I'd like Obama to have congressional approval for military action in Syria. I'm not sure what limited military action against Syria might have, in terms of limiting its use of chemical weapons. I would favor action to bring about an embargo on military weapons for Syria. All of that said, the longer this mess in Syria continues, the worse things will get for the Middle East and the U.S. I wish NATO would come up with a serious plan to force the warring parties to come to a cease fire. Realistically, the Syrian regime has little incentive to negotiate given the current situation, and that is deeply frustrating.
The amount of oil under Iranian government control, being kept off the market by US policy, is just not great enough to explain the current increase in the price of oil. Also, the US policy has been in place for a while, so it can't be used to explain the rise of oil prices at this particular point in time. I suspect that the main culprit identified by the Washington Post article-- nervousness in the market, and investors turning to oil as a good investment in this nervous time-- probably is as good an explanation for the run in the prices as any (but I am no expert on this subject). The amounts produced by a nation like Iran aren't going to affect the price of oil by much (and if and when the Canadian shale oil comes through the pipeline in a decade or so, that isn't going to affect the world wideprice of oil much either-- but it sure is going to turn western Canada into a huge oil sludge pit).
Of course, Salt Lake City IS in the middle of nowhere (that's why the Mormons ended up there-- to get away from all the folks harassing them). Mitt's dad may have been born in Mexico, but that doesn't make him any less of an Anglo. Speaking of Mitt's dad George, I remember he had a
tendency to get into trouble with his mouth (wasn't his one and only run for the presidency destroyed by his famous comment that he'd been brainwashed regarding Vietnam by the generals?). Perhaps Mitt's problems are caused by a particular Romney gene. To anyone who knows about his tenure in Massachusetts, did he get into trouble there with verbal gaffes? Or did everyone just ignore him then because the legislature could override his vetoes so no one had to pay much attention to his comments?
Thanks for the link. I looked over the weeks news reports, and it seems that at the beginning of the week, the mainline press was saying the drone crashed in Iran and that it was highly unlikely that the drone had been hacked because that is very difficult. But then an anonymous US official admitted that Iran had an intact drone, and then the Iranians showed it off, and most everyone agrees that its the real thing. So, the caller I heard on Friday on Diane Rehm show didn't know what he was talking about when he claimed it was an obvious mock-up (one more caller to a radio show talking through his hat). I find this pretty amazing news, that the Iranians, or perhaps Russians in Iran, were able to hack the drone (I guess the preferred term for the device is UAV). Its intact, so there seems to be no other explanation of this event. So, what I'm interested in knowing is: what might the UN have to say about the invasion of a sovereign nations air space via a UAV? If the US can do it to Iran, can other nations do it to the US? And in view of rapid acceleration and proliferation of UAV technology, is it only a matter of time before Hammas is jamming Israeli UAV's, and/or flying their own UAVs over Israel?
A caller on the Diane Rehm show this morning on NPR said that the supposed drone being displayed by the Iranian government is an obvious mock-up. I would be interested in seeing a comment by someone with expertise in this area on what might be going-- its odd that the U.S. has admitted that one of its drones is missing, and then the Iranians are showing off this device. Americans with expertise in this area seem to believe that Iran doesn't have the technology to do what they said they did (bring it down by electronic interference, essentially "electronically hijacking" the drone)-- but is it possible that they actually did manage that? That would explain why it the drone was recovered intact and seemingly perfect condition. And if they did, what are the implications to the CIA and US military? Why would the Iranian government show off the drone if it wasn't the real thing (for domestic consumption, presumably-- they would hardly be fooling the CIA and US military). Anyway, fascinating topic, I'd love to read more on this.
I'd like Obama to have congressional approval for military action in Syria. I'm not sure what limited military action against Syria might have, in terms of limiting its use of chemical weapons. I would favor action to bring about an embargo on military weapons for Syria. All of that said, the longer this mess in Syria continues, the worse things will get for the Middle East and the U.S. I wish NATO would come up with a serious plan to force the warring parties to come to a cease fire. Realistically, the Syrian regime has little incentive to negotiate given the current situation, and that is deeply frustrating.
The amount of oil under Iranian government control, being kept off the market by US policy, is just not great enough to explain the current increase in the price of oil. Also, the US policy has been in place for a while, so it can't be used to explain the rise of oil prices at this particular point in time. I suspect that the main culprit identified by the Washington Post article-- nervousness in the market, and investors turning to oil as a good investment in this nervous time-- probably is as good an explanation for the run in the prices as any (but I am no expert on this subject). The amounts produced by a nation like Iran aren't going to affect the price of oil by much (and if and when the Canadian shale oil comes through the pipeline in a decade or so, that isn't going to affect the world wideprice of oil much either-- but it sure is going to turn western Canada into a huge oil sludge pit).
Of course, Salt Lake City IS in the middle of nowhere (that's why the Mormons ended up there-- to get away from all the folks harassing them). Mitt's dad may have been born in Mexico, but that doesn't make him any less of an Anglo. Speaking of Mitt's dad George, I remember he had a
tendency to get into trouble with his mouth (wasn't his one and only run for the presidency destroyed by his famous comment that he'd been brainwashed regarding Vietnam by the generals?). Perhaps Mitt's problems are caused by a particular Romney gene. To anyone who knows about his tenure in Massachusetts, did he get into trouble there with verbal gaffes? Or did everyone just ignore him then because the legislature could override his vetoes so no one had to pay much attention to his comments?
Thanks for the link. I looked over the weeks news reports, and it seems that at the beginning of the week, the mainline press was saying the drone crashed in Iran and that it was highly unlikely that the drone had been hacked because that is very difficult. But then an anonymous US official admitted that Iran had an intact drone, and then the Iranians showed it off, and most everyone agrees that its the real thing. So, the caller I heard on Friday on Diane Rehm show didn't know what he was talking about when he claimed it was an obvious mock-up (one more caller to a radio show talking through his hat). I find this pretty amazing news, that the Iranians, or perhaps Russians in Iran, were able to hack the drone (I guess the preferred term for the device is UAV). Its intact, so there seems to be no other explanation of this event. So, what I'm interested in knowing is: what might the UN have to say about the invasion of a sovereign nations air space via a UAV? If the US can do it to Iran, can other nations do it to the US? And in view of rapid acceleration and proliferation of UAV technology, is it only a matter of time before Hammas is jamming Israeli UAV's, and/or flying their own UAVs over Israel?
A caller on the Diane Rehm show this morning on NPR said that the supposed drone being displayed by the Iranian government is an obvious mock-up. I would be interested in seeing a comment by someone with expertise in this area on what might be going-- its odd that the U.S. has admitted that one of its drones is missing, and then the Iranians are showing off this device. Americans with expertise in this area seem to believe that Iran doesn't have the technology to do what they said they did (bring it down by electronic interference, essentially "electronically hijacking" the drone)-- but is it possible that they actually did manage that? That would explain why it the drone was recovered intact and seemingly perfect condition. And if they did, what are the implications to the CIA and US military? Why would the Iranian government show off the drone if it wasn't the real thing (for domestic consumption, presumably-- they would hardly be fooling the CIA and US military). Anyway, fascinating topic, I'd love to read more on this.