Monthly Archives: September 2014

I find this amusing.

Casey won the GID’s [General Intelligence Department of Saudi Arabia] personal loyalty to the extent that Saudi intelligence, with permission from King Fahd, agreed to secretly fund Casey’s riskiest anticommunist adventures in Central America. — Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, (New … Continue reading →

Started Coll’s Ghost Wars, on the rise of the Taliban and US activities in Afghanistan between the Soviet invasion and 9/11/2001. This morning came across this Guardian editorial on Obama’s rationale for arming ISIS: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/20/obama-war-legal-rationale-isis

I went to forward someone my Facebook link to the SF Gate article on this study this morning and found the SF Gate link is broken. Jesus, the Chronicle is an embarrassing outfit… Anyway, wanted to get the link down … Continue reading →

Just finished reading Michael Hastings’s The Operators last night. This morning LinkedIn has an article by McChrystal, The Hunt for al Zarqawi and the Power of “We”, purporting to offer leadership lessons applicable to business. I remember the mid-1970s and … Continue reading →

Finishing Michael Hastings’ The Operators. Here’s the Rolling Stone article on McChrystal: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622

We find a way to buy off the enemies we’d created by invading — the strategy is akin to digging a hole in the desert, then filling the hole with cash and dead bodies and calling it a victory. —Michael … Continue reading →

Dad gave me The Execution of Charles Horman for Christmas in 1978, I think. It was a good gift – Mom and Dad always gave well-chosen books – but I remember Dad also talking about his personal motivation in giving … Continue reading →