Colonel W. Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military
Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the
Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the
Defense Senior Executive Service for many years. He is a highly decorated
veteran of several of America's overseas conflicts including the war in Vietnam.
He was trained and educated as a specialist in the Middle East by the U.S. Army
and served in that region for many years. He was the first Professor of the
Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
In the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) he was the "Defense Intelligence
Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism," and later the first Director
of the Defense Humint Service." For his service in DIA, he was awarded the
"Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive." This is the equivalent of a British
knighthood. He is an analyst consultant for many television and radio
broadcasts, among them the Jim Lehrer "Newshour."
I have been terribly busy and unable to post here on this, but we have had a lively discussion on "Sic Semper Tyrannis" on this subject. http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/10/the-nobel-committee-and-obama-1.html… Read more
The normal run of Americans have been "trained" not to care about "Peace in the Middle East," trained by unending fruitless talk of the search for that peace. The media have been trained to think that the Israeli/Palestinian issue is the "Middle East." Amusing. We all really know that there will be no peace in the "Middle East." We know that that all this talk is just ethnic politics, a politics that strangles the possibility of an actual settlement on anything but a very one sided basis. It is a waste of time to talk about it, but the ethnic obsessions of some condemn… Read more
President Obama has lost his psychological struggle for dominance in US/Israeli relations. Netanyahu has taken the measure of the Obama Administration and decided that he has no reason to fear retribution from this or perhaps any American president. The altogether impressive influence of AIPAC in marshalling unconditional support for Israeli policy is triumphant. The Netanyahu view of things? Settlements? You Americans don’t like that? So what? Who are you? You could cut off US government financial support for Israel to pressure us? Try it! Your miserable intelligence agencies do not understand the existential threat posed by Iran? How typical! You… Read more
I find self serving autobiographies and political science current affairs books to be boring however profitable they may be for the authors and publishers. General education and idle reading are not in vogue, but I continue to try to remember old and amusing books and to re-read them amidst the daily effort. I have been re-reading, "An elephant for Aristotle." by L Sprague de Camp.… Read more
The US war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan is only just beginning. Having been given the command for which he lobbied, General McChrystal is now prepared and apparently eager to fight it out to the death with the Taliban confederation of; raggedy tribesmen, religious zealots, bandits and other assorted Pushtun rabble. Some of them have a connection to Al-Qa'ida. Some. How many "Taliban" are there? I keep seeing the number 20,000. Does anyone actually know? I doubt it. And how many part-timers and logistical supporters are there? I am sure that no intelligence worthy of the name reveals… Read more
People should take notice of the dexterity with which the Obama foreign policy team has obtained the release of the two women journalists from the awful fate that they had been condemned to in a North Korean labor camp. Would they have survived their prison sentences? Doubtful. In the event, Secretary Clinton made all the right noises in a recent speech on the subject. General Jones played a very significant role in the decisions that led to that speech. "Charming Bill" was then despatched to retrieve the two ladies in distress. The North Koreans are said to have greeted him… Read more
Vice President Biden’s apparently careless talk is a minor issue that President Obama could easily deal with if he wished. If Biden is a problem, then Obama can stop giving him anything to do. The American vice presidency is a separately elected constitutional office. The vice president is not a subordinate of the president. By law he or she is merely the president’s designated successor in the case of the president’s death or incapacity in office. The only real control that the president has over him is the implicit threat of exclusion from the administration’s inner circle. The notion that… Read more
The Democrats are intent on scoring points on this, so there will probably be some sort of spectacle, an auto da fe with sacrificial victims in dunce caps served up so that the congressional bloviators can strut their stuff on television. Having testified a couple hundred times before the two oversight committees, I can say that the members and the staff always seemed deeply suspicious of whatever was briefed. They were justified in that. Briefing these committees is a fine art. One tries to say just enough, but not too much. Why? I briefed the senate committee once on a rather… Read more
Are we at war or are we not? The foolish exagerations of the Bush Administration aside, it is still difficult to argue that we are not at war with the few hundred medieval fanatics who lead the takfiri jihadis. They want us dead or at the least destroyed as a culture. We have little choice but to return the favor for these few irreconcilable enemies. Their enmity is not based on some supposed group memory of colonial oppression. Their enmity is only heightened by our alllince with Israel. Their enmity is based firmly in their sense of us, the people… Read more
I find it odd that we persist in thinking that the struggle in the modern state of Iraq is somehow about the West and especially about the foreign policy obsessions of America. The Iraqis and those lucky enough to have some historical perspective on the millinnia long struggle for power in Mesopotamia know that this is an unending story interrupted by periods in which one community and its leaders dominates the others. This pattern is repeated across the Islamicate culture continent from Morocco to the Pacific. Only the actors change. The play goes on... Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia,… Read more
"How many hundreds of thousands would you like on the streets?" This is a question that must have been asked of the "advanced team." That question is much asked in similar circumstances in that part of the world. There will be many hundreds of thousands, and why not? For the Muslim World, (ah, excuse me, the "Muzlim World") Barack Obama is a great novelty. Most inhabitants of that "World" would never have believed that the nasty, racist, heathen Americans would elect such a man. Mufaja'a! We did it. There will be great rejoicing at the sight. Mighty bloviations will be voiced… Read more
