A Very Bad Christmas Card

A Bad Christmas Card, and in Retrospect, Even Worse, Contentions, December 22, 2010. "I don’t spend a lot of time hanging out on Liberal Democrat message boards. But a friend has pointed out a wonderful post – I hesitate to say it’s really in the spirit of the season, for reasons that will soon be obvious – by Stephen Tall on LibDemVoice, reproducing a Christmas card contained in the Conservative Party Archive and sent in 1938 by R.J. Rosie, a prominent physician, to Percy Cohen, a Jewish Conservative and then a member of the Conservative Research Department."

Four Points to Critics on CIFTA

Responding to Cmments on CIFTA, Heritage Foundation Foundry, December 21, 2010. "Several comments have taken issue with my post on the recent Washington Post article on the supposed prevalence of gun smuggling from the U.S. to Mexico. I’m glad to respond to their concerns."

Too Many Academics?

Peace Studies and the Historical Profession, Contentions, December 20, 2010. "I don’t say this very often – heck, I’m not sure I’ve ever said it – but the latest issue of Perspectives on History, the American Historical Association’s monthly newsmagazine, contains an interesting article. In fact, it contains two of them, both of which gain additional interest when coupled with recent events in Britain and a piece in the latest Economist on “The Disposable Academic.” The only question is whether the Economist is describing reality or offering a preference."

Oil for Food Kickbacks Wasted Again

Scotland Recovers, and Plans to Waste, Oil for Food Kickbacks, Contentions, December 19, 2010. "A Glasgow-based engineering firm, Weir Group, has been fined 3 million pounds, and had 13.9 million pounds of illegal profits confiscated, after it admitted paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime. The Group, the BBC reports, made payments of 3.1 million pounds to the regime, plus another 1.4 million pounds to “an agent in Iraq” (regrettably not named in the judgment) in order to secure a contract worth approximately 35 million pounds. The Group, now under new management, fully acknowledged and apologized for its wrongdoing."

Defense Is Not Just About Defense Spending

The Defense Budget Is Not Just About Numbers, ConservativeHome, December 16, 2010. "There has been quite a bit of public debate about whether the defense budget should be cut along with the rest of the government as we get our deficit under control. This debate usually begins at the wrong end of the argument. The U.S. spends money on its armed forces in order to fulfill the Constitutionally-mandated requirement to provide for the common defense, and because, like all democracies, it has interests it seeks to advance. These interests are not simply material: because the U.S. was founded on the belief that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are universal, our interests are defined, in part, by our values. Before critics blindly take a hacksaw to the defense budget, they should explain exactly how they propose to defend America’s citizens, interests, and values by spending less, or spell out precisely which of those responsibilities they plan to abandon."

The Flawed Ottawa Convention

The Ottawa Mine Ban Convention: Unacceptable on Substance and Process, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2496, December 13, 2010. "By announcing a review of U.S. landmine policy, the Obama Administration has reopened the possibility that the U.S. could become a party to the fatally flawed Ottawa Convention, which bans the use of all anti-personnel landmines. Such a ban applied to the U.S. would seriously degrade the ability of the U.S. to defend itself and its allies, particularly in Korea. Furthermore, the very process by which the convention was created is objectionable because it undermines responsible diplomacy and the sovereignty of the United States and other nation-states. The U.S. should shun the Ottawa Convention and the associated process, and instead pursue reasonable arms control through serious diplomacy."

More WaPo Exaggerations on CIFTA

Yet Again, Media Exaggerates Scale of Gun Smuggling from U.S. Into Mexico, Foundry, December 13, 2010, "The Washington Post today ran a lengthy front-page story headlined “As Mexico drug violence runs rampant, U.S. guns tied to crime south of border.” The title pretty much sums it up: the Post states that an “unprecedented number of American guns [are flowing] to the murderous drug cartels across the border” and that this is fueling the violent battle between drug runners and the Mexican government."

My Take on Wikileaks

Forget About Leaks, The Real Problem is Slipshod Diplomacy, Yorkshire Post, December 8, 2010. "If you work in the government, and you disagree with a policy, you have only two honorable choices: follow the policy and keep your mouth shut, or resign and speak out. Over the past decade, U.S. officials – and in particular the State Department and the intelligence services – have cultivated a third way, an ethic of irresponsible leaking."

CIFTA, Again

CIFTA: More Than A Bad Treaty, National Security Policy Proceedings, vol. 3, Fall 2010. "My subject today is the CIFTA Convention, which has been negotiated under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS). CIFTA, in turn, is a Spanish abbreviation for the “Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials.” CIFTA is a bad treaty, but it is not simply a bad treaty. It raises three broader issues about the process and purpose of U.S. diplomacy that we should all be concerned about."