course, if Cheney had just read through the memos titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S." coming across his desk, things might have been different.

Can you imagine Dick "let's out a CIA agent today 'cause I'm ticked off" Cheney with access to something like PRISM?

He is the best proof we have that as useful as a resource like that might be, we do not have politicians who should ever be trusted to manage it.

June 16, 2013 at 11:17 a.m.
miraweb said...

Holbrook noted that military force is just a tool available to nudge a diplomatic goal. You have to have a purpose to the strikes. In Kosovo, the purpose was to get a couple of real bastards to start negotiating and stop killing.

You also need to know how you will get out.

Clinton is a smart guy and that strategy did work in Kosovo.

Assad believes Russian and Iran have his back. Iran has elections this week and there are things the U.S. has that Russia wants at the G8. I don't think there are any really good solutions to Syria. It may be a matter of picking the least bad.

The goal here may not be to stop the fighting but to get Assad to lock down the WMDs.

I think we are sure that the U.S. public is pretty damn tired of fighting (and paying for) wars in the Middle East. That will make any lengthy conflict difficult to support domestically.

I think a lot of people are hoping that Assad trips on the soap in the bathtub but that seems unlikely as well.

June 15, 2013 at 12:19 p.m.
miraweb said...

China makes little sense. If China had what it wanted - a back door into the NSA, documents, passwords and their agent was on home turf then why would they go to a British newspaper and te Washington post to tip the NSA off to a major security breach?

If he was China's agent they would keep him there far longer than 3 months and not reveal his cover after he was out don't you think?

June 15, 2013 at 12:27 a.m.
miraweb said...

Syria seems to be a series of bad choices. Do nothing and terrible things happen. Do something and Russia pours arms into a volatile region.

June 15, 2013 at 12:21 a.m.
miraweb said...

We know that there is no psyops campaign to discredit Snowden, of course, because that would actually be illegal if it targeted American citizens.

The funny thing is everyone seems to be focused on Snowden.

The documents themselves remain credible (and creepy).

June 14, 2013 at 10:18 p.m.
miraweb said...

There is an interesting mathematical quirk to Facebook's reporting on its data given to the government - there are fewer requests than accounts.

That means a single request frequently covers multiple accounts - likely any person of interest and all of their links, likes, and contacts.


Facebook received 9,000-10,000 requests for user data from US government entities in the second half of 2012, the company has revealed.

The firm said the requests related to 18,000-19,000 user accounts and covered criminal and national security issues.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22916329

June 14, 2013 at 10:16 p.m.
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