Guantanamo has become a kind of national Rohrschach test for the American people. It is a place seen within the mind's eye as a projection of what is inside us. I have been impressed since just after 9/11 with the depth of the illusion of personal security within which most Americans lived before the attacks. A friend called then from across the country to say that "now we all live in your world," referring I suppose to the life I had lead in the security services. The caller was a well traveled international businessman. The "blue funk" level was incredible… Read more
If someone lied in this case it was probably NOT the CIA. People often hear and see what they want to hear and see. IIn the year of collective fear and hysteria after 9/11 it must have been easy to avoid thinking about what the "bullets" on the Power Point charts really meant. After all, they were just talking about terrorists, weren't they? The nation has now "sobered up" somewhat, and it is now hard to look at what was done by and for us, the people of the United States. Nevertheless, there are still a few embarassing questions lurking. One… Read more
We are going to be poorer. We are going to have a lower standard of living, one that corresponds more closely to the true size of the economy. That seems evident. Maximum leveraging as a way of life and business became accepted wisdom for the clever. Classy saloons were filled with smartly dressed young people who owned little or nothing but debt. They felt good about that. They felt superior to people who saved money and paid off mortgages. Giant corporations were guided by much the same principle. The economy may well begin to recover this year, but it has… Read more
Like the rest of you I have puzzled over what to do in Pakistan. To say that there are no good solutions for the growing menace of takfiri jihadism is so banal and obvious that it is embarassing to type the words. Nevertheless... Pakistan, like Belgium was a bad idea. To create a state as a haven for those who can not accept the thought of abiding with those who differ religiously from them, is a poisonous idea, bound to lead to bitter and probably endless conflict, and, it has. Muslims could not have lived comfortably in an independent India? … Read more
A lot of things require patience in life. It is difficult to see why an end to our failed policy in regard to Cuba should be one of them. Raul Castro has said that his government is willing to discuss any and all issues between us. It is true that this statement was embedded in a speech hostile to the United States, but it was still an offer. Human rights abuses in Cuba must be at the top of any list of issues to be resolved. Freedom of movement and expression are not negotiable. Do the Cubans want to let… Read more
Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. Macbeth, IV.iii This sums up my reaction to the memos released yesterday. A decision not to prosecute the tormentors should not obscure the need for soul searching and public disclosure.… Read more
I have been asked several times recently to give my views on the subject of torture of prisoners and of US government torture of detainees in particular. Universities are the usual place for meetings that want to discuss this, but I have also been asked recently to review and comment on the intelligence record and evidence against a person held for six years by the US Government. This man was a prisoner of the Taliban government for two years before he came to be “detained” by us. The subject of torture and coerced statements has been much on my mind.… Read more
Thanks to the NJ editors for the correction. This question sounds more like a search for wisdom. For those interested in reactions to this issue we have additional comments at: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/03/ok-i-posted-on-the-nj-thing.html… Read more
The basic answer to this question is that there is no way to talk frankly about Israel and its relationship to the United States that does not expose the speaker to accusations of tribal hatred and affinity to various fascist and/or medieval groups that have persecuted Jews through the ages. Ah! Sorry! There is a way to avoid such calumny, and that is to become an unthinking robotlike servant of the non-lobby. The non-lobby is the non-assemblage of political forces which forced Freeman to acknowledge the depth of his "guilty" associations with Saudi and Chinese interests and withdraw from fear of… Read more
Al-Qa'ida, the organization or constellation of organizations linked by sympathy, money and varying consensus, has been badly damaged. They have lost leaders, bases and most importantly the belief in the minds of many in the Islamic World that somehow they constituted an effective counterforce to the industrial and military might of the West. That belief is largely gone for the moment, lost in a demonstrated inability to strike decisive blows. 9/11? We are still here, are we not? The tide is flowing against the takfiri jihadis of the Sunni side of Islam. They will be able to stage spectacular but useless… Read more
The Pakistan and Afghanistan problems are not as closely linked as one might think. From the point of view of the United States there are two separable problems involved: - How do we prevent the use of Afghanistan as a planning and support base for further attacks on the United States and NATO? The answer to this question lies in the fractured nature of Afghanistan "society." The Taliban and various factional elements are nothing like monoliths. These collections of people can be disaggregated and many of the people now thought of as enemies can be used against Al-Qa'ida and other hard core… Read more
An arrangement of the kind described would further contribute to concentration of power and function in the executive office of the president. By making nearly fevery function of government subject to the policy formulation and coordination of the National Security Adviser we would be making that person effectively head of the government. In the last administration we experienced the delegation of enormous power to an officer of the executive branch who did not have any constitutional power. Many Americans were deeply unhappy with the result. It is surprising that the successor administration is contemplating systematization of a similar outcome.… Read more
