"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." --Clarence Darrow (1857--1938)
Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.
McNamara was the original bean-counter -- a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.
Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McNamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme -- when they were not bald-faced lies.
Upon hanging up I would call Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam and run McNamara's comments past them for deconstruction and the addition of the truth.
The only disagreement i ever had with Dave Halberstam was over the question of which of us hated him the most. In retrospect, it was Halberstam.
When McNamara published his first book -- filled with those distortions of history -- Halberstam, at his own expense, set out on a journey following McNamara on his book tour around America as a one-man truth squad.
McNamara abandoned the tour.
The most bizarre incident involving McNamara occurred when he was president of the World Bank and, off on his summer holiday, he caught the Martha's Vineyard ferry. It was a night crossing in bad weather. McNamara was in the salon, drink in hand, schmoozing with fellow passengers. On the deck outside a vineyard local, a hippie artist, glanced through the window and did a double-take. The artist was outraged to see McNamara, whom he viewed as a war criminal, so enjoying himself.
He immediately opened the door and told McNamara there was a radiophone call for him on the bridge. McNamara set down his drink and stepped outside. The artist immediately grabbed him, wrestled him to the railing and pushed him over the side. McNamara managed to get his fingers through the holes in the metal plate that ran from the top of the railing to the scuppers.
McNamara was screaming bloody murder; the artist was prying his fingers loose one at a time. Someone heard the racket and raced out and pulled the artist off.
By the time the ferry docked in the vineyard McNamara had decided against filing charges against the artist, and he was freed and walked away.
#1
McNamara was a slimeball. Thousands of GIs, Marines, and airman as well as 10s of thousands of Vietnamese died because of his stupidity and arrogance.
#4
We might take a moment to remember how Bob came to be Secretary of Defense. He had served with Curtis LeMay in WWII -- he was a number-cruncher then and helped LeMay figure out tactics for the bombing of Japan. Then he went to Ford after the war and enhanced his reputation as a "by the numbers" guy.
So it was natural that John Kennedy, a smart man but an intellectual and moral lightweight, a member of the elite and a media darling, would call on Bob to be SoD.
Any of that sound familiar today?
Look at how Obama has selected the people around him, and compare their reputations to the the one Bob had in 1961.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2009 10:45 Comments ||
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#5
Steve-
I have to post this from my wife's computer.
Somehow, I think I got autozapped. I can't follow links to the articles and I can't comment. Could you check on this, please, or direct me to someone who can help?
Thanks.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/12/2009 12:09 Comments ||
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#6
No Mo, I'll put it on the moderator list.
AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2009 12:27 Comments ||
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The North Korean ship that tried to steam to Burma last month isn't the only problem facing the U.S. and its allies. There's a much broader military relationship growing between the two pariah states -- one that poses a growing threat to stability in Asia-Pacific.
A government report leaked by a Burmese official last month shed new light on these ties. It described a Memorandum of Understanding between Burma and North Korea signed during a secret visit by Burmese officials to Pyongyang in November 2008. The visit was the culmination of years of work. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were cut in 1983 following a failed assassination attempt by North Korean agents on the life of South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan while he was visiting Rangoon. The attack cost 17 Korean lives and Burma cut off ties.
One of the first signs of warming relations was a barter agreement between the two countries that lasted from 2000 to 2006 and saw Burma receive between 12 and 16 M-46 field guns and as many as 20 million rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition from North Korea, according to defense analyst Andrew Selth of Griffith University in Australia. In exchange, Burma bartered food and rice.
The two countries formally re-established diplomatic relations in April 2007. After that, the North Korean ship the Kang Nam -- the same ship that recently turned away from Burma after being followed by the U.S. navy -- made a trip to Burma's Thilawa port. Western defense analysts concluded that the ship carried conventional weapons and missiles to Burma.
This laid the ground for the MoU signed in November, when Shwe Mann, the regime's third-most powerful figure, made a secret visit to North Korea, according to the leaked report. Shwe Mann is the chief of staff of the army, navy and air force, and the coordinator of Special Operations. He spent seven days in Pyongyang, traveling via China. His 17-member delegation received a tour around Pyongyang and Myohyang, where secret tunnels have been built into mountains to shelter aircraft, missiles, tanks and nuclear and chemical weapons.
The MoU he signed formalizes the military cooperation between the two countries. According to the terms of the document, North Korea will build or supervise the construction of special Burmese military facilities, including tunnels and caves in which missiles, aircraft and even naval ships could be hidden. Burma will also receive expert training for its special forces, air defense training, plus a language training program between personnel in the two armed forces.
