Presidential Follies

Someone looking for the first time at American electoral politics, particularly at the race for the Republican nomination for president,** must be confused and not a little disappointed. Anticipating intellectual rigor, he gets ad hominem castigation instead.

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Afghanistan the Intractable

It is convenient to dismiss the deaths of allied troops at the hands of Taliban infiltrators by asserting that danger comes with the territory, that the profession of arms is always risky business, that losses are regrettable but inevitable.

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Along the Backstretch: It's Iran by a Length

Not long ago, huge numbers of Iranians were in the streets in protest, and prominent Americans were hailing this as a new revolution, this time by moderates rather than by radicals.

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Rumsfeld Redux

President Obama's speech at the Pentagon on 5 January marked the most acute public turn in American military strategy since the end of our involvement in Vietnam, and perhaps even since 1945. In multicolored resplendence and standing at attention behind t …

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2012

Our calendar is a vestige of Roman and papal edicts, but its roots are in pagan fears and festivals, descriptions of phenomena we didn't understand.

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Manning, The (Only) Accused

A very public session of what is usually a closed event ended this week: the Article 32 hearing of Private Bradley Manning, accused of---among other things---stealing classified information. It seemed very much like a typical and unrealistic TV court …

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Groundhog Day

Deja vu:      --Recently, NBC News received a prestigious Murrow Award for a Nightly News segment called "The Long Way Out." In it, Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel rode with the last American combat troops to leave Iraq, in a convoy headed  …

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Trump

Donald Trump is many things. He is an adroit businessman who has managed to make money less by owning much real property but instead by something far less capital-intensive, by franchising his name.

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Euromess

In the period just before the creation of the unified Euro, my bank made substantial profits by capturing interest-rate differentials among European currencies, borrowing strong Duetschemark and Swiss Franc and then lending high-yielding currencies.

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Getting Out

Already badly frayed, the relations between the United States and Pakistan were not improved by the report that two dozen Pakistani soldiers were killed by a NATO airstrike.

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A Continuing Criminal Enterprise

It's hard to read the grand jury's report in the Penn State case and not wince. Every page is a nauseating excursion into a world that seems so far from reality that it can't possibly exist But it does exist.

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The Peril of Irrelevance

Last week, Israel intercepted two boats from Turkey bound for Gaza, and the action came as speculation is rife about the possibility of an Israeli strike on one of Iran's nuclear facilities.

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Korea at War

This past week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta toured Asia. He has had the job only about four months, and so this excursion would normally be considered an orientation, with photo opportunities, smiling politicos and speeches with lots of platitudes.

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Gone in Two Months

Amid the news of the world's economic plight, the goofy start of the quadrennial election circus, the death of Qaddafi and other riveting events, we have largely forgotten Iraq.

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Iran Does What It Pleases

The announcement that the Iranian government appears to be implicated in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States has generated a wide disparity of reaction, from insistence that Iran is imminently dangerous to incredulity that an entity as skille …

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Killing Terrorists

Last week the president announced that the American-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen, and it is notable that people---and particularly officials---are careful to use the passive voice when they engage in controversial actions.

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Pakistan's Enablers

Our relationship with Islamic militants has been an uncoordinated and aimless one.

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There Can Be No Strong Defense in a Weak Economy

Occasionally, there are tiny bits of good news, but the overall trend of the economy continues to be down.

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What Do We Do Now?

As the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks approached, there was the inevitable report that another al-Qaeda bomb plot had been detected. The information---that there were three conspirators, that two of them may be American citizens---was neither confirmed nor d …

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What's The Mission?

Except for validating the stunning gallantry of our troops when they are put under duress, we have little good to show for a decade of employing conventional American forces in the field against our enemies. It's true that we had the opport …

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Don't Return Libyan Money Yet

Muammar Qaddafi is on the lam, reportedly in or somewhere near Tripoli, and whenever a deposed dictator is being chased by the people he formerly terrorized, we are overwhelmed by two emotions for which English---the richest language in the world---ironically has no cou …

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Fuzzy Math

The Defense Business Board is an advisory group inside the Department of Defense, but its members are from outside the bureaucracy and are mostly successful business leaders.

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Ignoring the Basics

The deaths of dozens of Americans in a single combat incident in Afghanistan was a brief shock to an America that has become inured to the occasional loss of warriors in a dusty place half a world away.

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Down But Not Yet Out

For the first time since debt ratings were created about a century ago, the creditworthiness of the United States is less than first-rate. According to Standard & Poor's, we are now rated lower than France, Australia and Canada.

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The Blair Project

Many people may remember Admiral Dennis Blair as the Director of National Security who was fired by President Obama.

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Latest Comments

Recent Votes

  • Presidential Follies

    Someone looking for the first time at American electoral politics, particularly at the race for the Republican nomination for president,** must be confused and not a little disappointed. Anticipating intellectual rigor, he gets ad hominem castigation instead.

  • Afghanistan the Intractable

    It is convenient to dismiss the deaths of allied troops at the hands of Taliban infiltrators by asserting that danger comes with the territory, that the profession of arms is always risky business, that losses are regrettable but inevitable.

  • Along the Backstretch: It's Iran by a Length

    Not long ago, huge numbers of Iranians were in the streets in protest, and prominent Americans were hailing this as a new revolution, this time by moderates rather than by radicals.

  • Rumsfeld Redux

    President Obama's speech at the Pentagon on 5 January marked the most acute public turn in American military strategy since the end of our involvement in Vietnam, and perhaps even since 1945. In multicolored resplendence and standing at attention behind t …

  • 2012

    Our calendar is a vestige of Roman and papal edicts, but its roots are in pagan fears and festivals, descriptions of phenomena we didn't understand.

Profile

Col. Jack Jacobs

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Articles Posted: 185
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Member Since: 5/2008Last Seen: 1/28/2012

Jacobs retired from the Army in 1987 and subsequently was a managing director of Banker's Trust and of Lehman Brothers.

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