"If they want to wage war against each other, God and Allah bless them -- and let America steer clear of the mayhem until one destroys the other or they destroy each other." Scheuer Mike: This creates the impression that you subscribe to the notion that "God" and "Allah" are two distinct beings or at least conceptualizations. Since I know you, I doubt that you intend this to be a literal rather than a figurative expression. Nevertheless, such an expression is deeply offensive to Muslims. How did you intend this? As I think you know, I am not a Muslim.… Read more
The structure of the question implies a situation in which the United States has more or less complete freedom of action in which to pick and choose among options. That is not the case. As Paul Krugman has pointed out, America stands on the brink of disaster economically. The shape and condition of our social contract a year from now is debatable if the economic crisis can not be mitigated. In that context it is doubtful if we can afford the two wars we are now fighting much less the costs that would inevitably derive from yet a further war… Read more
I think that the organizational "fixes" that have been made to the national intelligence community are quite enough. The long standing "problem" (for all us non-CIA folks) of the conflict of interest inherent in the way the DCI was also Director of CIA has been resolved. The DNI position must be held by a leader of vision, strength of character and intellect. Is Admiral Blair that person? I suppose that we will find out. The competence of US clandestine HUMINT remains the "long pole in the tent" with regard to the basic issues of the struggle with the takfifi jihadis. … Read more
I would add to my previous comment that although the two sides are probably not yet ready to make the obvious territorial compromises necessary to have peace for their children, they will require an external formulation of a peace settlement when they ARE ready. Where will that come from? It will emerge from a consensus of the interested parties across the Middle Eastern, Islamic and Western regions, a consensus that does not shrink from domestic political pressure, that does not fear to apply the inherent leverage provided by huge annual budgetary contributions to both sides and that values human life and… Read more
It is expected ritual to say that the Palestinians and Israelis want peace. What is never specified as part of that incantation is the description of just what sort of peace each group wants. Here it is... What they still want (on both sides) is to win in the contest for that sad, beautiful, stony little strip of land and for their own group to live in peace and possession of the country. There is no external power preventing the sides from making peace. If the Israelis and Palestinians wanted peace more than they want to win, they would make peace. They do not make… Read more
Amidst the pomp, splendor and saccharin nonsense of this inaugural event, it is wise to take the opportunity to consider the merits and demerits of the Bush era. It seems only fair to give the stringent domestic security measures adopted after 9/11 some credit for blocking what might have been further attacks. Surely the regime of random searches at airports of grandmothers and other likely takfiri jihadis must have had some effect? Surely, the unification of all those agencies and activities into the Department of Homeland Security has made them more able? Surely the re-structuring and "reform" of the intelligence community… Read more
Larry Korb argues here that Israel was a bulwark against Soviet expansionism in the Middle East. How? Israel had vitually no interaction with the Arabs throughout that period except to fight them in pursuit, not of the goals of the putative "alliance" with the United States, but rather in pursuit of its own goals. In fact, the unending contest with Israel caused many Arab states to turn to the Soviet Union, China and other Warsaw Pact countries to obtain the "toys" that they wanted for the purpose of continuing their tribal feud with the Israelis. How do I know that?… Read more
It is not possible to "set aside the emotional and religious anchors of the US-Israel alliance." Those are the principal bases of the alliance. Israel’s welfare is a self assigned interest of the United States. That does not make that interest less real, but it renders the interest a "duty" of a spiritual and moral nature rather than the kind of thing that a British PM meant in the 19th century when he supposedly said that "countries do not have friends or enemies. They have interests." That kind of interest confers an advantage militarily, economically, geographically or in some other… Read more
I don't find "wonk" books very enlightening or necessary. They don't seem to fill a real need except for the authors and publishers. Information is universally available now. Why should we not process it ourselves? On the subject of books - I have been re-reading some old, odd things, things half remembered. I bought a friend's small child a used copy of T.H. White's "Mistress Masham's Repose." This was one of my favorite childhood books and after reading it again I see why. Peter Bowman's odd little novel, "Beach Red" is another relic that I have looked into lately. It is written… Read more
Regardless of whatever may or may not have been said during the campaign, the US objective should be to leave behind an Iraq intact behind its internationally recognized borders, under the rule of law and in a state of relatively quiescent relations with its neighbors. To that end a gradual withdrawal of US forces and ultimately of nearly all non-diplomatic military personnel is appropriate. Nearly all ground combat units should be out of the country by the 2010 congressional elections. Some advisory, supply, and security forces will have to stay longer but the end of Obama's first term should correspond with the… Read more
When manifesto and CV posting ends here, perhaps we could consider a few real world problems like the NATO logistical problem in the Afghanistan theater of war?… Read more
I would agree with Hilary Leveritt that the need for serious diplomatic engagement with Iran is the most important of the foreign policy issues facing BO, but the chance that Israel might actually seek to engage the Iranians militarily is of IMMEDIATE concern.… Read more
Our new president will face a multitude of problems. Some of the most important have already been mentioned here; the economy, the danger of nuclear war on the sub-continent. These things must be high on his list of priorities. There are other, less obvious possibilities. There are new articles in the Israeli press concerning the possibility of Israeli miltary action against Iran with or without US cooperation. Are such musings truly reflective of Israeli strategic thinking? The truth of that must be high on the new administration's agenda. There are pirates in the Arabian Sea. Pirates! They are seizing ships and… Read more
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