View From The Top, 25 September 2008

- As Dexter Filkins describes in his world-class book, The Forever War (read it ASAP.) (Seriously.) (Will be considered authoritative and amongst the pantheon of war journalism for generations.), the reason why the Taliban managed to solidify power in Afghanistan in the 90's was because they, with their draconian civil theory, were able to end much of the gang warfare and crime plaguing the country. American neligence (from Washington, not CENTCOM) has made it possible for the crime to return.

- Agree. I don't want to sound too Thomas-Friedman-overly-grand here, but this is a chance for America to both help create a modern state in Afghanistan and for U.S. to rebuild relationships with Western Europe through the shared effort. This can't happen without significant and effective European troop involvement in Afghanistan. I know that there are Americans who see Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy as dying-on-the-vine countries, where the support, even if we had it, wouldn't mean that much. I disagree. There will be a Europe worthy of ally-hood in the future and its our obligation to save the alliances while continuing to support our values.

Yeesh, that came off too big, too mushy. Read the link, ponder the implications, ignore the Snowden-fluff.

- Speaking of Thomas Friedman, here's a column of his in the IHT. I'm not much of a fan of his, but that's for a longer and separate post. But if I may ask a few questions:

1. Can someone point out anything newsworthy or fresh in this piece? Anything? Bueller?

2. Does Thomas Friedman get the difference between subsidizing greedy and poorly-run companies and "subsidizing" the Iraqis as they struggle for their own stable democracy, or is he just disingenuous?

3. Am I alone in suspecting that Friedman has been looking for an escape pod from OIF for years, and thinks that this is his chance to regain lefty cred?

Answers? 1. No, 2. Disingenuous, 3. Yes, I'm alone, and paranoid.

- To those of you I talk to in the real world, you know I called this. This almost ties in with the last question above: Big 3 auto manufacturers and their unions have all been quietly planning to ask for Uncle Sam to bail them out, but they recognized that the tide of public opinion was moving against them. Furthermore, the plea for help will be a single attempt: they get turned down once, the car companies realize that they have zero sympathy from Joe Q. Public.

With this credit-market fiasco totaling (in the end, probably) over a cool $1 trillion in government cheese, UAW and the Big 3, along with the subsidiary suppliers, are thinking that this is their big chance to get a bailout for themselves.

I'm with ya, CB.