| Latest Commentary: | Volume VI, Number 70 |
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General Pace Dropped as Chairman of Joint Chiefs -- When a team is losing, the owner doesn’t get blamed because it’s never his fault. Instead, the manager gets fired, a scapegoat to assure the fans that the future will be different. So, when a war is being lost, the president doesn’t take the blame, the generals do. The president’s surprise decision (the Defense Secretary doesn’t do this kind of thing on his own) late Friday afternoon not to re-nominate Marine General Peter Pace for a customary second two-year term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a sign that the White House realizes the war in Iraq-Nam and the current strategy for fighting it are disasters.
Russian Star Wars Offer is Golden Opportunity -- Frustrated with the Bush administration’s desire to put parts of an unworkable and nonfunctioning missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, Russian President and Chekist Vladimir Putin offered the US and its allies use of a Russian-controlled radar center in Azerbaijan as part of the overall system. The White House appears to be thinking about the proposal, which a wise man would grab with both hands. The essential point isn’t that the missile defense system will change the global strategic balance. The important thing is to have the Russians in the tent rather than outside it. China’s Top Banker Warns of Need to “Rebalance” Chinese Economy -- Liu Mingkang, the head of China's Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), at a seminar at Oxford University said that China’s economy needs a “rebalancing,” after three decades of growth. He also warned that globalization is a “double-edged sword” facing China. The country has too much cash, too much investment, and not enough domestic consumption. That said, he maintains the biggest challenge is keeping the best minds in China in the public sector. One wonders. “The Sopranos” Stops but Doesn’t End -- The whining over the ending of the HBO series “The Sopranos” is rather loud this morning. Those who thought David Chase, the creator, writer and director of the series, would finish Tony Soprano off in a “Scarface” blaze of glory are miffed. The more thoughtful who thought the surname was a tip off that the witness protection program lay ahead are vexed. The level of annoyance stems from the fact that the series didn’t end, but rather it stopped without all the “closure” that one expects from American TV. And that makes Mr. Chase a genius. © Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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