American Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

AFA members, Congressional Staff members, Civic leaders and DOCA members, during our recent Air & Space Conference, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer gave an interesting talk entitled "American Foreign Policy in the Middle East." It focused on three arcs: the Israeli-Palestinian dispute; pro-western, moderate Arab states; and the non-Arab states of Turkey and Iran. A few of the points he made:

(1) As long as the Palestinians refuse to recognize the existence of Israel, with the signing of a permanent agreement, there will be no end to this conflict.

(2) The creation of a stable economy in Gaza is perhaps the best means to this end in which the Palestinians will not want to sacrifice economic gain with war.

(3) One of the implications of an Iranian nuclear weapon, is that he believes Israel will feel threatened enough to launch a pre-emptive strike.

This transcript is worth reading as he puts the Middle East issue of peace and war in perspective. You can find the piece at: http://www.afa.org/events/conference/2010/scripts/Krauthammer_9-13.pdf.

Secondly, our CyberPatriot Commissioner, Brig Gen (Ret) Bernie Skoch, has been using the radio airwaves this week to market the CyberPatriot High School Competition before the 8 October registration deadline. He’s been on 16 radio talk shows this week.

You can listen to one here at a station in Oklahoma: Gen. Skoch & Dianne Miller on News Radio 1000 KTOK

Thirdly, DOCA recently paid a visit to GTMO and Southcom. You can find their trip report on our website at: http://www.afa.org/edop/2010/GitmoSouthcomFtBragg2010Final.pdf

I have been to GTMO, but am not current on what is going on there. I found their insights helpful in understanding present conditions and treatment of the detainees.

Lastly, every morning I receive two Daily Reports – one from AFA/Air Force Magazine and the other from the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS Daily Report is a compendium of open source events grouped by sector. It is long – often more than 30 pages – but it gives those who have the time to see if there is a trend developing which may be of concern. Here is a link to a recent DHS DR: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/DHS_Daily_Report_2010-10-05.pdf

Note:
On the bottom of page 8 the first piece in the Banking and Finance Sector – "Over the past two years, corporate account takeovers by cybercriminals have cost US businesses more than $100 million, according to FBI estimates."

And on the bottom of page 18, item 48 which states: "Many free iPhone apps pass device ID to the app vendor."

You can sign up for the free email with links to the DR on the DHS website. I’ve found, however, that the pdf file is almost too much to be digested every day … plus I’ve had to copy the URL and paste it into my browser to get the report.

For your consideration,

Mike

Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association