New York Times (September 2)
“More than anyone, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has set the agenda for NATO’s 65th summit meeting this week, which could well be the most consequential since the Cold War ended.” Ironically, his antics may serve to strengthen NATO. He “has forced on it a new and urgent purpose by effectively invading Ukraine and demonstrating his utter disregard for the international system.”
Los Angeles Times (January 12, 2014)
“The United States no longer knows how to win wars, but it continues to start them.” From hardware to preparedness, the U.S. military remains in a league of its own. Yet, since the end of the Cold War, “when it comes to finishing the job on schedule and on budget, their performance has been woeful.” The fighting in Iraq didn’t end when the U.S. left, nor is the fighting in Afghanistan likely to cease with the scheduled departure of U.S. troops. “For the United States, victory has become a lost art.”
Tags: Afghanistan, Budget, Cold war, Iraq, Military, Preparedness, Schedule, Troops, U.S., Victory
New York Times (August 18)
“Some of the images from NASA’s flagship Terra and Aqua satellites are downright heartbreaking. They seem to make the case that we’re inexplicably intent on engineering our own expulsion from the garden, in a kind of late-breaking, self-inflicted Old Testament dismissal… Having dodged the bullet of cold war nuclear annihilation, we face a new threat just as global, man-made and potentially lethal. A sense of emergency is what is urgently needed.”
Tags: Cold war, Emergency, Global, Heartbreaking. Expulsion, Lethal, Man-made, NASA, Nuclear annihilation, Satellites, Self-inflicted, Threat