Shwe Mann's delegation also visited a surface-to-surface missile factory, partially housed in tunnels, on the outskirts of Pyongyang to observe missile production. The Burmese were particularly interested in short-range 107 mm and 240 mm multirocket launchers -- a multipurpose, defensive missile system used in case of a foreign invasion. Also of great interest was the latest in antitank, laser-guided missile technology.
To suppress ethic insurgents and urban dissent, the regime doesn't need such sophisticated weapons. Burma's desire for missiles, airborne warning and control system, air defense systems, GPS communication jammers and defensive radar systems indicates that the generals envision both defensive and offensive capabilities.
North Korea's military buildup is often viewed primarily as a security threat to Northeast Asia. But its burgeoning relationship with Burma is a reminder of how easily one rogue regime can empower others. Burma's burning ambition to acquire modern missile technology, if left unchecked, could pose a dangerous destabilizing threat to regional stability.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2009 00:48 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2009 17:52 ||
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#1
Not likely, in my opinion. When was the last time you saw Chinese Hindus stirring up trouble? I think it more likely that by 2012 China and India will be allies against muslim extremism and will both be against Pakistan.
#2
An excellent analysis, especially the bit about 'Pacifist India'.
I read a novel a while back where the upshot was the Chicoms were prepared to use nuclear weapons and gamble the loss of their cities in a nuclear response whereas the democratic Indian government wasn't. Consequently India lost the war with China.
#3
Not buying it at all. The two countries have too many parallel interests, not enough conflicting ones. No "Lebensraum" justification for the Chinese, and 'pacifist India' strikes me as a cruel joke: Partition wasn't that long ago...
#4
ION GUAM K57 > STARS-N-STRIPES Artic > DEFENSE ANALYST: US PACIFIC BASES ARE VULNERABLE [OKINAWA + GUAM due to ASCENDING CHINA]. US military dominance in Asia-Pacific slowly eroding.
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Several new polls suggest that the United States is gaining ground in the "Arab street," and that President Barack Obama's latest overtures, specifically his June 4 speech in Cairo, were well received by some important Arab constituencies.
Although a great deal of skepticism remains, students of Arab public opinion would regard these numbers as surprisingly encouraging. In contrast, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's popularity has slipped dramatically in the Arab world, with many saying that the outcome of Iran's recent presidential election will hurt the region. Approximately half of the Arabs questioned even agree that "if Iran does not accept new restrictions and more international oversight of its nuclear program, the Arabs should support stronger sanctions against Iran around the end of this year."
If the Middle East were more like the United States or Europe, an overnight phone poll would provide immediate answers to important questions. The reality is that phone polls in the region are notoriously unreliable and that most individual polls, however elaborate or well intended, are inevitably suspect of government interference, social bias, or other distortions.
Still, if evidence from several different pollsters can be gathered, evaluated, and compared, some reasonable and even significant judgments can be rendered. This is precisely the case today when comparatively solid (and in great measure previously unpublished) data of this kind are at hand for three key Arab societies: Egyptians, Jordanians, and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The data in question derive from three different sources, all using in-person rather than phone or online interviews: the Washington-based Zogby International, the Ramallah-based Palestinian AWRAD Institute, and the Princeton-based Pechter Middle East Polls. This last is a new entrant on the scene, but one whose fieldwork is conducted by a very experienced, professional, and completely apolitical regional commercial survey firm - and unlike most other polls in the region, without any government sponsorship or supervision.
The latest Zogby Arab poll was conducted in March and April, several months before Obama's speech and the Iran election, and has had more than its share of methodological problems (including heavily loaded questions) in the past. Still, it provides some context for assessing which issues resonate most in certain Arab societies, with sometimes surprising findings. More up to date and reliable was a West Bank/Gaza poll conducted June 12-14 by the nonpartisan AWRAD institute headed by Dr. Nader Said. A poll conducted from June 15 to 18 in Egypt and Jordan by Pechter Middle East Polls provides the most recent and in many respects the most interesting data.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Yea, but when he can't deliver on the destruction of Israel that he's promised them...
#2
If Iran is slipping in Arab street polls, it is more likely due to heavy-handedness in the Iran streets by Dinnerjacket and mullahs rather than the BO speech in Cairo.
#3
"Approximately half of the Arabs questioned even agree that "if Iran does not accept new restrictions and more international oversight of its nuclear program, the Arabs should support stronger sanctions against Iran"
This is a new and encouraging development.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/12/2009 13:10 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
