Some loose ends...
Grading Financial Regulatory Reform
This morning, we learned of a huge compromise in regulatory reform. The expectation was that no one was happy with the bill, but the politicians, who all get to go home to the voters and say “Well, at least we passed something.”Obama to sign Iran sanctions bill on ThursdayCampaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran
Overall, I give this a C minus: There are simply too many Fs to give them a much higher grade.
WAY: I believe that I've previously referenced ALTA (Asymmetric Linguistic Trend Analysis) You don't need their analysis to be forewarned about the Middle East but they have recently released a report and they also had a "hit" regarding McChrystal, which is itself an harbinger of more dire things to come...
Tick...tick...tick - Israeli Mistake, Confusion, and a chart
However, the recent and very large jump in magntitude of the language forecast for the 'israeli mistake', sub set 'active war launch', is too much to ignore. So without regard as to how long it may take, or the many other ramifications, the data streaming in now suggests that the [israeli mistake] that leads to so much planetary misery is on, and likely soon.Uri Avnery makes a point about "force". It would appear to apply to the US vs. Afghanistan and Iran also, not just Israel's predicament. Proper use of force doesn't seem to be a lesson that's been learned.
Please note that the temporal markers along the way to the [active attack phase (of israeli mistake)] have all been met, and the largest, and closest to the actual manifestation of the [israeli mistake] was the [ranking general faux pas (mal mots)] that we have just seen fulfilled in these most recent news stories about Obama and his General McCrystal.
When Force Doesn't Work
MANY YEARS ago, when I wanted to ridicule the addiction of our leaders to the use of force, I paraphrased a saying that reflects much of Jewish wisdom: “if force does not work, use brains.” In order to show how far we, the Israelis, are different from the Jews, I changed the words: “If force doesn’t work, use more force.”
I thought of it as a joke. But, as happens to many jokes in our country, it has become reality. It is now the credo of many primitive Israelis, headed by Ehud Barak.
In practice, the security of a state depends on many factors, and military force is but one of them. In the long run, world public opinion is stronger. The pope has many divisions.
In many respects, Israel is still a strong country. But, as the sudden illumination of the flotilla affair has shown, time is not working in our favor. We should deepen our roots in the world and in the region – which means making peace with our neighbors – as long as we are as strong as we are now.
If force doesn’t work, more force will not necessarily work either.
If force doesn’t work, force doesn’t work. Period.