Edward Luttwak is a family friend and a military expert. I have not yet fully read this article, but I think that it is already bringing me back from a frenzied "bomb the bastards!"

Three Reasons Not to Bomb Iran Yet

Posted by Guy Spier at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I did not grow up in Western civilization just to see it cravenly capitulate to the forces of darkness.

But as Mark Steyn makes clear, that is exactly what we appear to be doing.

The last couple of paragraphs:

Facing Down Iran by Mark Steyn, City Journal Spring 2006

Once again, we face a choice between bad and worse options. There can be no “surgical” strike in any meaningful sense: Iran’s clients on the ground will retaliate in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, and Europe. Nor should we put much stock in the country’s allegedly “pro-American” youth. This shouldn’t be a touchy-feely nation-building exercise: rehabilitation may be a bonus, but the primary objective should be punishment—and incarceration. It’s up to the Iranian people how nutty a government they want to live with, but extraterritorial nuttiness has to be shown not to pay. That means swift, massive, devastating force that decapitates the regime—but no occupation.

The cost of de-nuking Iran will be high now but significantly higher with every year it’s postponed. The lesson of the Danish cartoons is the clearest reminder that what is at stake here is the credibility of our civilization. Whether or not we end the nuclearization of the Islamic Republic will be an act that defines our time.

A quarter-century ago, there was a minor British pop hit called “Ayatollah, Don’t Khomeini Closer.” If you’re a U.S. diplomat or a British novelist, a Croat Christian or an Argentine Jew, he’s already come way too close. How much closer do you want him to get?

Posted by Guy Spier at 02:39 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

In this piece about Hezbollah, Michael J. Totten give a chilling insight into what Hezbollah is like to deal with from a western point of view. While its all too familiar to some, I am glad that this is making it into the American media.

LA Weekly

Thursday night’s iftar — this one was only for women and journalists — was held outside Hezbollah’s territory across the street from the Marriott Hotel. The area was controlled, if that is the word, by the Lebanese government.

Posted by Guy Spier at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Alan Dershowitz has written a devastating response to Mearsheimer and Walt's paper on the Israel lobby. As they would say in middle England, "God bless his soul."

At the end of his working paper, Dershowitz asks the poigniant question why? Why, given all the obvious inaccuracies and false evidence recycled from discredited sources, would these two academics publish such garbage?

My suspicion (with no hard evidence) is that was someone who hates Israel/Jews who was willing to pay them to do it. That's why Mearsheimer and Walt have done silent. They now have their money/house in the Bahamas/whatever. And now, with their retirement amply taken care of, they can allow their academic reputation slide into oblivion. Why else the silence?

KSG Research - Harvard Faculty Responses to Working Papers

Posted by Guy Spier at 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

The American Friends of James Joyce announced that Amanda J. Pullinger, Vice President of Aquamarine Capital Management, LLC, would receive the Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Education at the Bloomsday Awards Celebration on June 14, 2006 at the Yale Club, New York City.
Press Release (PDF)

Posted by Admin at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Melanie Phillips's Diary

Articles

Posted by Guy Spier at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Crichton was recently written up in the New Republic. This talk is valuable.

Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century

Fear, Complexity,
& Environmental Management in the 21^st Century

Posted by Guy Spier at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Nothing is more flattering than to have someone link to a page of yours. Now that the Buffett Blog has linked to me, the least I can do is return the favour and link back.

The Buffett blog has links to all sorts of topics of great interest to "Buffetologists"

The Buffett Blog

Posted by Guy Spier at 01:11 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I sometimes feel as if I am just a pr - mouthpiece for a few great writers whose views are just left out of msm.

Here is a choice paragraph from the latest piece by Victor Davis Hanson:

Fifth, after the three-week victory of April 2003, we have now forgotten the earlier prognostications of millions of refugees, oil wells afire, and thousands of dead that were to follow in Iraq. Twenty-three hundred American fatalities are grievous losses, but must be weighed against three successful elections, and the real chance that such sacrifice might result in the first true Arab democracy emerging in Iraq, with ramifications beyond the Middle East for generations to come. Currently, tens of thousands of Iraqis are the only Arabs in the world who daily risk their lives to fight al Qaeda terrorists — something that just may be in America’s interest.

Get it all here:
VDH's Private Papers::When Cynicism Meets Fanaticism

Posted by Guy Spier at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments ()