The Next 100 Years

Great powers are most frequently broken by war or internal fragmentation. In the case of Britain, the World Wars of the 20th Century delivered blows to its economy and society that were staggering. The wars also produce new powers, the United States and Soviet Union both emerged from the wars towering over Britain. The Soviet Union in turn was shattered by internal fragmentation. Its institutions ceased functioning, shattering the regime and society. For the United States the threat of a war that exhausts American society opening the door for a greater power is the first threat. Over the long run, regional disintegration is the second threat. The United States is a vast country and stresses that are not visible at the moment can arise. One of the reasons I argue for American power in the 21st century is that I don't see the forces that will generate this very quickly. It will take a long time to get there.

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An interesting perspective. I think Friedman could be right. I had a close look at USA debt levels etc. Although things look daunting, things can be salvaged if Americans save more and spend less on Chinese imports. The 14 trillion dollar debt could be paid off inside 20 years, if the government increases taxes. It requires political will to do it.

REPORT: Two CIA Black Site Prisons in Lithuania

The Lithuanian government has concluded that the CIA operated a secret "black site" in Lithuania for high-level Al Qaeda detainees, and that a second secret CIA facility was established in the heart of the capital city of Vilnius. The government began an investigation after an exclusive ABC News report that the CIA operated a secret black site prison for terror suspects in the Baltic country in 2004 and 2005.

In a report released Tuesday, the National Security Committee of the Lithuanian parliament recommended that intelligence officials be criminally investigated for their role in establishing the prisons. In addition to the prison outside Vilnius that was located and revealed by ABC News, the report says that Lithuanian intelligence made a guesthouse in downtown Vilnius available for CIA use as early as 2002, though they could not prove that it had been used.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius criticized the U.S. government for establishing the prisons, saying it had manipulated Lithuanian officials with "essentially Soviet methods" into breaking the law. However, he suggested that the second prison, which could only hold one prisoner in a single cell, had never been used.

U.S. forces to train Poles on air defense

By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, December 21, 2009
STUTTGART, Germany — Soldiers will soon be on their way to Poland to provide training for the U.S. Army Patriot Missile, according to U.S. Army Europe.
A specific unit has not been designated for the mission but about 100 soldiers are expected to deploy during the early part of 2010, said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a USAREUR spokeswoman.
As part of an agreement between the two countries, soldiers will rotate to Poland on a regular basis but the length of those rotations is still being planned, according to Kageleiry.
“U.S. Army Europe will help the Polish Armed Forces develop their air and missile defense capabilities,” she said.
“Considering the cooperative training we already do with the Polish Armed Forces, this Patriot training program is just another extension of that effort.”
Though USAREUR didn’t name the unit, the likely candidate to conduct the mission is the Army’s only remaining Europe-based Patriot unit, the 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery based at Kaiserslautern.

Hi everyone Merry Christmas to you all.
Our latest news is we now enjoy Three Great Grandchildren.
One in the Hanger due any day now and two on the runnway
2 boys and 1 girl. I hope this post finds you all at least as happy
as we are these days. I myself am befuddled about our recent
experimants with international socialism/communism. I myself
have abandined the Republican Party and have registered
Independant. respectfully jimbo37

End of Communism: Joy With Reservations

Very interesting public opinion poll in many East European countries by Pew Research Center. Click a title for a complete article.

I would not expect that so few Hungarians approve a free market system, or that an approval rate by Lithuanians is the same as by Russians.

Also, Russia is experiencing a huge shift toward ethnic nationalism. It used to be relatively infrequent between Russians...

A taste for the old East Germany

Better East German brands of food, washing powder, etc. are still popular there. Click on a title for a BBC article.

Popes Move Closer to Sainthood

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI moved two of his predecessors a step closer to sainthood on Saturday, confirming the “heroic virtues” of John Paul II and, in a surprise move, those of Pius XII, the pope during World War II.

After John Paul’s death in April 2005, Benedict bypassed a traditional waiting period to put the much beloved pope on a fast-track to sainthood. At John Paul’s funeral, crowds at Saint Peter’s Square chanted “santo subito,” or “sainthood now.”

Pius XII, however, has been a point of contention between the Vatican and some Jewish groups, who say he did not do enough to stop the Holocaust. They have called on the Vatican to open the sealed archives from Pius’s papacy, from 1939 to 1958, for examination by scholars.

On Saturday, the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants called the decision on Pius “profoundly insensitive and thoughtless” and said it would cause “an inevitable blow” to interfaith relations.

“Pairing the announcement on Pius — who remained publicly silent during the Holocaust — with that on John Paul II, himself a victim of the Nazis, is a particularly disturbing and callous act,” the group added.

U.N. Officials Say American Offered Plan to Replace Karzai

By JAMES GLANZ and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
As fraud surfaced in the Afghan election, the No. 2 U.N. official in the country proposed enlisting the White House in a plan to replace Hamid Karzai.


The two main actors in this plot were Peter Galbraight and Richard Holbrooke. The two crooks who were in Yugoslavia at the time of the conflict.

Nuclear Power Expansion in China Stirs Concerns

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: December 15, 2009
SHENZHEN, China — China is preparing to build three times as many nuclear power plants in the coming decade as the rest of the world combined, a breakneck pace with the potential to help slow global warming.


CONCERN!!! About safety! Hogwash!

Whose plane is this?

BANGKOK — In their first interview since being detained by Thai authorities, the crew of a cargo aircraft traveling from North Korea said Sunday that they did not know they had been transporting an arsenal of rockets, grenade launchers and other unidentified weapons weighing at least 30 tons.

“They said it was oil drilling equipment,” said Viktor Abdullayev, the plane’s co-pilot. “That’s what the manager told us,” he said referring to his employer, a civilian cargo company from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.


WHERE WAS THE PLANE GOING?