Tuesday, August 25, 2009

China and Afghanistan

Three op-eds to bring to your attention. The first is by Randy Schriver, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, East Asia … and senior country director for China in DOD. He points out trends he sees in the People's Liberation Army - and their development of a first-rate military. [Yes - that's their formal name … and they swear an oath, life our military does … except theirs it to protect the Communist Party … and not their Constitution … and their Air Force is called: The People's Liberation Army Air Force - go figure]. Mr. Schriver's observations are measured … and I think balanced. See this link on our Education and Opinion page: http://www.washtimes.com/news/2009/aug/12/peoples-army-not-standing-still/?feat=home_commentary

Secondly, I commend to you two op-eds on Afghanistan. The first is by Bing West, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, combat reporter, and Marine. He reports on the ground and has both policy and operational experience. He should be read and digested. You can find a link to his piece on our website at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203946904574302383639301864.html

The second piece on Afghanistan that caught my interest was written by David Miliband, Foreign Secretary in the UK [SECSTATE equivalent]. In his piece he outlines three steps he believes necessary to rebuild Afghanistan. A link to his piece can be found at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6044570/Three-vital-steps-to-rebuild-Afghanistan.html

For your consideration,

2 comments:

Mike said...

Important to note the Chinese Liberation Army. What are we doing to prevent the current regime from changing the name of our forces to the American Liberation Air Force. Seems we pay a lot of attention to other countries and not enough attention to our own. Are we as an organization going to stand with our brothers in the CIA and stop the witch hunts against them and the other of our fellow soldiers from the tribunals?


Michael H. Rayburne
Colonel, USAF, Retired

Mike said...

When are we going to take notice of the effort by some in this country to destroy our way of life and are we going to stand with our brothers in the CIA to stop these witch hunts. This country is too great to have a few not so good people destroy what we have fought and died for to keep our people free.